Sandusky, OH – Two years after immigration raids at Corso’s Flower and Garden Center and Fresh Mark, Ohio families, children, and communities remain distressed and struggling to recover, according to a new report from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). “The Day that ICE Came: How Worksite Raids Are Once Again Harming Children and Families,” documents what happens to families and communities months and even years after workplace immigration raids. Sadly, children bear the brunt of the trauma of these raids, with lasting impacts on their mental and physical health.
“While all eyes are focused on the southwest border, immigration raids have also been separating families in the interior of the United States, and the American people need to know about it,” said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at CLASP, and lead author of the report. “Worksite raids are an immoral tactic that brings needless and lasting harm to immigrant families and children, including many American citizens.”
In 2019, CLASP visited three states that had experienced workplace immigration raids under the Trump administration: Ohio, Mississippi, and Texas, interviewing families, service providers, lawyers, and other community members. June marks two years since the Ohio raids took place, and August 7 will mark one year since Mississippi was subjected to the largest workplace raid in U.S. history. The future of this type of enforcement tactic will be debated in the coming months.
Jessica A. Ramos, Attorney at Law with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (ABLE), said: “It’s been two years since the lives of hundreds of Ohio families were uprooted by federal immigration raids. The only thing these raids accomplished was to destabilize families, traumatize children, and devastate communities. Launching military-style raids against humble workers is an excessive intimidation tactic against people who work hard and provide food and services to the benefit of all of us. I am proud of the work ABLE and community leaders did to respond to the raids and assist families in the days, months, and years to follow. Our communities are stronger when we come together. We need immigration law reform, not immigration raids.”
“The Day that ICE Came” documents three major trends across all sites:
Children, families, and communities experienced profoundly destabilizing traumas with lasting impacts. Separated families due to detention and deportation; harm to children’s mental and physical health; economic hardship and stress on parents, which also undercuts children’s wellbeing; as well as pressure on providers and community leaders contributed to an overall feeling of destruction in these communities.
The Trump administration used worksite immigration raids to harass and intimidate immigrant workers, the majority of whom are parents to U.S. citizen children. The operations were designed to be an aggressive show of force against humble workers. ICE did not even follow its own “humanitarian” guidelines to keep children safe, such as notifying social service agencies in advance, and promptly screening arrested individuals to identify sole caretakers of minor children or others eligible for release on humanitarian grounds.
The local response to each of these raids also revealed another side of America–the power of community and resilience. Churches, service providers, and community members all came together to respond to the raids in each location, aligned in a vision that stands in stark contrast to the divisiveness of the raids. It is a vision where immigrants and their families are recognized as valued members of our communities, all children are deserving of protection and support, and members of the community work together to help each other out.
CLASP’s Cervantes concluded: “I will never forget the pain on parents’ faces as they talked about their family’s experiences during and after these raids. The aggressiveness of these militaristic operations; the young children stranded while their parents were detained; the expense of fighting legal cases while also losing income; the agonizing decisions about the future; and the mental trauma experienced by each and every member of the family have been truly devastating. Every parent I talked to was far more concerned for their children’s wellbeing than they were about their own.”
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