200 illegal aliens arrested weekly in ICE region including Alabama
About 200 undocumented immigrants arrested weekly in ICE region including Alabama
Updated 1:54 PM; Posted 1:39 PM
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A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent prepares for a raid. Across the nation, ICE is widening its net of potential immigration enforcement targets. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
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By Jonece Starr Dunigan
jdunigan@al.com
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, responding to online rumors of raids in central Alabama, said that the agency arrested eight undocumented immigrants in the Birmingham area on Thursday.
"These are local officers doing what they do every day. No special operation," Bryan Cox, Southern Region Communications Director for ICE, told AL.com on Friday.
About 200 undocumented immigrants on average are being arrested each week within the five-state ICE region that includes Alabama.
Cox said ICE tracks arrest numbers by field office. Alabama is part of the New Orleans Field Office, which also includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. Numbers are not broken down by state for the fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 31.
Specifics about where the arrests occurred in the Birmingham area were not released by ICE.
Multiple immigrant rights organizations, such as the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (HICA) and Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ), said two people were arrested at a gas station on Highway 119 in Alabaster.
ACIJ Lead Organizer Miguel Carpizo said the organization gets calls every week about ICE arrests in Alabama. While President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy has led to the separation of thousands of children from their families at the Mexican border, Carpizo said the same is happening in Alabama.
"Yes, what's going on in Texas is important and we care about the children," Carpizo said. "But the separation of families is happening every day and every week in Alabama."
Cox said ICE focuses its resources to arrests those who have a criminal conviction, a pending criminal charge, or were already subject to a removal order issued by a federal immigration judge. About 90 percent of arrests in fiscal year 2017 and the first two quarters of fiscal 2018 were criminal, Cox said.
"These stats show ICE targets it's arrests and claims of random, indiscriminate sweeps simply are not accurate," Cox said.
But what was a priority under President Barack Obama has changed under President Trump, and the percentage of immigration arrests that involved individuals with a criminal conviction has fallen sharply. In the Alabama region, in the first two quarters of this year, 60 percent of arrest involved a criminal conviction. That was 84 percent just two years ago.
| Fiscal year |
Arrests |
Percentage that are criminal |
|---|
| 2015 |
5,244 |
84 |
| 2016 |
5,174 |
84 |
| 2017 |
7,968 |
64 |
| 2018 |
5,049 |
60 |
Cox credits the decline to the shifts in national policy. The Obama administration focused its detainment on national security threats and convicted criminals. Trump removed those policies in January 2017.
"So prosecutorial discretion decisions are once again now made by ICE during each encounter on a case-by-case basis based on the totality of the circumstances," Cox said.
Carpizo said immigrant rights organization are still pushing Mayor Randall Woodfin to sign an ordinance that will make Birmingham a sanctuary city.
Advocates have been pushing for the ordinance, which includes protections for immigrants provides some protections for immigrants and will ensure that Birmingham police officers, for a little over a year.
"At least have Birmingham to recognize the work of immigrants and undocumented immigrants in our city," Carpizo said.
https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/i...d_immigra.html
