Thread: Raids in other states stir fear among immigrants in central Ohio

Many women and children who fled to the United States to escape gang violence, poverty and drug trafficking in Central America are now afraid to send their children to Ohio schools or open their doors, advocates say.

“It’s appalling and heartbreaking,” said Brian J. Hoffman, a former Dublin lawyer who until late last year headed a pro bono project to help individuals held in immigration family detention centers in Texas.

“In many cases, it’s almost worse than what they had to endure in their home countries,” he said, “because they have pending immigration cases here and have done everything right to seek asylum and have no reason to be afraid.”

The newfound fear comes in the wake of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s announcement that federal immigration authorities had seized 121 adults and children in raids over New Year’s weekend as part of a national operation.

“As I have said repeatedly, our borders are not open to illegal immigration; if you come here illegally, we will send you back consistent with our laws and values,” he said.

Johnson said only people who had received removal orders from an immigration court and had no outstanding appeals for asylum or other humanitarian protection were picked up.

But advocates say that’s not necessarily the case.

The CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project, for which Hoffman used to be lead attorney, filed appeals and was successful last week in halting the deportation of 12 of the Central American families recently rounded up. The 33 mothers and children were fleeing extreme domestic violence or targeted for assault, extortion or kidnapping by criminal organizations, Hoffman said.

This suggests that some undocumented immigrants already have been wrongly deported, he said. And many more likely will be if the federal government doesn’t guarantee their due process, he said.

More than 100,000 families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have crossed the Mexican border into the United States illegally since last year. That doesn’t include more than 63,000 children who came from those same countries without their families. Many are seeking to reunite with a parent already living here.

The families apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this month were living in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina, Johnson said in a written statement.

But the ripple effect of those raids is being felt nationwide, with many advocates, including Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, calling the focus on women and children, instead of convicted criminals and public-safety threats, unconscionable.

Instead of deporting these individuals, the administration should expand temporary protected status, which provides employment authorization and short-term safeguards, they say.

“Rounding up mothers and children who risked their lives fleeing horrific violence in the most dangerous regions of the world is outright deplorable,” said Jennifer Peyton, a Cleveland attorney who is vice chairwoman of the American Immigration Lawyers Association Ohio chapter.

Sending them back only puts them in danger, she said.

A report released by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco on Wednesday says more than 80 nationals deported to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala between January 2014 and September 2015 were subsequently murdered.

Continuing the deportations “would be to continue sending Central American refugees to their deaths,” said Jose Magaña-Salgado, an attorney with the center and the report’s author.

Still, a growing number of Americans and vocal politicians – including Republican candidate Donald Trump – view illegal immigration as a serious problem that is out of control. Many say anyone who enters the United States illegally should be sent home regardless of their circumstances.

Some are calling for U.S. laws to be changed so undocumented immigrants can be deported without a legal hearing. And Trump has vowed to build a massive, impenetrable wall along the U.S.-Mexico frontier to keep undocumented immigrants out.

Local immigration activists and attorneys say they aren’t aware of any federal raids in central Ohio or anywhere else in the state as part of the new campaign, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t afraid or that it couldn’t eventually happen here.

“People are fearful and panicking,” said Ruben Castilla Herrera, an organizer with the Central Oho Worker Center, which helps with immigration justice, gender discrimination and poverty issues.

He said his group had received several reports of possible immigration raids targeting Central American families and is sending rapid-response teams to investigate.

The center also is taking reports of abuse from other law-enforcement agencies and is educating immigrants about their constitutional rights, including from unreasonable searches or seizures and self-incrimination. People are being urged not to open the door to immigration agents unless they slip a warrant under their door.

“It has increased immigrants’ fear of police in general, and we now have to build up their trust again,” Herrera said.

People also are afraid to venture outside, advocates say, and some worry about sending their children to school.

The White House’s targeting of refugee families is “unnecessary and immoral, but sadly not surprising,” Herrera said.

“Trump stigmatizes people with his dehumanizing language; President Obama deports them,” he said.

Raids in other states stir fear among immigrants in central Ohio

I wish there was actually a reason for all illegal immigrants to be afraid, but unfortunately there isn't. IMO they should be afraid, very afraid, each and every day their illegal alien feet are standing on American soil!