NEW YORK – Growing reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids this week across the country have left many families fearful that a promised crackdown on immigrants is well under way. In Los Angeles yesterday, community groups reported that more than 100 people were taken into ICE custody, some of whom have already been deported this morning. Raids were also reported in a number of other states and cities around the country, including Minnesota, Maryland, Austin (TX), North Carolina and Georgia.

Despite repeated appeals to ICE, advocates and lawyers in many of these areas have been unable to learn the numbers of individuals affected and the conditions they are being held in. In solidarity with immigrant communities and with our partner organizations who have been fighting unjust immigration policies for decades, the Center for Popular Democracy has asked that ICE explain the rationale behind the escalation and stop carrying out indiscriminate raids that terrorize immigrant families.

“Immigration raids are not new. Immigrants have been living with the fear of ICE knocking on their doors long before now,” said Ana Maria Archila, Co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy. “But this escalation comes shrouded in secrecy and seems pointed at states and cities that have defied Trump. Indiscriminately targeting entire neighborhoods makes our country less safe and only inflicts suffering on immigrant families.”

“Actions like these terrorize families, rip apart neighborhoods and disrupt the order and well-being of the whole city” said Christina Livingston, Executive Director of CPD’s partner Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. “Instead of protecting our communities, the federal government is causing devastation and chaos.”

CPD will continue to work with our partners to limit ICE’s reach by organizing at the state local level to create laws and policies that include and protect immigrants, and that prevent the co-optation of local police by immigration authorities.    

Under Trump, longstanding concerns about civil and human rights violations in immigration enforcement are more heightened than ever before. Trump has promised to deport as many as three million people in his first year, more than seven times the rate of removals under Obama, who deported more people than any president in history. Within Trump’s first month in office, the new administration issued two executive orders relating to immigration that showed the government’s intention to flout the Constitution and our country’s obligations under international law. The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld an injunction against the implementation of one of those orders.

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 www.populardemocracy.org

The Center for Popular Democracy promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD builds the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial justice agenda.

Media Contact: 

Asya Pikovsky, apikovsky@populardemocracy.org, 207-522-2442