By Rajwa Quasim
A growing number of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across United States is raising alarm among immigrant communities. The latest incidents illustrate how ICE has intensified its tactics, sweeping up people both at home, worksites and airports to meet the administration’s deportation targets.
In West Seattle, Stacey Fitzpatrick is racing to help her husband Eduardo Aquirre Esparza, after ICE agents arrested him on July 23. When arrested by the officials, he was working at a jobsite near 41st Avenue and Juneau Street. Fitzpatrick believed that the agents followed her husband from a nearby Home Depot to the work site, where they arrested him. She said, “I have to fight for him because they’re moving fast,” describing how adrenaline has carried her through an ordeal she had feared but hoped that would never happen.
Aguirre Esparaza, an undocumented immigrant, lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years. According to his wife, he has a pending application for a green card. Video of his arrest was shared by U.S. Senator Patty Murray, urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to return him to Washington.
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DHS has refused, saying Aguirre has a previous conviction for driving under the influence in Kansas. To which his wife said, “he has never lived in Kansas.”
“Honestly, he probably doesn’t even know that state exists. He doesn’t know geography,” she added.
KUOW reviewed his background check, it said Esparza only had a traffic citation from 2015 that has been resolved.
Currently, Esparza is being held at an ICE detention facility at ERO El Paso Camp, East Montana after being transferred through multiple ICE facilities. He recalls incidents at the center. He said, “They started to press me very hard, telling me to sign the voluntary papers to get out of the country. […] I tell them I don’t want to sign anything, and I say no. I have my rights and I tell them I really want to talk with my lawyer and my wife, and they say no. You have to sign the papers right now. […] Those of us with clean records are given a blue wristband. Others get green wristbands. People who have had problems such as domestic violence, police-related offenses, or other legal issues are classified differently. They separate everyone into different rooms. Those with blue wristbands stay in one area, those with green are in another. Everyone has their assigned place.”
The case has hit legal roadblock as Esparaza isn’t appearing in the ICE system under his A-number and he must be present in person for an upcoming hearing scheduled for August 6.
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At the same time, airport arrests have emerged as a new focus of federal immigration enforcement. CNN reported that ICE agents have detained travelers at airports in several states including California, Virginia, Nevada, and Texas. A DHS spokesperson said in a statement to CNN that “this administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport.”
“Not that an airport is a sacred place, but for sure, enforcement at airports is nothing we’ve ever seen, neither is cooperation between TSA and ICE,” said Jeff Joseph, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He further added, “That’s the mousetrap. That’s the cheese. If the new expectation is that if you have a pending application, you can’t travel … that would be very, very new.”
According to a Homeland Security spokesperson, the department has deported nearly one million undocumented immigrants as of July 12. ICE is facing pressure to hit the Trump administration’s goal of roughly 2,000 arrests per day.