Beyond the Border: More ICE custody deaths, children struggling in immigration custody and the firing of the homeland security secretary
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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New lawsuits
Several organizations that support immigrant rights, including the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, have sued the federal government over an interim final rule that I recently wrote about that would get rid of Board of Immigration Appeals review in most cases.
Organizations that serve refugees, including San Diego’s Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, sued U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services over its policies that block processing of green card applications, work permits and other immigration benefits.
Children in custody
ProPublica reported that guards at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Dilley, Texas, that holds families are placing more restrictions on the parents and children in their custody, that they are eavesdropping and that they are confiscating art materials after the outlet reported on conditions in the facility.
NBC News obtained 9-1-1 call information related to the Dilley facility, including for children in respiratory distress or having allergic reactions.
ABC News reported that federal officials are coercing unaccompanied migrant children into giving up their cases and leaving the U.S.
Federal officials are moving pregnant girls in immigration custody to Texas to avoid providing abortions, The Guardian reported. Many of the girls, some as young as 13, are pregnant because of rape.
DHS personnel
President Donald Trump removed Kristi Noem from her position as secretary of homeland security, the Associated Press reported. She will have a new position in the administration called special envoy for The Shield of the Americas.
ICE is struggling to properly vet new hires given the push to rapidly increase the number of officers, Reuters reported.
Deaths in detention
Two more people died in ICE custody, bringing the total this year to 10.
Border Patrol agents had detained Alberto Gutierrez in the Los Angeles area, L.A. Taco reported. Though Gutierrez died on Feb. 27, ICE did not announce the death publicly until March 4.
The Arizona Daily Star reported that a Haitian asylum seeker named Emmanuel Damas died this week because of complications related to an infected tooth while in ICE custody. ICE had not yet acknowledged his death.
ICE hasn’t left Minnesota
Hundreds of immigration officials remain in Minnesota despite last month’s promise of a wind down of Operation Metro Surge, the News Tribune reported.
The Minnesota Reformer reported that the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is asking the public for evidence of wrongdoing by Gregory Bovino, head of the El Centro Border Patrol Sector, or other immigration officials.
ICE threats and violence
The Oregonian posted on Instagram an audio recording of a 9-1-1 call in which an ICE official tells the dispatcher that if police don’t come address the person following him, he will shoot the person.
L.A. Taco reported that an immigration official in Santa Ana pepper-sprayed community observers and used a kill switch to shut off the engine of an observer’s car.
News of the United States reported that ICE plans to spend $220 million on new Tasers for its officers.
Deportations
The federal government is trying to deport an adopted daughter of a U.S. veteran to Iran, NPR reported.
El Faro published a photo essay of people deported to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
The Guardian interviewed a Venezuelan student who fled his country because of political activism and who spent time at Otay Mesa Detention Center before the Trump administration deported him to a Salvadoran prison. When the outlet spoke with him, he was in Colombia.
Pushback
The Texas Tribune wrote about local opposition to border wall construction in the Big Bend region of West Texas.
Denverite reported that the city of Denver banned law enforcement officials — including federal immigration officials — from wearing masks to conceal their identities while on duty.
Other stories to watch
I wrote for Daylight that a San Diego activist who documents ICE activity was sentenced to 45 days of house arrest after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assault on a federal officer.
Two Haitian girls, ages 4 and 5, were found dead in a septic tank of a migrant shelter in Oaxaca, Mexico, The Haitian Times reported.
Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat who represents Massachusetts, brought a teen who was previously detained by ICE to the State of the Union speech at the Capitol building, but the Congressman’s staff had to escort the teen out after the Department of Homeland Security made a threatening post about him on X during the event, CBS News reported.
A journalist with L.A. Taco responded via Instagram to an accusation that a reporter had “generated” the controversy over the city of Escondido, California, contracting with ICE for use of the local police’s gun range. Despite public pushback, the City Council declined to change or cancel the contract, CalMatters reported.
Asylum approvals are dropping in immigration court because immigrants are too scared to attend their court hearings, the Los Angeles Times reported.
People from Afghanistan who supported U.S. troops there have been stuck in a U.S.-run camp in Qatar, and now they are seeing missiles overhead from the war with Iran, USA Today reported.
Thanks for reading! Take care and stay well.
— Kate
