Report: ICE planning more immigration raids to target Central Americans
President Barack Obama's administration is planning a large-scale operation in May and June to round up and deport hundreds of Central American families and children found to have entered the country illegally, according to Reuters.
The raids will be considerably larger than the two-day operation that Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted in January. Those raids focused on undocumented families living in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina, Reuters reported, citing a document the news outlet had seen confirmed by two sources.
ICE officials would not confirm that the agency is planning a monthlong raid targeting Central Americans.
The agency continues to conduct deportation operations, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced in November 2014, that place the highest priority on removing convicted criminals, immigrants deemed national-security and public-safety threats, as well as recent border crossers, apprehended after Jan. 1, 2014.
"This includes single adults, as well as adults who bring their children with them," the statement said. "We stress that these operations are limited to those who were apprehended at the border after January 1, 2014, have been ordered removed by an immigration court, and have no pending appeal or pending claim for asylum or other humanitarian relief under our laws," the statement said.
During the January operation, immigration officers arrested 121 women and children, of whom 78 were eventually deported, including 37 to Mexico, 26 to Honduras, and 15 to Guatemala, according to ICE figures.
The planned 30-day "surge" of arrests will target families who already have been told to leave the U.S. It also will include people who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors but have since turned 18, Reuters said.
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The planned raids are in response to another wave of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America crossing the southern border illegally in hopes of remaining permanently in the U.S., similar to the surge that overwhelmed the Border Patrol in south Texas in summer 2014, and created a humanitarian crisis that spread to many other states, including Arizona.
The planned raids drew an immediate outcry from immigrant advocates, who said unaccompanied children and families arriving from Central America need to be protected, not deported.
"Central American kids and young families are fleeing horrific violence," Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, an advocacy group, said in a statement. "El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala are among the most murderous countries in the world. Incredibly, however, the U.S. government is using deterrence, detention and deportation as its main tools."
A group of House Hispanic lawmakers also denounced the raids.
“I am outraged that ICE is planning more raids targeting Central American mothers and children who came to the U.S. fleeing violence and oppression," said U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Families from Central America have already faced severe trauma in their home countries, he said.
"We shouldn’t be invading their homes and rushing to send them back to dangerous, life-threatening situations, especially when they present no threat to national security," he said.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said he was "appalled" to learn that the Obama administration is planning another round of raids.
"My heart breaks for the families that will be thrown into tumult by these raids," he said. "Our nation should respond by ensuring these women and children are able to present their asylum claims in court, with full access to counsel and due process protections."
How to address the wave of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America continuing to arrive at the southern border as well as what to do about those already here is likely to be an issue as the presidential race heats up this summer.
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, said during a debate in March that she would not deport unaccompanied minors already in the U.S.
Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, has campaigned to build a giant wall on the southern border that Mexico will pay for to prevent immigrants from entering illegally, as well as deporting the more than 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
While overall Border Patrol apprehensions along the southern border are at the lowest levels in decades, the Border Patrol is seeing another wave of unaccompanied minors and family members, mostly from Central America, that is on pace to exceed the nearly 140,000 apprehended in fiscal year 2014, a record.
5 signs another surge of Central American migrants coming to U.S.
In all, the Border Patrol has apprehended 59,871 unaccompanied minors and family units this fiscal year, up nearly 24 percent compared with the same period in 2014. The majority of apprehensions of Central Americans have taken place in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, but the Border Patrol is seeing apprehensions increase in other sectors, including the Tucson and Yuma sectors in Arizona.
The increase is being driven in large part by a sharp rise in the number of family members being apprehended. From October through March, the Border Patrol apprehended 32,117 family members along the southern border, the majority of them from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, according to Border Patrol statistics. That is a 62 percent increase compared with the same period two years ago.
The Border Patrol has apprehended 27,754 unaccompanied minors this fiscal year, down 3 percent, from the 28,579 apprehended during the same period in fiscal year 2014.
Border Crisis - Immigrant Children ?- azcentral.com
Reach the reporter at danielgonzalez@arizonarepublic.com or @azdangonzalez.