An alert for mass deportation roundups aimed to undocumented immigrants has warned U.S. activists who are going to face the measure that “will begin fairly soon” according to Donald Trump’s recent statement.
The White House leader´s waiting time for a bipartisan congressional agreement to reform asylum laws is over, so the President´s threat of mass deportations is yet to come.
Undocumented, U.S. activists and politicians keep on alert, monitoring the movements of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and calling on the undocumented community with support actions facing possible raids.
Guillermo Torres, Organizer for Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), told local media to specify that, “these inhumane and atrocious policies of keeping us scared have also made us unite more, and that we learn more and more about our rights and how to defend ourselves.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a statement reiterating his call to use the state’s legal services and assistance, said, “New York will continue to stand with all immigrants to ensure they have the full protections afforded under the law.”
According to what is known so far, at least 2,000 families are at risk of being raided in ten cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami or Houston.
Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti told reporters that the city’s residents should know that the Sanctuary State Laws will be enforced and that they prevent local police from collaborating with ICE on federal immigration issues.
This preoccupation about civil rights was created by Ken Cuccinelli, interim director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), who said last Sunday that ICE “is ready to fulfill its mission, which is to go find and detain and then deport approximately one million people.
The ICE official said recently on the “Face the Nation” TV show, that his team will hardly be able to detain such a large number of undocumented immigrants and that even not all of those arrested would be deported.
Yet those words do not calm down at all U.S. activists who point out that a massive civil rights outrage is about to be committed in the United States.
Guillermo Torres highlights that the White House’s strategy is to manage big numbers of arrests in order to create anxiety among the community, but that their plan is to counteract these threats with proper information.
“If you know your rights, you refuse to answer and use your right to remain silent, if you refuse to open the door and understand when an arrest is discrimination we create real resistance,” Torres added.
These resources, on how to deal with ICE agents and the immigrants’ rights are part of the plan that the Mexican government is implementing in the 50 consulates it has in the United States.
Translated by: José Espinoza