DREAM Turns Nightmare: ICE Detains Up to 20 DACA Youths

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Immigration activists say federal agents nationwide have detained up to 20 individuals with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protection in recent weeks and months.

The activists on Thursday questioned the legality of the arrests given the so-called “Dreamers” recently had secured from the U.S. government renewal of their status – which includes a review of whether they had committed crimes since they last showed up to immigration court.

DACA is an Obama-era program that suspended the deportation of more than 600,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States by their relatives before age 15. The program allows them to apply for work permits.

The latest case brought to light took place in El Paso five weeks ago.

“On August 13, they tore our family apart, broke it into pieces,” said Alejandra, the wife of DACA recipient Pablo Gamez Lira. “Pablo was coming out of my mother-in-law’s house to take one of his children to a medical appointment. Seven civilians ambushed him without reason. They had no arrest warrant; they carried no identification. They dragged him from his car and took him away violently in front of his children.”

Alejandra said she found her husband at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Otero County, New Mexico.

“Yesterday, I visited him in detention. His spirit is broken. He feels he has no control and feels betrayed by the only country he calls home,” his wife said. “I share this because I refuse to allow my husband to be disappeared in silence. […] My children and I need him at home. Pablo should be freed.”

Previously, ICE said any immigrant who commits a crime or is later found to have a criminal record is subject to removal proceedings. Gamez is the second known DACA recipient to be arrested by immigration authorities in El Paso. On Aug. 3, Border Patrol agents took Catalina “Xochitl” Santiago into custody at El Paso International Airport for alleged past criminal charges of trespassing and suspicion of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia.

An immigration judge on Sept. 8 terminated Santiago’s case, but ICE immediately asked for the judge to recuse himself and for the court to reconsider his decision.

Deya Aldana, campaigns director for United We Dream, said “close to 20” immigrants with valid DACA protection have been apprehended by ICE during the Trump administration and are in removal proceedings.

“What we are seeing is a blunt and alarming escalation in an effort to chip away at and weaken DACA – not in one fell swoop, but piece by piece in hopes that the American people aren’t paying attention,” Aldana said Thursday in a Zoom call with reporters. “This affects all immigrants because if they come for someone with valid protections […] if they can do that and blatantly violate their rights, they will do that to more and more people.”

US Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, said the arrest of “Dreamers” shows how desperate the Trump administration is to execute campaign promises of mass deportations.

“What we have seen in practice is the vast majority of the people being rounded up who don’t have that violent, dangerous criminal history, they don’t have violent felony convictions on their records. It turns out it is a lot of people who are hard-working,” Padilla said.