This will greatly increase unreported crimes now wherever there are Hispanic Ghettos or ghettos where illegals from any nation gather. This will mean many unreported murders which will make towns across the U.S. much more hellish than they already were. Because scared illegals no longer trust ANY authorities regarding ANYTHING after this.
Living in fear
Arrests send unauthorized immigrants into shadows
After ICE arrests, fear spreads among undocumented immigrants
Story highlights
- Some undocumented immigrants avoid going out or sending children to school
- Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly denies there is an immigrant roundup
(CNN)Across
the United States, some unauthorized immigrants are keeping their
children home from school. Others have suspended after-school visits to
the public library. They have given up coffee shop trips and weekend
restaurant dinners with family.
Some
don't answer knocks on their doors. They're taping bedsheets over
windows and staying off social media. Nervous parents and their children
constantly exchange text messages and phone calls.
From
New York to Los Angeles, a series of immigration arrests this week have
unleashed waves of fear and uncertainty across immigrant communities.
"There
are people that I work with who essentially want to go dark," said
Cesar Vargas, one of the first immigrants without legal status in New
York state to be sworn in as a lawyer.
"They
don't want to be public in any way whatsoever. They spend less time on
the street. They go to work and go straight back home. They don't go on
Facebook. They put curfews on themselves."
The
fear started to set in after President Donald Trump's inauguration last
month, according to advocates. It heightened after Thursday's deportation of an undocumented Arizona mother of two who was making a routine visit with immigration officials. And Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this week carried out numerous actions in California, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Texas and other states.
Daughter makes emotional plea for deported mom 01:45
The
arrests come amid court battles over Trump's proposed ban on immigrants
from seven majority-Muslim nations. The president has also vowed to
deport some 3 million undocumented immigrants who have criminal records
and to build a wall across the porous US-Mexico border.
'Missing from school out of fear'
That Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Friday night the United States has not been "rounding anyone up" is of little solace in longtime immigrant enclaves across the nation.
"There
are teachers who told me they had students missing from school out of
fear," said Greg Casar, a city council member in Austin, Texas.
"I
was with a constituent, a single mother with kids -- good, hardworking
everyday folks -- and she had duct-taped sheets up and down her windows.
ICE had come and knocked on her door earlier in the day."
Casar,
the son of Mexican immigrants, spoke on the phone Saturday from a
meeting of about 100 teachers who gathered to discuss how talk to
children about ICE actions and assure them they're safe at school.
A
series of immigration arrests throughout the United States, such as
this one in Los Angeles, have sent waves of fear across mostly
immigrant enclaves.
"Kids
... are clearly traumatized by this," he said. "Young people I've
spoken to live in fear that their government is coming for them or
coming for their parents. Where do you go?"
Criminals are targeted
One
ICE operation in the Los Angeles area this week targeted criminals and
fugitives. The agency said the majority of those arrested had criminal
histories.
ICE said Friday that about 160 foreign nationals were arrested during the week.
Of
those, 150 had criminal histories, and of the remaining arrests, five
had final orders of removal or were previously deported.
ICE said 95% of those arrested were male. By Saturday, 37 had been deported to Mexico, a Homeland Security official told CNN.
Supporters of the sweeps say they are surprised that actions enforcing US immigration laws are making the news.
"President
Trump campaigned on the issue of enforcing the nation's laws, and
that's exactly what is happening here," said Dave Ray, a spokesman for
the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a non-profit that fights
for reduced immigration and tighter borders.
John
Torres, a retired deputy director of ICE and longtime immigration
agent, said the last time such a spike in enforcement occurred was
during the Bush administration, from 2006 to 2008.
"What's
different here is that you have a more robust agency than you had 10
years ago," Torres said. "And the expanded scope of priorities now,
coupled with the fact that you have far more jurisdictions that are not
cooperating with ICE, is forcing ICE agents to make those arrests out in
the community."
While the Obama
administration had clear guidance prioritizing deportation of high-level
criminals, an executive order signed by Trump in his first week set up
enforcement priorities that could include virtually any undocumented
immigrant living in the United States.
'In major suspense' with Trump
Many
of the largest cities in the country have vowed not to cooperate with
federal law enforcement on immigration matters. They are known as
"sanctuary" cities, a broad term applied to jurisdictions that have
policies limiting cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration
enforcement actions.
Cities, counties and some states have a range of laws and informal policies that qualify as "sanctuary" positions.
In New York's Staten Island, Vargas has been busy since Trump's inauguration advising members of a growing immigrant community.
Vargas,
a Mexican-born lawyer and immigrant activist, has also been busy
checking up in his mother, who is also undocumented. And she checks on
him.
"My
mom tells me, 'Don't travel here, don't travel there,'" said Vargas,
who has benefited from federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,
or DACA.
"I'm still undocumented.
She's undocumented. I have DACA but she doesn't. I tell her not to open
the door for anyone. Know your rights and give me a call right away."
Put
in place by the Obama administration, the DACA program has helped
roughly 750,000 young people -- known as DREAMers -- emerge from the
shadows and obtain valid driver's licenses, enroll in college and
legally secure jobs.
Trump has vowed to repeal the program.
"We're
in major suspense with the Trump administration," said Vargas, who was 5
he crossed the border from Tijuana to San Diego.
"What
is he going to do with DACA? The program can be taken away anytime at
the discretion of Immigration. They can say, even if he has DACA, we're
going to pick him up because he is undocumented."
Concern for veterans
Vargas has been working with undocumented veterans who joined the US military with hopes of getting US citizenship.
Some
veterans -- green card holders who served in Iraq and Afghanistan --
did not go through the entire process of becoming citizens. Many
returned to the United States with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Some
got hooked on illegal drugs and ended up with felony drug convictions.
They now face deportation.
Deported US military veterans live in limbo 04:02
"Yes,
these people have committed crimes, but these are people who the
government was supposed to take care of," Vargas said. "If Donald Trump
is so worried about veterans, these are people he should be worried
about."
In Brooklyn, New York, an
undocumented immigrant named Antonio -- who asked that his full name not
be used -- said it has been an emotional week for his partner and their
two children, ages 3 and 8. His partner cries at the many news reports
of separated immigrant families.
"People
are not leaving the house to get a cup of coffee, to have dinner or
take their children to the library," said Antonio, who came to the
United States from Mexico 17 years ago.
"You don't know when the next roundup will be. You go to work. You come back home."
He says he is cautious on the street.
"I'm
looking around all the time," he said. "It's not only (ICE) but the
police as well. What if they stop you and ask you questions?"
A
construction worker, Antonio said he has paid taxes for years. He was
part of a small army of unauthorized immigrants who toiled in the
reconstruction efforts in Queens and Staten Island after Superstorm
Sandy in 2012.
"We were among the first to respond during that catastrophe," he said.
"We
helped rebuild homes and the owners still seek us out for work. But
some people feel we're taking away (jobs). We take the jobs they don't
want. So it's, 'Oh, you helped me rebuild my house but now I don't need
you and you should go back to Mexico.'"
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