Officials Claim ICE Raids Have Started, but the Worst May Be Yet to Come

By broadcasting
for weeks that massive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
in 10 cities across the nation were
imminent, the Trump administration already has fulfilled one of its
objectives: to spread fear and terror in immigrant communities.

Administration officials acknowledged that widespread ICE
raids would be launched on Sunday targeting about 2,000 undocumented
family members who entered the U.S. in recent years, The New York Times reported. The raids would target Atlanta,
Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San
Francisco. New Orleans originally had been on the list, but officials said ICE would
suspend operations there due to Tropical
Storm Barry.

Officials said they also would detain and seek to deport
other undocumented migrants who weren’t on Sunday’s deportation list, but who could
be caught
up in the raids.

By midday on Sunday, only scattered reports of ICE
detentions were reported in some cities. Many of the expected predawn raids on
Sunday morning didn’t appear to happen. But that’s not to say they won’t
eventually, as the detention and deportation operations are expected to continue
throughout the week. Meanwhile, the waiting and uncertainty has caused nerve-racking
anxiety in immigrant households.

Univision reported one
raid that occurred Friday morning in the central Florida farming community
of Immokalee. If reports are accurate, it could be a sign of what’s to come in
other areas across the country, even outside the urban areas on ICE’s
publicized list. In that operation, immigration agents reportedly targeted
a Home Depot parking lot where day laborers gather to seek work. Several
people were detained and told they would be deported, Univision reported. “We’re
distraught,” one community member said.

The Wall Street
Journal reported that immigration authorities attempted raids on Saturday
in two
neighborhoods in New York City, but were unsuccessful because the targets
were informed and knew their legal rights.

“In New York City, ICE agents went to residences in the
Harlem section of Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, the person
said. The agents were rejected by people at the residences because they didn’t
have warrants, but plan to return to Sunset Park tomorrow, according to the
person,” the Journal reported.

In Chicago, warnings spread on social media late Saturday
night and early Sunday morning that ICE agents were knocking on doors under the cover of darkness, but
those stories appeared to be unconfirmed. Local immigrant advocacy groups told
the Chicago Tribune that they
hadn’t received reports of raids as of Sunday, but that doesn’t mean they
won’t happen.

Chicago, a fiercely pro-immigrant city, joined several other
cities over the weekend in protesting
the actions of immigration authorities in the U.S., including the Trump
administration’s raids and the treatment of migrants in Customs and Border
Protection and ICE detention facilities. Many officials in several cities have said
they will
not cooperate with ICE.

At a rally in Chicago attended by Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton
and Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, speakers called for ICE’s
abolishment.

In San Francisco, Mayor
London Breed said, “If you want to come after them, you’re going to have to
come through us,” referring to undocumented migrants on ICE’s deportation list.

Melissa Taveras, of the Miami-based Florida Immigrant
Coalition, told the Los Angeles Times that
officials may have purposely
misled the public about the raids across 10 cities in order to distract
from other operations.

Per the Times:

“The overall environment is very much like a hurricane: When
is it going to come, is it going to hit us, is it going to move north?” she
said. “We have people in Homestead, Little Havana, Little Haiti – where we know
there are concentrations of immigrants – distributing ‘know your rights’
pamphlets. That seems to be effective because we’re already hearing reports of
people not opening their doors.”

Again, if the point is to terrorize people, mission
accomplished.

On CNN’s State of the
Union on Sunday, host Jake Tapper asked U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services acting director Ken Cuccinelli—who compared
undocumented migrants to rat infestations—if the raids had started.

“I can’t speak to operational specifics and won’t,”
Cuccinelli responded.

He added that “ICE is protecting America, Americans, by
removing those criminals from this country, while you’ve got sanctuary cities
and states who are protecting these criminals by not cooperating with ICE.”

Given all of this, the best advice for the moment is to
remain vigilant. A threat still exists. And as always, know your rights, be
prepared, and communicate with allies.