While the country’s attention is fixated on the Kavanaugh hearings, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alongside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), continue conducting massive raids resulting in the detention of hundreds of undocumented immigrants.
As media headlines across the nation keep us updated with minute by minute updates of the Supreme Court’s most recent nominees’ approval hearing, ICE’s press release headlines read “ICE arrests 150 aliens in Los Angeles-area” and “ICE arrests 83 criminal aliens and immigration violators in 4-day Wisconsin enforcement surge.”
As the country, and world, moves on to other news topics, DHS and ICE continue to wreak terror amongst our undocumented communities.
With the false pretense of detaining undocumented immigrants with criminal records, ICE is going after our entire community, including those without any criminal history or undocumented immigrant with minor convictions, such as jaywalking or traffic violations.
“ICE administrative” arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions have spiked 203 percent in the first full 14 months of his [Trump] presidency compared to the final 14 months of the Obama administration, growing from 19,128 to 58,010,” according to NBC’s review of ICE figures.
It’s no secret, Donald Trump promised and has unleashed ICE on our undocumented community.
His inhumane persecution of our undocumented community has even driven him to come after those who are willing to take in undocumented children still awaiting their fate, detained inside federal detention centers. That’s right, recently the administration hit a new low, detaining undocumented immigrants attempting to sponsor, and rescue, detained undocumented children from the government.
“Using detained kids as bait to arrest other immigrants is a new outrageous low,” Pili Tobar of America’s Voice said, “even by the standards of a Trump administration that has made indiscriminate cruelty towards immigrants its centerpiece.”
How about going after undocumented people outside courtrooms? People simply trying to comply with the law by attending court dates are meeting their deportation fate waiting outside for them at the hands of ICE.
Another thing that is no secret is the fact that the administration is mostly targeting undocumented immigrants from our Central and South American neighboring countries. The majority of the undocumented population that has been arrested under ICE’s recent raids across the nation are from Latin-American origins.
In addition to the changes that the Department of Justice, or should we say, Jeff Sessions, is making to the immigration court system in our country, the DOJ is also going after naturalized citizens and the path to citizenship that has helped millions achieve their American Dream. Not to mention more strict and exclusive restrictions to asylum and refugee seekers.
Bottom line is our current president and his administration is “full steam ahead” in the mission to detain and deport our immigrant communities.