Washington, DC — With details emerging of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) latest campaign, “Operation At Large,” Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement:
“‘Operation At Large’ is a hyper-militarized police state and an inflection point in the rising authoritarianism of Trump’s regime. The operation doubles ICE’s lock-up quota to a shocking 3,000 people a day, deepens interagency police collaboration including with the FBI, and once approved, will supercharge the already massive police force with up to 21,000 National Guard troops. This authoritarian campaign will reportedly weaponize the IRS to target people using tax information and even grant them the unprecedented authority to make arrests. Everyone should be horrified. This is not a ‘crackdown’ – this is an affront on daily life.
The Trump administration’s enforcement operations – the targeting, detention, and deportation of people – are intentionally and methodically designed to sow confusion, separate loved ones and destabilize communities. This current campaign will separate parents from their children, tear families and communities apart, and impact industries that run our nation, from childcare to construction to healthcare, as immigrants wonder whether it’s safe to clock in. The chilling impact of immigration enforcement is profound and widespread as people of every background will feel the absence of vital and valued community members.
With nearly 50,000 people already in ICE custody, the administration is spreading fear into communities and putting lives in jeopardy. Lock-up quotas incentivize and worsen racial profiling of Black and brown people, while ICE detention disappears people into abysmal conditions including medical neglect, overcrowding, and rampant transfers.
The moral and financial cost of ICE operations is of no concern to Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, who is driven by a racist compulsion and will stop at nothing to embed his hateful ideologies and intimidate agencies into cooperating with the goal of villainizing all immigrants. But Americans do care. People are struggling with rising costs and facing the threat of massive cuts to critical programs like Medicaid and food assistance in the MAGA spending bill. Members of Congress must listen to their constituents to stop the Trump administration’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda. This moment warrants a national outcry. Everyone must ring the alarm. Now more than ever, we must all advocate for the rights and dignity of everyone, including immigrants.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.