The Trump Administration is making a mockery of our immigration laws. Last week it was reported that ICE agents arrested a U.S. citizen in the Chicago suburb of Berwyn.
Julio Noriega, 54, was born in the United States and is a U.S. citizen. ICE agents took his wallet—which contained his driver’s license and Social Security card—but didn’t bother to look at his ID or ask him about his citizenship status. Instead, they handcuffed the Chicago resident and threw him into the back of an ICE van along with other suspected illegals the ICE agents had rounded up. He was taken to the ICE processing center in Broadview where he spent the night in detention. He was finally released when ICE agents “discovered” his ID and realized he was a citizen of the United States.
The arrest of Noriega and others in the Chicago area revealed that ICE agents are creating administrative arrest warrants in the field after arresting suspected illegal immigrants. In order to justify arrests, ICE agents are required to have probable cause that a crime has been committed (including entering the United States illegally) and that the person is a flight risk, or they must have an arrest warrant prior to making the arrest. These requirements were imposed as part of the NAVA class action lawsuit settlement. The suit was filed in 2018 as the result of ICE agents illegally targeting Hispanic individuals for arrest without probable cause.
In ICE’s zeal to round up and deport illegal immigrants, they are arresting many legal immigrants—some of them U.S. citizens—who are being jailed, and in some cases, deported to countries they’ve never before lived in.
Consider the case of Jerce Reyes Barrios, a professional soccer player from Venezuela. He fled his home country after being beaten by government thugs representing Nicolas Maduro, the far-right President of Venezuela. Barrios came to the United States seeking asylum, and was in the country legally after following our laws and filing his asylum application.
Barrios was among the Venezuelan immigrants who were deported to El Salvador, despite a Federal District Court judge ordering the Trump Administration to not deport them. As the court found, the Venezuelans were not afforded any due process before being scheduled for deportation. After being jailed, they were placed in shackles, had their heads shaved, they were marched before cameras, then loaded onto a plane to El Salvador. Trump and ICE officials, including Tom Homan, the President’s so-called border czar, claimed that the Venezuelans sent to El Salvador were criminals and members of the Venezuelan gang, Tien de Aragua (TdA).
However, his attorney claims that Barrios is not a member of TdA or any other gang. They also say he was never charged with a crime in either Venezuela or the United States. Trump Administration officials dispute Barrios’ attorney’s, contending he is a gang member, and they offer two bits of evidence to prove their contention.
First, they say that Barrios had a gang tattoo on his arm. They also say that he posted a photo of himself flashing a gang sign on one of his social media accounts. That’s not much evidence for ICE to rely on, but even those two pieces of evidence are shaky at best.
The tattoo in question is actually a replica of the logo for the soccer team Real Madrid. And in the photo in question, Barrios can be seen making the “Hook ‘em Horns” hand sign associated with the University of Texas. Several Republican lawmakers and Trump Administration officials, including Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have posted similar photos on their social media accounts.
Regardless, Barrios was sent to a hard labor prison in El Salvador. At the moment, he does not have a release date (it could be months or years from now) and there is no way he will be able to make it to his asylum hearing scheduled for April 17, 2025.
Even if you believe that illegal immigrants should be arrested and deported, you can’t possibly think that the same thing should happen to immigrants who are in the United States legally, or worse yet, to U.S. citizens. This is an afront to decency and what the United States stands for. We must demand that the Trump Administration follow the law, abide by court rulings, and make absolutely sure that a person is in the country illegally before they are arrested, jailed, or deported.
And remember, these cruel, hateful policies being carried out by ICE at the insistence of Donald Trump are just beginning. If we don’t demand that any arrests and deportations be done legally now, in the early days of the Trump Administration, things will only get worse.
