ICE: Still Out of Control

ICE has managed to stay mostly below the radar screen since leaving Minneapolis and changing leadership. It has apparently been far too easy for the administration to distract attention from the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, from the way ICE barged into people’s homes without search warrants, claiming it didn’t need them, from how people were separated from their families and how five-year-olds were used as bait to try to detain their parents. Immigration abuses rank high on the list of outrages committed by this administration. It’s dangerous to take our eyes off of what this administration is willing to tolerate in its drive for high deportation numbers.

Tuesday, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant in Houston, was fatally shot by an ICE agent who was trying to arrest him during a traffic stop. ICE says Araujo was in the U.S. without legal immigration status. They also said he refused to comply with officers.

Maybe that’s true. But we’ve heard it before. So many times, so many variants on “she weaponized her vehicle” or “he assaulted an agent,” when it turned out not to be false, that we cannot take what the federal government tells us at face value right now. There is no “presumption of regularity” when it comes to how employees acting at the direction of this administration behave, especially when it comes to tracking down, arresting, holding, and deporting people.

The statement ICE issued following Araujo’s death from injuries sustained during his confrontation with agents at a local hospital provided additional detail. Per ICE:

“From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”

Again, maybe it’s true. But we’ve heard it before when it hasn’t been. Video needs to be examined. This administration can no longer be trusted to clear its agents in civilian deaths before a full investigation is conducted. The government is supposed to be an extension of the people’s will, not an occupying, shooting force. ICE’s Inspector General is leading the investigation into the shooting, and the FBI has announced that its Houston office is investigating “the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”

Not much has emerged about Araujo’s story so far. But the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which litigates immigration issues, indicated that his family says he “was in the process of obtaining legal status in the U.S.” and that “He was picking up employees in a work vehicle during the traffic stop.”

Domingo Garcia, a Dallas-based attorney, politician, and former national president of LULAC who served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives called ICE an “out of control agency that requires oversight.”

ICE continues to arrest and use a mass detention policy, with frequent reports that people are held in harsh, unconstitutional conditions. The administration seems unconcerned and has done nothing to address the dozens of custodial deaths that have occurred and continue to occur.

That mass detention policy will be considered by the Supreme Court next term. There is a split in the circuit courts of appeal about its legality. In May, the Eleventh Circuit heard one of those cases, explaining why they are cropping up across the country: “The question we face today is whether unadmitted aliens found in the interior of the United States are eligible for bond while they go through immigration proceedings. For nearly thirty years, the answer to that question was, for most aliens, ‘yes.’ Last year, the Department of Homeland Security (‘DHS’) took a different view. It now maintains that these aliens must be detained without bond.”

By May of this year, 425 district courts had rejected the administration’s approach. Both the Eleventh and Second Circuits agreed. Forty-nine district courts signed off on the administration’s interpretation of the law, and the Fifth and Eighth Circuits sided with them. Cases have continued to percolate up through other circuits, with many decisions numbering into hundreds of pages as the nation’s lower courts were unable to find agreement on the issues.

On June 15, the Court agreed to hear Galano v. Black, where the issue is whether the government can indefinitely detain noncitizens with criminal histories without conducting bond hearings. The Second Circuit held that procedure is an unconstitutional violation of due process, but the administration maintains that the Immigration and Nationality Act mandates continuous custody. The case presents the Court with the opportunity to determine whether criminal aliens have a constitutional right to a bond hearing once their removal proceedings become “unreasonably prolonged,” but it’s unclear whether the Court will get to the substantive issues, because they’ve also asked the parties to brief whether the case is moot, because Black is no longer in custody.

On June 26, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to overturn a May ruling that struck down the no-bond policy. The administration wants the Court to permit it to detain people it arrests while deportation proceedings are underway, without any chance to be heard on a ​bond request, even if they have lived in the country for years. The government argued that “Detaining aliens who are living in the country after an illegal entry while their ‌removal proceedings unfold prevents those aliens from evading hearings and helps ensure their removal from the United States.” It will likely be late June next year before we hear from the Court on these issues.

As dangerous as it is for people to be held in immigration custody, it’s also not safe on the streets, as the death on Tuesday reminded us. ICE may be off our radar screen, but the agency still has not managed to prevent its agents from shooting people on American streets. Each shooting must be investigated individually to determine whether circumstances warranted it. But it’s a dangerous moment in American history when the presumption is we cannot trust law enforcement to tell us the truth about what happened. And that’s precisely where we are.

That’s why we can’t look away, even when the headlines move on. There is a pattern that repeats, including shootings, due process violations, the children and families who get caught up in it, and the courts trying to impose limits while the administration keeps pushing for more power. None of this is normal. Most importantly, none of it gets less dangerous because we get tired.

I’m committed to writing about these stories in Civil Discourse, reading the filings, following the cases, sorting out what the government claims from what the evidence shows, and explaining why it matters so we can all stay alert. Your paid subscriptions make that work possible, and I’m deeply grateful for your support. If you aren’t already, I hope you’ll become a paid subscriber.

We’re in this together,

Joyce