Advocates question ICE workplace raids' effect on kids
Immigration enforcement agency recently arrested hundreds of workers at an Iowa plant, 12 of whom were between the ages of 15 and 17.
Immigration advocates told the House Education and Labor Workforce Protections Subcommittee Tuesday that workplace raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement separate parents and children and harm the community.
But an ICE official defended the agency's efforts to promote national security, assuring lawmakers that steps are taken to assess each detainee's family situation.
Citing a study by the Urban Institute, National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia testified that ICE had held parents without allowing them a phone call, preventing them from coordinating child care.
She also charged that ICE had interrupted a state investigation of child labor law violations last week when the agency raided an Iowa meat-processing plant. ICE arrested 389 workers, 12 of whom were between the ages of 15 and 17.
James Spero, acting deputy assistant Director for ICE's Office of Investigations, declined to address the ongoing investigation, but insisted, "Worksite enforcement operations are not poorly planned, haphazard incidents." He said ICE targets employers, but those investigations take time.
Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, questioned whether ICE had been targeting Migrant and Seasonal Head Start centers, which the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has asked it not to do. And Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., asked about allegations that ICE had parked vans outside of schools. "I'm troubled by the idea that these children might be used as bait," Hare said.
Spero said schools are considered "sensitive institutions" and he was not aware of any agents entering Head Start facilities.
House Education and Labor ranking member Howard (Buck) McKeon, R-Calif., said he felt compassion for the children of illegal immigrants, which he compared to the children recently seized from a polygamous sect in Texas. Still, he said ICE could not ignore that the parents had broken the law. "They're really the ones that are putting those children in jeopardy by their actions," he said.
Following the hearing, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman and Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., and other lawmakers held a briefing to call for comprehensive immigration reform and better treatment of detainees. "It is not ICE's job to humiliate any individual that has been apprehended," Baca said.