“I don’t think we’re in the clear”: Immigrant community on edge despite ICE inaction

Though ICE raids were anticipated nationwide Sunday, immigrants’ rights organizations in Northern California saw no crackdown.

“I’m not at peace about the fact that nothing has happened,” said Ariana Martinez Lott, regional rapid response organizer for Faith in the Valley, a Central Valley–based organization. “I don’t think we’re in the clear.”

Calls to hotlines reflected panic and confusion in the immigrant community as the threat of deportation looms.

Organizers, spreading out to different congregations to educate individuals about what to do in an encounter with ICE agents, said it had never been so easy to catch people’s attention.

Over the past two years, fear of arrest has motivated undocumented individuals to avoid their churches, schools, clubs, hospitals, federal buildings and other public spaces, Martinez Lott said. “(The Trump administration) is trying to isolate our communities by instilling fear in them.”

“We see this a lot. Whenever Trump loses on an issue there’s a backlash on immigrants,” said Maricela Gutiérrez, executive director of SIREN, referring to the recent Supreme Court ruling against a Trump-backed citizenship question on the 2020 census. “Immigrants are scapegoats.”

Central Valley immigrants’ rights organizations like Faith in the Valley and Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network, or SIREN, have attempted to ease widespread fear by offering immigrants accompaniment and legal aid, encouraging them to go about their daily lives and informing them of their constitutional rights regardless of citizenship status.

But as community mobilization has strengthened, ICE agents have grown more aggressive, advocates said.

Since more people know they aren’t legally required to permit ICE agents entry into their residences, agents have instead waited for people on their streets, in their driveways and at their cars, advocates said.

Martinez Lott recounted an incident where a woman eight months pregnant opened the door to ICE agents who threatened her with a gun when she refused to disclose her brother’s location.

Maricela Gutiérrez, executive director of SIREN, said parents had been removed from cars while attempting to send their children to school, leaving children stranded in the vehicle.

ICE officials did not respond to an email seeking comment on possible activity Sunday.

Last year Fresno County saw a series of arrests at its Superior Court that have continued in spite of a September 2018 directive from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra that curbed immigration enforcement activity in state courthouses.

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims has butted heads with state law and local advocates for her cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. At a board of supervisors meeting on Aug. 7, 2018, immigrants’ rights advocates criticized what they said was her failure to comply with Senate Bill 54, which limits the use of state and local resources to carry out deportation.

“As a true representative of Fresno County, she needs to support all residents in her community, immigrant and non, and be accountable to the needs of the community,” Gutiérrez said.

“We comply with state law,” Mims said at the meeting. “We do not investigate or enforce immigrant law.”

Faced with more forceful immigration enforcement, SIREN and Faith in the Valley have ramped up immigrants’ rights education efforts. SIREN tells immigrants to check their surroundings before leaving home. Faith in the Valley role-plays arrests in order to preempt panic and misguided actions in the heat of the moment.

“I don’t want to scare people, but I’d rather have someone feel a little overwhelmed with me role-playing than them having to practice for the first time with ICE officials,” Martinez Lott said.

Martinez Lott and Gutiérrez both praised the strength of the immigrant community.

“These people are very strong,” said Gutiérrez. “They’ve been through so much. They’re really working from a place of knowledge and power.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2019 at 6:06 PM with the headline "“I don’t think we’re in the clear”: Immigrant community on edge despite ICE inaction."