Beyond the Border: Deaths in a train car, a police warning about ICE recruitment and an arrest warrant for ICE
Here's what happened this week in immigration news.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
Welcome to another edition of Beyond the Border, which summarizes immigration news from across the country in a weekly roundup. Did I miss something? Message me via kate@daylightsandiego.org or on Instagram.
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A deadly journey home
Los Angeles Times reported that seven migrants died in a Union Pacific boxcar while trying to enter the U.S.
Laredo Morning Times reported that advocates are saying that border policies are pushing people to choose dangerous routes like this to avoid detection.
KABB reported that one of the men was trying to return to his family — including young children — after deportation.
Targeting DACA
A woman who had protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program was detained at her green card interview and deported, WIRED reported. The program, created by the Obama administration, provides protection from deportation and work permits for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials aggressively arrested another woman who had protection from deportation through DACA, breaking into her home in Tucson, the Arizona Republic reported. The agency made false claims about her to justify the arrest.
Consequences of deportation
The Atlantic reported that there is a growing family separation crisis caused by deportations of parents. Latino USA interviewed the reporter, Caitlin Dickerson, about why some families are choosing to “self deport.”
A toddler was abused and killed by a relative in the U.S. after ICE detained and deported his mother, The Washington Post reported.
The Independent reported that ICE strapped down people for 51 hours on deportation flights that stopped in several countries.
Migrant Insider reported that ICE is planning to increase the fee to request a stay of deportation by $600.
Conditions in custody
Project on Government Oversight reported that the contracted medical provider at Camp East Montana has not changed despite repeated allegations of substandard medical care and several deaths.
A nonprofit owns Imperial Regional Detention Facility, an ICE detention center in Calexico, KPBS reported.
The California attorney general put out a 175-page report detailing conditions in ICE detention facilities in the state that violate the agency's own requirements.
Two brothers detained by ICE on their way to school recounted their experiences to Mississippi Free Press.
A 911 call revealed that federal immigration officials pepper sprayed detainees waiting to be deported from Arizona, the Arizona Republic reported. The spray caused one person to have a seizure.
Immigration courts
Immigration legal support organizations put out a warning on Instagram that courts are moving up hearing notice dates with little warning. It advises immigrants to check daily to make sure their cases have not moved.
ICE continued to make arrests at a New York City immigration court after a judge's order blocked the agency from detaining people who come for their hearings, The New York Times reported.
ICE use of force
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office issued an arrest warrant for the ICE official who shot a Venezuelan man and then lied about the circumstances, the Minnesota Star-Tribune reported.
WIRED reported that the owner of a company that trains ICE special response teams was himself involved in four lethal shootings.
The Guardian posted a video on Instagram interviewing a U.S. citizen who was arrested by ICE and charged with assaulting an officer.
Other stories to watch
An internal bulletin from Colorado police warned officers across the country that ICE recruitment materials produced by the federal government had so many references to White supremacist ideology that it could endanger the public by encouraging more violent extremism, The Intercept reported.
NPR's Code Switch podcast looked at why some Latinos want to join ICE.
Officials have been quietly conducting a large-scale immigration operation in Memphis since September, Mother Jones reported.
A man who called police for help in Florida was turned over by a sheriff's deputy to ICE, The Marshall Project reported.
The New Yorker took a deep dive into what an end to refugee resettlement processing has meant.
ProPublica reported that the Department of Homeland Security's pick for many of the border wall construction contracts has a questionable past, and another company has sued over the bidding process.
The Border Chronicle looked at what a recent Border Security Expo revealed about the externalization of the U.S. border.
Fifth grade classmates of a child detained by ICE on his way to school wrote letters to him every day while he was in custody, San Antonio Express-News reported.
Thanks for reading! Take care and stay well.
— Kate
