Tag: ICE

Exactly how cruel is Homeland Security?

The following commentary from the Washing Post’s Editorial Board was posted on their website December 23, 2017:

People hold conversations through the U.S.- Mexico border fence Saturday at Border Field State Park in San Diego. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

FAMILIES AND unaccompanied children detained at the Mexican border are often fleeing horrific conditions in Central American countries, especially El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where violent gangs, drug trafficking and rampant criminality contribute to some of the world’s highest murder rates. Now the Trump administration, alarmed at the recent surge in border crossers, is considering a new strategy to deter them. The message: “You think your native country is cruel? America is even crueller.”

That’s the logic behind a proposal under consideration by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen that would try to discourage migrant families from crossing the border by threatening to separate parents from their children when they are taken into custody in the United States. Continue reading “Exactly how cruel is Homeland Security?”

8 Immigration Horror Stories From Trump’s Radicalized And Empowered ICE Agency

The following article by Alex Anderson was posted on the AlterNet website September 1, 2017:

Law enforcement officials are terrorizing immigrant communities, with the government’s approval.

ICE raid, San Jose, California, February 2017 Credit: ICE

During his eight years as president of the United States, Barack Obama deported a staggering 2.5 million people. That figure represents a 23 percent increase over the Bush administration, without including the hundreds of thousands who self-deported or were turned away at the border. In 2014, Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), labeled Obama the “deporter-in-chief.”

The title seems almost quaint in the age of Donald Trump.

Within weeks of his taking office, arrests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement increased 32.6 percent. By mid-March, the number of arrests of immigrants with no prior criminal record had doubled. Dan Satterberg, head prosecutor in King County, Washington State, asserts that ICE has been “emboldened in a way that I have never seen.” NCLR and other immigrants’ rights groups are the first to say that the U.S.’ immigration system is badly in need of reform. But under Trump, ICE has terrorized immigrant communities, discouraging them from reporting crimes or working with law enforcement.

Here are eight ICE horror stories from Trump’s seven-plus months in office.

Continue reading “8 Immigration Horror Stories From Trump’s Radicalized And Empowered ICE Agency”