Immigration rights activists hand out pamphlets as communities braced for wave of deportation raids. Photo: Reuters
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https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3018545/ice-raids-migrants-fear-us-agents-prepare-round United States & Canada
ICE raids: migrants in fear as US agents prepare to round up ‘thousands’
- US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities – known as ICE – is expected to focus on large cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Houston
- Raids expected to target roughly 2,000 migrants in the US illegally but the prospect has rippled terror through broad swathes of migrant communities
ICE agents detain a suspected MS-13 gang member and Honduran immigrant at his home in Brentwood, New York in 2018. File photo: AFP
Thousands of undocumented immigrants in the United States were waiting in fear and uncertainty ahead of nationwide raids Sunday that US President Donald Trump said would lead to a wave of expulsions.
Demonstrators in dozens of cities protested the planned raids, and local and state officials called for restraint, but to no effect.
Before dawn on Sunday, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were expected to hit the streets of at least 10 major American cities with plans to arrest some 2,000 undocumented migrants who entered the United States recently.
The scope of the operation appears far more modest than the “millions” Trump had promised would be detained and expelled when he first mentioned the raids – and subsequently postponed – last month.
But that has not eased the anguish felt by those who fear they might be targeted.
Adding to their concerns are media reports that ICE agents are prepared to scoop up not just those targeted by removal orders but also other undocumented migrants that agents may come upon incidentally.
That, potentially, could include some migrants who have been in the country for years, with homes, jobs and children who are US citizens.
“This uncertainty, this fear, is wreaking havoc,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.
“It’s traumatising people.”
Trump insisted on Friday that “most mayors” want the raids.
“Most mayors do. You know why? They don’t want to have crimes in their cities,” he said, repeating his frequent – and incorrect – assertion that migrants are more likely to be criminals than native-born Americans.
Several mayors have expressed concern about the federal operation.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez pointed out that in 2018, his first year in office, his Florida city experienced its “lowest homicide rate in 51 years – so I don’t understand the rationale for choosing Miami.”
“It doesn’t make it easier for us, as mayors, to keep our citizens and those who are in our city … quiet and calm.”
Protesters march to offices of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago. Photo: AFP
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat who wants to run against Trump for president in 2020, said his city would not cooperate with ICE.
He sees the raids as “a political act to convince a lot of people in America that immigrants are the problem”.
Some city officials, as well as pro-migrant and civil rights groups, have sought to educate those who might be targeted on their rights in the event of a raid.
“We’re asking people, if you are in fear of deportation, to stay in on Sunday, to travel in groups,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms said.
If “someone comes to your door, please don’t open the door unless they have a warrant.”
The planned law enforcement actions come on the heels of congressional testimony about “horrifying” conditions inside migrant detention facilities at the southern border, which have been described as overcrowded, filthy and underresourced.
Twenty-four immigrants have died in ICE custody during the Trump administration.
As recently as Friday evening, reporters with US Vice-President Mike Pence visited a border station in McAllen, Texas, and described overcrowded conditions in which men were held in cages in “sweltering” heat where the “stench was horrendous”.
Pence described the conditions as “ tough stuff ”.
Because ICE detention facilities are operating with limited capacity, immigration officials had publicly floated the idea of using hotels to hold those seized following the raids.
US Vice-President Mike Pence visits a border station in McAllen, Texas. Photo: Reuters
That prompted one chain, Marriott, to say it would not allow its buildings to be used as detention centres for the federal government. ICE officials responded that they would be forced to separate families if they lack capacity.
There are around 11 million undocumented people living in the US, according to estimates from the Pew Research Centre.
When Trump proposed mass deportations in June, he spoke about “millions” of people being arrested, but according to ICE only around 2,000 people would likely be targeted.
Condemnation has come from a broad slate of progressive organisations, including groups typically focused on issues outside the immigration debate.
Lights for Liberty vigils protesting against the raids were attended by the American Teachers Federation and sponsored by the Women’s March.
Youth climate activists with the Sunrise Movement Boston attended a vigil protesting against “inhumane conditions” in detention centres they called “concentration camps”.
Bridgette Gomez, director of strategic partnerships at Planned Parenthood, the largest network of not-for-profit reproductive health clinics in the US, said: “These raids are a cruel, racist and dangerous extension of the Trump-Pence administration’s already horrifying policies.
Additional reporting by The Guardian and DPA