In Michigan and Ohio, arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record surge 126 percent

[babylonsister]

Shades of the gestapo.


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/21/1750848/-In-Michigan-and-Ohio-arrests-of-undocumented-immigrants-with-no-criminal-record-surge-126-percent


In Michigan and Ohio, arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record surge 126 percent
By Gabe Ortiz
Wednesday Mar 21, 2018 · 12:40 PM EDT


Among the most high-profile deportation cases since Donald Trump’s inauguration was that of Jorge Garcia, the Michigan husband and father deported earlier this year despite having no criminal record. Garcia had lived in the U.S. for 30 of his 39 years of life, but was too old to qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported the dad of two U.S. citizens to Mexico. But Garcia hasn’t been alone. In Michigan and Ohio, the deportations of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record surged 117 percent in the past year:

Over the past year, there have been several arrests or deportations of immigrants in Michigan that have drawn criticism from some advocates, such as the deportation in April of Mario Hernandez, a married Detroit father of three children who lived in the U.S. for 19 years with no criminal record. The arrests of Iraqi immigrants last year for possible deportation also sparked an outcry.

Jose Franco, who leads the immigrant advocacy group One Michigan, said he's concerned that federal officials are profiling Latino areas of Michigan.

"We have seen an increased presence of Border Patrol cars like never before ... in neighborhoods across southwest Detroit, Downriver and many other places that tend to have heavy Latino presence," said Franco. His group is trying to help alert immigrants to the presence of immigration agents.

According to data from the Detroit Free Press, there was a 126 percent increase in the arrests of immigrants with no criminal records, but only a 32 percent increase in the arrests of immigrants with a criminal record. And still, Khaalid Walls, spokesperson for ICE in the two states, claims that "ICE is focused on removing public safety threats.” Right. "It's really creating a lot of havoc,” said Michigan Immigrant Rights Center’s Ruby Robinson. “People are worried, scared to leave their home, take their kids to school, given this pretty substantial rise in the number of detentions."

Last April, Maribel Trujillo, an Ohio mom of four U.S. citizens, was deported to Mexico despite having no criminal record. “When Secretary Kelly and President Trump claim to target only bad people,” immigrant rights group America’s Voice deputy director Lynn Tramonte said at the time, “they are lying. Maribel and many others are sad proof of that.” It’s a trend being seen all over the U.S., with the Detroit Free Press reporting that “there was a 145% increase in ICE arrests of non-criminal immigrants across the U.S., compared with 126% in Michigan and Ohio”:

In contrast to the spike in deportations in Michigan and Ohio, the number of deportations across the U.S. actually decreased by 5.9%, but that's because there has been a marked decrease in crossings on the Southern border, near where a sizable number of deportations take place. The number of interior removals — meaning those who are already settled in the U.S. — increased. For the first eight months of Trump's presidency, there was a 37% increase in interior removals of immigrants, about 81,000.

Yes, the “marked decrease in crossings on the Southern border” has actually been a trend dating back to the Obama administration, yet Trump keeps insisting that we need his stupid border wall that Mexico will never pay for, as well as a ramping up of his mass deportation force. But with Trump throwing out Obama’s enforcement priorities, our taxpayer resources aren’t going to making our communities safer. Instead, they’re going to tearing our communities apart. "ICE is going after low-hanging fruit,” said Michigan United’s David Sanchez. “People who have been checking in constantly and working on their citizenship status are the ones they are deporting. ... They're just deporting who they can get their hands on."

[Docreed2003]

1. K&R...must read!