Migrants should not speak without a lawyer with police, alert activists in the US

Jessica Xantomila and Emir Olivares

La Jornada newspaper
Monday, February 17, 2025, p. 8

The new antimigratorium policies of the Donald Trump administration have forced millions of migrants to change their daily lives in the United States.

They have been four weeks of fear and maintain A low profile (Even some try not to go to the streets) to avoid the raids of the elements of the United States immigration and customs control service (ICE).

People who participate in organizations that defend the rights of this sector in various parts of the US territory detailed this newspaper that among many migrants with irregular situation live with panic, particularly children and young people who think that their parents can be deported at any time.

They pointed out that ICE agents have used detention tactics abusive and human rights violations:

Civil and without identifying dresses act – as happened a few days ago in the taconganas taquería, in Tennessee -, question the detainees without the presence of a lawyer, enter restaurants and other public spaces, capture people near the migration cuts And they look for them in neighborhoods where there is a large Hispanic population, among other forms.

Although, they said, the magnate government tries to promote a narrative that arrests are from people with criminal records, have used that excuse to expand the apprehensions of those who It is suspected They are migrants just because of their skin tone or because they don’t speak English.

Dulce Guzmán, Executive Director of Alianza Américas, whose headquarters are in Chicago, said that ICE agents are using these practices for the pressure that the Trump government is imposing to reach certain deportation figures.

It is tried to encourage that those who have a criminal record, But we know that most of those who have arrested are not in that situation, have not committed crimes or have incidents in the past with the police or legal entities.

However, The authorities are using tactics to violate the rights of people. We are seeing that they are not being presented as ICE agents, although they must do it, and are forcing people to open the door of their homes, because they can enter.

América Carbajal, of Community Force in Action, in Denver, said that among the Hispanic Migrant Community There is a lot of fearbecause the elements of the ICE have not respected the laws to make arrests. People are not even going out, they just go to work and back home; Young people prefer not to go to school. The community has stopped making a normal life and has begun to show that low profilepoints out.

An element that this organization has detected is fear among the youngest, because they know that if they deport their mothers or fathers they would drift.

He even stressed, a woman – whose identity prefers to keep – recently handed her a letter so that, if deported, her husband or another person have a power to pick up her children from the school. Are thousands in that situationhe says.

Use against

Meanwhile, Abel Núñez, Executive Director of the Resource Center for Central Americans, based in Washington, explained that ICE troops are still looking for those who have deportation order, but unlike the previous government, now they also take those who cannot Check a regular immigration situation.

Any information that one contributes to officers can be used against. For example, if they are asked what country they are and migrants respond, they are already telling them that they are foreigners; That gives the migration police more ability to find if they are really regularly here. Because? Having coffee skin, not speaking English or speaking with accent is not enough elements to affirm that one is migrant.

In these cases, he advised, what should be said is: At this moment I will not answer your question, I am sticking to my right not to incriminate.

In turn, María Elena Valdivia, of the Alliance of Migrants and Minorities, based in Florida, indicated that ICE is entering neighborhoods where she knows that they live migrants.

While so far no raids have been given in schools, he stressed that in the Florida schools yes They are telling us that they can’t do anything and if migration arrives, they will have to give access to our children.

Activists recommended that people be prepared and informed, know the law, have support networks and not answer questions without the support of a lawyer so that those who are in a risk situation can defend themselves in due process, as the Constitution marks American.