ICE to stop most immigration enforcement inside U.S., will focus on criminals during coronavirus outbreak

Washington Post logoU.S. immigration authorities will temporarily halt enforcement across the United States, except for efforts to deport foreign nationals who have committed crimes or who pose a threat to public safety. The change in enforcement status comes amid the coronavirus outbreak and aims to limit the spread of the virus and to encourage those who need treatment to seek medical help.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said late Wednesday that its Enforcement and Removal Operations division will “delay enforcement actions” and use “alternatives to detention” amid the outbreak, according to a notification the agency sent to Congress.

ICE told members of Congress that its “highest priorities are to promote lifesaving and public safety activities.” Continue reading.

Trump Sending Tactical Units Into Cities To Round Up Immigrants

The Trump is administration is deploying tactical units into multiple sanctuary cities as part of an effort to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in its campaign to detain migrants.

The units are being deployed “in order to enhance the integrity of the immigration system, protect public safety, and strengthen our national security,” Customs and Border Protection spokesman Lawrence Payne told the New York Times.

According to an email sent to CBP personnel, the deployment of the tactical teams will run from February through May. Continue reading.

The National Archives is destroying records about victims of Trump’s ICE policies. A historian explains the implications

AlterNet logoLast month, the National Archives and Records Administration apologized for doctoring a photo of the 2017 Women’s March to remove criticisms of President Trump. The shocking revelation that the agency had altered the image was first reported in The Washington Post. In an exhibit called “Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote,” the National Archives had displayed a large image of the first Women’s March. But signs referencing Trump had been blurred to remove his name — including a poster reading “God Hates Trump” and another reading “Trump & GOP — Hands Off Women.” Other signs in the photo referencing female anatomy were also blurred. The National Archives initially stood by its decision to edit the photo, telling The Washington Post that the changes were made “so as not to engage in current political controversy.” For more, we turn to a historian who says this was only the latest example of “a great and growing threat to our nation’s capacity to protect and learn from history.” The National Archives reportedly is allowing millions of documents, including many related to immigrants’ rights, to be expunged. We speak with Matthew Connelly, professor of history at Columbia University and principal investigator at History Lab. His recent piece for The New York Times is headlined “Why You May Never Learn the Truth About ICE.”

AMY GOODMAN:

This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

Continue reading.

Under secret Stephen Miller plan, ICE to use data on migrant children to expand deportation efforts

Washington Post logoThe White House sought this month to embed immigration enforcement agents within the U.S. refugee agency that cares for unaccompanied migrant children, part of a long-standing effort to use information from their parents and relatives to target them for deportation, according to six current and former administration officials.

Though senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services rejected the attempt, they agreed to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to collect fingerprints and other biometric information from adults seeking to claim migrant children at government shelters. If those adults are deemed ineligible to take custody of children, ICE could then use their information to target them for arrest and deportation.

The arrangement appears to circumvent laws that restrict the use of the refu­gee program for deportation enforcement; Congress has made clear that it does not want those who come forward as potential sponsors of minors in U.S. custody to be frightened away by possible deportation. But, in the reasoning of senior Trump administration officials, adults denied custody of children lose their status as “potential sponsors” and are fair game for arrest.

Continue reading

Viral video shows pickup truck ramming crowd protesting ICE

AlterNet logoA video that has gone viral on social media shows a group of protestors sitting peacefully across a road in front of Rhode Island’s Wyatt Detention FacilityWednesday night, chanting for the release of about 120 immigrants. A black pickup truck approaches, honks, briefly stops, then runs into the crowd. Children and one person in a wheelchair were part of the protest, organizers say.

“It was terrifying because we didn’t know what exactly his intention was,” said Amy Anthony, a spokesperson for Never Again Action told The Washington Post. “It certainly appeared he was trying to hit us.”

Several protestors were injured and taken to a hospital for treatment. None of the injuries were severe.

View the complete August 15 article by David Badash from The New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.

‘A nightmare’: Even ICE agents are fed up with Trump’s ‘dumbsh*t’ political stunts

AlterNet logoWhen President Donald Trump is hoping to rally his base, one of the things he typically does is try to remind supporters how tough he is on illegal immigration. But according to a report by The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer, agents for the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are growing increasingly fed up with being used as a political football.

Blitzer notes that on June 17, Trump announced there’d be immigration raids the following week he promised would result in the deportation of “millions of illegal aliens.” But ICE, Blitzer reports, had to “scramble” in order to accommodate Trump’s announcement and wished he had given them more advance notice.

Carrying out the types of raids Trump wanted, Blizter explains, requires preparation — and ICE agents weren’t given nearly enough time to prepare. An ICE agent, interviewed anonymously, told Blitzer, “Almost nobody was looking forward to this operation. It was a boondoggle, a nightmare.”

View the complete June 25 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Want to Know More About: The Trump FEMA Budget Funds Going to ICE

John Dickerson: “Newly Revealed Documents Show The Trump Administration Took Money Away From FEMA And Other Federal Agencies Apparently To Pay For Immigration Detention Centers.” JOHN DICKERSON: “Newly revealed documents show the Trump administration took money away from FEMA and other federal agencies apparently to pay for immigration detention centers. FEMA lost nearly $10 million out of its $15 billion budget.” [CBS This Morning, CBS, 9/12/18;Video]

Jeff Pegues: “The Document Says Mission Impact Is Minimized As FEMA Will Curtail Training, Travel, And Public Engagement. The 40-Page Report Also Says That Without The Transfer Of Funds, I.C.E. Will Not Be Able To Fulfill Its Adult Detention Requirements This Year.” JEFF PEGUES: “More than $4 million of the funds from FEMA are listed the as response and recovery or preparedness and protection, but the document says mission impact is minimized as FEMA will curtail training, travel, and public engagement. The 40-page report also says that without the transfer of funds, I.C.E. Will not be able to fulfill its adult detention requirements this year.” [CBS This Morning, CBS, 9/12/18; Video] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: The Trump FEMA Budget Funds Going to ICE”

Renegade Administration Ignores Supreme Court’s Deportation Order

The following article by Sarah Okeson was posted on the DCReport.org website August 30, 2018:

Homeland Security Department Still Won’t Tell Immigrants When or Where to Show Up in Court

The Trump administration continues to deport people in violation of a July Supreme Court ruling that some legal scholars said should have stopped almost all of the thousands of current deportation proceedings.

In an 8-1 ruling in Pereira v. Sessions, the often deeply-divided court said that deportation notices issued by immigration authorities that didn’t include the time and place for deportation proceedings couldn’t later be used to quash efforts by immigrants to remain in the United States.

“Common sense compels the conclusion that a notice that does not specify when and where to appear for a removal proceeding is not a ‘notice to appear,’ ” wrote Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

View the complete article here.

Trump Says Hispanic-American Border Patrol Agent ‘Speaks Perfect English’ Video

The following article by Julie Hirschfeld Davis was posted on the New York Times website August 20, 2018:

President Trump made the remark during a White House event honoring employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Image by Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — It was supposed to be a White House salute to the heroism of immigration agents who put their lives on the line to protect Americans. But on Monday, President Trump appeared to have something else on his mind: the ethnicity of one of the men he was honoring.

“Speaks perfect English,” Mr. Trump blurted out as he encouraged Adrian Anzaldua, a Hispanic-American Border Patrol agent and dog handler from Texas, to join him onstage in the East Room. Mr. Anzaldua recently arrested a smuggler in Laredo who had tried to bring 78 people into the United States illegally inside a truck trailer.

“Come here. I want to ask you about that — 78 lives,” Mr. Trump said, putting Mr. Anzaldua on the spot. “You saved 78 people. So how did you feel, that there were people in that trailer?”

View the complete article here.

ICE spokesman resigns, citing fabrications by agency chief, Sessions about California immigrant arrests

The following article by Meagan Flynn and Avi Selk was posted on the Washington Post website March 13, 2018:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions scolded Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who warned the city of a possible ICE raid last month. (Reuters)

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has resigned over what he described as “false” and “misleading” statements made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and ICE acting director Thomas D. Homan.

James Schwab worked out of the agency’s San Francisco office until he abruptly quit last week. He said he had been told to “deflect” questions about the Oakland, Calif., mayor’s interference with an ICE raid last month and to refer reporters to statements from Sessions and Homan that suggested that hundreds of “criminals” (“criminal aliens,” Homan called them) escaped capture in Northern California because the mayor tipped them off. Continue reading “ICE spokesman resigns, citing fabrications by agency chief, Sessions about California immigrant arrests”