I just spoke with a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While most of the 1,282 workers arrested and transported to “processing centers” have been processed in “Operation Wagon Train,” their multi-state raid, Michael Keegan told me, he has not heard of anyone being released after proving their legal U.S. residency.
“So far we haven’t had any reports,” he said. (Union officials are complaining that workers aren’t allowed to contact them or lawyers.)
I mentioned to Keegan the report from Utah that ICE agents had separated workers by skin color. “Is that right? I can’t confirm that,” he replied.
He added that such a process was “definitely not standard operating procedure. . . that’s not the way ICE operates.”
As for the children left behind when DHS detained their parents and family members, Keegan said that in most cases the children could be looked after by another family member. “In a very small amount of cases we released individuals with a notice to appear [at an administrative deportation hearing], because nobody was available to take care of their child,” he said. He didn’t know how many times that happened, he said, but it was extremely rare.
