Máxima Guerrero, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient from Arizona who was arrested this past weekend following a protest over the police murder of George Floyd, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on Monday following a flood of outrage from community members and numerous elected officials in the state. "Max is out and surrounded and supported by so many community members, knowing that she's loved," her friend Mitzi Castro said according to Arizona Republic.
But while Guerrero is now home where she belongs, her future here could be at risk—her attorney believes “she will still face future immigration hearings,” the report said. In fact, this is a reality for any DACA recipient angered over police violence and seeking to voice their outrage at protests where more than 11,000 people so far have been arrested. “Ybarra Maldonado, Guerrero's attorney, said undocumented migrants, even ones with DACA, risk their freedom when they stand up for rights of others at the George Floyd protests,” Arizona Republic continued.
Immigrant rights advocates say they know of many other DACA recipients in their communities who are demanding justice for victims of police violence but fear possibly losing their protections due to a protest-related arrest or charge. "I have heard of Dreamers in my area who feel very constrained about not being able to participate," Rep. Chuy Garcia of Illinois told The Hill. "This is when their reality strikes home—that they don't enjoy the rights of other people who are really no different from them in terms of being an American.”
Arizona Republic notes Guerrero, a long-time organizer with immigrant rights organization Puente Human Rights Movement, was aided by a massive push of calls to Sheriff Paul Penzone, Phoenix police chief Jeri Williams, and Mayor Kate Gallego. “It took letters of support from at least two state legislators, a state senator, three Latino Phoenix City Council members and more than a dozen other Arizona leaders” to help win her release, the report said, as well as to push for the release of other immigrants without DACA protections who were also arrested during the weekend.
DACA recipients are also grappling with the fear of arrest as they await a Supreme Court decision that will determine whether the program that allows them to work legally and is supposed to protect them from deportation stays or goes. In recent video shared by immigration attorney Aaron Hall, ICE confirmed to a Senate committee that the agency is set to deport DACA recipients with final orders of removal should the court allow the Trump administration to end the program. Hall noted in a later tweet that “many of the orders would have been from when they were little kids.”
The risks facing undocumented communities during protests have been escalated by the recent deployment of the same immigration agents who have brutally separated families at the southern border to Washington, D.C. The decision was slammed by legislators including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted: “Last year CBP officers circulated mockup images of my violent rape ahead of my visit to their facilities. They hung framed photos of officers aiming guns at people on the walls […] CBP is the largest law enforcement agency in the country, & it very well may be one of the most dangerous.”
The Hill reports that a CBP spokesperson claimed that the deployment of immigration agents had nothing to do with immigration enforcement, saying: "This deployment is about supporting the efforts of our federal, state and local partners, not about carrying out CBP’s immigration enforcement mission. This is about the preservation of life and safety.” Sure, because nothing says “preservation of life and safety” like deploying an agency that had a serial killer that murdered four women in its ranks.
"There is no trust that this administration is not going to use every and any opportunity to detain and deport you," DACA recipient and immigrant youth-led organization United We Dream leader Greisa Martínez Rosas told The Hill. "We've seen cases of DACA recipients that it really doesn't matter what's in your history. Once you come into contact with ICE and CBP, they're moving forward with your deportation.”