Lujan Grisham wants more data from ICE

Congresswoman not satisfied with answers on immigration raids

WASHINGTON — A top U.S. Homeland Security official on Thursday disputed assertions that federal immigration agents are deploying checkpoints or “indiscriminately” seeking to deport people who are in the United States illegally.

Thomas Homan, acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, made the remarks during a meeting with members of Congress at the Capitol on Thursday, according to Gillian Christensen, acting press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The meeting, requested by Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, focused on the agency’s stepped-up efforts to deport people who are in the country illegally who have been deemed a public safety threat by ICE officials. Lujan Grisham said she left the meeting Thursday disappointed that members of Congress weren’t given more information about current strategy, and that some Congressional Hispanic Caucus members weren’t allowed into the meeting.

“We want (ICE’s) guidance memos, more of the biographical information. Did they separate families? And how many kids?” Lujan Grisham said. “It is clear from the data that there are a significant number of collateral apprehensions.”

At a news conference after the meeting, Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-Texas, said “the only hesitation” ICE agents “seem to have is whether they would go after DACA recipients.” DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was enacted during President Barack Obama’s administration and gave recent arrivals who were children a two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit.

Lujan Grisham and other Democrats say they have no problem with deportations of violent felons, but they are concerned that the immigration raids are breaking up families whose members simply crossed the border illegally.

As news of immigration raids around the country surfaced in the media, additional reports of checkpoints and broad sweeps were disseminated on social media and elsewhere. Christensen said such reports were erroneous.

“Mr. Homan emphasized (in the meeting Thursday) that ICE does not conduct arrests indiscriminately and does not establish checkpoints; rather, the agency’s deportation officers target pre-identified individuals for arrest at specific locations based on law enforcement leads,” she said in a statement.

“He further stated that officers frequently encounter additional individuals in the pursuit of their targets,” Christensen said. “When officers determine other individuals are in the United States in violation of the federal immigration laws, the officers make arrests. Every arrest is made on a case-by-case basis.”

During the Obama administration, ICE agents targeted recent border crossers and those in the country illegally who posed a threat to public safety.

“Everyone can be a target,” under ICE’s current deportation strategy, Lujan Grisham said. “I have no disagreement that the law says we do not have an open border, but we have 11 million people here. If you want to stop what’s going on at the border, do immigration reform.

“If you really are interested in breaking up families and hurting American-born children, this is what we do.”