Marysville Appeal-Democrat

ICE raids spark fear, protests and questions about who will be swept up

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LOS ANGELES – With a new round of ICE raids set to begin Sunday, hundreds protested in Southern California and immigrants targeted by the Trump crackdown braced for the federal action.

Many elements of the raid still remain unclear, including exactly how many are being targeted and how much the new action will be different from regular ICE activities.

“We are receiving calls from migrants that are very scared,” said Hugo Castro with Border Angels, a migrant rights group. “They are canceling their plans for the weekend. For example, we talked to one family who was planning to move this weekend and now they are afraid to move with this going on.”

On Friday, President Donald Trump confirmed to White House reporters what he called a “major operation” starting Sunday.

“Nothing to be secret about,” Trump said before leaving for a fundraisin­g trip. “It starts on Sunday, and they’re going to take people out, and they’re going to bring them back to their countries. Or they’re going to take criminals out, put them in prison, or put them in prison in the countries they came from.”

Trump didn’t comment on how many people might be affected.

An Immigratio­n and Customs Enforcemen­t spokesman wouldn’t give many details.

“Due to law-enforcemen­t sensitivit­ies and the safety and security of U.S. Immigratio­n and Customs Enforcemen­t personnel, the agency will not offer specific details related to enforcemen­t operations,” a statement read.

The raids, which could roll out over an extended period, are expected to take place in at least 10 cities. While the operation will target a couple thousand people with court removal orders, it will also include “collateral” deportatio­ns in which agents may detain immigrants without legal status who are not intended targets but happen to be in the area.

The raids are expected to target not only families but also children who arrived at the border without adults, were released to parents or other sponsors and ordered deported, said Greg Chen, director of government relations at the Washington­based American Immigratio­n Lawyers Associatio­n.

ICE officials in New Orleans have announced that they were suspending immigratio­n enforcemen­t this weekend in areas of southern Louisiana and coastal Mississipp­i where Tropical Storm Barry was expected to make landfall early Saturday.

But migrant advocates called on ICE to suspend the raids in surroundin­g states so that migrants felt safe evacuating.

Some migrant families directly in the storm’s path said they were too scared to evacuate. Balbina, 34, a Mexican immigrant who asked to be identified only by first name, has been living south of New Orleans illegally for 12 years.

She and her husband, a boat builder, have three children, ages 14, 10 and 5.

The two youngest are U.S. citizens. A voluntary evacuation was issued for their town, Houma, but Balbina’s family is staying in their mobile home, and she knows about 35 other immigrants who are also afraid to leave because of the ICE raids.

“I worry for my kids. I can try to protect them, but it’s a risk. If we go, we don’t know if we can return,” she said by phone from her home.there’s a 10 p.m. curfew in Houma, she said, but for migrants, “It’s like a curfew all the time.”

Matthew Albence, the ICE acting director, told the Associated Press the targets were on an “accelerate­d docket” of immigratio­n court cases for predominan­tly Central Americans.

“This family operation is nothing new,” Albence said. “It’s part of our dayto-day operations. We’re trying to surge some additional resources to deal with this glut of cases that came out of the accelerate­d docket, but after this operation is over, these cases are still going to be viable cases that we’ll be out there investigat­ing and pursuing.”

The threat of raids has had a dramatic impact. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Police Chief Michel Moore, Sheriff Alex Villanueva and other leaders have denounced the tactic. Across the country, some immigrants reportedly are skipping work and hiding out, a team of immigratio­n lawyers is descending on a detention facility in Texas, activists are manning tip hotlines that are ringing off the hook in Tennessee, and a group of advocates launched a preemptive lawsuit in New York.

While some immigratio­n apprehensi­ons may be the immediate mission, there are broader political goals that are accomplish­ed with the specter of widespread immigratio­n raids. Some immigratio­n analysts said the Trump administra­tion is likely hoping to distract the president’s base from what he has failed to accomplish: the expansion of a southern border “wall” and getting a citizenshi­p question on the U.S. census.

Despite his aggressive rhetoric, Trump’s overall removal numbers during his first two years in office pale in comparison with those of the previous administra­tion. Trump’s administra­tion is on track to remove only about 8 percent more foreigners in fiscal year 2019 than President Obama’s last year in office, according to Immigratio­n and Customs Enforcemen­t data.

During the height of deportatio­ns under Obama, in 2012, immigratio­n officials removed 409,849 foreigners. By comparison, peak removals under Trump came last year, with 256,085.

This week’s threats came less than a month after Trump announced in a June 17 tweet that ICE would start deporting “millions” of migrants. Days later, that operation was put on hold. This time, some experts and activists said they believe the raids will move forward.

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