Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are denying that they targeted Maru Mora-Villalpando, an immigrant rights leader in Washington state, for her political activism and advocacy for both documented and undocumented immigrant communities, calling advocates’s claims “irresponsible, speculative and inaccurate.” ICE’s internal documents, however—obtained with the assistance of Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell—tell a different story:
An immigrant rights advocate targeted for deportation first came to the attention of authorities because she discussed her unlawful status in the country in an interview with a monthly newspaper last year, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official wrote in a newly released document.
But the official, Timothy Black, also noted her “extensive involvement with anti-ICE protests and Latino advocacy programs”—something her supporters said proves she was targeted for political reasons.
“In the form, Black, a deportation officer with ICE in Seattle, wrote that she came to the attention of his office after a monthly newspaper in Whatcom County, Washington, published an interview with her last June ‘wherein she stated that she is ‘undocumented.’ The officer wrote that her anti-ICE activism and Latino advocacy ‘should also be noted.’” It would be interesting to hear from Black why “Latino advocacy,” in particular, should be noted, but The Washington Post reports ICE “declined to make Black available for comment.”
Mora-Villalpando’s case had garnered the attention of U.N. experts, who in an extraordinary statement condemned the U.S. for “an increasing pattern of intimidation and retaliation against people defending migrants’ rights in the US.” Mora-Villalpando added she was “being put in deportation proceedings because of my political stance … this is a pattern of behavior which ICE is developing now under this administration.”
Prominent immigrants rights leaders across the U.S., including sanctuary movement leader Ravi Ragbir, have been ensnared by ICE during the past few months. Ragbir was detained during what was supposed to be a routine check-in. While he remains at risk of deportation, Ragbir was released by Judge Katherine Forrest last month, ruling that the “the government acted wrongly” and with “unnecessary cruelty” in detaining him:
Maru Mora-Villalpando, a 47-year-old Mexico City native and activist supporting immigrants who are detained at the privately run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, has no criminal record. She has been in the U.S. continuously since 1996 after overstaying a visa.
She first came out publicly as person in the U.S. illegally in 2014, when she expected to be arrested — and subsequently deported — for joining others in blocking a road at the detention center. She was not arrested, however, and did not receive a notice to appear in immigration court until last December.
She remains out of custody and continues to advocate for the detainees, such as by promoting those engaging in hunger strikes to protest conditions at the facility.
Efforts by Mora-Villalpando and her legal team to obtaining the ICE documents that could explain why she had suddenly become a priority for deportation despite having no criminal record were thwarted as the agency ignored their public records request, until Sen. Cantwell stepped in. “Law enforcement should not be allowed to target anyone in our country for their political activism,” the senator said in a statement:
Seattle immigration attorney Devin Theriot-Orr, a supporter of Mora-Villalpando, said he believed the officer’s statement amounted to an admission that ICE violated her free-speech rights, and that it could be used in immigration court to defeat the agency’s effort to deport her.
Mora-Villalpando has filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking further information about her case as well as other cases concerning people who have been targeted for deportation after making public statements about their undocumented status.
This comes as mass deportation architect and acting ICE director Thomas Homan has threatened to escalate raids in California due to the state’s pro-immigrant policies, including unfounded threats "to file charges against the sanctuary cities" and “start charging some of these politicians with crimes.” ICE has been ruthless under Democratic and Republican administrations alike, but under Trump, ICE has newly become, Jamelle Bouie writes, an “empowered and authoritarian agency that operates with impunity, whose chief attribute is unapologetic cruelty.”