Anxiety among immigrants spiked this week after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency conducted a series of enforcement actions in large metropolitan areas. On Saturday the agency announced that more than 200 people had been arrested this week in six states overseen by the Chicago office. That was in addition to more than 160 detained in the Los Angeles area, as well as arrests in New York, Atlanta and other cities.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Congress on Saturday demanded an immediate meeting with Thomas Homan, the acting head of ICE.
Though ICE and other officials say this is business as usual, many immigrants find more persuasive the words and actions of President Donald Trump, whose political rise was propelled by anti-immigrant rhetoric, a vow to build a wall on the Mexican border and the promise to deport 3 million criminal aliens.
On Jan. 25, five days after taking the oath of office, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.” Media attention focused on Trump’s call for an end to federal funds for “sanctuary cities,” which are communities which to varying degrees do not automatically hand over illegal immigrants who come to the attention of local law enforcement.
The order also expanded the list of deportation priorities to include any noncitizen who is charged with a criminal offense of any kind or who is suspected of committing criminal acts, fraud or willful dishonesty while interacting with immigration officials, is the subject of a pending order of removal or has been previously deported and reentered the country. The order gave much broader leeway to ICE officers in deciding whether someone posed “a risk to public safety” and therefore could be detained.
For immigrant rights activists, the rules of engagement have clearly changed.
“Donald Trump has effectively created a way to deport individuals who have been accused, charged or convicted of anything from murder to jaywalking,” Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) said.
Entering the U.S. without inspection is itself a misdemeanor. Anyone caught in possession of fake identification documents or who is not honest with immigration officials can also be charged with a crime.
Fear of being detained or deported could lead many people to avoid going to work, school or to public places in coming days, Salas said. She noted that one person detained by ICE this week had been at his job in a Target store.
“ICE wants us to believe they have removed a bunch of felons who were just plotting their next crime,” Salas said.
ICE this week has put out messages on Twitter suggesting that this week’s enforcement actions were not part of a major crackdown ordered by Trump.
“ICE immigration enforcement actions target specific individuals according to the laws passed by Congress,” ICE tweeted Thursday.
ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez said in an email to the Washington Post, “ICE does not use checkpoints, nor do we use sweeping raids. We use targeted enforcement actions against specific individuals to make these arrests.”
Immigration rights activists are hoping to call attention to the actions of ICE while at the same time preventing full-scale panic among people who may be avoiding going to work or riding buses out of fear of being detained.
“We’re not trying to sow hysteria here, so we’re not reporting rumors,” Elizabeth Alex, a regional field director for Casa de Maryland in Baltimore County, said. “But it is fair to say we are seeing new tactics across the county.”
In Los Angeles, several undocumented people declined interviews or to be identified by name in the Washington Post because of concerns that the Trump administration might use newspaper coverage to craft a new list of deportation targets.
“The bottom line is, overnight, people are terrorized,” Casa de Maryland Executive Director Gustavo Torres said.