In the last major wave, families and unaccompanied minors from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala maxed out resources at the border, sparking a heated national debate over immigration and border security. To conduct these types of enforcement actions against women and children who have fled violence and who will face violence if they are returned, it is not just hypocritical-it is plain cruel.
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The fresh round of raids, first reported Thursday by Reuters, marks the first series of mass deportations since the Obama administration carried out a similar two-day sweep in January.
Although ICE officials said no families would be targeted for raids if they had already filed appeals for relief or asylum, Torres and Sandoval Moschenberg pointed out that many Central American families could potentially qualify for deportation relief or political asylum because of the high levels of violence in their homelands.
The Obama administration caught flak early this year from Sanders and other Democrats following raids in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina that led to 121 individuals being apprehended in an effort curb illegal migration to the U.S.
Sending these people back into harm’s way is wrong, he said.
“Current operations are a continuation of operations Secretary Johnson announced in January and March”, said ICE spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea. The number of unaccompanied minors during that same period has nearly doubled from 15,616 in 2015 to 27,754 in 2016, just below the 28,579 record reported between October 2013 and March 2014.
The Wall Street Journal, however, reported this number is nearly double of last year’s total of 15,616 and it is just below the record in 2014 of 28,579 during that same period.
Democratic presidential rivals Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, who are both vying for Latino votes, criticized the deportation plan Thursday.
CASA and other groups in the Washington area, home to tens of thousands of immigrants and refugees from Central America, said they were preparing to help families who might be targeted in coming raids.
“America has always been a beacon of liberty for those fleeing violence and persecution. Large scale raids are not productive and do not reflect who we are as a country”. “Deportation can be a death sentence to detained minors, parents and asylum seekers”, Sanders said in a statement. She stood by that position last August but said immigrants shouldn’t be kept in migrant camps indefinitely, suggesting that “particularly the women and children” should be moved out and opening the door to keeping some of them within the United States. “In fact, I think they are divisive, they are sowing discord and fear”, Clinton said.
The Obama administration has deported more immigrants than any other USA president’s.
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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has vowed to expel the estimated 11 million people in the country without documentation as well as force Mexico to pay for the construction of a border wall to prevent further crossings.
