ICE agents are rounding up immigrants, criminal or not—it just makes them feel good

Rss@dailykos.com (kerry Eleveld) · Friday, February 17, 2017, 2:56 pm

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are out in full force, reportedly rounding up nearly 700 "criminal aliens." Except for the guy who was caught sleeping at his father's home in Seattle. Or the two men ambushed by ICE agents after walking out of a homeless shelter in Fairfax County, Virginia, one morning.

Whatever ICE seems to think about the people they are targeting in raids across the country, immigrants and their advocates are telling a different story. Washington Post writes:

In Chicago, a student called her high school teacher to tell him that ICE had raided her home the night before, arresting her father, an undocumented immigrant whose criminal record included only traffic violations, the teacher said. In Centreville, Va., a woman told officials at London Towne Elementary School that a student’s father had been arrested after dropping their son off at school that morning. And in the Baltimore parking lot of a Walgreens, ICE agents arrested a barber and a local business owner who advocates said also had no criminal records.

The reports of seemingly random arrests, of ICE agents appearing during the day outside schools, shelters and apartment blocks, have sent a palpable wave of fear through the nation’s immigrant communities.

“I have never seen the immigrant community, both the lawfully and unlawfully present, with a greater amount of fear than I have in recent weeks,” said Faye Kolly, an attorney in Austin.

On Capitol Hill Thursday, ICE agents admitted to lawmakers that "at least 186" of the nearly 700 detainees had "no criminal record." Just guessing that’s an undercount. According to one lawmaker present at the meeting, their only hesitation was around arresting DACA recipients—ya know, the Dreamers who were told by the federal government they could work here legally.

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