Tag Archives: US immigration

Guardian: Outrage as DHS moves to restrict lawmaker visits to detention centers

Posted on by
Reply

The US Department of Homeland Security is now requiring lawmakers to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers, according to new guidance.

The guidance comes after a slew of tense visits from Democratic lawmakers to detention centers amid Donald Trump’s crackdowns in immigrant communities across the country. Many Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks have either been turned away, arrested or manhandled by law enforcement officers at the facilities, leading to public condemnation towards Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (Ice) handling of such visits.

Lawmakers are allowed to access DHS facilities “used to detain or otherwise house aliens” for inspections and are not required “to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility”, according to the 2024 Federal Appropriations Act.

Previous language surrounding lawmaker visits to such facilities said that “Ice will comply with the law and accommodate members seeking to visit/tour an Ice detention facility for the purpose of conducting oversight,” CNN reported.

…

In response to the updated guidance, Mississippi’s Democratic representative and the ranking member of the House committee on homeland security, Bennie Thompson, condemned what he called the attempt by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to “block oversight on Ice”.

“Kristi Noem’s new policy to block congressional oversight of Ice facilities is not only unprecedented, it is an affront to the constitution and federal law. Noem is now not only attempting to restrict when members can visit, but completely blocking access to Ice field offices – even if members schedule visits in advance,” Thompson said.

“This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny member visits to Ice offices across the country, which are holding migrants – and sometimes even US citizens – for days at a time. They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time. DHS pretending otherwise is simply their latest lie.”

Outrage as DHS moves to restrict lawmaker visits to detention centers
Elected officials told to give 72 hours’ notice before visiting immigration facilities, with some sites completely off limits

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/dhs-immigration-detention-center-visits-new-guidance

Guardian: Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry

Posted on by
Reply

Friends and family of Moises Sotelo ‘disappointed and disgusted’ after respected fixture detained outside church

In the early morning hours of 12 June, Moises Sotelo woke up to go to work in the rolling hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley wine country, a place he has called home for decades.

But this morning was not business as usual. A car tailed Sotelo as soon as he left his driveway, according to an account from his co-worker. Trucks surrounded him just outside of St Michael’s Episcopal church, where he was detained by federal immigration agents. By the end of the day, Sotelo was in an Ice detention facility.

“He was in chains at his feet,” Alondra Sotelo-Garcia told a local news outlet about seeing her father arrested. “Shoelaces were taken off, his belt was off, he didn’t have his ring, he didn’t have his watch. Everything was taken from him.”

His detention has sent shockwaves through the tight-knit Oregon wine community. Sotelo is a fixture of local industry – in 2020 he was awarded with the Vineyard Excellence Award from the Oregon Wine Board and in 2024 he established his own small business maintaining vineyards.

Left in the lurch is Sotelo’s family, the church he attends, the employees of his small business, the vineyards he works with and friends made along the way. Requests to Ice from family or attorneys regarding next steps in Sotelo’s detention are hitting dead ends.

Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry
Friends and family of Moises Sotelo ‘disappointed and disgusted’ after respected fixture detained outside church

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/oregon-vineyard-manager-arrest-ice

Guardian: Ice raids in LA continue as armed agents target immigrant communities

Posted on by
Reply

US immigration raids continued to target southern California communities in recent days, including at a popular flea market and in a Los Angeles suburb where US citizens were detained.

On Saturday, as mass protests swept the nation, including tens of thousands demonstrating in LA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents descended on a swap meet in Santa Fe Springs in southeast LA county. Video showed dozens of heavily armed, masked officers carrying out the raid before a scheduled concert at the long-running event that features vendors, food and entertainment every weekend.

Witnesses told the Los Angeles Times that agents appeared to be going after people who “looked Hispanic in any way”, sparking widespread fear.

Ice agents detain US citizen as LA immigration raids continue: ‘It’s racial profiling’

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-raids-in-la-continue-as-armed-agents-target-immigrant-communities/ar-AA1GPNTK

Guardian: Spanish-language journalist to be turned over to Ice after protest arrest

Posted on by
Reply

El Salvador-born Mario Guevara, arrested by Georgia police on Saturday, transferred to Ice officers after bond release

Mario Guevara, a prominent Spanish-language journalist in metro Atlanta who frequently covers Immigration and customs enforcement raids, will be turned over to Ice detention after being arrested by local police while covering the “No Kings” protests.

Guevara, 47, was born in El Salvador and has been in the United States for more than 20 years. He recorded his own arrest Saturday during a raucous street protest in the Embry Hills area of north DeKalb county, an Atlanta suburban neighborhood with a large Latino population. The protest ended with riot police throwing teargas and marching protesters down the street after declaring an unlawful assembly.

…

Police charged Guevara as a pedestrian improperly entering a roadway, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and unlawful assembly. A municipal judge released Guevara on Monday on a recognisance bond – customary with misdemeanor charges. But jail staff said he would be transferred instead to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

…

Ted Terry, a DeKalb county commissioner, asked the county’s staff to investigate the circumstances around the use of teargas at the event.

“The decision to deploy teargas – particularly in a neighborhood context with nearby homes and businesses – raises serious questions about the proportionality and justification of the county’s response to peaceful civil action,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Ice in Atlanta could not immediately confirm the conditions of the immigration hold or whether Guevara faces deportation.

As a journalist with Diario CoLatino in El Salvador, he fled the country in 2004 one step ahead of threats from leftwing paramilitary groups. It took him seven years to get his first asylum hearing before a judge, the journalist told Spanish-language wire service Agencia EFE in the Los Angeles-based publication La Opinión in 2012. He described the arrest of his wife after an error in the immigration system. “The hardest part for me was seeing my three children cry as she was taken away, and me being powerless to give them the comfort and protection they need,” he said in Spanish in the interview.

Spanish-language journalist to be turned over to Ice after protest arrest
El Salvador-born Mario Guevara, arrested by Georgia police on Saturday, transferred to Ice officers after bond release

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/journalist-ice-protest-arrest-mario-guevara

Guardian: Ice arrests of migrants with no criminal history surging under Trump

Posted on by
Reply

Guardian analysis sharply contradicts president’s claim that officials are targeting ‘criminals’ for deportation from US

The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency has exponentially increased the arrest and detention of immigrants without any criminal history since the second Trump administration took office, a data analysis by the Guardian shows.

The information sharply contradicts Donald Trump’s claims the authorities are targeting “criminals” for deportation as part of his aggressive anti-immigration agenda.

According to numbers gathered from Ice and the Vera Institute of Justice, after Trump returned to the White House in late January there was a steep surge in arrests of immigrants, in general. One of the sharpest increases in arrest numbers has been of immigrants with pending charges, who have not yet been convicted of any crimes.

But the biggest increase has been people with no charges at all. Between early January, right before the inauguration, and June, there has been an 807% increase in the arrest of immigrants with no criminal record.

In other words the incessant chants of “Criminals! Criminals! Criminals!” coming from the White House / Homeland Security / ICE are a bunch of BS. They’re deporting anyone they can drag out of home or work or snatch off the streets.

Ice arrests of migrants with no criminal history surging under Trump
Guardian analysis sharply contradicts president’s claim that officials are targeting ‘criminals’ for deportation from US

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/14/ice-arrests-migrants-trump-figures

Guardian: US immigration agents mistakenly detain deputy marshal in Arizona

Posted on by
Reply

Immigration agents briefly detained a U.S. Marshals Service deputy last month as he was entering a federal building that houses the immigration court in Tucson, Arizona.

The Marshals Service — an agency in charge of enforcing the law in federal courts, protecting judges and apprehending fugitives — confirmed with the Arizona Daily Star on Thursday that a deputy “who fit the general description of a subject being sought by ICE was briefly detained at a federal building in Tucson after entering the lobby of the building.”

What does it take to “fit the general description”? Looks like a Mexican?

It’s unclear what the Marshals Service meant when it said the deputy “fit the general description” of a person being sought by ICE. However, President Donald Trump’s policy of aggressive mass deportation has raised concerns about racial profiling. Legal residents and U.S. citizens, including Native Americans, all have been stopped by ICE.

And prior to Trump’s current presidential term, a 2022 report from the American Civil Liberties Union shed light on racial profiling that it called “endemic” to an ICE program that allows state and local law enforcement to perform certain immigration enforcement duties.

Don’t they all look alike?

Last week, Axios reported on a meeting between two top Trump administration officials, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, where they discussed a goal of arresting 3,000 people a day.

Noah Schramm of the ACLU of Arizona told the Arizona Daily Star that while there’s little information about the incident involving the deputy, arrest quotas from the Trump administration are leading to more mistakes.

“It is not surprising that there would be these cases that the wrong person is detained,” Schramm said. “I think it reflects that they are trying to get numbers and that they are OK violating basic principles and basic procedures that are meant to protect people and make sure the wrong people don’t get picked up.”

US immigration agents mistakenly detain deputy marshal in Arizona
Deputy marshal ‘fit the general description of a subject being sought’ and was briefly detained, Marshals Service says

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/08/ice-agents-mistakenly-detain-us-marshal-arizona

Newsweek: ICE arrests multiple migrants outside Arizona court: “Mayhem”

Posted on by
Reply

Federal immigration authorities apprehended several individuals at the Phoenix immigration court on Tuesday.

During the incident, one attorney described the scene as “mayhem,” adding that people who believed their cases had been dismissed were taken into custody, the Tucson Sentinel reported.

…

Isaac Ortega, an immigration attorney in Phoenix, reported that agents arrested his client shortly after a court hearing on Tuesday morning.

According to Ortega, the officials wore masks and did not disclose which agency they represented, identifying themselves only as federal officers.

Gestapo! If they won’t identify themselves and their agency, they shouldn’t be policing.

ICE arrests multiple migrants outside Arizona court: “Mayhem”
An attorney described the scene as “mayhem,” saying people who believed their cases had been dismissed were taken into custody.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-arrests-migrant-arizona-court-mayhem-2075134

The Atlantic: The Rushed, Blundering Effort to Send Deportees to Third Countries

Posted on by
Reply

Many of those sent to countries that aren’t their own are at heightened risk for abuse.

The Trump administration has acknowledged a new error in a case challenging its attempts to send deportees to any country that will take them. Another immigrant who had earned protected status was rushed out of the country and put in danger—and U.S. officials have offered little more than a shrug.

This time, the immigrant is a gay man from Guatemala who fled death threats and twice tried to seek refuge in the United States. First, he was denied and deported home. He tried again last year and says that while traveling through Mexico, he was held for ransom and sexually assaulted.

The man, identified in court documents as O.C.G., won his case in February when a U.S. immigration judge granted him withholding of removal, shielding him from deportation to Guatemala because of the risk of harm he faced there. The Trump administration promptly sent him to Mexico instead. Threatened with prolonged detention, O.C.G. left Mexico and went back to Guatemala—the country the judge had said he shouldn’t be sent to—and is now in hiding there.

The Trump administration originally claimed that O.C.G. did not express fear of being sent to Mexico, which would have potentially stopped his deportation. But on Friday, the government acknowledged that its claim was based on an erroneous data entry, and that it has no record to support the assertion. Then, over the weekend, the government compounded its mistake by briefly disclosing the man’s full name in court documents, violating confidentiality rules. The Atlantic is not publishing his name, because his lawyers argued in court that identifying him could put his life in danger, especially while he is in hiding.

It’s a long read but interesting.

Frankly, deporting people to third countries where they have no roots, no family, and don’t know the language is an abomination. So many of these people came to the U.S. looking for a better life for themselves and their families, and now we’re kicking them around the world like a bunch soccer balls.

The Rushed, Blundering Effort to Send Deportees to Third Countries
Many of those sent to countries that aren’t their own are at heightened risk for abuse.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/05/third-country-deportations/682857

Inquirer: Filipino green card holder detained at Seattle airport after PH vacation

Posted on by
Reply

Maximo ‘Max’ Londonio has been held by Customs and Border Protection since May 15

Maximo “Max” Londonio, a Filipino green card holder and father of three, has been detained at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after returning from a family vacation in the Philippines, sparking protests and renewed calls for government accountability.

Londonio, 42, who immigrated to the US at age 12 and now lives in Olympia, Washington, was taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on May 15.

Londonio, his wife and their 12-year-old daughter were returning from their vacation in the Philippines, according to migrant rights advocacy group Tanggol Migrante. 

CBP agents reportedly detained Londonio over nonviolent offenses from his youth, despite previous uneventful travel between the US and the Philippines.

His wife, Crystal – a US citizen – described him as “dedicated,” “family-focused” and “affectionate,” and said she received little information about his whereabouts or the reasons for his detention. 

She was finally able to contact him on Tuesday and learned he had received a notice to appear before an immigration judge and would be transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, where thousands of migrants await deportation hearings.

Filipino green card holder detained at Seattle airport after PH vacation
Maximo “Max” Londonio, a Filipino green card holder and father of three, has been detained at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

https://usa.inquirer.net/172271/filipino-green-card-holder-detained-at-seattle-airport-after-ph-vacation

Guardian: Trump officials ‘created confrontation’ that led to arrest of Newark mayor

Posted on by
Reply

Democratic Congress members who visited detention center with mayor say Ice officials ‘created the chaos’

Trump administration homeland security officials were responsible for starting the confrontation on Friday at a New Jersey immigration jail that led to the arrest of Newark’s mayor as well as threats to detain three members of Congress, the representatives said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

The Democratic representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez – all of New Jersey – visited the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center known as Delaney Hall on Friday to inspect the facility. As they waited to enter Delaney Hall, Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, arrived – and as he left the property, he was arrested outside by Ice officials accusing him of trespassing, leading to a commotion at the entrance of the jail.

There evidently was shoving and pushing between federal immigration officials and the members of Congress, which Watson Coleman, McIver and Menendez blamed on the immigration officials.

On CNN’s State of the Union, the Congress members said immigration officials had ample opportunity to deescalate the situation before someone called in and instructed masked agents to arrest Baraka.

“They created that confrontation, they created that chaos,” McIver said.

Since the ordeal on Friday at Delaney Hall, homeland security officials have accused the Congress members of staging a “bizarre political stunt” there while also accusing McIver of “bodyslamming” authorities at the scene.

McIver rejected those allegations.

“I honestly do not know how to bodyslam anyone,” McIver said. “There’s no video that supports me bodyslamming anyone.

“We were simply there to do our job – there for an oversight visit.”

Trump officials ‘created confrontation’ that led to arrest of Newark mayor
Democratic Congress members who visited detention center with mayor say Ice officials ‘created the chaos’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/11/trump-officials-newark-mayor-arrest