Senators Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, and Rep. Don Beyer are among the Virginia advocates rallying for the release of Liliana Cruz Mendez, a Salvadoran mom of two arrested by ICE this week, despite the fact that she followed the rules and appeared for her routine check-in. According to immigrant rights group CASA, Liliana has never been convicted of a crime and has a 2013 misdemeanor conviction for driving without a license. This is a reality many undocumented immigrants who must travel in order to support their families face in states that do not allow them to apply for driver’s licenses, like Virginia. But because Donald Trump is redefining “criminal” in order to justify rounding up as many undocumented immigrants as possible, even driving infractions can become deportable offenses:
Cruz Mendez came to America in 2006, when she was 18, to join a brother living in Virginia, CASA said. She [had] been threatened by an older man who once held a pistol to her head to coerce her into having a romantic relationship.
She was caught crossing the border illegally and released. Seven years later, Cruz Mendez was stopped by police in Fairfax County for allegedly driving without headlights. She had an outstanding deportation order and did not have a license, CASA said. She ended up in ICE’s custody.
By then, Cruz Mendez was married and had two children, including an infant who was breast-feeding. She [was] released after three days, and had to check in with ICE at regular intervals.
Thursday was the first check-in since Trump took office.
Trump may claim he’s targeting only “bad hombres” for deportation, but as immigrant rights groups argue, he’s throwing sand in the face of the American people in order to provide “cover for an agenda that calls for the deportation of millions,” aided and abetted by congressional Republicans, who instead of reining in ICE thugs, want to arm them with military weapons to help them in terrorizing immigrant families. Already, the most recent ICE stats show a 156 percent surge from this time last year in the number of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record who have been swept up by Trump’s mass deportation force.
“This is the real face of what ICE is doing,” said CASA’s George Escobar. “They are shattering families and children’s lives.”
Liliana’s advocates rallied outside ICE’s Washington Field Office Thursday, where Liliana had gone for the routine check-in but never stepped back outside:
“They are distraught,” said Richard Morales of PICO National Network. “She has two young children. The father right now is going to the school to let the children know he is going to pick them up early and let them know what has happened. So everybody is very distraught and we are concerned for her and we are hoping she is reunited with her family tonight.”
