Washington, DC: Her wrists were shackled. her thigh. Her calfet.
Ximena Arias Cristobal, 19, is still haunted by the experience even after leaving immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) custody.
The Georgia college student said she is still struggling with how her life has changed almost a month after her arrest. She was stopped early in the morning for a quick red light crossing. She was soon aware that she was in a detention facility and was scheduled to appear in court.
I’ll never forget that experience,” she says. Arias Cristobal recounting her time spent at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, said at a news conference on Tuesday that it had left a lasting impression on both emotionally and mentally.
Knowing that millions of others have experienced and are still experiencing the same level of pain is what makes it hurt more, she added.
According to rights advocates, her case serves as an example of a “dragnet” deportation policy in the country, which targets people from all backgrounds regardless of their criminal history.
President Donald Trump had promised to “expel” “criminals” who were in the country “illegally” during his second campaign.
However, critics claim that immigration agents are targeting immigrants from a variety of backgrounds, despite the fact that they pose the least risk as he launches his “mass deportation” campaign from the White House.
According to Vanessa Cardenas, the executive director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group, “the quotas that they are pushing for]are] creating this situation on the ground where ICE is literally just trying to go after anyone they can catch.”
She explained that among the most vulnerable groups are young, undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers.”
“We’re getting long-established, deeply rooted Dreamers and other people who have been in the United States for a long time,” Cardenas explained.
a group at risk
Arias Cristobal, a 3.6 million people known as “dreamers,” is a devoted runner who attends Dalton State College and studies nbsp, finance, and economics. Many were brought here as children, some with family members, and others with their own.
The US government has struggled to deal with these young, undocumented arrivals for decades.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a new executive policy, was introduced by then-President Barack Obama in 2012. Younger immigrants who had been living in the US since June 2007 were granted temporary deportation protection.
DACA protection covers approximately 530, 000 Dreamers. However, TheDream’s leader, Gaby Pacheco, According to the US, that figure only accounts for a small portion of the population of young people who might be deported overall.
Some applicants arrived after the June 15, 2007, deadline for submission, while others were unable to apply. In recent years, new application processing has been halted. The federal court system is still flooded with legal disputes related to DACA.
“Sadly, there have been several Dreams in recent months. According to Pacheco, US scholars and alumni have been detained, detained, or even deported.
She noted that 90% of the Dreamers whose organizations support them in their first year of higher education are denied protections by DACA or other programs.
Overall, she claimed, the recent months have revealed the “painful truth” that “Dreamers are under attack.”
establishing quotas
However, Pacheco and others warn that the Trump administration’s initial months may be just a blip.
The Trump administration’s daily quota for immigration arrests increased from 1, 000 per day to 3, 000 last week, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
An estimated $150 billion in government funding would also be increased by the current draft of Trump’s budget, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, for deportation and other immigration-related activities. The Senate will likely consider the bill in the coming weeks because it narrowly passed the House of Representatives.
Even as supporters contend that Trump’s portrayal of the US as a nation overrun with foreign criminals is wildly out of step with reality, both actions could indicate a significant increase in immigration enforcement.
Undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes, including violent crimes, than US-born citizens, according to studies that have been done before.
Additionally, the availability of data backs up Trump’s claims that there are numerous undocumented criminal offenders in the country.
According to a report from the TRAC research project, the rate of arrests and deportations has remained roughly the same as it was when Trump’s predecessor, former president Joe Biden, took office.
His administration made an average of 778 immigration arrests per day between January 26 and May 3, during Trump’s first four months in office. That is only 2% higher than the typical figure for Biden’s final months, which were roughly 759.
Under Trump, there were actually fewer daily removals or deportations than under Biden.
“As more and more pushback”
Pacheco and Cardenas both warned that increasing the number of arrests and deportations could result in more desperate tactics.
A policy that forbids immigration enforcement in sensitive locations, like churches and schools, has already been reversed by the administration. Additionally, it sought to immediately deport alleged gang members without the aid of a law passed in the year 1798 and to revoke temporary protections that made it possible for some foreigners to remain in the nation legally.
The Trump administration has also pressed local authorities to coordinate with ICE in an effort to increase immigration arrests. According to section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the administration has so far delegated some immigration authority to local law enforcement, including the authority to make immigration arrests and elicit deportation screening.
In a series of traffic stops that resulted in nearly 100 immigration arrests in early May, the Tennessee Highway Patrol worked with ICE to coordinate the operation. In Massachusetts, ICE made 1,500 arrests in a further significant operation in the first half of June.
Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, an 18-year-old high school student who was traveling to volleyball practice, made a mass arrest in that incident. In Gomes Da Silva’s hometown of Milford, Massachusetts, his arrest sparked outcry and condemnation.
Cardenas cited those demonstrations as evidence of a growing opposition to Trump’s immigration policies as well as the overwhelming support for Arias Cristobal.
She said, “I believe we will experience more and more American pushback.”
