27/3/2017
ICE Causes Widespread Fear in Immigrant Communities, Then Rebuffs Lawmakers Seeking Answers - Progressive.org
ICE Causes Widespread Fear in Immigrant
Communities, Then Rebu s Lawmakers Seeking
Answers
by Oliver Ortega
February 17, 2017
T
he
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement in action, 2011. immigration agents who arrived at Daniel Ramirez Medina’s home in
Seattle last week detained his father rst. Then they came back inside
and took the twenty-three-year-old Mexican immigrant, even after he
told them he had a work permit, granted to him under President
Obama’s deferred action program.
As they booked him at a processing center in Seattle, after taking
possession of his work permit and other belongings, Ramirez Medina
repeated that he had protection under DACA (Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals). The agents replied, “It doesn’t matter because you
weren’t born in this country,” according to a lawsuit. His lawyer says
Ramirez Medina, now imprisoned in Tacoma, Washington, has no
criminal record.
In El Paso County, an undocumented transgender woman went to court
to seek a protective order against an alleged abuser. She walked out in
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ICE Causes Widespread Fear in Immigrant Communities, Then Rebuffs Lawmakers Seeking Answers - Progressive.org
the custody of half a dozen ICE agents. County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal,
who called the presence of ICE agents at the courthouse
“unprecedented,” speculates they knew about the hearing because of a
tip from the man she accused of domestic violence.
These are some of the stories coming out of last week’s nationwide
immigration raids, which swept up more than 680 people and have
terrorized the country’s immigrant communities. False reports on social
media of ICE patrols spread like wild re in some communities causing
even more panic.
While both fear and aggression are at an all-time high, some news
reports suggest the actual roundups by ICE have not increased since
Trump took o
ce.
Meanwhile, several lawmakers demanding answers for their Latino and
immigrant constituents have been rebu ed by ICE and the Republican
House leadership.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including
Representative Luis Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois and a vocal supporter
of immigrant rights, were barred from a meeting with ICE’s Acting
Director Thomas Homan on Thursday. Hispanic Caucus lawmakers had
been snubbed earlier in the week when the agency cancelled a Tuesday
meeting, claiming there were too many Democrats.
Those who did get to meet with ICE Thursday expressed grave concern at
what they heard during a press conference afterward.
“It was hard to not leave that meeting and believe the Trump
Administration is going to target as many immigrants as possible,”
Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, said. “The only
hesitation they seemed to have was whether they would go after DACA
recipients.”
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Castro later tweeted:
Joaquin Castro
Follow
@JoaquinCastrotx
1. After attending the ICE meeting it's hard not to conclude that
President Trump has started his mass deportation plan.
3:08 PM - 16 Feb 2017
5,516
O
4,723
ther Democrats present—including House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi of California and Congress Hispanic Caucus chair Michelle
Lujan Grisham of New Mexico—reported that ICE did not provide
numbers on DACA arrests as lawmakers had requested. They said
Homan claimed agents had not speci cally targeted deferred action
recipients during last week’s raids.
Professor Jacqueline Stevens, who heads the Deportation Research Clinic
at Northwestern University, told The Progressive that the tactics ICE
agents reportedly employed —from arresting immigrants they weren’t
originally targeting to detaining a man as he left a church—harken back
to the Bush era. Some of the more underhanded practices, she said, were
curtailed in the latter part of the Obama administration, which
nevertheless managed to deport a record-high 2.8 million people.
Stevens, who has studied the practices of ICE for many years, says that
sometimes agents do things that aren’t in accordance with instructions
from their superiors. Such might have been the case with the arrest of
the DACA recipient.
“A lot of this isn’t based on top-down orders,” Stevens said. “They’re
not necessarily following the law and due process.”
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ICE Causes Widespread Fear in Immigrant Communities, Then Rebuffs Lawmakers Seeking Answers - Progressive.org
That raids occurred in cities whose leaders had publicly sparred with
Trump over o ering sanctuary to immigrants underscores the tenuous
protection the designation actually o ers. When a jurisdiction declares
itself a sanctuary, it generally means that local law enforcement is
instructed to refuse to cooperate with ICE, though immigration agents
can still make their own arrests in the cities or counties in question.
If local leaders really want to provide sanctuary, Stevens said, they
should start prosecuting ICE agents for violating laws against false
imprisonment and kidnapping, among other acts.
The lack of transparency, especially at a time of radical change in policy,
is particularly galling, said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel for the
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
The lack of transparency, especially at a time of radical change in policy, is
particularly galling.
“ICE has never been particularly known for its transparency,” he said
“But the sheer sweep of operations really call for some clarity, some
fairly detailed explanation of what they are doing.”
Tsao is especially alarmed at the case of the transgender woman in El
Paso.
“Usually ICE agents have much more respect not only for vulnerable
individuals, but also locations such as courthouses, schools and
churches,” he told The Progressive. “If this is a trend it's particularly
dangerous . . . because it can chill many immigrants from seeking help.”
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Tags
DISPATCHES / TRUMP / IMMIGRATION
by Oliver Ortega February 17, 2017
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