The ACLU, the non-profit rights group whose membership and donations have surged since it launched legal actions against President Trump’s executive order limiting immigration, told ABC News today that it plans on creating a “rapid response team” to combat a potential rise in deportations under the current administration.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency operating under the Department of Homeland Security that is responsible for handling deportations, arrested more than 160 foreign nationals this week in Los Angeles, the majority of whom had criminal records.
ICE LA Field Office Director David Marin said in a press call that the raids conducted were not related to Trump’s executive order, and described them as being “nothing out of the ordinary.”
Between 2009 and 2015 the Obama administration removed more than 2.5 million people through immigration orders, shattering records, and earning him the nickname “Deporter in Chief” among rights groups and activists.
As recently as 2016, Obama drew sharp criticism from some Democrats over ordering raids that targeted women and children, according to Reuters.
But ACLU senior attorney Lee Gelernt told ABC News that while they were “not pleased” with Obama’s handling of deportation raids, his group is concerned that the Trump administration will expand those efforts.
The rapid response team would bring together the ACLU, private law firms and local community groups to ensure that individuals facing deportations have access to counsel right away.
“This administration is just getting started and we’re anticipating much worse,” Gelernt said in a phone interview, citing the language Trump uses about immigrants as his reasoning for his concern that Trump’s approach could be more severe than Obama’s. “His rhetoric is already scaring a lot of people in immigrant communities.”
In September, the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, the official union representing ICE’s 5,000 federal immigration officers and law enforcement support staff, endorsed Trump’s campaign for president. It was an endorsement that he highlighted frequently on the campaign trail.
The ACLU have received nearly $80 million in online contributions alone since the election, according to the Associated Press, which also reported that the group’s membership rates have doubled during the same time.
https://www.informedimmigrant.com/resources/
Trump did warn unnu from early so all who tan inna di people dem farrin country and dont sort unnu papers then unnu corna dark
Look here its not everyone can be sorted out because if u here n cannot show how u come u r in bad shape..they say u can pay a find if u married someone but its not that easy speaking from experience..mi hate the dog shit weh a run roun bout ICE is here n there in Jamaican community i dont see it on the news uno wicked dog shit uno. I am not going home f**k trump!!!met can u use ur platform to tell the unleash dog them stop the bullshit i am working my honest bread for me n my family i done live the carefree dancehall low lifestyle i work hard and associate myself with ppl who r going somewhere in life.
While I don’t like see people being sent home, why is some people keep talking say Obama dip nuff that naw help nobody now a company dem a look fi trump, they had criminal convictions most of them and when people talk to them dem tell them kinfolk go suck u mumma u a worship whiteman, it no change every one responsible for himself and do the crime do the time dance dem did deh pon, this is different all who no got record or cd a go home some gone, and we a brand name and everyone want to be us and this man not going by the books barak followed the law and some of who gone a dem same Jamaican dem rob and plunda, and kill, why u think some of us leff JA cause we want somewhere peaceful and decent fi wi family and lot of us f…..ked up admit it