President Donald Trump’s ouster offensive is proceeding as usual, despite Republicans’ elimination in the midterm elections.
In Los Angeles, masked immigration agents wearing bulletproof vests blocked the aisle of a hospital emergency room in a neighborhood with a large Latino population early Saturday. In central Alabama, 19-year-old Venezuelan twin brothers were arrested while driving home from college a day after the election.
Advocates have reported arrests from California to Michigan to Massachusetts.
After Democrats defeated the Republican Party and took control of the next Congress, Trump said his crackdown on immigration may have been “too tough” and suggested it was time to sit down with the rival party.
“I would love to do something on immigration,” he said in an interview with CBS “60 Minutes” recorded Friday.
A few hours later he named Stephen Miller, the architect of his radical immigration program, as new chief of staff. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his orders had not changed.
“Deportations will continue,” Mullin wrote in an online post the day after the election, warning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not taking any days off and “that includes Thanksgiving, Christmas and Election Day.”
María Bilbao, campaign coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee in Miami, said she has been receiving at least one call a day from someone detained in South Florida since the election.
“Everything remains exactly the same. The arrests have not stopped at all,” Bilbao said.
Florida Highway Patrol officers and ICE agents arrested people in their cars, as well as at locations including supermarkets, pharmacies and gas stations. Immigrants under surveillance have also been arrested while arriving at the ICE office in Miami for their appointments.
Police officers gathered outside a Los Angeles hospital
Erick Gasca, 31, returned home Friday evening after an evening playing board games with friends. He lives near Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles.
An “unprecedented” number of vehicles with tinted windows and no license plates were parked near the hospital emergency entrance, he said.
“I thought they were going to raid the hospital or something,” he recalled.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to explain the agents’ presence, although Bill Essayli, the Justice Department’s top prosecutor in Los Angeles, said they were bringing in a detainee for medical treatment. Essayli said two people were arrested for assaulting federal agents.
“ICE does not target hospitals, schools, or churches,” DHS said in a statement.
The presence of the agents attracted around thirty residents and passers-by. Footage shot by Gasca’s cousin, Michelle Rivera, shows protesters shouting and police cornering someone.
The hospital said it was not involved.
“White Memorial does not participate in immigration enforcement,” hospital President Daniel Fontoura said in a statement, adding that he would not let such activities “compromise our commitment to patient care and safety.”
Couple arrested at Phoenix airport
A married couple from Orlando, Florida, was arrested Saturday at the Phoenix airport on their way to a funeral.
Gustavo Romanello and Agustin Baccega, both from Argentina, have work permits as they seek asylum after entering the United States about six years ago, according to Jonathan Batchelor, a family friend.
Batchelor was on the phone with them at the time. A mutual friend died on Friday and the couple was visiting for the funeral on Saturday. As the couple left the airport, two casually dressed police officers asked if one of them was Agustin Baccega. Batchelor heard the officer say, “Asylum seekers are not legally in the United States. »
Batchelor said he could hear Romanello walking alongside her husband during the arrest and asking officers how to get his belongings. Batchelor said they then asked him what his name was, “and then the guard said, ‘Oh, do you have another pair of handcuffs? Here’s another pair.'”
The voices faded away and the call then ended.
Both men remain in detention centers. They worked as acrobats in Florida and had no criminal records, Batchelor said.
“It just takes away from their lives and the lives of those who rely on them and care about them the good people who followed the rules,” Batchelor said.
DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the arrests.
Twin brothers arrested on their way to university
The brothers were returning to college after visiting their parents when they were arrested in a small town in central Alabama.
Luis and Carlos Orta-Santoro, 19-year-olds born in Venezuela and living in the United States for four years, are soccer players at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama.
The relatives say they have pending asylum applications, valid work permits and no criminal records. Both are now in an immigration detention center.
“Our family is devastated,” said their aunt, Carolina Orta.
DHS said that even though they entered the country legally, they had “extended their stay in defiance of our laws” and that their case would be heard by an immigration judge. He said pending asylum applications do not confer legal status in the United States.
The school said in a statement: “Both young men are valued members of the Wallace State community, and our thoughts are with them during this difficult time. We sincerely hope for a positive resolution to their situation.”
Haitian boy arrested, sparking protests in San Diego
An 8-year-old Haitian boy has been living with his uncle in San Diego since his father was deported last year. The uncle, who is not his legal guardian, took him to an ICE office when the boy was summoned Nov. 4 and taken into custody.
That left the boy “without the support of his family, community and school,” according to a letter to top officials in San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Fabi Bagula’s administration and school board members.
“Children should not lose access to education simply because of the circumstances unfolding around them,” they write.
ICE defended its actions.
Johny Oxeda, pastor of Fairmount Haitian Community Church, who helped obtain legal representation for the boy, said he would ultimately benefit from going through legal channels.
But the activists were furious.
“This is not about child protection,” said Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, adding, “this is state-inflicted trauma.”
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Associated Press journalists Gisela Salomon in Miami and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.
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