Since the start of Donald Trump’s presidency, immigration enforcement raids have swept across the country to uphold the massive deportation infrastructure utilized by the Obama administration and those prior. In New Mexico, Immigration, and Customs Enforcement has increased its aggression through a series of recent raids.
In Las Cruces, ICE with the aid of the Las Cruces Police Department conducted a sweep of terror, arresting undocumented working-class people. Families of these individuals were not notified of the arrests and were left feeling incomparable fear for the safety of their loved ones.
The increased cooperation between ICE and local police departments incentivizes racial profiling and aggression. With the broadening scope by the Trump administration of those threatened by ICE—now having to live their lives in a constant state of fear—raids have been conducted without search warrants. Public schools in Las Cruces have since experienced an extreme upsurge in absences. On the day after the first raid in Las Cruces back in February, absences increased by 60 percent. Unrestrained raids, as promised by Trump’s xenophobic campaign promises, may potentially occur in spaces that would otherwise have been deemed safe like schools and parks.
Families across the state have retreated in fear by threats of crude separation by ICE. Moreover, the new memos introduced by John Kelly—the new head of homeland security—work to destroy democratic processes by denying undocumented people their right to a court hearing if they migrated within the last two years. New Mexico Governor, Susana Martinez, has long since
sold out the trust of the people and has now partnered with the Trump administration to release the immigration status of exploited inmates. Undocumented inmates are now expedited targets for deportation, but only after their labor has been exploited, uncompensated for by the Prison Industrial Complex.
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are in agreement on the racist path of mass deportation. However, protests erupting across the country demonstrate their inability to mask oppression and divide the people. When the people are under attack, the people fight back!
