There’s a good chance that whatever Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tells you, the opposite is true. For example, ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley claimed to the Seattle Times that “we don’t retaliate.” But according to Baltazar “Rosas” Aburto Gutierrez, that’s exactly what happened last week after he spoke out about ICE agents arresting his girlfriend, who had placed an online ad to sell a homemade piñata this past summer. When she went to a bank parking lot to meet the potential customer, she was arrested by ICE agents who had posed as a buyer. Gutierrez was never identified by name when he spoke to the Seattle Times, but his nickname was used by the Chinook Observer. ICE agents apparently pieced the pieces together and swept him up as he was leaving work:
Gutierrez, speaking by phone from the Northwest Detention Center, where he is being held, said he got off work about 4 a.m. Monday — he harvests clams around Willapa Bay — went back to his Ocean Park home and, a few hours later, headed to Okie’s Thriftway Market for coffee and eggs.
An SUV blocked his path into the parking lot, he said. An ICE agent got out and approached his car.
“You are Rosas,” the agent said, according to Aburto Gutierrez. “You are the one from the newspaper.
Let me park, Aburto Gutierrez told the agent. After he did and faced them, he asked: “Why are you arresting me?”
“My supervisor asked me to come find you because of what appeared in the newspaper,” the agent said, according to Aburto Gutierrez, relating the conversation in Spanish. The agent spoke in English, not a language the Mexican-born Aburto Gutierrez speaks fluently.
“Gutierrez said he nevertheless understood—and concluded that his arrest was retaliation.” And contrary to ICE’s claims, agents have pulled this shit before, earlier this year arresting Dreamer Daniela Vargas after she spoke out at a press conference about the arrests of her dad and brother. Vargas was a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient but her status had lapsed because she could not afford the $495 renewal fee. "Just after she spoke, ICE agents retaliated," United We Dream leader Greisa Martinez told CNN. "ICE agents tracked her down and knocked on her window. And what we know they said is, 'You know who we are, you know why we're here.'”
In Gutierrez’s case, Haley “later sent a written statement that confirmed his arrest and detention but said nothing about whether ICE was retaliating.” His girlfriend, Gladys Diaz, was deported to Mexico along with both of her young U.S. citizen kids, and what these two tragic cases demonstrate are numerous truths: ICE is inherently untrustworthy; contrary to Donald Trump’s claims, it’s not “bad hombres” being swept up, but hardworking parents, clam harvesters and piñata-makers; and the act of advocating for their lives becomes a Catch-22 for immigrants. Exposing ICE’s abuses through news and social media can sometimes result in a victory for immigrant families, but it can sometimes also result in immigrant families being further torn apart. In its attempt to stifle both press and immigrant voices, it’s pure Trumpism at its worst.