Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, and immigrant rights advocates not only had to endure harassment from local police as they peacefully demonstrated outside the Florida offices of Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, they also had to endure truly ugly harassment from federal immigration authorities, after a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) truck drove by the demonstrators in what one activist calls an intimidation tactic:
Activists on the scene — where some are in the middle of a week-long fast—said the action was an attempt by CBP agents to intimidate protesters advocating for a “clean” DREAM Act and protections for recipients of so-called Temporary Protected Status, thousands of whom now face deportation.
“So far 1 hr into us being outside of Rubio’s office and they already are doing intimidation tactics, having ICE drive by our location slowly, and trying to kick us off the side walk,” wrote Paula Muńoz, who attended the protest, on Facebook.
A regional spokesperson for ICE, Nestor Yglesias, said the vehicle appearing in photos by Muńoz and other activists belonged to CBP, not ICE. Both agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security.
A regional spokesperson for CBP, Michael Silva, said he would look into the matter but did not offer further comment.
Whether it was CBP or ICE is actually irrelevant, because both represent federal immigration agencies that have one job in the Trump era, and it’s to kick out as many immigrant families as possible. And in the process of sweeping out immigrant moms and dads who are just trying to provide for their families, agents are also using deplorable intimidation tactics to scare off other immigrants, like when ICE agents detained an Oregon man last week after he dared to speak out about his girlfriend’s arrest.
According to the Miami New Times, activists from the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Haitian-American group Fanm Ayisyen nan Miyami, and Students Working for Equal Rights organized the action, including the week-long hunger strike, to advocate for thousands of DACA and TPS recipients who face deportation if Congress does not act soon on permanent protections:
Muñoz said the press conference initially went off without a hitch. But once the group of fasting protesters sat down to begin their hunger-strike, she says Doral Police officers began to verbally harass the group.
"They told us to move, that we couldn't be on the lawn," Muñoz says. After one cop complained that some of the protesters weren't moving fast enough, Muñoz said the cops began to complain. They said they told the cops that some strikers hadn't eaten for 12 hours.
"There's a Carolina Ale House right across the street that has good food," Muñoz says one of the cops told them.
Muñoz said she was offended.
"Some of these people are making a huge sacrifice," she said. "A lot of folks are sacrificing their bodies. Some are students and have finals this week." Minutes later, the group then saw the CBP truck roll by. Some saw it as a threat.
Back in 2013, Rubio frequently referenced his parents’ immigration stories and was co-author of the Senate’s immigration reform bill, which would have put millions of undocumented immigrant families on a path to citizenship. But fast forward to 2017, and Rubio has yet to vocally back the bipartisan DREAM Act. Instead, he’s sold out as a Donald Trump supporter and hasn’t even bothered to comment on whether or not he believes CBP was wrong to harass peaceful immigrant demonstrators outside his office.
"I want him to think of his parents and imagine not growing up in the United States and not having these opportunities that he has now," said student Karen Caudillo, an activist who has called out Rubio in recent weeks. "I want him to think of what our lives will look like in the months coming as we possibly go back into the shadows. It's now or never because lives are at hand, and we want to make sure [Rubio] is on the right side of history."