Governor questions ICE officers' actions
Virginia's governor wants a meeting with immigration officials.
An NBC Washington station reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents questioned and detained several men as they were leaving a church that doubles as a hypothermia shelter in the Alexandria area, just south of Washington, D.C.
In response, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has asked for a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. "President Trump recently signed an executive order giving ICE agents much broader discretion with respect to which individuals they may target for removal from the country," McAuliffe noted in an open letter posted on the commonwealth's website. Unlike previous actions, the governor added, "ICE agents are detaining Virginia residents without cause or specific allegations of criminal activity."
McAuliffe's letter questions whether Homeland Security and ICE are targeting "places of worship and other sensitive locations," and whether they have increased operations in Virginia since the beginning of the Trump administration.
"Law enforcement relies on trust and engagement with people from the communities they serve so that crimes are properly reported and all people are protected by the law, no matter who they are. That work will be significantly impaired if reports like this are true and individuals from these communities no longer feel safe interacting with law enforcement, government agencies, schools or churches for fear that they will be randomly targeted for deportation."
Questions about whether officials have stepped up attempts to deport undocumented immigrants have also followed other reports during the past week. For example:
- In Arizona, a woman was deported to Mexico, leaving behind her American-born children and husband, the Reuters website reports.
- In Seattle, immigration officials have detained a 23-year-old who had participated in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals federal program to protect those brought to the U.S. illegally as children, according to the The Associated Press.
- In Denver, a woman threatened with deportation has taken refuge in a church. See the report on The New York Times website.
During his run for the presidency, Donald Trump promised to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and led crowds in "build the wall" chants. But the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico has declined and the overall number of unauthorized immigrants has stabilized since the end of the Great Recession, according to the Pew Research Center.
Related:
Child refugees: U.S. on wrong side of history
Candidates haggle over citizenship question
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