ICE Can’t Be Reformed

Biden has taken action to reverse, or at least put a hold on, some problematic Trump-era immigration policies, but these actions are facing obstruction. A federal judge in Texas blocked his attempt to put a 100-day moratorium on deportations, however, as reported by Julian Borger in The Guardian, “the judge did not block guidelines laid down by the then acting secretary of homeland security, David Pekoske, which… stipulated that deportations should be limited to suspected terrorists, convicted felons deemed a ‘threat to public safety,’ and migrants who arrived after 1 November last year.” Despite this, “deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the Biden administration’s orders.”

Congressman Mondaire Jones has denounced ICE as a “rogue agency,” referring to the continuing deportations, as well as the specific case of the deportation of Paul Pierrilus, a financial consultant from New York, who was put on a flight to Haiti on Feb. 2, although he has never been there, and is not a citizen of Haiti. Pierrilus had previously been taken off of a deportation flight due to an intervention by Congressman Jones, who spoke against the actions taken by ICE recently, saying, “Unfortunately, Paul’s story is not uncommon. Black immigrants have been disproportionately targeted and deported by our racist, inhumane immigration system, particularly in recent weeks.”

Borger sought comment from the National Security Council, but was referred from the State Department to the Department of Homeland Security, who apparently failed to respond.

On Monday, Feb. 1, migrant rights groups “presented fresh allegations to the DHS of what they described as torture of Cameroonian asylum seekers,” actions being carried out to force detainees to waive their rights to “further legal process” before being deported. Borger’s report in The Guardian contains the harrowing story of an asylum seeker identified as HT who was being restrained by ICE agents in a manner that cut off his breathing. HT gave a statement about his experience, which ends with a description of a situation which is all too common with American law enforcement: “I was gasping for air. I told them: ‘Please, I can’t breathe.’ I asked them to release me. They said that they didn’t care; what they need is my fingerprint.”

This is not the first time that reports of abuse at the hands of ICE agents being carried out against Cameroonian asylum seekers specifically have surfaced. Another report by Julian Borger from October of 2020 describes similar brutality:

“According to multiple accounts, detainees were threatened, choked, beaten, pepper-sprayed and threatened with more violence to make them sign. Several were put in handcuffs by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and their fingerprints were taken forcibly in place of a signature on documents called stipulated orders of removal, by which the asylum seekers waive their rights to further immigration hearings and accept deportation.”

It should be mentioned here that, as a report from from the Southern Poverty Law Center and Freedom for Immigrants explains of the Cameroonians’ situation, “All of the complainants are seeking asylum in the U.S. and face life-threatening consequences if deported to Cameroon.”

Readers may also recall the stories that surfaced in late 2020 of hysterectomies being given without consent at an ICE facility, and are likely aware of the family separations. Perhaps you have also heard some of the other reports ranging from ignoring serious medical issues to “placing detainees in segregation if they made too many medical requests.”

A briefing document released by the Biden administration claims that he aims for an immigration policy “centered on the basic premise that our country is safer, stronger, and more prosperous with a fair, safe and orderly immigration system that welcomes immigrants, keeps families together, and allows people — both newly arrived immigrants and people who have lived here for generations — to more fully contribute to our country.”

If this is truly how he feels, one way he could work to implement such policy would be to support efforts to abolish ICE. The agency has only been in existence since 2003, and since then it has caused so much harm that another report, this one from AVID, concluded “that ICE detention is impervious to reform,” further noting that “prior reform attempts made the situation worse.”

A quote from one of the AVID report’s co-authors, Margaret Brown Vega, sums up the situation quite well. Referencing an El Paso area ICE detention facility and speaking about efforts at reform, she said, “There is no way to do that, and I think people need to take a step back and say that we really just need to end immigration detention. Places like Otero should not exist.”

Further reading:

What “Abolish ICE” Really Means from CounterPunch.org

Why America Still Needs to Abolish ICE from Common Dreams