ICE Launches Raids Targeting Migrant Families

Over the weekend, a small number of coordinated federal raids against undocumented migrant parents and their children. This was the beginning of the Trump’s administration plan to swiftly enforce deportation orders against at least 2,000 recently arrived migrants who are not eligible to stay in the country.

Just a handful of arrest have already taken place and were reported in a few cities. Different from the nationwide show of force that was originally planned, ICE agents were expected to fan out on one accord Sunday morning across immigrant communities. Authorities say more arrest will take place during the week.

According to several current and former Department of Homeland Security officials, plans of operations had changed last minute because of news reports informed immigrants about what to expect. Instead of conducting one big sweep, the authorities created another plan that would be smaller and more diffuse scale of apprehension that would roughly take over a week.

The first reports of ICE activity came in on Friday and Saturday. In Chicago, a mother and her daughters were all apprehended but immediately released under the supervision according to a person familiar with the operation. Local news reports say, ICE agents approached another home within the area, but the woman inside refused to answer the door.

Liza, a teenager who lives with her parents in Passaic, NJ, said that she was awaken after hearing a knock on the around 1 a.m. Sunday. She believe the people were ICE agents, after seeing numerous “know your rights” post on Instagram she knew not to open.

“They said, ‘We need to talk to you, can you come outside, can you open the door?’ I said, ‘Do you have permission to come inside my house, do you have a paper?’” she recounted. “They said, ‘We’re not trying to come inside your house, we just want to speak with you.’ And I said, ‘No I’m not coming outside.”

She said after a while, the person knocking on the door left. Around 5 a.m., more arrived later but this time they surrounded the house with flashlights, banging on the door and window. Liza ran upstairs to be with her parents and they hid with the lights off. She was too scared even to look outside and she was unable to determine the uniform the people may have been wearing. They eventually left again.

Even though millions of people are living in the United States without documentation and are periodically targeted for deportation, the raids are primarily aimed at Central American families who have been arriving in large numbers since the fall. Since President Trump has repeatedly talking about his attempts on the raids, ICE are aiming to deport parents and children who are not eligible to stay in the country, as a way to deter more immigrants from coming.

Source: The New York Times