Many New Yorkers have heard of ICE raids, however, what exactly are these “raids”? How do BSGE students perceive these raids?
ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and recently, ICE has changed under Donald J. Trump’s new immigration laws.
Under Biden’s administration, ICE carried out routine enforcement operations, which consisted of targeting criminals who happened to be illegal immigrants as well. However, under Trump’s new administration, ICE is now allowed to raid areas such as schools and churches, which were off limits in the past. Trump allowed ICE to raid these areas because he believed that these places were successfully hiding immigrants. Trump believes that removing immigrants with the usage of ICE is a top priority for America. The reason why Trump actually wants to remove these immigrants lacks clarity, however, removing immigrants was part of his promised campaign.
ICE was created in 2003 and their mission is to secure the nation’s borders and to fight transnational crime that specifically targets Americans. Currently, ICE has arrested more than 11,000 illegal immigrants under Trump’s presidency, which has lasted for almost a month, and are currently located in major cities, such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Many people have differing opinions on ICE. Some believe that ICE’s force is essential for Americans and will allow more safety for everyone, while others believe that ICE being allowed to raid sanctuary and sensitive buildings is too extreme and aggressive.
Justin Frolov, an 8th grader, states, “I think the effects of ICE raids are negative because from what I have seen, they are deporting hard working people who help sustain the economy in the United States instead of deporting actual criminals who are bringing the crime rate in the United States to an all time high.”
A 10th grader states that, “ICE is extremely destructive to families and people in general.” She believes that ICE was doing more harm than good and that it’s traumatizing for anyone oppressed by ICE.
A 11th grader agreed with the responses of the previous interviewees, “my general opinion is that I don’t really like ICE. It can be successful, but they’re taking people that haven’t done anything wrong, they do good and bad things.” In addition, she states, “there’s also people that do nothing but work the city. Removing them wouldn’t be right and I don’t agree with that.”
Almost all of the interviewees believed that ICE wasn’t successfully doing their job, abusing their power and making their message unclear. Most of the interviewees also believed that ICE was removing hard working people with families, despite their immigration status. The interviewees consider that many of these hard workers were positively benefiting major cities with their labor.
