Widespread immigration raids did not materialize across the country this weekend, after President Trump announced them in advance. A handful of raids, however, did still unfold and prompted protests in support of immigrant communities. Agents in Chicago reportedly arrested a mother and her kids only to quickly release them. Arrests were also attempted here in New York City, but migrants reportedly refused to open their door to agents. Authorities say more raids are planned this week.
This comes amidst growing outrage over dire conditions for migrants held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions by Customs and Border Patrol, including children and families seeking asylum. On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence toured two migrant detention centers in Texas, including one in McAllen where hundreds of men were crowded into dirty cells without cots to sleep on. Many said they were hungry, had been detained for 40 days. Trump tweeted the children’s rooms Pence saw were well run and clean, and facilities for single men were clean but crowded. Pence defended conditions during an interview on CNN
Pence refused to say whether children would be separated from their parents during immigration raids announced by President Trump. Video of Pence visiting the Border Patrol facilities, looking at men in the overcrowded cells without speaking to them, then walking away, was broadcast around the world.
At the same time, people held “Lights for Liberty” in at least 900 cities in what organizers called one of the largest global mass mobilizations in history. They called for the closure of detention centers and an end to inhumane treatment in them.
Elora Mukherjee talking:
We found children who were hungry, who were dirty, who were sick and who were scared. We found children who had been detained far longer than the 72-hour limit for CBP facilities for children. We found children who had been detained a week, even longer, weeks, nearly a month. We found children wearing dirty clothing, clothing covered with nasal mucous urine, vomit, breast milk. We found children who hadn’t brushed their teeth for days, hadn’t showered for days or weeks. We found children who smelled really bad because they had no opportunity to shower or change their clothes.
We found children who were hungry. We found children who were so traumatized that they cried consistently and wept in their interviews with me. We found children who had been separated from a parent and from other family members. We found children who had been detained incommunicado, without an opportunity to make a single phone call to their loved ones. So we took out our own phones, and we allowed the children to make calls to their family members for the first time, sometimes in days, sometime in weeks.
: One child wore a bracelet that said “U.S. parent” on it. Other children— With either a phone number or some other kind of identifier. Other children had little scraps of paper tucked into a pocket in their shirt or in their pants, that had the name of a family member.
You know, what’s so important for America to realize is that the overwhelming majority of these children have family members in the United States who are desperate to have their kids back. So, nearly 100% of children who are released from ICE custody are released to a parent or other family member. More than 80% of children released from ORR custody, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, are reunited with a family member in the United States.
So, I have been doing this work for 12 years along our southern border, representing detained immigrant children and families. I have been a monitor for the Flores settlement agreement numerous times. Last July, I was in Brownsville, Texas, at Casa Padre, which is a controversial facility. In March, I was in Homestead interviewing children at an even more controversial facility. And in those two instances, I didn’t go public with my findings, and I expressed concern about numerous violations of the Flores settlement agreement to the plaintiffs’ counsel in that case.
But what we found in Clint was different. What we found in Clint was more appalling than anything I’ve seen in my entire professional career. I have never seen such degrading and inhumane treatment of children in federal immigration custody.
I testified before the House Oversight Committee on Friday. We are demanding immediate congressional oversight to protect vulnerable children in custody. We are also seeking the assistance of the federal courts to protect the children in federal immigration custody and to make sure that their rights, under federal law and under our Constitution, are protected.
We are also enlisting the support of the fourth branch of government—the free press—because we need assistance from everyone to make sure that children are not being abused, in our name, with our taxpayer dollars, and in our country. The American people have risen up and, across party lines, have spoken out, have participated in a public outcry to let the executive branch know that children must not be abused in our country and in our name.
So, since the mid-1980s, there has been a case called the Flores case. In 1997, a settlement agreement was reached in that case. Part of the settlement agreement allows the Flores plaintiffs’ counsel—so, the lawyer for the children—to go into the facilities where children are being detained, to monitor compliance with that Flores settlement agreement. The Flores settlement agreement sets forth that children must be detained in safe and sanitary conditions, and, more importantly, that children must be released from federal immigration custody as quickly as possible. So, I’ve been a monitor for the Flores case.
the point of these raids is cruelty. These raids are not necessary. The data is very clear that when asylum-seeking families have access to counsel, they show up for their immigration proceedings 99% of the time. When asylum-seeking families participate in the ICE case family management program and are paired with a social worker, they show up for their immigration court proceedings 99% of the time. The point of the raids is cruelty. The point of the raids is terrorizing immigrant communities and playing to Trump’s base.
It is a heartbreaking situation. And the raids will leave children without their parents. The raids will leave children without their caregivers. The raids will leave U.S. citizen children without anyone in America to care for them. It is a heartbreaking situation.
if you are someone who is undocumented and ICE is knocking at your door, here are your rights. You do not need to open the door. You should ask, through the door, whether the officers have a warrant. If they have a warrant, ask the officers to slip it under the door. Then check the warrant to make sure that it is signed by a judge. Very often ICE shows up to carry out raids without a warrant or with a warrant that is not signed by a judge. Unless the warrant is signed by a judge, you do not need to open the door.
You also have a right to remain silent when ICE is carrying out a raid. You do not need to provide your name. You do not need to state where you are from. You can state, if you want, that you wish to speak with an attorney. If ICE breaks down your door and comes into your house without your consent, you may also state, “I do not consent to this search.”
And for anyone else who is witnessing a raid, I encourage everyone to be an upstander. Stand there. Bear witness. Take videos. Document what is happening. Try to protect those in our community who are asylum-seeking families, who are refugees, and who have the right to due process while they are in our country.
it’s certainly possible that more raids will be carried out, that more families will be targeted. But Immigrants’ rights lawyers will fight back. We will represent these families. We will ensure that they have a chance to present their asylum cases to the courts. And it’s telling that one of the families that was arrested in Chicago was immediately released—a mother and her children. These are not people who pose a danger to our communities.
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Elora Mukherjee
professor of law and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
— source democracynow.org | Jul 15, 2019