By Hank Russell
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents continue to round up those who have been in this country illegally — despite the rulings of some judges and elected officials precluding ICE from entering their communities — a new report released by an immigrants’ rights group claims that those who have been arrested by ICE in New York have been disproportionately Latino.
According to research from the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and the University of Colorado, nearly three in four caught by ICE are Latino, although Latinos make up only one-fourth of the Latino immigrant population. Between January 20 and July 29, Ecuadorean noncitizens made up the largest share of arrests, with 24.09% taken into custody by ICE, although they make up 4.01% of noncitizens from Latin America.
Undocumented immigrants from Mexico — which comprises 5.58% of the population — made up 9.92% of ICE arrestees, according to the NYIC report. Guatemalans had the third-highest arrest rate at 8.36%, followed by migrants from Venezuela (7.07%), Honduras (5.97%), Colombia (5.11%), Dominican Republic (4.9%), Peru (2.22%) and Nicaragua (1.14%).
To further point out that Latinos are unfairly targeted, NYIC found that:
- A non-citizen from Nicaragua is 115 times more likely to be arrested by ICE than a non-citizen from India.
- A non-citizen from South America is 28 times more likely to be arrested than a noncitizen from Europe.
- In absolute terms, ICE arrests far more noncitizens from Mexico and Central America than from South Asia, Europe, and Africa combined.
According to the report, 89% of ICE arrests are male, despite men making up half of the Latino immigrant population.
NYIC said that President Donald Trump’s goal to deport 4 million immigrants within four years will adversely affect the workforce. “The Trump Administration’s project of mass deportations harms the economy — half a million jobs lost, inflation rising — but the damage goes deeper,” the organization said. “Discriminatory enforcement against Latinos and community raids like those we have already witnessed are threats to the cultural mosaic that define life in New York (and beautify our subways). New York must act now to protect the pieces that make it whole.”
Most recently, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended ICE agents, who she said are “out there doing God’s work. … These are their families and neighbors that they are protecting bd they get up every day and do their job because they believe in their mission.”
Noem called ICE agents “men and women who are serving with greatness in a challenging time when activists and radicals are attacking them and putting their lives in danger.” She called the defense of their actions “shameful,” adding, “If we’re not a nation of laws, we’re not a nation at all.”
Long Island Life & Politics reached out to ICE for comment, but did not hear back as of press time.