Mayors Complain ICE Raids Are Targeting ‘Hardworking Individuals’ Instead of Dangerous Criminals

A bipartisan group of mayors from across the United States say they are alarmed about the high-profile ICE enforcement actions targeting undocumented migrants in their respective cities.The mayors are considering a resolution at a Tampa meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors this week that calls on ICE to focus its deportation actions on migrants convicted of serious crimes and not on “undocumented hardworking individuals who have families, pay taxes, and contribute to their local communities.” They also want better coordination by federal agencies with local law enforcement.A May 30 raid in San Diego is being pointed to as a prime example of the sort of misstep by federal law enforcement being repeated at cities across the country. ICE agents raided a restaurant during a busy Friday dinner rush and targeted dishwashers and wait staff. “What happened there was not good to put it mildly,” the Democratic mayor of San Diego, Todd Gloria, says. “You had a large incursion into the restaurant. They stayed over an hour.”The raid drew the attention of people in the community and hundreds started protesting as ICE agents continued their operation inside the building. Local police were called due to the large crowd, and they showed up not knowing armed federal agents were at the scene.Mr. Gloria says the disturbance put local police, federal agents, and protesters in danger.Trump administration officials have demanded that 3,000 migrants be detained daily, but the numbers in the first several months of the administration have fallen well short of that goal. The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, and the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, reportedly complained to ICE leaders about the low level of arrests at a May 21 meeting.Since then, ICE roundups targeting places of employment where large numbers of the migrants are assumed to be working have been expanded.While the Department of Homeland Security has claimed ICE is targeting the “worst of the worst” for the roundups, government documents show only about 10 percent of the migrants taken into custody have been convicted of serious crimes, CNN reported. Many were longtime residents with jobs and families.The Republican mayor of Fresno, Jerry Dyer, says his region is the agricultural capital of the world and farms there rely heavily on immigrant workers to produce the crops. According to a Department of Agriculture estimate, nearly 40 percent of the American agricultural workforce is made up of workers who lack proper work authorization.Mr. Dyer says the ICE raids are not only threatening workers, they could cause disruptions in the food supply. Mr. Dyer also complained about the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles in the face of violent protests. President Trump ordered the deployment against Governor Newsom’s wishes.“They must be seen as a welcomed presence,” Mr. Dyer says. “They can not be seen as an occupying force. And, unfortunately, what we are seeing today in many cities across America, including L.A., is an occupying force.”He says the federal involvement is leading to an erosion of trust in all law enforcement and a reluctance among victims to come forward to report crimes.A former police chief, Mr. Dyer also says that tactical gear and camouflage shouldn’t be the day-to-day attire for the federal law enforcement officers carrying out immigration actions.The Democratic mayor of Tampa, Jane Castor, also a former police chief, says federal authorities are creating more problems than they are solving.“If we are looking for individuals who are committing crime in our communities — and everyone can agree that we do not want criminals in our communities, in our neighborhoods,” Ms. Castor says. “But if you go looking for immigrants as the cause of that crime, that is a fool’s path because immigrants are coming to this country, by and large, to realize the American dream.”The resolution the mayors are considering urges federal officials to notify local authorities in advance of any planned ICE action, and calls for raids to be conducted in as orderly and unprovocative ways as possible.“We can’t have federal agencies in our communities carrying out raids that we don’t know anything about,” Ms. Castor says.

Mayors Complain ICE Raids Are Targeting ‘Hardworking Individuals’ Instead of Dangerous Criminals

Mayors Complain ICE Raids Are Targeting ‘Hardworking Individuals’ Instead of Dangerous Criminals

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