Faces of Trump’s Mass Deportations
A little more than a month ago, the Democratic National Committee launched a program Tuesday that intends to shift the debate over President Trump’s immigration policy to the harm it is doing to communities and families. Called the “Faces of Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan,” DNC Chair Tom Perez said the new initiative will highlight the “real stories” of well-meaning immigrants that have been negatively impacted by the recent immigration crackdown. Here is a sample:
Faces of Trump’s Mass Deportations
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Roberto Beristain arrived to the United States in 1998 through a Mexican border crossing. He was deported Wednesday despite having no criminal record, a family attorney says (CNN) |
UPDATE – DEPORTED: CNN: Roberto Beristain – husband of Trump voter, no criminal record
Helen Beristain voted for Donald Trump even though she is married to an undocumented immigrant. In November, she thought Trump would deport only people with criminal records – – people he called “bad hombres” – – and that he would leave families intact. “I don’t think ICE is out there to detain anyone and break families, no,” Beristain told CNN affiliate WSBT in March, shortly after her husband, Roberto Beristain was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Wednesday, Beristain was proven wrong as ICE split her family across two countries. Roberto Beristain, 44, was deported back to Mexico despite having no criminal record, family attorney Adam Ansari said.
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Estefany Ortiz discussing ICE’s arrest of her father at their home. (CBS) |
NEW: CBS: Carlos Ortiz – father, arrested even though ICE was looking for another man
Nineteen-year-old Estefany Ortiz says Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to her house in Pasadena, California, last month looking for someone who did not live there. They arrested her father, Carlos Ortiz, instead. He was in the country illegally, but had no criminal record. “Why did we open the door,” Estefany said. “Nobody is going to want to open the door. Everyone is scared.”
NEW: ABC 11 (Raleigh-Durham, NC): Edwin Guillen – 26-year-old painter, no criminal record
Edwin Guillen has lived in Durham for four years, and works as a painter. The 26-year-old has no criminal record. His attorney, Becky Moriello, questions why he was detained by immigration officers in the first place. “The fact that he is brown or the fact that he does not speak English does not mean that he is necessarily an immigrant,” Moriello said… Thursday, Moriello, argued in court filings that Guillen was a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time – since he was not initially accused of any crime, nor does he have a past criminal record.
NEW: WBUR (Boston, MA): Green Card applicants
Five people were arrested and detained yesterday at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Lawrence when they showed up for scheduled appointments. Some were looking to begin their green card application process.
NEW: BBC: Jose Coyote Perez – father of 4, New York resident for 17 years, no criminal record
Mr. Perez is a dairy farm employee and an advocate for migrant workers…Born in Mexico, he has lived in Livingston County, New York, for 17 years and has four children, three of whom are US citizens. Mr Perez had a deportation case against him that was administratively closed in September 2016. He had no criminal record, and possessed a social security number, and a work permit. When Ice officials asked him to come into a local office for a routine check-in this year, he was subsequently detained.
NEW: NPR: Deportation Fears Prompt Immigrants To Cancel Food Stamps
Groups that help low-income families get food assistance are alarmed by a recent drop in the number of immigrants seeking help. Some families are even canceling their food stamps and other government benefits, for fear that receiving them will affect their immigration status or lead to deportation. Many of the concerns appear to be unfounded but have been fueled by the Trump administration’s tough stance on immigration. Officials at Manna Food Center in Montgomery County, Md., report that about 20 percent of the 561 families they have helped apply for food stamps, or SNAP benefits, in the past few months have asked that their cases be closed.
The Atlantic: Natividad Gonzalez – mother of 2, fears deportation and leaving young, U.S. citizen daughters behind in America
When Natividad Gonzalez packs her daughters’ homework and lunches for school each morning, she slips a freshly charged cell phone into her eldest child’s bag. The 11-year-old knows the plan: If she and her younger sister, age 8, walk home from the bus to find an empty house, she’s supposed to call Gonzalez’s friend who will come get them. Her daughter also knows the combination to the family safe, inside which is an ATM card and a quickly drafted power-of-attorney letter granting custody to the family friend in case Natividad and her husband are arrested and sent back to Mexico. “These are things that an 11-year-old shouldn’t have to be thinking about,” says Gonzalez, age 32, who came to Clanton, Alabama with her husband nearly 13 years ago, and is still undocumented.
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Juan Vivares, 29, an electrician in the Bronx, was detained after meeting with immigration agents on Tuesday. (New York Times) |
New York Times: Juan Vivares – father, escaped expected murder in Colombia, faces imminent deportation
Juan Vivares, 29, a Colombian electrician who was caught crossing the southern border into the United States illegally in 2011 and was ordered deported after losing his bid for asylum. He said he had come to the United States to escape paramilitary forces in Medellín who had tried to kill him over his political work for a mayoral candidate. Mr. Vivares’s lawyer, Rebecca Press, has asked immigration agents to delay his deportation for family reasons, explaining that he is needed to care for the baby he has with his wife, Yahaira Burgos, an American citizen who works overnight shifts as a doorwoman at an apartment building on the Upper East Side. But his previous appeals for leniency have failed.
The Atlantic: Graciela – mother of 3, fear of deportation taking toll on health
Graciela, a 51-year-old mother of four who declined to give her last name, made a plan to leave her two teenagers, ages 13 and 14, with her 24-year-old daughter, if she’s forced to return to Mexico after living in Phoenix since 2004. “I want them to be able to finish their studies, but she won’t be able to handle them for very long,” says Graciela. “She has two kids of her own, and it’s a lot to ask her. I’ve got to be prepared to take them back with me.” Graciela is also devastated by the idea of leaving her older children behind. “I can’t imagine not seeing my grandkids grow up,” she says. “Since Trump became president, I’m so depressed. I’m eating out of control, and I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. I have bags under my eyes. It’s really starting to wear on me.”
KJ