Top House Democrats on Thursday denounced the recent wave of deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the direction of the Trump administration, after a meeting with acting ICE Director Thomas Homan.
Democrats said they opposed the policy change at ICE that has led to 683 deportations in five major cities since the administration’s executive order on immigration was signed by Trump.
“The takeaways from the meeting are essentially that under the new executive order, the universe of people who are priority for removal is greatly expanded and is, in fact, all would be at risk,” said Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif. “They said that we can had should expect many more arrests and removals this year.”
“I wish I had better news for our communities in our country, but unfortunately the administration has taken a turn from where our past commitment to immigrant communities has been,” Sanchez added.
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said New York City, Chicago and the greater Los Angeles area are included in ICE’s enforcement action. They also told reporters that 112 of those detained have committed no criminal activities.
The meeting came two days after a meeting was initially scheduled between Homan and Democratic lawmakers, which was canceled by ICE after House Democrats tried to expand participation in the meeting.
“This meeting was unique in that I’ve never seen anything like it, only one like it and hopefully never again,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, pointing to the ability for the administration’s ability to handpick which Democrats would attend. She added that members of the Hispanic caucus were initially not invited, and called that decision “highly unusual.”
Lujan Grisham added that the Hispanic caucus will meet with Homan and ICE officials at some point in the future. Sanchez also said that silver lining of Thursday’s meeting was IC’s commitment to report any incidents of abuse to the Inspector General.
However, Hispanic lawmakers said they were frustrated with the meeting and the actions taken since Trump came into office. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, came away from the meeting believing that the administration’s goal is to target as many immigrants as it can.
“It was hard to not leave that meeting and believe that the Trump administration is going to target as many immigrants as possible,” Castro said. “The only hesitation they seemed to have was whether they would go after DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipients.”
However, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said that Homan told the group that DACA recipients are not being targeted by ICE agents and the administration.
