Criminalization of Immigrants

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in southern California in the last two weeks. According to ICE, 90% of those had criminal records or had deportation orders. I know that most people reading the above stop at "criminal records" and don't really register "deportation orders." Consequently, they then equate immigrant and criminal.

If you read the article carefully, you'll see that 800 were already in jail. Immigrant men are less likely to be incarcerated than native born men. I wouldn't be surprised if the 800 taken from prisons were most of the undocumented in those prisons to begin with. Also, the fact that they were already incarcerated means that they didn't present a threat to the larger community. The article doesn't state why they were in jail, it could be any criminal offense.

So, if you subtract the 800 from the total of 1,300 there are 500 immigrants left. According to ICE, 146 were "collateral arrests". In other words, unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and unable to prove their legal status.

So now we are down to approximately 350 immigrants who had outstanding deportation orders. ICE and the media make is sound as if those who don't cooperate with deportation orders are just mocking the laws of the United States. What many people don't realize is that the 350 probably crossed into the U.S. by land and were soon apprehended by border patrol and let go with the promise of their presence at a hearing. Many immigrants are on their way somewhere else, don't have an address, move many times and probably don't know English. When DHS sends them a notice, they either don't receive it or can't read it. The result being that they fail to appear in court, which sets off a default warrant for deportation.

If the criminalization weren't enough, they have to throw in the "terrorist" card.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, pressure has been growing on the federal government to crack down on illegal immigrants, especially those who have committed crimes. And ICE has been waging a public relations battle to show that it is addressing the problem.

Addressing the problem of terrorism? How? By going after the single mother of two children who works in a meat packing plant? Or the couple who work side by side in a field all day so that we can keep eating strawberries at such low prices? Oh, wait, no, no, ICE must be talking about the 19 year old kid prepping in a restaurant basement, sending back half of what he earns so that his younger siblings might have a chance at an education that he can't have because NAFTA destroyed his country's economy.

Please people, we are smarter than this. Speak up!