NPR
By Jasmine Garsd
January 17, 2016
Late
last year, it was revealed that the Department of Homeland Security was
going to step up pursuit of people with deportation orders. Arrests
took place the first weekend
of January; DHS has confirmed that 121 people were detained in those
operations.
That
may not sound like much compared to the estimated more than 11 million
people living in the U.S. illegally. But the actions sent a chill
through the immigrant community's
spine and started the rumor mill churning.
One
of those communities is Langley Park, Md., a hub for Central American
immigrants. That's where I met up with Giovanni, at the parking lot of a
fast food joint. There,
he shows me pictures of his two sons, both U.S. citizens.
He says there's a conversation he's been having more frequently with his sister — a conversation about what he calls "Plan B."
"I
have a little money saved," he's told her. "The day I'm no longer here
or something happens to me, I want you to give it to them."
Giovanni
— who also goes by "Chocolate," a nickname he got back in Honduras —
jokes that if he gets caught by immigration authorities, he might try to
pass for African-American.
He worries a lot more about getting picked up than he used to. He says
he's constantly keeping his ear to the ground.
It
started the weekend of Jan. 2, when DHS stepped up enforcement
nationwide. Giovanni's phone started blowing up with calls from worried
friends.
"'Don't
come to Langley Park,'" he says they warned him. "'They're stopping
people. They just have to see you looking Hispanic, and they'll catch
you and send you back.'"
DHS
declined to be interviewed by NPR. In official statements, the agency
says most of the arrests took place in Georgia, Texas and North
Carolina. There haven't been
any confirmed arrests in Maryland. Still, a blanket of anxiety has
fallen over this community.
"Obviously
there is fear all over," says George Escobar, one of the leaders at
CASA of Maryland, an immigrant advocacy organization.
On
Jan. 1, the organization set up a hotline to field people's concerns
about immigration enforcement. He says CASA received as many as 150
calls a day at first. Many
of those callers claimed they saw DHS officers in the area, and
"immigration officials knocking on people's doors, entering into their
buildings, immigration vehicles parked in very public spaces in the
middle of the day."
Obviously there is fear all over.
George Escobar, senior director of health and human services for CASA of Maryland
On
the local Spanish language radio station, El Zol, host Pedro Biaggi
asks what's on everyone's mind: "If the cops suspect someone with a
deportation order is in the
house, they can just come in, right?"
"No," responds a CASA executive who is a guest on the program. In this country, he explains, authorities need a warrant.
Giovanni
has heard all this. He knows he is not a high priority for DHS
deportations. DHS is looking for recent arrivals, criminals and people
with deportation orders.
Giovanni doesn't fall into any of those categories.
"It's
still scary," he says. "Because I've heard of people getting picked up
in Langley Park and taken. I've never seen an immigration police car or
an immigration official.
I've seen it on TV, but never live. I haven't had the pleasure."
The deportations shouldn't be surprising, said DHS secretary Jeh Johnson.
"I
have said publicly for months that individuals who constitute
enforcement priorities, including families and unaccompanied children,
will be removed," he said. But
those "priorities" will focus on "convicted criminals and threats to
public safety."
For many people like Giovanni, even if he is a low priority, the fear is still real.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment