Congressional Hispanic Caucus leaders are blasting top Department of Homeland Security officials for a series of mass Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that swept up hundreds of immigrant workers and separated families in Mississippi—and raids that officials chose to carry out just days after a white supremacist terror attack that targeted Latinos in El Paso, Texas.
“This raid, which is the largest ICE raid in our nation’s history, is a continuation of the Trump administration’s politically driven immigration agenda and efforts to target Latino families,” legislators tell DHS acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan and ICE acting Director Matthew Albence. “It is also not lost on us that this operation occurred just days after one of the most horrific mass shootings targeting Latinos in America.”
That terror attack killed Latinos and terrorized countless more across the U.S., yet the Trump administration made the deliberate choice to continue on with the raids as scheduled. “Acting Secretary McAleenan,” the legislators said, “your recent statement noting that timing of these actions ‘was unfortunate’ is a significant understatement that does not convey the pain many in our communities are experiencing now.”
“I’m afraid to leave my house now,” said Estella, one of the workers who was detained during these raids. While she has since been released, she’s been forced to wear an ankle bracelet and is unable to work. She’s now spending her time worrying how she is going to pay bills, if her husband—also a plant worker—is next, and what tomorrow holds for her family. “l’m afraid that [ICE] will follow us when we get in the car,” she said.
The legislators note that the damage from mass raids reverberate far beyond the workers who are swept up: “it is often American children left behind and disseminated towns that pay the steepest price for these operations.” In their letter, they call on McAleenan and Albence to provide answers into where operation funding came from, the current status of all those detained—including whether they have a pending immigration status—and how many family separations occurred.
“ICE raids of this scale are not conducted for the purpose of immigration enforcement; instead, their purpose is to instill fear in Latino and immigrant communities at a time when Latinos are already living in terror,” they write. “These workplace raids decimate communities and target law-abiding immigrants who are just trying to earn an honest living.”