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As young people and their families celebrate graduation, US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) is stepping up enforcement nationwide. One new tactic: arrest a teenage student.
Marcelo and the school band, a member of his high school volleyball team, attended Milford, Massachusetts, when he was seven years old. A Connecticut student a few days before graduating from high school.
These young people are among those who have been wiped out by the ever-expanding net of ice.
Their arrests did not occur on school property. Instead, Ice arrests Marcelo on his way to volleyball practice. Ice stolen Ximena after local police pulled the wrong car during a traffic stop. ICE arrested a New York City high school student when he appeared at an immigration court hearing. And they arrested a Connecticut student at a scheduled check-in on a regular basis a few days before he was due to graduate.
However, the ice didn’t show up at school, but the school community continued to shake. Marcelo was to play with the school band upon graduation. After the graduation ceremony, the Milford community held a rally requesting his release. Bronx High School, which Dylan, attended, attended, has launched a letter-writing campaign that produced hundreds of handwritten support notebooks. And Ximena’s conservative Georgian community gathered around her after she was sent to the Ice Detention Center.
These schools are not alone. May and June should be time for families and students to celebrate academic achievements, but the ice attacks separated families and made them fearful of attending these celebrations. In Los Angeles, when ICE fired the dragget, the LA Unified School District has taken new protection measures. Nevertheless, many families still choose to skip graduation, and school is a streaming ceremony for those who feel safer at home.
Some of the students arrested are still in immigration detention. Dylan is in custody at the Moshernon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, hundreds of miles from his home and school. Ice sent Connecticut students all the way to Texas.
However, Ximena and Marcelo were eventually released on bonds, but only after spending a few weeks at the Stewart Detention Center, a facility known for abuse and medical negligence. They have used their experience to speak out and defend others, including Ximena’s father, who remains in custody by Stewart. “I was seven when my visa expired. What did I do about it?” Marcelo told the NBC audience.
Ximena told the Senate Judiciary Committee:
“I’m tied up in my wrists, hips and ankles. That’s something I’ll never forget. It was dehumanization. And even worse, I know that millions of others will go through and continue to experience the same trauma.”
Marcelo and Ximena were unable to benefit from the Deferred Litigation (DACA) initiative for the Pediatric Agricultural Arrivals (DACA) Initiative as they came to the United States after eligibility reduction dates and court orders prevented expansion.
The Trump administration uses more stringent measures than ever in its efforts to achieve massive deportation, making it inevitable that young dreamers who have long considered the United States as their home are facing deportation to a country they don’t know.
Submitted below: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump Administration
