RVA Mag

Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005

Menu

Organizers Move To Protect Immigrants in the River City

|

Topics: , , , , , , , ,

On Thursday, June 20, after facing extreme political pressure from both parties, President Trump signed an executive order to end his administration’s practice of separating children from their families as they cross the border. However, the administration has no clear plan to reunite the more than 2300 children who have already been taken from their families. In fact, many of the separations could be permanent.

The humanitarian crisis at the southwest border is drawing much-needed national attention and resources, and it has many Richmonders wondering how recent changes to immigration policy and enforcement are affecting our local communities.

Immigrants in Richmond Face Increased Pressure 

According to the American Immigration Council, more than one in eight Virginia residents is an immigrant. One in six Virginia workers is an immigrant, and immigrant-led households in the state paid $6.7 billion in federal taxes and $2.7 billion in state and local taxes in 2014.

“These are our neighbors, our friends, our children’s’ friends,” said Jennifer West, a local immigration attorney and partner at Roth Jackson. “It’s overly simplistic to tell people ‘just get in line, wait your turn, follow the rules.’ The people presenting themselves at the border for asylum are doing things the right way, and they’re being arrested and detained anyway. Others may be fleeing dangerous situations in their home countries and may not always have the luxury of waiting years for paperwork to go through. “

“The sentiment in our community is increased fear and uncertainty,” said Tanya Gonzalez, executive director at the Sacred Heart Center, a hub for Latino communities in Richmond that focuses on education, social integration, empowerment, and success. “Members of the Latino community in Richmond have had an increased number of incidents of discrimination and harassment, ranging from things like being told not to speak Spanish in a public place to bullying in schools.” A recent report from Virginia police show hate crimes are up nearly 50 percent year-over-year in the state, including ten anti-Hispanic crimes.

Reports of ICE Enforcement in Richmond Have Increased

While Richmond has not yet seen the kind of sweeping, large-scale, military-style immigration raids that have taken hundreds of parents away from children in communities in California, Ohio, Tennessee, Iowa, and elsewhere, local immigration rights’ advocates have seen changes in our area and worry about what the future holds.

“In the last year or so, we’re seeing increased enforcement, more red tape, and much longer delays in general,” said West. “Both businesses and families going through legal processes have to wait much longer and jump through more hoops. Those delays can be a big hardship on a family waiting to be reunited and on local entrepreneurs who can’t find Americans to do their jobs.”

“We’ve heard several reports of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents arresting immigrants at courthouses or nearby, including arresting people they didn’t have a warrant for,” said Phil Storey, an immigration attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center. “That’s a relatively new and troubling practice.”

“Things are changing for this community rapidly,” said Alina Kilpatrick, another immigration attorney in Richmond. “I have clients on appeal who have been going to regular and routine check ins with ICE or with DHS contractors every six to 12 months who are suddenly being told to pack their bags and leave behind children and spouses who are legal citizens. I’m also hearing about increased arrests and detentions at routine ICE appointments in addition to deportations.”

The majority of immigrants living in Virginia are legally allowed to be here. More than half the immigrants living in Virginia are naturalized, and many more are eligible for naturalization. Over 10,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients live in Virginia.

Fewer than one-third of all immigrants are undocumented, but it’s an issue that affects many families since nearly 100,000 children in Virginia who are legal U.S. citizens live with at least one undocumented parent. Therefore anytime parents are swept up in ICE enforcement raids, they’re often leaving behind at least one child who is a U.S. citizen.

Child of Abbie Arevalo-Herrera. Photo by Carlos Bernate

One human example of the often arbitrary line between documented and undocumented immigrants is a Richmond mother named Abbie Arevalo-Herrera, a woman from Honduras seeking asylum in the U.S after escaping domestic violence in her home country. Threatened this week with deportation and now taking sanctuary in Richmond’s First Unitarian Universalist Church (information made public by her legal team), if she goes back to Honduras, she will be leaving behind her husband and two-year old son, both legal U.S. citizens. Although she is fighting for herself and for domestic violence survivors everywhere, her future in Richmond is uncertain.

How to Help Your Neighbors in Richmond

There are a number of national organizations dedicated to helping immigrant families at the Southwest border, but for people who want to help here in Richmond, here are a few ways to help.

Support Local Organizations

Central Virginia has a number of organizations dedicated to working to support immigrants while promoting equity, civil rights, and empowered, integrated communities. The following is a partial list.

Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC):  The LAJC is a nonprofit organization with offices across Virginia, including Richmond, whose mission is to strengthen the voices of low-income communities and root out the inequities that keep people in poverty. In Richmond, they provide legal support, including individual representation, to communities facing legal crises, including immigrant communities. Statewide, LAJC is a leader in the creative use of litigation to demand the release of unaccompanied minors in detention and to push back on ICE practices such as so-called “collateral arrests.”

What they need:

Sacred Heart Center (SHC): SHC is a community hub for Richmond’s Latino community, and offers a variety of educational and human service programs to individuals and families, including educational opportunities for adults (including GED, ESL, computer, and leadership classes), programs for youth and children (including school readiness, school enrichment, summer camp, parenting classes and more), and strategic community partnerships (that help with food assistance, health care, support groups, tax preparation, and more).

What they need:

  • Monetary donations to their Family Protection Project, which seeks to prevent the separation of local families by offering low-cost or pro bono immigration services, assistance locating loved ones who have been lost or detained, and volunteer training.
  • Volunteers: opportunities range from cleaning to tutoring to photography to teaching ESL.    
  • Donations of gently used clothing, new stuffed animals and books, diapers and school supplies
  • Nonperishable food items for the Bainbridge Ministry Food Bank, open Monday through Friday, 9:15 am to 12 pm, Monday to Friday.

Central Virginia Sanctuary Network (CVSN): A project of the the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, the CVSN is made up of interfaith congregational and organizational members, as well as individuals who volunteer through the Circles of Protection. Member commitments range from commiting to host guests facing deportation to supporting that work through fundraising, accompaniment, and hospitality.

What they need:

  • Monetary donations to the Sanctuary Fund, which provides for people fighting detention or deportation while in Sanctuary, and also covers bail and legal defense.
  • Volunteers: CVSN is looking for congregations and individual drivers (to take undocumented people who are not eligible for driver’s’ licenses to appointments), writers and communications professionals, legal resources, outreach, hospitality (arranging meals, entertainment, visitation, and counseling), accompaniment to court hearings (which often protects people from detainment), and other tasks.
  • Fundraising: Buy a t-shirt, tote bag, poster, or tank top with original artwork saying by Richmond artist Alfonso Perez reading “all are welcome here.”

Virginia Coalition for Immigrants Rights (VACIR): VACIR is a multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalition of organizations that exists to win dignity, power and quality of life for all immigrant and refugee communities. VACIR gives grants to other organizations, often to small and under-resources local organizations who mobilize quickly to do rapid response in emergency situations. VACIR has supported naturalization clinics, “know your rights” seminars, and DACA assistance programs.  

What they need:

Make Your Voice Heard Locally

Protests: There are a number of upcoming protests around Virginia aimed at fighting unjust immigration policies, advocating for reuniting the 2,300+ children who have already been taken, and ending the zero-tolerance policy that criminalizes and detains families.

Call your Senators and Representatives: Ask them to support common-sense immigration reform and insist on reuniting separated families. Check out Indivisible’s Guide on what to ask for when calling Republicans and Democrats.

Be an ally to local immigrants. Here’s how.

Use your privilege. If you’re not sure what that means, start here.

Elect, donate to, and work for people who hold views on immigration that you support. Vote in every election that you can. Volunteer to canvass, phone bank, and drive people to the polls. Give money.

In Virginia, Tim Kaine is up for reelection against Corey Stewart, a neo-confederate candidate for U.S. Senate. In the 7th House District, which covers much of the Richmond area, newcomer Abigail Spanberger is challenging incumbent Dave Brat, a Republican who has a strong anti-immigrant platform.

What else are we missing? Leave your comments if you have other ideas to support and defend immigrants in RVA.

Photos by Carlos Bernate.

Protests Against Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” Immigration Policy Being Planned All Over Virginia

|

Topics: , , , , , , , ,

As outrage continues to mount over President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies, protests are planned for all over Virginia. For those who have been living under a proverbial rock and have not been following the news, Trump’s newly implemented policy removes children from their parents when they are caught crossing the border illegally. Since the policy has been implemented, it has been reported by the executive that 2,342 children have been separated from their parents at the border between May 5 and June 9 – amounting to about 65 children a day.

Once taken from their parents, these children are put in detention centers in places like McAllen, Texas, where they have been photographed sleeping on the floor with mylar blankets and imprisoned in chain-link cages. Children as young as four-months-old have been reportedly separated from their parents and ProPublica has recently released audio from inside a detention center where one ICE agent can be heard saying “we have an orchestra here” in reference to all the screaming children. Sexual assaults against mothers of separated children have also now been reported by guards and staff at one of the detention centers in Texas in a recent complaint filed against Department of Homeland Security.

NBC reported on this yesterday saying, “Women at the 500-plus bed center, which opened in August, told attorneys that staff have been removing mothers from their cells at night to engage in sexual acts, promising immigration help in exchange for sexual favors, and groping women in front of children, according to the complaint.”

Due to the inhumanity of this policy and the way in which it is being implemented, there will be a series of protests taking place in the next week all throughout the Commonwealth. Dates, times, and locations can be found below:

Virginia Beach:

June 21 at Congressman Scott Taylor’s office in Virginia Beach Town Center, sponsored by Indivisible 757.

Richmond:

June 22 at Congressman Dave Brat’s Office, meeting at the CVS on 10901 W Broad St, Glen Allen, sponsored by Together We Will – Henrico.

Washington DC: 

June 30, in front of the White House, sponsored by the Women’s March, along with seven other activist organizations and networks.

Norfolk:

June 30, Disrupt Baby Snatching at the US Customs and Border Patrol Offices in Norfolk at 101 E. Main Street, hosted by Disrupt the Elite.

Farmville:

July 1, Weekend of Action at the ICE Detention Center, meeting up at the Farmville Train Station, 510 West Third Street, sponsored by a coalition of grassroots organizers.

Opinion: Locking Children Away in Cages, Is This Making America Great?

|

Topics: , , ,

I have not known a time the US lost all sense of compassion before today. And now we are living in one of the worst episodes of our recent history. How can anyone look at pictures of young children being torn from their parents, left to live in cages and not feel something has gone horribly wrong?

There is no other way to say this:  It is inhumane to rip children away from their mothers and fathers; to tear siblings apart and place them in cages like animals, falling asleep with blankets made of aluminum foil.

For those who disagree – maybe you are the ones who shouldn’t be allowed in this “oh-so-great” country to begin with. I didn’t realize part of making America “Great” again included forcing families apart.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” crackdown on border security in early May – where all families illegally crossing the border would be separated, children removed, and their parents prosecuted as part of this “zero tolerance” policy.

Sessions stated during a recent speech that the United States “cannot take everyone on this planet, who is in a difficult situation.” Hearing this is like a shot to the heart. It’s a stinging feeling knowing the U.S. cares little to none about helping anyone simply for the sake of helping. Because yes, it isn’t possible to help every single person in a “difficult situation.” But should we not work to help as many of those people as possible? That’s how a compassionate nation functions – we have become a nation utterly lacking in that department.

And as we sit idly by, a Honduran man kills himself after U.S. Border Patrol separated him from his wife and 3-year-old son. A mother and daughter fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo are separated despite arriving legally as asylum seekers. Elsewhere, a Honduran woman’s child is ripped from her arms while breastfeeding.

As we sit idly watching, hundreds of thousands of immigrants residing here in the US fear for their families, communities, and livelihoods. Fear that they too will be added to the list of people separated from their families – deported in the blink of an eye – to score political points for a president who cares nothing about our own humanity – even when 66 percent of all Americans disagree with this policy.

This is not the first time the US has been at the forefront of a dehumanized immigration policy. We have an uncanny track record of demonizing black and brown bodies – from selling African slaves, to removing Native American children from their parents, to the forced internment of Japanese Americans during WWII – this cuts deep to the truth of the American experience.

It cuts to the point that this administration will seemingly do anything to erase the immigrant persona, even while its supposed greatness flows from its history of welcoming immigrants. When did we become a nation which values a policy position over the lives of innocent children and their families? When did we become a nation that is comfortable seeing images of children locked away in cages?

Photo By: ALICIA A. CALDWELL

Then again, we are a country that values gun rights over the right of our own children to live in safety and security – so is this really that surprising?

The “zero tolerance” policy is meant to serve as a deterrent to families attempting to cross the border. Yet despite the threat of prosecution and family separation this policy poses, border arrests are only increasing. In May alone, there have been over 50,000 border arrests – a 160 percent increase from May 2017 – and the number of families attempting to cross the border illegally has increased by 435 percent from May 2017 – making this policy ineffective from the start.

And this isn’t only happening to those illegally crossing the border – there are instances where families are separated and individuals prosecuted even after following U.S. law by presenting themselves at ports of entry as asylum seekers. So what good is following the law if the outcome is inherently the same?

One can imagine that if the fear of forced separation isn’t enough to scare these families away – what they must be escaping in their own countries might not even pale in comparison. And now the cruelty with which these familial separations are carried out is a horror being undertaken on behalf of our nation – in our own name.

For instance, immigration enforcement officials have told parents their kids are going to wash up – when in fact they’re separating them for an undetermined period of time.

Associated Press reported, “One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets.”

According to the American Association of Pediatrics, the current process of locking up children separately from their parents constitutes “government-sanctioned child abuse.” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein has denounced the policy as a form of abuse.

“The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable,” al-Hussein said.  

According to a CNN report, more than 2,000 children have been separated from their parents at the Southern border between mid-April and today – at least 200 children have been separated from their families within the last two weeks.

Texas Rep. Will Hurd told CNN Newsroom the hardline policy on border control is “unacceptable.”

“We should not be using kids as a deterrent policy,” Hurd told CNN Newsroom. “If we have to separate kids from their parents, then we probably need to rethink our strategy on how we’re securing our country.”

Even conservative evangelicals like the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of famous evangelist Billy Graham, and Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the conference and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in Texas, are speaking out against the issue. Graham called the policy “disgraceful,” and DiNardo released the following statement last week:

“Our government has the discretion in our laws to ensure that young children are not separated from their parents and exposed to irreparable harm and trauma…While protecting our borders is important, we can and must do better as a government, and as a society, to find other ways to ensure that safety. Separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral.” Even former First Lady Laura Bush voiced her disgust for The Trump administration’s policy.

“This zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart,” Bush told CNN.

The solution is not prosecution, arrest, or deportation for every single person or family crossing the border. And the solution is most definitely not ripping children from their parents.  But that doesn’t mean we also have to be weak on border security and let anyone in who crosses illegally either.

We need a system that falls somewhere in-between and it must be humane – one that doesn’t involve warehousing immigrant children in converted Walmarts or forcing them to sleep in cages with foil blankets.

We have every right to worry that the wrong people may find their way across the border – but assuming each family attempting to make their way to the U.S. is a threat is ill-intentioned and an utter disgrace to American tradition. The U.S. prides itself on being a land of opportunity, equality, and justice. We pride ourselves on good morals, decency, and acceptance. But a zero-tolerance policy is none of those things when we greet families searching for sanctuary with something potentially worse than what they were running from.

Our country is using detained immigrant children as a ploy to deter illegal immigration. It’s blasphemous to come to terms with the fact that the American Dream of a house with a white picket fence is only attainable if your skin matches the color of that damned fence. Over and over again, black and brown bodies are brutally thrown to the wind in a country that pretends to welcome them, only to throw the idea of opportunity right back in their faces.

And that America, I can never forgive.

Cover Photo: Impacto

 

Opinion: New “Zero Tolerance” Immigration Policies are Incompatible with Basic Human Decency

|

Topics: , , , ,

A few weeks ago, I attended a gathering of faith leaders from across the Richmond, Va. region. Speaker after speaker — including a scholar at a conservative think tank and two Republican politicians — blamed social ills like the opioid epidemic on “family breakdown” and the decline of religion in America.

I find those claims problematic. But more striking was the irony that, as the presenters emphasized the centrality of faith and family, the Trump Administration — which enjoys broad support among “family values” conservatives like those on the panel — was literally and deliberately destroying families.

Under the Administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy, immigration officials now routinely place parents and children in the custody of different agencies within disparate governmental departments, preventing parents and children from staying in contact with one another or even knowing exactly where their loved ones are being held. Even worse, recent reports have exposed these agencies as habitually failing to keep track of the children in their custody, permitting some even to fall into the hands of human traffickers.

Shelter for Incarcerated Child Migrants. Photo by Jacob Soboroff ‏

In the weeks since “zero tolerance” was announced, hundreds of children have been ripped from their parents’ arms, and as the policy takes hold and proceeds unchecked, those numbers will doubtless climb. That translates to countless children forcibly separated from parents; thousands of families destroyed, children traumatized, and lives ruined. Compounding this cruelty is the fact that many of the families at the border are refugees fleeing poverty, persecution and violence, and are being deprived of the opportunity even to apply for asylum in the United States.

The belligerence of this administration toward immigrants from the global South and the heartlessness with which it fashions immigration policy is not new. Even before “zero tolerance” was announced, ICE had separated at least 700 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the New York Times. And aggressively going after undocumented immigrants, cancelling the Dream Act and revoking the Temporary Protected Status of refugees from places like Honduras and El Salvador, the administration is forcing parents, many of whom have lived and worked in the United States for decades, to decide between leaving behind their American-raised children or uprooting them to lands where they may not even speak the language.

These policies are incompatible with basic human decency, let alone the family values and scriptural faith that those who advance, support or tolerate them claim to cherish. The centrality of family and the sanctity of the bonds between parent and child are foundational biblical principles. Little wonder, then, that the most unforgivable evil perpetrated by the Bible’s chief villain, Pharaoh, was his policy of forcing Hebrew mothers to abandon their baby boys. Conversely, the refusal of the midwives and Pharaoh’s daughter to comply with the king’s decree constitute the most extraordinary acts of heroism in the Bible. In the Bible, the most definitive act of villainy is the destruction of families, while the most celebrated act of righteousness is stopping such destruction.

The Administration and its supporters claim that their intent is simply to punish criminals and deter would-be law-breakers. This is dishonest. Treating immigration as a criminal issue rather than as, say, a humanitarian concern, is a deliberate policy choice, as is the refusal to afford undocumented immigrants due process and equal treatment. Furthermore, most of the migrants in question – especially the children – have committed no crimes, even under the harshest interpretation of current immigration law. Such punishment cannot be considered appropriate in any civilized society. Adding insult to injury, there is no evidence to suggest that these policies deter illegal immigration. After all, Pharaoh’s policy of destroying Hebrew families backfired.

The truth is that our leaders are consciously choosing this path, and our law enforcement officers are choosing to enforce it.

Ultimately, we must decide whether we will abide by these pharaonic policies, or whether we will rise, like the biblical midwives, to oppose them.

It is disheartening that many in my own community, including those who claim to be the most religious among us, are failing this moral test. Just days after he took away asylum status for victims of domestic and gang violence, Sessions received a standing ovation from the Orthodox Union, an organization that represents the American Orthodox Jewish community.

I was proud to stand with colleagues to demand the Orthodox Union confront Sessions about this inhumane policy. Inspired by our faith tradition, we believe our country’s fortunes depend on our commitment to principles like the centrality of family, the primacy of human dignity, and the importance of human dignity. Policies that destroy families and subvert bedrock values don’t make a country great. On the contrary, as the ancient Egyptians learned, they inevitably lead to ruin.

ICE activity in Virginia spikes under Trump

|

Topics: , , , ,

RICHMOND – The Trump administration’s immigration policy has left a cloud hanging over the heads of many undocumented immigrants living in Virginia.

While the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency says it is enforcing existing laws, critics say the agents are doing so with a vengeance.

“Their mission is basically to separate families, and because of that, they are very easily antagonized,” said Camille Brenke, a member of ICE Out of RVA, a collective advocating for the rights of undocumented immigrants living in Richmond.

President Donald Trump has not dismantled legal protections such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows certain groups of undocumented immigrants to stay in the country. But advocates for immigrant rights fear he eventually will eliminate DACA.


Even so, Trump has taken other actions that have made many people anxious because of the increased presence of ICE agents in communities where undocumented people live.

Shortly after taking office in January, Trump signed executive orders that greatly expanded ICE agents’ power to target and detain undocumented immigrants. While President Barack Obama’s administration insisted it targeted only convicted criminals, Trump gave ICE broader discretion to detain immigrants based on suspicion alone. This has led to the arrests of many people with no criminal record at all, even ICE officials acknowledge.

One of Trump’s executive orders allows ICE to arrest undocumented immigrants if they are suspected of having “committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.” In the weeks after the order was put into place, ICE carried out a series of raids across the United States and arrested at least 683 undocumented immigrants.

According to statistics released by U.S. Department of Homeland Security, from January through mid-March of this year, ICE arrested more than 21,000 undocumented immigrants, including more than 5,400 with no criminal records.

The Obama administration carried out more deportations than any previous president, removing more than 2.4 million undocumented immigrants from 2009 to 2014 and arresting thousands with no criminal record in the process. However, toward the end of his second term, Obama targeted undocumented immigrants with a proven criminal history. During the first three months of 2016, ICE detained about 14,500 undocumented immigrants, including more than 2,500 with no criminal records.

Bottom-line comparison: Under Trump, overall detentions increased by about 32 percent – and detentions of undocumented immigrants without a criminal record doubled.

In Virginia, there have been reports of ICE agents stopping people for minor offenses and detaining people in and around churches, schools and hospitals. In the past, ICE has officially recognized such venues as “sensitive locations” and forbidden agents from arresting people there. Advocates for undocumented immigrants fear that policy has changed.

Their fears were heightened in February when seven men were stopped and arrested by ICE after leaving a hypothermia shelter located inside a church in Arlington.

Germaine Wright Sobral, a partner at Montagut & Sobral Law Office in Falls Church, has been working with undocumented immigrants in Virginia for more than 30 years. She says the recent spike in ICE activity is due to the new administration’s feeling emboldened to pursue immigrants for minor offenses.

“Under Obama, if you had an order of deportation but you weren’t committing any bad acts, they were basically not enforcing the order of removal,” Sobral said. “But now, with the direction of the new attorney general and President Trump, they are. They feel liberated to be able to do that.”

While Sobral has not heard reports of ICE conducting mass raids on homes or worksites in Virginia since Trump’s election, she said she has seen other ways in which agents have stepped up their activity over the past few months.

“This week, I have had three people come into the office who have been picked up on drunk-in-public charges, which is a Class 4 misdemeanor – it is punishable by a fine only,” Sobral said. “What they have done is, they have picked them up, taken them to the police station and had them processed by ICE with detainers, which is absurd because the offense doesn’t require the officer to take someone to jail; they could just ticket them and let them sleep it off.”

As a result of the increased ICE activity in the state, Gov. Terry McAuliffe met with Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly. McAuliffe said he came away from the meeting with positive results, stressing that Kelly assured him that only undocumented immigrants involved in “criminal enterprises” would be targeted.

Brenke, a member of ICE Out of RVA, questioned the assurances Kelly gave McAuliffe. She said the newfound freedom that ICE has been given under the executive order has left undocumented immigrants in Richmond reeling.

“Obama created this system of really targeting certain individuals and finding out, ‘OK, who has a criminal history? How can we find them?’” Brenke said. “But now, they’ll just go to a random place and see who’s undocumented and just take whoever’s around. So that way, it’s definitely more visible, and there’s definitely more fear in our communities.”

Both Sobral and Brenke also said ICE agents have misrepresented themselves as a means of attracting undocumented immigrants. They cited instances in which ICE agents presented themselves as local police rather than federal officers.

“They were saying that they were the police, and they’re not,” Sobral said. “That is a misrepresentation. They are not the police – they are ICE.”

In response to critics, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has cited criminal and public safety threats as their top priority in immigration enforcement efforts.

Sobral and Brenke suggest that undocumented immigrants know their rights if they find themselves in an encounter with ICE.

“People are more aware of the fact that they have to follow police instructions,” Sobral said. “But if an ICE officer stops me and asks me for ID, unless he has an articulable suspicion that I am an undocumented immigrant, there’s absolutely nothing that I need to do to answer him.

“You can remain silent,” Sobral said. “Whether or not you’re documented, you have these rights.”

Words By Rodrigo Arriaza via VCU Capital News Service.
Top image credit: Southerners on New Ground