Citizen or not, ICE will grab you
Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams
The British newspaper examined what it called the
increasingly “invisibilized” immigration dragnet reaching into workplaces,
airports, traffic stops, convenience stores, and communities far from the
US-Mexico border, declaring “ICE is everywhere.”
“Before, [ICE] were storming around, making a lot of noise,”
Gracie Willis, a rapid-response attorney with the National Immigration Project,
told The Guardian. “Now, they are moving more quietly.”
“More quietly” does not mean fewer arrests. In fact, The
Guardian reported that ICE apprehended nearly 50,000 people in July, a record
high. The agency has also more than doubled its workforce this year to more
than 22,000 officers and staff after Congress provided the Department of
Homeland Security with $75 billion in additional funding.
As of September 15, ICE had also signed more than 2,500
agreements allowing state and local law enforcement agencies to participate in
federal immigration enforcement.
“The detentions are happening in a flash—we’re talking,
like, 90 seconds from the time ICE shows up to that person being driven away,”
Willis said. “And often they are moving very quietly, with very soft feet.”
The shift in tactics came after the administration’s highly
publicized operations provoked intense opposition, especially following a
series of fatal shootings, including of American citizens.
Still, immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told The
Guardian that “we’re seeing a lot of racial profiling” in immigration
enforcement, adding that agents “might have their sights set on a big job
site... and just slowly patrol that site and just take people in day after day
until nobody’s going to work there anymore.”
The Guardian investigation comes amid continued condemnation
of ICE’s methods.
Amnesty
International published a report last week based on interviews with 154 people
affected by enforcement operations in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New
Orleans, and Washington,
DC, documenting allegations including racial discrimination, arbitrary
detention, excessive force, unlawful surveillance, incommunicado detention, and
inhumane detention conditions.
“Masked and armed federal agents attacking people in the
streets with impunity doesn’t make our communities safer—it puts everyone in
danger,” said Amnesty International USA Executive Director Nadia Daar. “ICE is
fundamentally broken and cannot be fixed.”
An increasing number of Republicans—especially those facing
tough reelection battles—are criticizing the administration’s heavy-handed
immigration enforcement.
A campaign ad for Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas)
even features a woman whose husband the lawmaker helped free from immigration
detention.
“I have been very direct with the White House, with
leadership, that enforcement policy should be focused on the criminals and on
the cartels that are terrorizing our communities,” De La Cruz said last week during an interview on “The Joe Pags Show.”
“They should not be on hardworking immigrants that are
navigating the immigration process,” she added.
In July, Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security officials noting
that agents had shot at least 22 people during Trump’s second term, and that in
multiple cases, federal authorities had made allegations against shooting
victims that were later contradicted by evidence.
More than 50 people have died
in ICE custody since Trump returned to the White House last year.
