DACA

EDITORIAL | ICE Eschews Accountability

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Tuesday’s reported arrest of a man in downtown Ithaca by U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement is the latest example of the federal overreach and lack of accountability characteristic to the Trump administration. Under President Trump, arrests by ICE have increased 47 percent, and arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal records have increased a staggering 179 percent. ICE continues to show a blatant disregard for human dignity, arresting parents dropping their kids off at school, students going to high school prom and patients emerging from operating rooms. On Jan. 16, ICE arrested a Michigan doctor and lawful permanent resident, and have initiated deportation proceedings against him based on two misdemeanor charges from nearly three decades ago, when the man was a teenager. How does that make us safer?

arrest

EDITORIAL: ICE Arrest Shows Limits of Sanctuary Cities

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Last Wednesday, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 32-year old Mexican national and Ithaca resident Jose L. Guzman. The event was confirmed and only widely spread once reporters investigated the swift and shocking arrest, a bleak reminder that federal agencies are operating faster than ever under the auspices of the  current administration. ICE has become more active over the past few months, increasing their arrests by a staggering 32.6 percent only a few weeks after Trump assumed the presidency. Under the Obama administration, federal agents were directed to focus on serious criminals  — now, empowered by the new administration, ICE is increasingly merciless in its efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, even those with no criminal record. “Before, we used to be told, ‘You can’t arrest those people,’ and we’d be disciplined for being insubordinate if we did…Now those people are priorities again,” a 10-year veteran of the ICE agency admitted to The New York Times.