RANDI WEINGARTEN: America is a country of immigrants | TheHill

America is a country of immigrants | TheHill:
America is a country of immigrants

President Trump ran on campaign promises that threatened immigrant communities and talked of deporting millions. Now the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s recent memo makes clear that the administration is committed to keeping its promise of tearing families apart and making our country less safe.

In just the last two weeks, Daniel Ramirez-Medina, a 23-year-old recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient with no prior criminal record, was taken from his Seattle home and remains detained. Lupita Garcia de Rayos, who has lived in Arizona for more than two decades and is the mother of two children who are U.S. citizens, was deported after checking in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ervin Gonzalez, a transgender woman from El Paso, was apprehended in court by ICE while filing a domestic abuse claim, apparently tipped off by her abuser.

These actions are unacceptable and immoral.

According to Homeland Security, more than 700 immigrants were swept up in so-called targeted enforcement operations earlier this month by ICE. These policies are having a profound impact in our classrooms, workplaces and communities. The administration claims these are all hardened criminals, but it’s clear that they are targeting the most vulnerable — mothers, students and crime victims.

These families aspire to do exactly what our parents and grandparents did when they came to America, which is to help build this great country into a beacon of freedom, hope and opportunity in the world. They are hereAmerica is a country of immigrants | TheHill: