ICE raids have increased in frequency and aggression in the past few weeks, especially in Chicago where agents raided an apartment building with a helicopter in the middle of the night. Not only are ICE tactics becoming more militarized, they’ve become shockingly indiscriminate ever since SCOTUS effectively legalized racial profiling.
Jen is joined by immigration law and policy expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick to explain how ICE has shifted away from its previous M.O. of investigative, targeted arrests and is now employing raids at work sites and Latino communities to conduct mass arrests. Because the agency has slashed recruitment requirements in an effort to get more bodies out on the streets, officers are inadequately trained, leading to even more chaotic enforcement measures.
Jen and Aaron also bring into question the fairness of the immigration court system given the fact that Trump has been purging immigration judges appointed by Biden or those with less aggressive tactics. Finally, Aaron clarifies that even though it is technically legal to send deportees to a country the person has no history with (such as sending Venezuelans to Sudan), no other administration besides this one has ever deployed the tactic due to its overt cruelty.
To visit the Deportation Data Project, click here.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick is a Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council. He previously worked as a Staff Attorney at the Council, working on impact litigation, Freedom of Information Act litigations, and practice advisories. Prior to joining the Council, he was an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow placed as a Staff Attorney at the Immigration Law Unit of The Legal Aid Society in New York City, representing immigrants placed in removal proceedings because of a prior criminal conviction.
