Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Trump administration is rounding up and deporting “law-abiding” illegal immigrants and is demanding “details” about who is being targeted in a series of recent raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“I have always supported smart immigration enforcement that helps to keep our country safe, but raids targeting law-abiding immigrants and treating those with traffic violations the same as murderers and robbers will only achieve the opposite,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Monday.
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Immigration officials said the agency targeted mainly serious criminals and those who are considered a public safety threat.
But the move has alarmed immigration proponents who say many of the illegal immigrants targeted did not have criminal records.
“Targeting law-abiding innocent immigrant families whose only wrongdoing was crossing the border to give their children a better life, instead of focusing on removing those who have been convicted of violent crimes, is a waste of limited resources and undermines law enforcement in communities across the country. ICE must come clean,” Schumer said.
Democrats last year pushed back against the Obama administration when it carried out several immigration raids. Pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill and immigration groups put an end to the raids.
Schumer said he wants ICE “to release information about the location of the raids and details of the people who were arrested.”
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a statement ICE agents targeted illegal immigrants in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio and New York City and arrested more than 680 people, “who pose a threat to public safety, border security or the integrity of our nation’s immigration system.”
