Is it legal that ICE agents are masked when they stop immigrants in the United States? Specialist responds

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However, there is now a much higher goal. As reported NBC Newsin mid -May The White Hol. The official was frustrated by what he considered too low figures of arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants. What came later was the intensification of the Operations.

NBC News also reported that the National Plan of the ICE To increase the arrests it is already underway and includes more than 5,000 people from all federal police agencies and up to 21,000 National Guard troops.

In addition, in the FBI, where its special agents did not participate regularly in operations of immigrationthe field offices throughout the country have been ordered to assign numerous agents to help with ICE operations to arrest people with administrative immigration orders, NBC News explained.

ICE is even stopping people in routine controls and immigration courtswhen people are cited to audiences about their cases. The agency has also tried to expand the use of accelerated expulsion, a rapid process that eludes ordinary procedural guarantees.

Agents with covered faces and the risk it implies

Is it legal that ICE agents operate without identifying, wearing masks and civil clothes at the time of detaining immigrants? The immigration lawyer Ysabel LonazcoLonazco Law, he told Commerce That the regulations of the Department of National Security establish guidelines for the execution of arrests. Under those parameters, “Officers must identify and inform the reason for the arrest. The procedure also indicates that an arrest warrant should be obtained, except, when the officer evaluates that there is a danger of escape.”

Lonazco added that there is also a policy of the National Security Department that states that in the event that there is an arrest warrant, the agent should make a letter explaining the circumstances of the detention.

“What we are seeing on a day -to -day basis is the opposite. We see officers making arrests without uniforms and masked, which generates confusion in the publicand especially in the relationship between the authorities and those victims of crimes ”, Lonazco said.

“Make arrests Maskedwithout uniform, generates fear, intimidation, and confusion. What is seen is that now immigrants are even more vulnerable Because they are more exposed to scams, to arrest civilians that are passed as immigration agents, and there is a growing fear of authority ”, explained.

How does this practice affect the ability of immigrants to legally defend themselves? The Lonazco lawyer said that due process is a right that all citizens have, regardless of immigration status.

“For example, if you commit a crime, and they stop you, you are protected by the fourth amendment, which indicates’ the right of the people to safety in their persons, homes, documents and effects, against registers and unututations unrupable, it will not be violated, and judicial orders will not be issued, but for probable cause, backed by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be registered, and the people to be registered, and to be registered. seized ‘”.

Then, the lawyer maintains, in a regular criminal process, a person accused of a crime can even seek the archive of the case if the aforementioned protection has not been respected by the authorities, but in the immigration field it is different, because it is a civil-administrative process, and the standards of evidence are different from criminal cases, the procedural protections are different than in criminal cuts.

“One thing is the arrest with masks and another thing is due process in front of a judge. The United States Courts have determined, in those cases where there were irregular arrests, that these people are subject to due process and have been able to have the right to bail to be able to take the process out of custody. However, with the growing number of irregular arrests, the unknown is the unknown of what is the regulation that we should continue, Why ICE does not follow its own procedures and policies issued by the Government itself ”Lonazco remarked.

As for what a person can do if they are approached by someone who says he is an immigration agent but who does not show any official identification, the lawyer said that It is essential that the immigrant knows their rights to be able to exercise them.

“The first would be to understand that one has the right to keep silent (fifth amendment), second, ask the reason for the detention and request an arrest warrant, and third, to understand that he has the right to a lawyer. It is important He scored.

“The work of the immigration lawyer is today more important than ever. The role of the immigration lawyer is to be able to present his case in front of the judge to be able to defend his constitutional rights and his right to defense to present his immigration case,” He added.

He recommended that before the presence of an immigration agent without official identification, it would be recommended to call the police in his town to denounce the fact.

“Now, the question we would ask ourselves under these circumstances, can the State Police protect me in the face of a federal agent who is determined to apply the right of immigration? It is a difficult question because if you are in the United States without documentation that protects you from the reinforcement of immitation laws, most likely you assume that you will not help you,” Indian.

“We are living difficult times in which there is no clear line about a procedure that will deprive you of your freedom. My advice is to look for an immigration lawyer immediately that can protect them from any meeting with immigration agents”

More deportation flights

The newspaper The New York Times He informed that Mass deportations are accelerating since Maybecause ICE has made more immigrant expulsion flights than in any other month since the president assumed Trump.

Based on public data on flights collected by Tom Cartwright, a migrants defender who follows up the ICE deportations, the NYT indicated that The number of daily deportees amounted to an average of about 850 people in the first two weeks of Mayafter a gradual ascent since the beginning of March.

The NYT added that in May, ICE made 190 deportation flights, a figure greater than any other month since September 2021.

The main destinations of ICE expulsion flights remain Central America (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) and Mexico. In South America, the countries that register more flights with deportees are Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru.

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