Anxiety in America
AS ICE CRACKS DOWN ON IMMIGRANTS HERE ILLEGALLY, FAMILIES STRESS ABOUT LOVED ONES. EMPLOYERS FEAR THE FALLOUT IN A STATE BUILT ON CHEAP LABOR.
LEGAL RIGHTS: New guidelines have migrants scrambling for answers
They crowded by the hundreds into this bilingual church in Conroe, so many that organizers had to leave dozens of families outside to watch a Facebook livestream presentation on their phones.
Their faces weighed with worry, questions, desperation. The first man said his wife is the sole caretaker of her sick mother, an American citizen. What would be her lot if immigration agents detained his wife?
Allison Cárdenas, second at the microphone, said San Jacinto County Sheriff’s deputies stopped her friend this week after claiming his taillight was out. When the teenager presented his Honduran passport, he was booked into jail for not having a driver’s license and is now being deported, although he has committed no crime beyond coming here illegally three years ago.
“We hear about cases like this all the time,” replied Raed Gonzalez, an immigration attorney with a Spanish-language radio show and a panelist at this town hall broadcast on Univision. “But there are things one can do. … You do have
rights.”
Speakers repeatedly tried to calm the palpable fear, with chief deputies of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reassuring the crowd that they are not enforcing immigration laws. Left explicitly unsaid was that this is the new reality in American immigration enforcement, that manyof the 700 or so immigrants and their friends and relatives could potentially be deported to countries they haven’t been to in years.
Guidelines issued last week detailing how President Donald Trump’s administration would enact his executive orders give federal agents broad authority to deport or detain nearly anyone here illegally, even some with green cards or other types of legal permission to stay if they can’t prove they’re legally here. It’s a new frontier in this nation’s immigration enforcement that has dramatically escalated the risk to the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally, more than half a million in the Houston area. ‘Keep my promise’
Trump, who made reducing immigration the cornerstone of his victorious campaign, told a cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday that he was standing up for conservative values and American workers by deporting immigrants here illegally whohave committed crimes. “As we speak today, immigration officers are finding the gang members, the drug dealers and the criminal aliens and throwing them the hell out of our country,” he said. “All I’ve done is keep my promise.”
The federal government has said that three-quarters of the immigrants arrested this month in raids across the country had criminal convictions. But in Austin, congressional leaders reported that more than half of some 50 immigrants detained had committed no crime other than being here illegally.
As the guidelines were released Tuesday, immigrants who have been living here illegally for years found themselves suddenly detained under the administration’s new priorities. A31-year-old father of two American children who had a temporary reprieve from deportation and a work permit was arrested when he went for his annual check-in with Houston immigration authorities. Jose Escobar’s wife said federal agents told her they were simply complying with Trump’s orders.
“Anyone that is here undocumented could fall under these priorities,” said Alyson Sincavage, a legislative associate with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Though the executive orders highlight deporting criminals, and supporters of Trump praise him for doing just that, it is the fine print that has alarmed lawyers and advocates, making anyone whohas committed any violations that “constitute a chargeable criminal offense” a priority for removal. That could include the vast majority of immigrants here illegally who crossed the border without a visa, even if it was decades ago. Attorneys say it has sent chills through clients eligible for green cards or other types of legal protections who wonder if they’ll be arrested when they apply.
“It has a freezing effect on people trying to get their legal status, which is what everybody is accusing them of not doing,” said Nancy Falgout, a Houston immigration attorney. “We’re hesitant to file applications that previously would have been a no-brainer.”
The new emphasis on immigration enforcement also appears to have emboldened racism in some places. In The Woodlands, a flier declaring that Trump is “God’s gift to white nation” circulated widely and Hispanic residents testified at a meeting that their children are being bullied at school. Some said they are considering moving to a more welcoming place. In Pasadena, attorneys reported that immigration agents were trying to arrest people paying municipal tickets and, in New York, they requested passengers on a domestic flight show identification in a search of an immigrant with a deportation order.
The result is an atmosphere that advocates say is intended to push out immigrants, whether by pulling them into a massive enforcement dragnet or scaring them into leaving on their own. “This is about creating fear,” said David Leopold, an Ohio immigration attorney and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Police chiefs and sheriffs across the country have sought to calm residents.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said his department is not interested in going after construction workers who might be here illegally and are looking for jobs outside a Home Depot.
“That’s a civil matter,” he said. “We really rely on the trust and cooperation of the community we serve to investigate serious crimes.” Enforcement varies
In Harris County, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced last week that he ended a controversial agreement with federal authorities that enabled deputies to inquire about immigration status in his jail. Like most other sheriff’s offices in the nation, however, he still complies with federal requests to hold immigrants if they are suspected of being here illegally. Anyone booked into any jail in the country has their fingerprints matched with a vast law enforcement database that could indicate whether they are here illegally. If so, immigration officials are alerted.
Fourth Amendment concerns about warrantless detentions led many law enforcement agencies to scale back on the program, called Secure Communities, and limit when they hold immigrants past their release date on what is known as an immigration detainer. President Barack Obama had instructed they only detain immigrants convicted of serious crimes or seen as safety threats.
Now such priorities have been rescinded, potentially funneling any immigrant booked into jail into the custody of immigration agents.
In Texas, anyone can be jailed for any crime other than speeding or having an open container of alcohol in their car. For most immigrants in the state illegally, however, the pressing concern is driving. Since 2008, when the Department of Public Safety required proof of “lawful presence” to obtain a driver’s license, anyone here illegally has been unable to apply for or renew a license. Large metropolitan police departments don’t typically jail drivers for not having a license if they have another form of valid identification.
“The mere act of driving without a license will not send you to jail,” said Houston Police Department spokesman Keith Smith, who added that his agency does not allow officers to inquire about immigration status, a practice in place since 1990. The written policy permits officers to contact immigration authorities only if someone is arrested on a charge greater than a Class C misdemeanor and the officer knows the suspect is here illegally.
But small police departments and rural counties often do just that. That’s what happened to Eduin Rivas, a 19-year-old from Honduras who San Jacinto County deputies stopped about 60 miles north of Houston on Feb. 20. A sheriff’s deputy said that Rivas, who has been here illegally for three years, had a taillight that was out. Cárdenas, his friend, said she drove behind him and it worked.
When the deputy asked for Rivas’ license, he gave him his Honduran passport. The officer arrested Rivas for driving with an invalid license, a Class C misdemeanor, and not having proper insurance, Chief Deputy Joe Schultea said.
Rivas was booked into jail, his fingerprints scanned, and immigration authorities alerted. They picked him up on Feb. 22, and he is being processed for deportation.
“We don’t have time to chase illegal immigrants around the coun- ty, but if we identify them we will call (immigration),” Schultea said. “If we discover an illegal alien, whatever the circumstances are, we are going to make the report.”
Trump’s immigration orders could, in effect, turn law enforcement jurisdictions into a hodgepodge of safe havens and danger zones.
“You literally have to be careful driving from county to county, depending on their policy,” said Sincavage, from the lawyers association. ‘Prepare yourself’
There is a broader concern, too. Trump’s guidelines would expand a controversial practice known as expedited removal that allows federal authorities to deport certain immigrants within 24 hours without allowing them to contact their attorney or make their case before a judge. Previously that policy applied only to immigrants in the country fewer than 14 days who were apprehended within 100 miles of the border. Now it could pertain to anyone who has been here for fewer than two years.
Still, many immigrants, especially those who have been here illegally for more than a decade without committing major crimes, could qualify for a process known as cancellation of removal once they are in deportation proceedings, said Silvia Mintz, an immigration attorney.
Gonzalez, the attorney at the Conroe town hall, counseled immigrants to know their rights. They are not required to answer questions about their immigration status, but they should not lie about it. They don’t have to allow immigration officials into their homes unless they have a warrant. They should not sign paperwork without consulting a lawyer. They should carry around a form of identification, even if it is a passport, at all times.
“If you want to live a normal life and interact in our society there is no avoiding (immigration) anymore,” said Franklin Bynum, a Houston criminal defense attorney who specializes in immigration. “You need to carry around proof that you have been here over two years on your body at all times. … Prepare yourself and have a plan for when (immigration) rightly or wrongly takes enforcement action.”