As immigration sweeps spread fear, activists and sheriffs unite to protect neighbors by CEDickson
“They dress in plain clothes, never wear uniforms,” community organizer Laura Garduño Garcia told the two dozen attendees, mostly women and a few men and children, who sat attentively in a semicircle of folding chairs in the multipurpose room of a Quaker meetinghouse in Greensboro, N.C., on a recent Saturday.
Though popular in the communities, these moves prompted a backlash from federal immigration officials, who say they were forced to step up enforcement, including a four-day operation in February that resulted in the detention of 200 undocumented immigrants from across North Carolina. “It paralyzes us,” said one woman at the Siembra meeting, as the conversation turned to the spread of rumors on Facebook about supposed ICE activity. Many in the group nodded in agreement as she and others described hours of self-imposed house arrest because of an unsubstantiated Facebook post claiming ICE agents had been spotted in the parking lot of a Walmart or near a housing complex.
“We want people to feel empowered and powerful, not anxious and afraid. and that they can train other people on that same thing and think, We are not just resilient but we are powerful,” said Willis Garces. Across the country, ICE arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions have skyrocketed under President Trump, more than tripling during the first 14 months of his presidency, according to ICE data initially reported by NBC News in August.
McFadden acknowledges he “made a statement,” but the media-savvy sheriff, easily recognizable in his tailored, three-piece suit and designer shoes, insists his position on ICE “isn’t about politics.” Now, sheriff’s deputies will no longer carry out ICE duties, such as questioning inmates about their immigration status to determine if they are in the country illegally, nor will an ICE agent be stationed inside the Mecklenburg County jail.
For McFadden, ending 287 was simply a necessary step toward rebuilding trust between his office and the immigrant community. “We don’t know how to thank him,” said Marlene Serafin Silva, who volunteers in the kitchen at Our Lady of Guadalupe. “We feel more secure with him.” Unlike traditional worksite raids, these community-based operations have been carried out through traffic stops and other seemingly random encounters with plainsclothes agents in unmarked cars. They’ve also been marked by notably high numbers of what ICE refers to as “collateral” or “at large” arrests of undocumented immigrants not actually targeted by ICE but, as Gallagher put it during his press conference on the North Carolina raids, were just “in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the complaint, initially filed on behalf of two longtime Chicago residents arrested in that sweep, NIJC noted that language in ICE’s press release announcing results of the Chicago operation echoed those released following similar actions in Los Angeles, New York, Northern California and Philadelphia. Like Gallagher’s comments following the North Carolina raids , ICE’s press releases also seemed to blame those cities’ policies for forcing ICE to take its enforcement to the streets.
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