When Donald Trump throws ICE at your company
If an institution has had a lot of work during the current administration, it has been The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since Donald Trump seized the power, the federal law enforcement agency has had to fulfill several orders of the US president. Without intending to, Thomas Hofman, ICE’s head, has become the chief custodian of the US president. The attitude of ICE recalls, to a large extent, the years in which the Gestapo persecuted the Jews during Nazi Germany. On this occasion, an immigration raid took place at a meat processing plant in the state of Tennessee. So far 97 people were arrested.
In what has been considered the largest anti-immigrant operation in the United States in a workplace, during this administration, 86 migrants were captured because they were in the country illegally. Tammy Spicer, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the press that other eleven people were also arrested for criminal offenses, of which ten were workers arrested for federal crimes and another one for a state charge, while of the 86 detainees held for deportation proceedings, ICE released 32 and left the remaining 54 in custody.
The operation followed a complaint from a special agent who reported that the company was violating federal laws by hiring migrants without the work documentation the United States requires, therefore they incurred on the crime of tax evasion. The undercover agent was hired by the firm using a false name and was paid in cash, according to the document.
In states like California, ICE has also worked like hell. A few months ago around 77 restaurants and businesses were requisitioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in search of illegal workers in private establishments in cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and others. Remind that the president has promised to sanction with fines of up to $ 10,000 dollars to those who lodge emigrants in their work centers. The chain of stores 7-11 has been other one that has suffered the raid of ICE agents.
These raids are part of the multiple human rights violations and abuse of power of Donald Trump who has reinforced his interest and measures to expel migrants, especially of Latino origin. Jessie Hahn, a lawyer of the National Immigration Law Center, said the arrests are part of Trump's agenda to reinforce the application of mass deportations.
The operation at Southeastern Provision, the meat processing plant at Bean Station, will not be the latest ICE forces’ round up to stop and return illegal people to their homelands. These days, ICE has made headlines; ICE is not only operating in several states, but also is strengthening the numbers of its agents in border controls and in Texas, California, and Arizona, states with a high number of Latino origin people, and hence, with a tendency to have more illegal inhabitants.
Several activists have described Trump as despot and tyrant, arguing precisely the executive seeks to instill fear among the undocumented, in addition to launch an alert to those who plan to arrive illegally to the nation. Raids on the work centers is another repression measure of the New York’s tycoon against the emigrants, as is also his pretensions to eliminate DACA. The "without mercy" message is made clear in every action of his repressive arm: The ICE.
Among the multiple measures Donald Trump has taken to stop migrants is the militarization of his beloved wall, whose construction will begin very soon.