Trump uses
campaign of disinformation and secrecy to target immigrants
By Lisa
Rosenberg
The Trump administration
has yet to break ground for its promised border wall to keep the undocumented
out of the United States, but by embarking on a campaign of misinformation and
secrecy, it is rapidly moving forward with efforts to target and deport immigrants
already here.
To advance the false
narrative that the undocumented community includes an outsized and particularly
dangerous set of criminals, the Administration ignores data that shows that
high rates of immigration actually coincide with reduced crime rates, and that
immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than those born in the United
States.
As Alex Nowrasteh of the
libertarian Cato Institute noted, "It is absurd to highlight the crimes
committed by a small group of people without reporting on the crimes committed
by everybody."
The misleading use of
crime data not only results in questionable policy decisions, but also could
lead to unwarranted fear of immigrants and an uptick in hate-crimes against
them.
Such fear-mongering
appears to be behind the new office for Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement
(VOICE) recently launched by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
VOICE will share
selective data about alleged criminals' immigration and custody status, but
will omit information on other crimes, including crimes in which immigrants are
victims.
VOICE stems from the
President's Executive Order on internal safety and immigration enforcement,
which also decreed that Privacy Act protections do not apply to the
undocumented.
The result is that when
VOICE shares information about immigrants, their right to legally challenge
potentially erroneous disclosures may be curtailed.
The implications could
be devastating for individuals who are wrongly targeted, especially given
administration's track record with the facts.
EDITOR’S NOTE: After the VOICE Hotmail (1-855-48-VOICE) was launched, it was swamped with callers reporting UFO sightings,
alien abductions, crop circles and other actions of “criminal aliens.” – W.
Collette
In an apparent effort to
name and shame, the White House ordered ICE to release weekly reports
highlighting jurisdictions it claimed did not comply with requests to keep
undocumented individuals in custody for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled
release so-called "detainer requests."
Law enforcement
officials in counties nationwide described the data as "unfair and
misleading" and openly disputed ICE's claims.
Because complying with
detainer requests has been held to be unconstitutional, jurisdictions also
objected to the reports' mischaracterization that they were not complying with
federal law.
Responding to pressure,
ICE has temporarily suspended publication of its misleading weekly reports, but
is now concealing data about its own immigration investigations and enforcement
with its illegitimate decision to withhold information previously released
under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
To be sure, the
immigration enforcement and deportation machine grew to new levels under a
cloak of secrecy during the Obama administration, with serious policy consequences
that resonate today.
Rights groups litigated
with ICE for years to obtain information about its controversial deportation
and fingerprint program, known as Secure Communities, which required local law
enforcement to forward the digital fingerprints of everyone they booked,
regardless of citizenship.
ICE then used the
information to determine who could be deported. To this day, the FBI continues
to expand the massive biometrics database that grew dramatically under the
Secure Communities program, and ICE's ability to issue detainer requests
continues because local law enforcement still forwards biometric information
about suspects in custody.
Still, the
disinformation efforts linked to expanding criminalization of immigrants under
Trump contribute to the conclusion that immigrants are being targeted and
deported arbitrarily: immigrants like DREAMer Daniela Vargas, who was detained
after speaking publicly about her father's detention; Maribel Trujillo Diaz, a
mother whose children are U.S. citizens, whose only crime was being
undocumented; Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, who was brought to the United States
when she was a teen and, despite knowing her use of a fake social security card
to work in the U.S. could put her at risk, went to her eighth annual check-in with
immigration officials and was deported; and Juan Manuel Montes-Bojorquez,
deported despite his status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
program.
This administration has
a choice. It can continue its disinformation campaign around immigration,
exacerbating mistrust of government, and allowing the skepticism that surrounds
immigration to bleed into other arenas of federal law enforcement.
Or it can respond to
public demands for information with accurate and timely data, resulting in
stronger public policy, safer communities, and respect for the rule of law.
Rosenberg is the Executive Director of
OpenTheGovernment, a coalition advancing transparency for government
accountability.