The District of Columbia is a sanctuary city, which means that the city government limits their cooperation with the federal government’s effort to enforce immigration law. As a sanctuary city, District law enforcement cannot report undocumented immigrants unless they commit a serious crime. Federal agents in D.C. have begun to make arrests that have lead to the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Details regarding the arrests remain vague, as many question how these arrests are possible given the regulations that a sanctuary city should abide by. Recently, in the District of Columbia reports were made regarding detainment of undocumented immigrants.
The Heavy Hand of ICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a US federal agency that enforces immigration laws while investigating criminal and terrorist activity. ICE detains and deports undocumented workers. ICE’S national fugitive operations program carries out raids through a specialized team. ICE often takes part in collateral arrests; a collateral arrest is defined as arresting undocumented immigrants who happened to be in the place they were raiding, even if there was not a warrant for them. Fugitive operations, the section of ICE responsible for raids, claims that its operations target the most threatening criminals and terrorist suspects.
Being an undocumented immigrant is a civil violation and not a criminal offense. It is a misdemeanor offense that carries fines and no more than 6 months of jail time if entering the country illegally. Undocumented immigrants have rights under the U.S. Constitution; for example, it is unlawful to hold an immigrant past their release. The rights bestowed by the constitution are not honored when residents are detained until ICE comes to deport them.
Data reported on sanctuary cities including crime, immigration and safety does not match the statements reported by the president. The crime rate of a sanctuary city is 15% less than non-sanctuary cities. According to Houston police chief Art Acevedo, deportation fears amongst immigrants have caused immigrants to stop reporting crime. Undocumented immigrants even assist police but the fear of deportation has caused a 42.8% decrease in reports of crime by undocumented immigrants. During Obama’s 8-year term in office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported over 3.1 million individuals. According to the department of homeland security, most apprehended people were convicted criminals and not law-abiding residents.
Obama vs Trump
The difference between Obama’s immigration policy and Trump’s is that Obama refrained from prosecuting adults with kids. He also tried to expand deferred action in 2014. Under United States administrative law, deferred action is an immigration status which the executive branch can grant to illegal immigrants. It does not give them legal status, but can indefinitely delay their deportation. Obama’s plan was to include the parents of children who were granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. The Supreme Court struck down the order in a 4-4 vote, making it impossible for the Obama to expand the DACA program as he intended.
Trump attempted to dismantle the DACA program but U.S. District Judge John Bates ordered the Trump administration to fully reinstate the DACA program. Danielle Bennett, an ICE spokesperson states, “these laws help protect against jobs for US citizens and others who are lawfully employed.” However, the idea that immigrants take jobs away from Americans is a myth. Economic experts report immigrants create more jobs than they fill, forming new businesses, investing capital and spending dollars on consumer goods.
Trump also signed an executive order that tore up previous guidance on how ICE should prioritize its operations. As stated by the White House press secretary Sean Spicer, “the goal is not mass deportation, but to eliminate exceptions President Barak Obama allowed keeping undocumented immigrants who weren’t a threat.” This policy priority makes virtually every undocumented immigrant in the country deportable. Trump’s administration also seeks to end catch-and-release, the practice of releasing immigrants apprehended at or near the border with the expectation that they will later show up before a U.S. immigration judge. Trump also changed the process for people claiming asylum in the US because they suffered persecution in the countries they fled based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or social group.
Under president Obama, ICE’s policy was to prevent enforcement activities at sensitive places. The locations include schools, places of worship, hospitals and rallies where immigrants could go without the fear of deportation. These sanctuary places have lost their meaning under Trumps reign. ICE raids have caused detrimental damage to neighborhoods, financial stress on families, disruption of school attendance for students and physiological damage to children by breaking up families.
Communities Respond to ICE
In response to the raids, communities have hosted fundraisers to help families with food, money, to deal with trauma and convince students it is safe to go to school. Trump plans to diminish the power of sanctuary cities by not funding them. DC claims to be a sanctuary city but by cooperating with ICE it actually, raids, arrests and ships its residents out of the country. ICE recently raided at least five neighborhoods in DC, tearing at least 12 of our neighbors from their families and filling our communities with fear. Reports indicate that ICE agents racially profiled and indiscriminately detained people on 16th St. Credible reports also suggest DC police colluded with ICE in at least one of these raids. The Sanctuary Not Silence rally, organized by a coalition of groups headed by Sanctuary DMV, was held in response to those raids. The rally purpose was to discuss actions that must be taken to make D.C. a true sanctuary city. The video below shows speakers at the rally.
Regardless is your a Democrat or a republican… now days, what’s right is wrong and what’s wrong is right. Your organization should write an article on Ward 8 DC. Write an article on how the city allow dope addicts and drug dealers to ruin South Capitol St., MLK & Malcolm X, how liquor store and dirty carry outs where drug dealers hang out are so close to our schools in Ward 8. I dare your organization to speak out on the wrong our so called Democrats are doing to our the Black community. Let’s speak on how teenage to adult men hangout at the recreation centers drinking, smoking weed, and using fowl language around our youth that comes to these centers to get a different environment from the madness at their homes. So Grassroots… I dare u to challenge the wrong that is happening in our own communities, that our mayor & councilman continue to overlook or except because is a Black thing
Hello Tarsha,
I invite you to write about all of those things. And if you are able to back up your arguments with facts that aren’t just anecdotal, we’ll post it.
Hello Tarsha I agree with you and actually planned on writing about the subject. Since there are so many factors involved in the topic makes it difficult but I accept your challenge. Below I have given facts and my viewpoint of why the situation still persist.
My first point is given the crooked cops. I picked this typical argument given that there is some truth to it as I listed cases as far back as the 90s until much recent as 2018. Below are those facts:
More than half of the 201 D.C. police officers arrested since 1989 on charges ranging from shoplifting and forgery to rape and murder. Some have been arrested more than once and in more than one year.
More than half of those involved in departmental disciplinary proceedings for breaches such as neglecting duty, making false statements and failing to obey orders, which have doubled since 1989.
A more recent case in 2010 regarding Officer Tamara McGuire, a three-year Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer assigned to the 2nd District until she was placed on administrative along with 11 other officers. These officers were apart of a drug conspiracy that they say extended from the streets of Northeast Washington to Arizona. That indictment marks the second time that year a D.C. police officer has been charged with a major crime. Seven-year veteran Officer Reginald Jones pleaded guilty last month in 2010 to second-degree murder and conspiracy stemming from a December street robbery gone wrong.
Another case as recent as May 2018 involving a police corruption in the District caused for the arrest of Marshay Hazelwood, 26, a private security guard at an apartment complex. She was indicted in April along with three other suspects, including a D.C. police desk clerk assigned to the 7th Police District.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/local/public-safety/woman-wanted-in-dc-police-corruption-case-arrested/2018/05/07/3edb06f0-5226-11e8-abd8-265bd07a9859_story.html
https://www.washingtonian.com/2007/01/01/why-dcs-best-cops-arent-protecting-you/
Another point of course is the under funding in the district.
Many DC students face challenges including unhealthy environments, housing instability, food insecurity, care-giving responsibilities, and the stress of living paycheck to paycheck. With these issues of payment many turn to other sources for a more “reliable” and “stable” income. Half of DC students currently qualify for ‘at-risk’ funding because they are growing up in families struggling to make ends meet, or they are at risk of falling behind in the classroom as of April 2018. Inadequate school funding limits the ability of schools to change the large and troubling differences in academic outcomes between the District’s low-income and higher-income students. These issues can result to more at-risk kids that soon become loiters on the corner trying to make a quick buck to pay the rent.
https://www.dcfpi.org/all/limited-school-funding-can-lead-to-the-misuse-of-extra-resources-for-low-income-students-a-closer-look-at-at-risk-funds/
Of course there are many more issues but these are just a few. I thank you for your response and may write a series regarding this topic.