June 12, 2020

U.S. immigration police targets BLM protesters

topic:	Immigration
located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

At the invitation of local authorities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been infiltrating Black Lives Matter protests across the U.S.

In New York City, ICE agents violently tackled and detained a protester. In Arizona, ICE collaborated with the local police to detain immigrants who were mistakenly arrested near a protest site and have set in motion their deportation proceedings.

The presence of ICE agents at protests and their abuse of both immigrants and U.S. citizens serve as a reminder that the American immigration mechanism is yet another manifestation of systemic racism and police brutality. 

Last Wednesday, a U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican descent was marching with protesters in Manhattan when he was suddenly jumped by 5 ICE agents. The agents pushed the man violently to the ground, pointed their guns at him, and without any explanation handcuffed and began searching him. In a later statement, ICE declared that the man was suspected of holding a firearm, and that no arrest was made once no weapon was found. The man, who is a military veteran, had sustained several bruises from the incident and preferred not to disclose his identity. 

"It's just really concerning to see ICE out on the street, grabbing somebody who's peacefully protesting before the curfew, who was doing absolutely nothing wrong," said Terry Lawson, a supervising policy attorney at the Immigrant Defense Project, in an interview for NBC News. "The use of force also seems very troubling and the fact that he's a man of Puerto Rican descent is really concerning because it raises questions about racial profiling," she added. 

In Arizona, ICE agents detained four immigrants who were mistakenly arrested near a protest site in Phoenix. Three of those arrested were brought to the U.S. as children and have been under the protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). “We have learned that, initially, there was some confusion on the paperwork process,” Mercedes Fortune, spokesperson at the Phoenix Police Department, told The Intercept. He went on to state that the immigrants’ charges were wrongfully listed as a Class Five Felony, as opposed to a Class One Misdemeanor for Unlawful Assembly. 

Not only were these people arrested for no reason (the police’s sudden decision to declare this assembly as unlawful was arbitrary and hadn’t been communicated to the public), but the registration errors in their paperwork alerted ICE (who collaborates closely with the Phoenix police) and had led to their detainment by immigration authorities and possible deportation.

One of those detained is Máxima Guerrero, a community organiser for the Puente Human Rights Movement – an NGO advocating for immigrants’ rights – who attended the protest as a legal observer and was arrested in her car as she was leaving the site. 

Guerrero and one of the other DACA beneficiaries were temporarily released from ICE custody, albeit with ankle monitors. All three of the immigrants have deportation proceedings pending against them and are at risk of being stripped from their DACA status. 

The fourth person detained by ICE that night in Phoenix is Jesus Manuel Orona Prieto, an undocumented migrant who escaped gang violence in Mexico. Orona Prieto was on a date with his girlfriend when they were driving past a protest and were mistakenly arrested by the police in association with the demonstration. 

“They didn’t tell us anything. They just told us to get out of the car,” Orona Prieto’s girlfriend, Corina Paez, told The Intercept. “They handcuffed us and didn’t read us our rights. I didn’t even know that there was a protest, and suddenly we are getting arrested for no reason — for being downtown at the wrong time, wrong day?”

Orona Prieto was then transferred to ICE custody and is now imprisoned at a privately-run immigration detention facility in Arizona, which has an active COVID-19 outbreak, while his deportation proceedings unfold. 

“Immigrant communities who are constantly profiled might not have the exact same struggle as African Americans do, but they are able to understand what contact with police could mean,” said Sandra Solis, a community organiser with Puente, in an interview for The Intercept.

The behaviour of ICE surrounding the protests is symptomatic of its general conduct and manner of operation. Most such incidents of abuse and unwarranted detention of immigrants aren’t captured on videos or make the headlines. Under the current immigration system, immigrants are subject to daily intimidation, violence, and abuse by the authorities – at the border, in their neighbourhoods, and at detention facilities. 

As the national outcry against police brutality and racial injustice intensify, it is important to condemn and resist the oppressive policing regime enacted by America’s immigration authorities, which disproportionately targets migrants and immigrants of colour. We must understand that constructing a truly humane, equitable, and just society necessitates a radical shift in how we view and address immigration and the movement of people across the planet. 

Image by Bruce Emmerling 

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