Immigration raids tear communities apart
Fear and uncertainty grip immigrants in the U.S.
By WILLIE COLÓN REYES
People are afraid to walk out-side in their neighborhoods, children are left wondering when or if they’ll see their parents again, and still the federal immigration raids continue.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids of worksites and communities have spread fear and uncer-tainty among immigrants. Yet the extent of the raids and, in some cases, their questionable legality is not well-known outside of immigrant communities because the issue has received scant attention from the mainstream media.
“Carrying out raids while Congress formulates potential changes to existing immigration policies benefits no one,” says Esther Nieves, national director of AFSC’s Project Voice immigrant rights program. “It also fails to address the reality of the estimated 12 million immigrants who live in this country and the root causes of that migration.”
More than 18,000 undocumented workers nationwide have been detained since May 2006, including pregnant women and sole caregivers of young children. Hundreds of detainees have been deported, leaving remaining household members to fend for themselves, often without the aid of the primary wage earner. And ICE raids are being carried out under a shroud of secrecy that makes it difficult to find out the names of detainees, contact those who have been detained, or get information about deportation proceedings.
Detainees also have been moved to remote locations, creating additional difficulties for loved ones and for the detainees’ ability to seek support such as legal or religious counsel.
“We have kids who are without their parents, wives without their husbands, and entire households and families torn apart,” says Christian Ramirez, national base building coordinator for Project Voice.
This past April, the raids hit close to home for Christian as ICE officials targeted his community in San Diego. According to Christian, eyewitnesses report that ICE tactics included:
- entering homes without presenting search warrants, claiming that they’re looking for suspects,
- stopping vehicles at random if they’re driven by Latinos, and
- asking customers outside Latino supermarkets and Laundromats for proof of their immigration status.
Throughout the country, AFSC staff are reporting abuses and fielding calls from scared community members.
“People are wondering if they’re going to be next,” says Myrna Martinez Nateras, director of AFSC’s Pan Valley Institute in Fresno, California. “There’s also a sense of fear and anxiety over the state of persecution they’re living under.”
AFSC staff have worked to release detained workers and reunite households and families, supported relief efforts to help affected loved ones, documented human rights abuses by ICE, organized vigils and demonstrations, and spoken out in the media against the raids and the impact they’re having on immigrant communities. Staff also have been educating immigrant communities about their rights and how to be prepared in the event of a raid.
For more information about the raids, to sign onto AFSC’s nationwide call to end the raids, and to get resources to help communities respond to a raid, please log onto www.afsc.org/immigrants-rights.
Willie Colón Reyes is the editor of Quaker Action.
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