Damned if they do, damned if they don’t seems to be the new reality for immigrants hoping to stay in the United States of America legally. Afraid ICE will grab and disappear them if they show up for long-awaited court dates, many are just not showing.
As the room empties out, the judge says out loud that there are a number of no-shows that day. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, attorney in court files motions to remove five people “in absentia.” The judge grants it. Those people can now be deported.
A similar scene has played out, and increasingly so, in nearly every immigration court nationwide over the past year, according to immigration attorneys and NPR’s early analysis of court data. The results mirror those of Joseph Gunther, an independent researcher, who has also been tracking the data closely. More immigrants are not showing up for their mandatory immigration court hearings, allowing the government to order their immediate deportation.
“What happened is that the word spread that if you go to court, you could get picked up from ICE,” said Ruby Powers, an immigration lawyer based in Texas with cases all over the country.
Fear is how the Trump Administration intends to manage people seeking a better life in the United States. Also, making sure life here isn’t better seems to be at the top of their list. Who the government thinks will do the jobs the people they are deporting are willing to undertake remains a mystery. On one hand, they blame migrants for taking up all the wonderful housing that isn’t actually available, and on the other, they are so poor that they are responsible for all our crime. Nothing makes sense any longer; it is all just fear-mongering.
"Fear-mongering" is the new BRAND of the Republican party.
"They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats!".
Presidential Nominee Donald John Trump
September 10, 2024