ICE agents arrested five undocumented immigrants at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Massachusetts last week, with at least four there for appointments to seek legal status, according to the Washington Post. Two of the immigrants have no criminal record, others have traffic violations, but all have previous deportation orders. In Donald Trump’s America, that combination—along with an unshackled ICE—is enough to become a priority for arrest and deportation:
Leandro Arriaga has been in the United States illegally since 2001.
He stayed despite a deportation order and over the past 16 years has made a living fixing and remodeling homes. He also started a family. But the father of four had grown tired of “living in the shadows,” his attorney said.
So last week, he went to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office for his marriage petition interview — the first step to legalize his presence in the United States through his wife, a naturalized citizen. The process, called an I-130 visa petition, is a common way for foreigners to gain legal residency through their relatives or spouses.
But Arriaga was arrested that day, along with four others who also showed up at the USCIS office in Lawrence, Mass. [...]
Though the arrests aren’t unprecedented, legal experts say they are indicative of the Trump administration’s broader view on what counts as high priority for deportation. Adam Cox, an immigration law professor at New York University, said the arrests signify a level of immigration enforcement that is “very different” from that of the previous administration. [...]
“This is not to say that, under Obama, they absolutely would not have been removed and arrested. That could have happened,” [Hiroshi Motomura, an immigration law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles] said. “But there is less bureaucratic constraint now than during Obama, and this means that their arrest, detention and removal is more likely than before.”
In fact, President Obama’s 2014 immigration action—blocked by Republican governors and attorneys general in a lawsuit that was later upheld by a deadlocked Supreme Court—would have protected immigrants with U.S. citizen kids and deep ties to the U.S., like Leandro. Another 2014 action from Obama’s DHS was a memo de-prioritizing the removal of immigrants with no records, so that resources could instead be focused on targeting violent offenders. Even John Sandweg, a former acting director of ICE under Obama, tells the Post Leandro would have been a “very, very, very, very low priority for removal.”
But then enter the anti-immigrant, white nationalism of Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, and former Jeff Sessions hack Stephen Miller.
“A February memo by Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly details sweeping new guidelines that empower ICE agents to not just focus their efforts on criminals but also on those who have outstanding deportation orders—regardless of how long they’ve been in the country.” Donald Trump’s January executive order essentially set the blueprint for mass deportation, allowing ICE to target “people who haven’t even been convicted of a crime,” wrote immigration attorney David Leopold earlier this year, “but have simply been charged with an offense,” throwing any priorities the Obama administration had set up out the window.
The result: Leandro and four others arrested and detained for attempting to do the right thing. Traffic violations suddenly become a deportable offense:
The arrests angered immigration advocates who believe federal officials have created anxiety among undocumented immigrants like Arriaga — green-card applicants who are not a threat to public safety and have taken steps to become lawful residents of the country.
“It injects a sense of fear into the process that shouldn’t be there for people who are otherwise going forward with their application that they’re entitled to pursue,” said Avideh Moussavian, senior policy attorney for the National Immigration Law Center. “They’re now being sent this message that they should be very, very afraid and very cautious.”
[Susan Church, chair of the New England chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association] said the arrests conflict with what President Trump has said about focusing deportation efforts on hardened criminals, on deporting only “bad hombres.”
“It’s scaring people who need not be scared,” Church said.