Dark days for immigrants
Immigration sweeps, in Santa Fe and across the country, have become part and parcel of daily life for too many of our neighbors. The worry that must always accompany being in a country without proper documentation has escalated beyond the tolerable — people are living in fear, aware that in an instant, their lives could be shattered. Families are being torn apart. Detention centers for immigrants are rife with human rights abuses. Young people who had been protected because they came here as children still don’t know what will happen to their permanent status, since no progress is being made on legislation to deal with the future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipients.
What is happening in the United States right now is shameful, likely to be looked back on with the same disgust we feel about the order to round up Japanese-Americans into detention camps. (Executive Order 9066 was issued on Feb. 19, 1942, another day of infamy in the tragedy that was World War II.)
In Santa Fe last week, we learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were busy, targeting at least six businesses with audits, detaining immigrants and even visiting a restaurant to photograph its interior and exterior. At a news conference to decry the action, Santa Fe leaders demanded answers. Mayor Javier Gonzales, Superintendent of Schools Veronica García and immigration advocates are continuing to speak up, despite this targeting of our city and other parts of New Mexico. They are asking our congressional delegation to step in and obtain more information about the actions.
The intrusion into Santa Fe makes it plain that our sanctuary status is being eroded, interfering with local decisions that do not violate federal laws. Enforcement of immigration laws are a federal responsibility, after all. In cities like Santa Fe, people who feel safe, whatever their residency status, can work, go to school, care for their families and otherwise get about the business of living. If they see a crime, they can call the police without worry of being deported. Their children don’t feel uneasy at school.
Sanctuary is humane, legal and compassionate. It is necessary until the United States reforms its cumbersome immigration system so that people who contribute to our economy and society can find a way to live here legally — and so that people who want to move here can do so without waiting decades.
That, of course, is not what is happening with our immigration policies. President Donald Trump, who ran for office on an anti-immigrant appeal, has not let up since being elected. Trump ended the Obama-era protection for DACA arrivals and keeps reneging on agreements that would lead to legislative protections. His proposals would reduce legal immigration and his Department of Homeland Security has doubled down on deportations under the guise of “keeping America safe.”
Yet unlike what happened under President Barack Obama — no slouch in deporting immigrants — the new policies don’t target criminals or prioritize getting rid of the “bad hombres,” to use Trump’s own words. They go after everyone. We have seen story after story of law-abiding men and women uprooted from their lives. Fathers. Mothers. College professors. Business owners. In Virginia, the wife of a retired Army Special Forces soldier who fled hurricane devastation in Honduras was nearly kicked out of the country, despite her family’s service and attempts to legalize her status. And that’s just one of hundreds of heart-wrenching stories.
Dan Canon, a candidate for Congress from Indiana, may have the right idea. He and others are proposing that ICE be abolished, telling The Nation magazine that, “ICE as it presently exists is an agency devoted almost solely to cruelly and wantonly breaking up families. The agency talks about, and treats, human beings like they’re animals. They scoop up people in their apartments or their workplaces and take them miles away from their spouses and children.” An agency that operates in darkness, with little accountability and with documented incidents of abuse, is incompatible with a democracy.
There are unintended consequences to the continued targeting of immigrants. In the Central Valley of California, growers are warning that fruit crops could die on the vines and in the fields. There will not be people to pick them, potentially devastating a region that provides an eighth of our country’s agricultural output. Other businesses that hire immigrants also are worried, including the home health care industry. Local economies across the country could be devastated.
Meanwhile, the efforts of the federal government against immigrants and those who would protect them continue — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is suing California over immigration laws, saying the state is making it difficult for federal enforcement agents to do their jobs. Threats against local officials — including in Santa Fe — have been made and will be made again, with the Justice Department exploring the possibilities of criminal charges against local politicians who enact sanctuary laws. (Mayor Gonzales, as he leaves office, should be commended for his strong stance in keeping Santa Fe a welcoming city. He stood tall on this issue.)
As all of this takes place, life goes on. State basketball tournament games were played. Santa Fe elected a new mayor. Candidates keep preparing for the June primaries and folks go outside to plant their gardens. Life is no longer normal for too many of our friends, relatives and neighbors. It might never be normal again.