Pinoys on ICE raids, arrests: ‘Nagiging paranoid na kami’

By Alex P. Vidal 

“I’ll never understand how destroying families through deportation benefits our society. How we treat the undocumented says a great deal about us as a people and whether or not we’ll continue to fulfill the fundamental American promise of equality and opportunity for all.” — Conor Oberst

THE ongoing state-by-state and city-to-city raids and arrests being conducted by the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has rounded up 1,300 migrants, as of press time, have taken their tool on some undocumented Filipinos who admitted they have suffered from never-ending emotional and mental anguish.

“Nagiging paranoid na kami (We’re getting paranoid),” lamented Reggie, a former DPWH employee in Tacloban, who has been living in New York and New Jersey since 2014.

At noontime on January 24 inside a restaurant in Elmhurst, Queens that offers fifty percent discount for seniors, a woman in her 60s warned everyone to “prepare your IDs because ICE agents were scheduled to arrive,” Reggie quoted her as allegedly saying.

“Sa sobrang takot, nagsitakbuhan kami at hindi na kumain doon kahit gutom na gutom na kami (Because of so much fear, we immediately ran away and did not anymore order food even if we were very hungry),” narrated Reggie, 60, a father two.

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“Halos hindi na kami nakakatulog sa takot doon sa apartment. May kasama kasi kaming seaman na nag jump ship at nurse na galing Dubai baka madamay lahat (We have been sleepless in our apartment because a former seaman who jumped from the ship and a nurse from Dubai are living with us),” sobbed Louie, 36, a bodybuilder instructor in Woodhaven, Queens who has been living in Woodside, Queens since 2013.

“I have stopped working (in a liquor store in Brooklyn). I could sense the ICE agents were now hot after the heels of many workers there,” Rector, whose 32-year-old son is member of the US Marines.

Rector, 59, of Talisay, Negros Occidental, is the only non-US citizen in their family. His wife and four children, including the US Marine, “are safe”, he said without elaborating.

“I don’t want my family to break up,” he said.

ICE is the main government agency responsible for removing people from the country illegally now that the second Trump administration has begun.

According to Fox 10, ICE averaged 311 daily arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

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ICE contains more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices in the United States and around the world, according to the agency’s website.

The agency, which also has an annual budget of approximately $8 billion, was formed under the Homeland Security Act, stemming from the acts of 9/11.

“ICE’s primary mission is to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration,” the website says.

ICE deported more than 270,000 people over a recent 12-month period, the highest annual tally in a decade, the agency said in a recent report.

But it also said it made fewer arrests of noncitizens, in part because of the demand of sending staff to the border. Of those arrested, a greater proportion had serious criminal histories.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)