The following article by Elizabeth Oglesby, Associate Professor of Latin American Studies and Geography at the University of Arizona was posted on the Conversation.com website June 18, 2018:
U.S. immigration agents raided an Ohio gardening company on June 5, arresting 114 suspected undocumented workers.
This followed other large workplace raids, including a raid on a rural Tennessee meat-processing plant in April. The raids suggest the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is returning to sweeping immigration enforcement tactics not seen since the George W. Bush administration.
While the immediate shock and trauma of these raids is visible, there are also longer-term impacts on communities. Research I conducted in Massachusetts, Iowa and South Carolina from 2007 to 2013 shows that large-scale raids are experienced locally as disasters, even by those not directly affected. The raids can also be galvanizing, as when humanitarian responses turn into new political alliances that reshape the meaning of community and create ways to stand up for immigrant rights. Continue reading “US communities can suffer long-term consequences after immigration raids”
