In a monthlong operation across six midwestern states that concluded last week, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency arrested 331 people with criminal or immigration violations for potential deportation proceedings.
ICE agents targeted immigrants in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Kansas, and Missouri. In a press release, an ICE spokesperson said the agency is focusing its resources on picking up “the most egregious offenders,” arresting immigrants with convictions like illegal possession of a firearm, domestic abuse, and drunken driving.
But the tactic has sparked massive backlash from advocates who say raids traumatize the entire immigrant community.
“ICE claims their raids make communities safer, but in fact ICE makes us all less safe by traumatizing families, robbing children of their parents and making immigrant community members afraid to cooperate with law enforcement to report crimes,” Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the executive director at Voces de la Frontera, said in a press release.
The Midwest raid is part of a wave of immigration operations throughout the country that the Obama administration has conducted since the end of 2015. Many of these raids have swept up Central American mothers and children who entered the U.S. to flee their dangerous home countries — drawing heavy criticism from immigrant advocates who say these moms and kids weren’t given a fair chance to present their legal cases in immigration court before they were deported back.
Unlike previous operations, this raid did not primarily target moms and kids. Still, local immigrant advocates criticized the operation — pointing out that some of the men who were arrested have long-standing ties to their community and have young U.S. citizen family members.
It’s a lot of fear that’s out there, like you don’t want to go out.
“We had a couple of cases who said that their spouses were being taken,” Nayeli Rondin, a coordinator based in Milwaukee with the immigrant advocacy group New Sanctuary Movement, told ThinkProgress in a phone interview. “Two that we know, that we’re working with, have U.S. citizen kids. One of [the men arrested] has a wife who’s six months pregnant.”
One-third of the men arrested in Wisconsin were taken from Green Bay, triggering fears among the Latino community that federal immigration agents would make a return trip to detain other immigrants who may have misdemeanors or do not have legal status. About 85,000 undocumented immigrants live in the state.
Rondin said that Green Bay immigrants have been too afraid to leave their houses after an alleged “immigration lawyer” called into a popular radio station to say that ICE agents were setting up road blocks around the city to stop and ask people for their immigration status.
“That’s misinformation and inaccurate,” Rondin said. “But that’s an example of the fear that ICE is sowing in the community. It’s a lot of fear that’s out there, like you don’t want to go out.”
Fewer immigrants have been showing up at “know your rights” training sessions hosted by the Wisconsin-based, immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, for people to know how to respond if they encounter federal immigration agents and the kind of rights that undocumented immigrants have, Rondin added.
Studies have shown that trust in local law enforcement deteriorates after immigrants are detained, making them reluctant to cooperate with authorities in uniform.