Regarding U.S. citizens who were involved in recent immigration enforcement efforts, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is requesting that the Trump administration provide some clarification.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, ranking member of a subcommittee, requested an accounting of immigration enforcement activities involving U.S. residents since January 20 in response to an NBC News investigation.
A letter signed by Jayapal, D-Wash., whose subcommittee is in charge of immigration, and Raskin, D-Md., made the request. It was forwarded Tuesday to Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Caleb Vitello and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. NBC News was initially given a copy of the letter.
According to Raskin’s statement to NBC News, “you’re going to sweep up a lot of innocent people, including innocent citizens, if you’re not out looking for criminals based on crimes committed but undocumented immigrants based on their appearance.” Racial and ethnic profiling has already resulted in the wrongful detention of American citizens. Because of this, I’m calling for answers about some of the extremely alarming reports that we’ve heard of Americans being singled out, arrested, and interrogated.
The congressmen pointed out that ICE cannot use its civil immigration enforcement jurisdiction to detain or arrest a U.S. citizen in accordance with a 2015 ICE policy pertaining to investigations of U.S. citizens. According to the letter, ICE officers, agents, and lawyers must treat the encounters with the highest priority and utmost care.
According to the lawmakers’ letter, this principle is crucial to preventing the government’s increasing attack on immigrants from turning into a steamroller that violates the rights of American residents.
A request for comment from NBC News on Tuesday was not immediately answered by ICE or the Department of Homeland Security.
Recent incidents have sparked allegations that ICE is targeting certain individuals based on their race or skin tone, a practice known as “racially profiling.”
According to Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, off-reservation Navajo residents had complained about ICE officers asking them personal questions late last month. Nygren made a radio broadcast discussing the grievances.
According to a business owner in New Jersey where ICE performed a raid, one of his Puerto Rican and veteran employees was forced to present identification to officers. NBC News was unable to get in touch with the veteran. The owner is reportedly refusing media interviews, according to staff members who took calls at his company on Tuesday.
The Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico said that an ICE agent who spoke Spanish to one of its members had approached them, despite the letter’s omission of this information. Speaking English, the Mescalero Apache member informed the ICE agent. According to the tribe’s release, the ICE agent then requested his passport.
When NBC News asked ICE last week about the detention of the veteran and the Navajo civilians, ICE did not answer.
A January Telemundo Puerto Rico story that a toddler, his mother, and grandmother in Milwaukee were arrested and taken to a detention facility was also included in the lawmakers’ letter.Since then, ICE has denied that the claim was accurate.
The letter requests information from ICE and DHS by 5 p.m. on February 18 regarding the total number of detained U.S. citizens, their names and ages, the location and duration of their detention, whether any of them had a criminal record and the nature of the offenses, if any, and the names of all the agencies participating in the enforcement action.
Legislators also inquire as to whether ICE’s policy on interactions with U.S. nationals is still in force and, if not, what guidelines or protocols it has in place. In addition, they inquire as to whether rules and procedures have changed since the instances of the previous month.
In past administrations, congressional investigations have been prompted by concerns regarding ICE encounters with U.S. citizens. ICE apprehended 674 possible U.S. citizens, jailed 121, and removed 70 between October 1, 2015, and March 2020, according to a study released by the Government Accountability Office under the Biden administration. According to the report, ICE did not adequately log its interactions with U.S. citizens at the time and had contradictory regulations regarding questioning them.