Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are out in full force, reportedly rounding up nearly 700 "criminal aliens." Except for the guy who was caught sleeping at his father's home in Seattle. Or the two men ambushed by ICE agents after walking out of a homeless shelter in Fairfax County, Virginia, one morning.
Whatever ICE seems to think about the people they are targeting in raids across the country, immigrants and their advocates are telling a different story. Washington Post writes:
In Chicago, a student called her high school teacher to tell him that ICE had raided her home the night before, arresting her father, an undocumented immigrant whose criminal record included only traffic violations, the teacher said. In Centreville, Va., a woman told officials at London Towne Elementary School that a student’s father had been arrested after dropping their son off at school that morning. And in the Baltimore parking lot of a Walgreens, ICE agents arrested a barber and a local business owner who advocates said also had no criminal records.
The reports of seemingly random arrests, of ICE agents appearing during the day outside schools, shelters and apartment blocks, have sent a palpable wave of fear through the nation’s immigrant communities.
“I have never seen the immigrant community, both the lawfully and unlawfully present, with a greater amount of fear than I have in recent weeks,” said Faye Kolly, an attorney in Austin.
On Capitol Hill Thursday, ICE agents admitted to lawmakers that "at least 186" of the nearly 700 detainees had "no criminal record." Just guessing that’s an undercount. According to one lawmaker present at the meeting, their only hesitation was around arresting DACA recipients—ya know, the Dreamers who were told by the federal government they could work here legally.
To be clear, nothing about this makes us any safer, nor is it "good" for America in any way. Putting a whole populace in a state of anxiety for no apparent reason will backfire. People will stop cooperating on any level with law enforcement. Separating U.S.-born kids from their foreign-born parents will create a generation of orphans who are less rather than more likely to thrive in adulthood. And draining a labor force that does work few Americans are willing to do, doesn't help anybody. What it does do is drive up prices and deprives the economy of worthy contributors.
It's not just a lose-lose. It's lose-lose-lose-lose-lose, ad infinitum.
Carlos González Gutiérrez, Austin’s consul general of Mexico, visits ICE detention centers each day to provide legal support and interview Mexican nationals held in detention. On a typical day, he said, he talks to between one and three immigrants who have been detained. When he arrived last Thursday, he found 14 Mexican nationals in custody. On Friday, there were 30.
“There are cases of mistaken identity, cases of people who were passengers in cars that were pulled over, cases of people who are married to U.S. citizens and who have children who are born and live in this country,” said Gutiérrez, who has spoken with many of those detained in Austin. “It is pretty devastating what happens to the families that were caught in these nets. The destruction that comes after one of these operations is astounding.”
Feel safer?
#MAGA