Share

Immigrants’ fears grow as ICE raids strike close to home

Rumors of checkpoints and random searches flooded social media.

Advertisement

And the president Sunday said on Twitter that “the crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise”. Is this different than what happened under President Obama?

Indeed, while ICE claimed its detentions in Los Angeles targeted people with violent criminal records, CHIRLA said that many people detained on Thursday had no criminal convictions to speak of. “My fear is that what we are seeing is the beginning of a mass deportation effort”.

There have been many people coming into Jara’s office, “worried” about what is going on in the community.

According to the Boston Globe, the raids appeared to target undocumented immigrants, including those without criminal records.

The Obama administration actively sought to deport immigrants.

However, David Marin, field office director for ICE enforcement removal operations in Los Angeles, said the sweeps had been planned before Trump took office.

Activists in Los Angeles have staged protests and are broadcasting “Know Your Rights” public service announcements over the radio in immigrant neighbourhoods.

They also rejected the idea that ICE was acting no differently under Trump than it did under former President Barack Obama.

Almost 40 foreign nationals were detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in New York City, according to a memo released by organization.

A similar operation took place last summer, with 112 people arrested, according to The Times.

Despite such assurances, many undocumented immigrants in and around Charlotte are so scared of being caught up in a sweep that they’re changing their daily habits – especially if they involve driving and the chance of being stopped by law enforcement.

“There is a sense that we need to be resisting what sounds like threats to a community of immigrants, including undocumented people particularly”, Blons said. “This number of arrests is not unusual for a week-long operation”, she said.

Immigration enforcement arrests over the past week in major cities across the country have sparked renewed concern among advocates that the Trump Administration is expanding the focus of deportations. Other reasons for those arrests include those who had already been deported and illegally reentered the country.

“With Donald Trump being president, I see no hope for us”, Marlene Mosqueda, Manuel’s daughter, tearfully told reporters last week. They can decide whether that person poses a risk to public safety or national security, event if they have not been convicted of a criminal offense. Tens of thousands of of low-priority immigrants continued to be arrested and sent back to their home countries. They were working in the country illegally, but they’d not been charged with any crimes.

ICE officials would not confirm if any of the 51 criminal aliens arrested in the Austin area had been released by Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez under her new sanctuary policies.

Of course, immigration enforcement under Trump could soon become much more aggressive.

“We have really done a great job”, he said.

But people – and the press – will be watching closely.

Advertisement

“We have to be out in the streets every goddamn day until Broken Windows is a thing of a past”, said Imani Henry, an organizer at Equality for Flatbush.

Joe Raedle  Getty Images News  Getty Images