It’s business as usual for President Donald Trump's deportation offensive despite the Republican wipeout in the midterm elections.
In Los Angeles, masked immigration officers in body armor blocked a hospital emergency room driveway in a heavily Latino neighborhood early Saturday. In central Alabama, twin 19-year-old brothers from Venezuela were arrested while driving back to college a day after the election.
Advocates reported arrests from California
to Michigan to Massachusetts.
After Democrats trounced the GOP and won control of the next Congress, Trump said his immigration crackdown may have been “too tough” and suggested it was time to sit down with the rival party.
“I’d love to do something on immigration,” he said in an interview with CBS “60 Minutes” recorded Friday.
Hours later, he named Stephen Miller, the architect of his hardline immigration agenda, as his new chief of staff. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, meanwhile, said his orders had not changed.
“Deportations will continue,” Mullin wrote in an online post the day after the election, warning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes no days off and that “this includes on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Election Day.”
María Bilbao, a campaign coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee in Miami, said she has received at least one call a day from someone detained in South Florida since the election.
“Everything remains exactly the same. The arrests have not ceased at all,” Bilbao said.
Florida Highway Patrol officers and ICE agents have detained people in their cars, as well as places including supermarkets, pharmacies and gas stations. Immigrants under supervision have also been arrested when they showed up at ICE's Miami office for their appointments.
Erick Gasca, 31, got home Friday night after an evening playing board games with friends. He lives near Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles.
An “unprecedented” number of vehicles with tinted windows and no license plates were parked near the hospital's emergency room entrance, he said.
“I thought they were going to raid the hospital or something,” he recalled.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to explain the officers’ presence there, though Bill Essayli, the top Justice Department prosecutor in Los Angeles, said they were bringing a detainee for medical treatment. Essayli said two people were arrested for assaulting federal agents.
“ICE does not target hospitals, schools, or churches,” DHS said in a statement.
The agents' presence attracted some 30 residents and passersby. Footage shot by Gasca’s cousin, Michelle Rivera, shows protesters shouting and officers pinning someone down.
The hospital said it wasn't involved.
“White Memorial does not participate in immigration enforcement,” hospital president Daniel Fontoura said in a statement, adding it would not let such activities "compromise our commitment to patient care and safety.”
A married couple from Orlando, Florida, was arrested Saturday at the airport in Phoenix while traveling to a funeral.
Gustavo Romanello and Agustin Baccega, both from Argentina, have work permits while they seek asylum after entering the United States about six years ago, according to Jonathan Batchelor, a family friend.
Batchelor was on the phone with them at the time. A mutual friend died Friday and the couple was visiting for the funeral Saturday. As the couple left the airport, two casually dressed officers asked if one was Agustin Baccega. Batchelor heard the officer say, “Asylum seekers are not in the United States legally.”
Batchelor said he could hear Romanello walking alongside his husband during the arrest and asking the officers how to collect his things. Batchelor said they then asked what his name was, "and then the guard said, ‘Oh, do you have another set of handcuffs? This is another one.’”
The voices grew distant, and the call then ended.
Both men remain in detention centers. They worked as acrobats in Florida and had no criminal record, Batchelor said.
“This is just taking good people who have been following the rules out of their lives and out of the lives of those who rely upon them and care about them,” Batchelor said.
DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the arrests.
The brothers were headed back to college after visiting their parents when they were stopped in a small city in central Alabama.
Luis and Carlos Orta-Santoro, 19-year-olds born in Venezuela and living in the U.S. for four years, are soccer players at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama.
Relatives say they have pending asylum applications, valid work permits, and no criminal records. Both are now in an immigration detention facility.
“Our family is devastated,” said their aunt, Carolina Orta.
DHS said that while they had entered the country legally, they had “overstayed in defiance of our laws,” and their case would be heard by an immigration judge. It said pending asylum applications do not confer legal status in the U.S.
The school said in a statement, “Both young men are valued members of the Wallace State community, and our thoughts are with them during this difficult time. We sincerely hope for a positive resolution to their situation.”
An 8-year-old Haitian boy had been living with his uncle in San Diego since his father was deported last year. The uncle, who is not a legal guardian, took him to an ICE office when the boy was summoned Nov. 4 and taken into custody.
That left the boy “without the support of their family, community and their school,” according to a letter to top administration officials from San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Fabi Bagula and school board members.
“Children should not lose access to education simply because of circumstances unfolding around them,” they wrote.
ICE has defended its actions.
Johny Oxeda, pastor of the Fairmount Haitian Community Church, which helped get legal representation for the boy, said he’ll ultimately benefit by going through legal channels.
Activists, though, were furious.
“This is not child protection,” said Guerline Jozef of Haitian Bridge Alliance, adding, "this is state-inflicted trauma.”
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Associated Press reporters Gisela Salomon in Miami and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.
