There’s no need for the whole immigrant community to panic.
Despite what some media reports suggest, federal immigration officials are not planning widespread raids across Denver to capture everyone who is in the country illegally.
It is true that specific deportation plans were in the works, but called off Sunday by President Trump after Democrats agreed to work on a new asylum process.
But again, this action was never going to be random raids on unsuspecting immigrants.
Only 2,000 families nationwide who skipped their court dates and who were already served with deportation orders were the targets of this effort.
Trump’s message Sunday:
I want to give the Democrats every last chance to quickly negotiate simple changes to Asylum and Loopholes. This will fix the Southern Border, together with the help that Mexico is now giving us. Probably won’t happen, but worth a try. Two weeks and big Deportation begins!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2019
U.S. Rep Diana DeGette accused Trump of “Instilling fear in the hearts of families across the country by announcing these nationwide raids, while continuing to lock up kids at the border.”
But the only fear mongers we see are Democrats like DeGette, who are twisting the purpose of the targeted ICE sweep to insinuate that armed agents are standing outside the doors of every immigrant in the country.
Immigrants truly seeking asylum can’t just skip out on their hearing date. There is a process, and when it’s ignored, this is what happens.
If Democrats truly want to help those immigrants, then stop screaming that the sky is falling, and come back to the negotiating table to review this process and make it more humane.