Back in October, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) threatened to escalate arrests in California over the state’s sweeping anti-deportation law, which went into effect on January 1 and prevents local resources from being used to sweep up families. Now the confirmed director of the federal immigration agency, the San Francisco Chronicle reports Thomas Homan’s mass deportation force is set to target the San Francisco Bay Area in raids that could result in the arrests of more than 1,000 undocumented immigrants:
U.S. immigration officials have begun preparing for a major sweep in San Francisco and other Northern California cities in which federal officers would look to arrest more than 1,500 undocumented people while sending a message that immigration policy will be enforced in the sanctuary state, according to a source familiar with the operation.
Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, declined to comment Tuesday on plans for the operation.
The campaign, centered in the Bay Area, could happen within weeks, and is expected to become the biggest enforcement action of its kind under President Trump, said the source, who requested anonymity because the plans have not been made public.
According to the Chronicle’s Hamed Aleaziz, “the operation would go after people who have been identified as targets for deportation, including those who have been served with final deportation orders and those with criminal histories, the source said.” But in one of the administration’s sweeps last August, 70 percent of the immigrants arrested in the “targeted” campaign were “collateral arrests,” people who weren’t targets at all.
“The Trump Administration’s deeply shameful plans to conduct immigration raids in California are an act of pure malice,” said Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. “Hard-working immigrants will be targeted and their families torn apart, simply for being Californians. This vast immigration dragnet is purpose-built to instill fear in our communities. These raids will certainly not make Americans safer.”
Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, the arrests of immigrants with no criminal record more than doubled, according to Mother Jones. Just days ago, Jorge Garcia, an undocumented father who was too old to qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections, was deported to Mexico despite having no criminal record and living nearly three decades in the U.S.:
The night before he was ordered to leave, Garcia’s friends held a farewell party for him in southwest Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press. “I feel kind of sad,” he told the newspaper. “I got to leave my family behind, knowing that they’re probably going to have a hard time adjusting. Me not being there for them for who knows how long. It’s just hard.”
At the airport on Monday morning, a group of friends and supporters from UAW 600 and the advocacy group Michigan United turned out with Garcia and his family, some carrying signs reading “Stop Separating Families.” They watched quietly as the family said their goodbyes. Video of the tearful scene was shared widely on social media.
“How do you do this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day?" Michigan United’s Erik Shelley asked Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press. "It's another example of the tone-deafness of this administration. If Jorge isn't safe, no one is safe." In California—home to both the largest population of DACA recipients and undocumented immigrants overall—local groups have been taking steps since Trump’s inauguration to educate immigrant residents of their rights, with some success:
After Trump dramatically broadened ICE agents’ authority, essentially giving them clearance to arrest anyone suspected of being in the country illegally, immigrant rights groups have pushed to educate immigrants on their rights — in particular to deny ICE agents permission to enter their homes. The effort has had a noticeable effect on arrest operations, [Dave Marin, director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE in Los Angeles] said, as agents increasingly have been stymied, as they were by the the Mexican man’s wife, who did not try to hide the fact that her husband was inside the house.
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, one of several immigrant advocacy groups that ramped up “Know Your Rights” campaigns in the wake of Trump’s election, estimates it has reached 25,000 people through various outreach programs over the past three months, the group’s spokesman said.
In Seattle, Washington, this past November, residents “armed with knowledge from a Know Your Rights training” successfully thwarted ICE agents who lacked a signed judicial warrant from entering a residential building, perhaps preventing unjust arrests and family separations. In the San Francisco Bay Area, local leaders and activists vow to resist Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
“The federal administration’s attempt to conscript local governments into assisting a reckless and amoral crusade that literally hunts people we know as our family members, neighbors and business owners will be resisted,” Emeryville Mayor John Bauters told Daily Kos. “Ripping apart families, terrorizing communities under the banner of ‘law and order,’ and asking neighbors to turn on neighbors stand in sharp contradiction with the values of the city and people of Emeryville. We will not be intimidated into abandoning our values to fulfill the racist musings of Donald Trump.”