Praise and Fury over Federal Agency Collaboration Targeting Immigrants

The revelation, on Tuesday, that federal agencies have been working together to arrest and then deport undocumented immigrants who go to interviews seeking legal residency has been slammed by leaders of the Democratic Party but praised by those who want to see stronger enforcement of existing immigration laws.

US Representative, Michael Capuano called the practice ‘horrendous’ and wrote to express his concerns to Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. On Tuesday, the Globe revealed that US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for the processing of residency applications, has collaborated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that enforces immigration laws, to arrange interviews for immigrants at government offices to arrest and in some cases deport them.

The interviews were set at the convenience of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and then deliberately spaced out to avoid media scrutiny. The immigrants usually already had final deportation orders in their names but were attempting to get legal status in the US because they were married to US citizens.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union and WilmerHale lawyers, who are representing many of the immigrants and their partners, filed details of the emails in court documents as part of their case against the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for overseeing ICE. ICE has been slammed over the revelations but claims it is just doing its job despite anti-ICE rhetoric from political opponents and that the practice is nothing new.