Thread: Lawmakers, After Meeting With ICE, Say All Undocumented Immigrants at Risk of Deporta

Lawmakers, After Meeting With ICE, Say All Undocumented Immigrants at Risk of Deportation

February 17, 2017

Members of Congress expressed alarm that all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are at risk of deportation. They said this was made clear to them in a meeting Thursday with a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

There are approximately 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S.

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Michelle Lujan Grisham said that she and other lawmakers left a meeting with ICE Acting Director Tom Homan with a sense that with changes ordered by President Donald Trump through his executive orders, "all immigrant communities are at risk."

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., said in a statement that, "in effect, every undocumented person in America is now vulnerable to arrest and removal as a result of the president's orders."

Jennifer Elzea, an ICE spokeswoman, said in a statement that Homan emphasized in the meeting that ICE "does not conduct arrests indiscriminately" or use checkpoints. Instead, officers target preidentified individuals for arrest at specific locations based on law enforcement leads."

But he also said that when officers encounter individuals in the U.S. in violation of federal immigration laws, they make arrests. "Every arrest is made on a case by case basis," Elzea said.

Rep. Linda Sanchez, a vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said that "they said we can and should expect many more arrests and removals this year."

The meeting drew anger from several Latino lawmakers who were not allowed to be at the meeting.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., seen as a longtime champion for immigrants, tweeted that he was ejected from the meeting by the staff of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Gutierrez tweeted about his ejection, saying "Never before in my 20-plus years has this happened."

Luis V. GutierrezVerified account
‏@RepGutierrez
I was asked to leave the meeting with #ICE by @SpeakerRyan staff. Never before in 20 plus years has this happened.

10:50 AM - 16 Feb 2017

He followed with a tweet in Spanish, "With Trump in the White House we have a dictator in Congress."

Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., also asked to stay at the meeting but was told by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chair of the House Judiciary Committee, that she had to leave.

Torres later told NBC Latino in an e-mail, "I have constituents calling me, afraid of going to work, or sending their kids to school. I need to give them answers."

A spokeswoman for Ryan said the meeting had been organized as a small bipartisan briefing limited "to members with jurisdictional interests in immigration enforcement." Homey was supposed to members of the CHC on Tuesday and the meeting had been canceled.

ICE arrested nearly 700 people in multi-city raids and operations across the country last week, including among those taken into custody people who were not considered priorities for deportation under the Obama administration.

The sweeps caused panic, fear and confusion throughout the immigrant community, as people who once thought they were safe learned of the arrests. Since the arrests, lawmakers with large immigrant communities in their states have been pressing the Trump administration to articulate under what guidelines for arrest and deportation that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been operating.

Sanchez said that the current resources that ICE has is the only thing limiting who the agency removes.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the executive order on immigration enforcement parallels the order by Trump on banning entry to the country of people from seven Muslim countries.

"There was very little guidance that went to the field so you have people around interpreting what they think the guidance is," Thompson said. He said the guidance was requested but was not available at the meeting with Homan.

Unclear is where this leaves immigrants shielded from deportation and allowed to work through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. A young immigrant with DACA was arrested in Seattle during one of last week's operations and a hearing is planned Friday on his arrest, which he is challenging.

Joaquin Castro ✔ @JoaquinCastrotx
1. After attending the ICE meeting it's hard not to conclude that President Trump has started his mass deportation plan.
1:08 PM - 16 Feb 2017
3,008 3,008 Retweets 2,427 2,427 likes

Thompson said the lawmakers were told DACA recipients are not at risk, but with certain conditions.

President Donald Trump said in a news conference Thursday that his administration is "gonna deal with DACA with heart."

He said DACA is a very difficult subject for him, saying that some DACA recipients are gang members and drug dealers, "but some (are) absolutely incredible kids" He said he needs to convice politicians "that what I'm saying is right."

According to DHS, DACA has been revoked from some 1,500 people since 2012 because of a criminal conviction or gang affiliation. That's out of nearly 730,000 people who have been granted DACA over the same period.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/l...tation-n722101

POSTED 6:17 PM, FEBRUARY 16, 2017, BY CNN WIRE, UPDATED AT 08:44PM, FEBRUARY 16, 2017

A meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement intended to mollify lawmakers who are concerned one week after a round-up of nearly 700 undocumented immigrants had the opposite effect Thursday, as organizers expelled rank-and-file members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The Democratic lawmakers decried the Trump administration and Republicans for keeping the caucus out of the meeting after they were canceled on earlier in the week.

The topic of the meeting was last week’s enforcement actions by ICE. CHC members had requested the meeting to get information on who was targeted by the raids — and whether the sweep was broader than similar enforcement by the Obama administration.

After being scheduled Tuesday, the meeting was abruptly canceled by ICE. A Republican leadership aide said that ICE then reached out to House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office to arrange a bipartisan meeting, which they set for Thursday.

Members of the CHC had tried to attend the Thursday meeting in the Capitol despite not being on the guest list, but were asked to leave, prompting them to hold a hallway news conference in protest and to point fingers at the administration and speaker’s office.

“Look around, folks, nobody here is armed. These are not criminals, these are not gang members. The only thing we want today is transparency in our democratic system,” said California Democrat Rep. Lou Correa. “We just want information — why are we being denied?”

Democrats barred from the meeting included Correa, Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen, Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, as well as California Reps. Norma Torres, Grace Napolitano, Nanette Barragán and Juan Vargas.

None of them were on a guest list for the meeting provided to CNN in advance on Wednesday night by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office.

The leader of the CHC, Chairwoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, was in the meeting with ICE, as was Pelosi, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and top Democrats on relevant committees. Ryan’s office did not have a list of Republicans who attended.

While Democrats accused Ryan’s office of playing games with who could attend, spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the goal was to include members with jurisdiction.

“The speaker’s office organized a small bipartisan briefing that was, at the request of DHS, limited to members with jurisdictional interests in immigration enforcement,” Strong said in a statement. “Members of the CHC expressed interest in attending, and to accommodate the request, we welcomed the chair of the CHC to join on behalf of the other members. We are confident that the CHC chair is capable of representing the views of her caucus, and this arrangement was made very clear to the CHC ahead of time.”

But lawmakers were furious at being excluded, with many saying their constituents are “panicked” about the recent ICE enforcement and unsure if their communities are safe. The Democrats said they still are seeking answers from ICE about whether they are prioritizing serious criminals — as the Obama administration did — or whether any undocumented immigrant could be deported.

“It’s not acceptable to my constituents when I say I’m still asking for answers,” said Barragan. “They’re afraid. My own mother said to me yesterday, who’s an American citizen, ‘Is it safe for me to go out?’ … That is just unacceptable”

“I’ve been in politics a long time, and I’ve never seen this chaos,” Vargas said. “It’s emanating truthfully from the White House, but it’s infecting Congress now. Unfortunately, our speaker now is infected. And he’s a good person, but he too has been infected now where he says, ‘No, we’ll determine who you see.'”

The Democrats who were in the meeting held their own news conference afterward — saying they still were left with questions.

House Democratic Caucus vice chair Linda Sanchez, who represents Whittier, said ICE officials told attendees to expect “many more arrests and removals this year,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to a fact sheet from ICE given out at the meeting and provided to CNN by a Democratic aide, 176 non-criminal undocumented immigrants were arrested in the sweeps across five enforcement regions.

Of the individuals who had criminal convictions, 161 were driving under the influence and 33 were other traffic offenses. Other crimes ranged from drug crimes, weapons charges, sexual assault and two homicides to trespassing, shoplifting and illegal entry into the U.S.

According to a readout of the meeting from ICE, acting director Thomas Homan told lawmakers that mainly public safety threats were arrested.

“Mr. Homan emphasized that ICE does not conduct arrests indiscriminately and does not establish checkpoints; rather, the agency’s deportation officers target pre-identified individuals for arrest at specific locations based on law enforcement leads,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea.

“He further stated that officers frequently encounter additional individuals in the pursuit of their targets. When officers determine other individuals are in the United States in violation of the federal immigration laws, the officers make arrests. Every arrest is made on a case by case basis,” Elzea continued.

ICE’s actions have been scrutinized since they began to come to light, as fear in immigrant communities have been running high after Trump’s heated anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail and since the election.

While the Obama administration conducted similar actions, Trump has enacted an executive order that sets wide enforcement priorities that could include every undocumented immigrant in the U.S., even if they are only suspected of a crime or being a public safety threat.

Lawmakers were especially concerned about recipients of deferred action — immigrants brought to the U.S. as children given work permits under an Obama administration program that requires background checks. One recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is currently detained in Seattle, accused by the government of gang affiliation despite his lawyers and family calling the charge fabricated.

“There are potentially 11 million people who meet the standard for deportation by their expanded rules,” Pelosi said after the meeting. “Their prosecutorial discretion is uneven in the country as to how this is all enforced. And the resources that would be needed to apprehend and make judgments about these people is enormous. You have to ask yourself as a country, of course we want everyone who is a danger to our country to be dealt with, deported, if that’s the case. But it doesn’t mean that we instill fear into our country.”

Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose San Antonio-area district was impacted by the raids, said his impression was that the Trump administration was beginning mass deportations.

“It was hard to not leave that meeting and believe that the Trump administration is going to target as many immigrants as possible,” Castro said. “The only hesitation they seemed to have is whether they will go after DACA recipients.”

The lawmakers in the meeting also decried their colleagues’ exclusion.

“This meeting was unique and I’ve never seen anything like it, only one like it, and hopefully never again,” Pelosi said. “They said the administration would determine which Democrats would be invited to the meeting. This is highly unusual.”

http://ktla.com/2017/02/16/hispanic-...ting-with-ice/

Good. Kick their butts out.

Time to ramp it up, clean the cobwebs off that DACA Executive Order, sign it and end it.

“This meeting was unique and I’ve never seen anything like it, only one like it, and hopefully never again,” Pelosi said. “They said the administration would determine which Democrats would be invited to the meeting. This is highly unusual.”

I don't see this as unusual at all. How productive do they think a meeting with folks like that rabble-rouser Gutierrez and his ilk would be?

Originally Posted by Jean

Lawmakers, After Meeting With ICE, Say All Undocumented Immigrants at Risk of Deportation

Torres later told NBC Latino in an e-mail, "I have constituents calling me, afraid of going to work, or sending their kids to school. I need to give them answers."

Here's an answer you can tell them Torres:
"I'm sorry but you're in violation of Federal law. The best way to avoid deportation is to pack up and leave on your own."
Oh, almost forgot. "and don't come back!"

Kick them out of office and kick their illegal alien minions out of America!

W

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., is a traitor and needs to be removed from his high almighty podium and government office