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In this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, photo released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, foreign nationals are arrested during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles. Advocacy groups said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are rounding up people in large numbers around the country, with roundups in Southern California being especially heavy-handed, as part of stepped-up enforcement under President Donald Trump.
Undocumented immigrants without criminal records in Massachusetts are being arrested by federal authorities at a staggering rate under the Trump administration, causing civil rights attorneys to question whether the president’s tough-on-immigration stance has anything to do with crime.
“They say this is related to public safety or making us safe from terrorism, yet the statistics really undermine that claim,” said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice. “It’s disheartening, but it’s what people know and live every day in immigrant communities.”
Data released by U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement shows that during fiscal year 2017 — from October 2016 through September 2017 — 1,106 undocumented immigrants in the state without criminal records were administratively arrested by federal agents. At least 919 of those arrests occurred after Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.
During fiscal year 2016, 343 undocumented immigrants without records were arrested.
An administrative arrest is when an immigrant is detained for a civil violation of federal immigration laws. An immigration judge will then determine whether or not that person will be removed from the country.
All told, there were 2,834 administrative arrests in the so-called “Boston Area of Responsibility,” during fiscal year 2017. That’s almost 1,000 more than the 1,858 that were arrested during fiscal year 2016. According to a Boston police spokesman, the Boston Area of Responsibility includes all counties in Massachusetts.
“The way the administration is getting at this increase in arrests is by arresting people with no prior convictions,” said Laura Rotolo, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. “These are workers who overstayed a visa or are otherwise undocumented and are part of their communities. Now they have to worry about deportation more than before.”
The uptick in arrests — of both criminals and non-criminals — is the result of Trump’s Jan. 25, 2016, executive order “which set forth the Administration’s immigration enforcement and removal priorities,” according to a summary of ICE’s fiscal year 2017 data report. A Feb. 20, 2017, Department of Homeland Security memorandum laid out how the executive order would be implemented.
“The FY2017 statistics clearly demonstrate ICE’s continued commitment to identifying, arresting, and removing aliens who are in violation of U.S. law, particularly those posing a public safety or national security threat, while restoring fidelity to the rule of law,” the report summary states.
In this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, photo released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, foreign nationals are arrested during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles. Advocacy groups said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are rounding up people in large numbers around the country, with roundups in Southern California being especially heavy-handed, as part of stepped-up enforcement under President Donald Trump.
Undocumented immigrants without criminal records in Massachusetts are being arrested by federal authorities at a staggering rate under the Trump administration, causing civil rights attorneys to question whether the president’s tough-on-immigration stance has anything to do with crime.
“They say this is related to public safety or making us safe from terrorism, yet the statistics really undermine that claim,” said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice. “It’s disheartening, but it’s what people know and live every day in immigrant communities.”
Data released by U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement shows that during fiscal year 2017 — from October 2016 through September 2017 — 1,106 undocumented immigrants in the state without criminal records were administratively arrested by federal agents. At least 919 of those arrests occurred after Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.
During fiscal year 2016, 343 undocumented immigrants without records were arrested.
An administrative arrest is when an immigrant is detained for a civil violation of federal immigration laws. An immigration judge will then determine whether or not that person will be removed from the country.
All told, there were 2,834 administrative arrests in the so-called “Boston Area of Responsibility,” during fiscal year 2017. That’s almost 1,000 more than the 1,858 that were arrested during fiscal year 2016. According to a Boston police spokesman, the Boston Area of Responsibility includes all counties in Massachusetts.
“The way the administration is getting at this increase in arrests is by arresting people with no prior convictions,” said Laura Rotolo, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. “These are workers who overstayed a visa or are otherwise undocumented and are part of their communities. Now they have to worry about deportation more than before.”
The uptick in arrests — of both criminals and non-criminals — is the result of Trump’s Jan. 25, 2016, executive order “which set forth the Administration’s immigration enforcement and removal priorities,” according to a summary of ICE’s fiscal year 2017 data report. A Feb. 20, 2017, Department of Homeland Security memorandum laid out how the executive order would be implemented.
“The FY2017 statistics clearly demonstrate ICE’s continued commitment to identifying, arresting, and removing aliens who are in violation of U.S. law, particularly those posing a public safety or national security threat, while restoring fidelity to the rule of law,” the report summary states.