The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, is a federal agency that focuses on “securing our nation’s borders and safeguarding the integrity of our immigration system,” according to the official ICE mission statement. Since the re-election of President Donald Trump, ICE has been strictly enforcing immigration laws and have been conducting raids in several cities.
As a result of this increase, immigrants, undocumented persons and those in surrounding communities have reported that they are experiencing increased levels of fear.
For instance, an Iranian University of Alabama student was detained by ICE on March 27 on account of allegedly posing “national security concerns,” according to wvtm13.com.
On the same day, in California, a Vietnamese husband and father who had come to this country during the Vietnam War was also “unexpectedly detained” while doing a check-in with ICE.
According to a report made by the Department of Homeland Security on March 13, there have been a total of 32,809 ICE arrests in the first 50 days of the second Trump Administration.
“To put this figure into perspective, in the entire fiscal year 2024, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations made 33,242 of these at-large arrests,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
One McIntosh sophomore, a Hispanic individual and a dual citizen of the United States and their home country, is fearful of what this crackdown may mean for them. According to the Trail’s editorial policy on anonymous sources, the student has been granted anonymity.
“My parents are scared to end up getting sent back. And I guess I can say, Hispanics in general, they, their parents, just come here for the American dream.”
HOPE
That pursuit of the “American dream” is what brought the student and their family here to work hard for a better life instead of growing up in their home country. Both of the student’s parents work hard, their mother working two jobs. And the student’s father works in places where ICE raids have been prevalent.
The student’s parents have put everything on the line for the “American Dream.”
“My dad, he just says ‘I want you guys to have a better future than what we did over there,’ the student said. “He says that he’s tired of just ‘living on the run,’ as he calls it,”
According to theconversation.com, a large number of immigrants, documented or not, come to the United States for work opportunities or to escape from issues in their home countries like crime, political unrest and economic crises. For many immigrants, coming to the United States gives them opportunity.
“They want [their children] to have something that they didn’t have as a child. Coming from parents who didn’t even get to sixth grade because it was either too expensive or they needed to help out family and I feel like that has been engraved in my mind as well,” the student said.
The student has also expressed feeling a drive to work hard and help their family.
“They want me to have opportunities and be able to get what I really want in life, if that means getting a career or some type of profession that makes me good money. That’s what [my dad] would like me to do, but that also means him risking his life, which I greatly appreciate,” the student said.
FEAR
The recent ICE crackdowns have sparked fear among immigrants, whether they are here lawfully or not, because it seems that they may be being targeted for more than just criminal activity. On March 26, a Turkish woman enrolled at Tufts University, who was also a visa holder, was publicly detained by a non-uniformed group of men who were wearing garments that concealed their faces. There is a recording of the detainment that shows the startled expression of the student as she is surrounded by these masked men.
Aside from the student’s parents being afraid every time they leave the house for work, the student’s parents also fear for the student’s safety, despite the student having dual citizenship.
“My parents are just like, ‘Should we send you to school?’ They were like, you know, ‘You have your citizenship, but it’s still to the point where if [ICE] can do a background check, they can see [our status].”
With the student’s parents being so wary of getting caught, the student also has to take on more responsibilities to help the family, such as watching over their younger family members while also trying to contribute financially.
According to an analysis conducted by Time, data reveals that the “children of immigrants are more likely than the children of the U.S.-born to surpass their parents’ incomes when they are adults,” and according to Chronicle writer Susan Chemmandoor attributes this work ethic to what she calls in her opinion piece, “immigrant guilt.” Regardless of what is motivating the children of immigrants to work hard, these pressures–whether internal or external–contribute to their overall mental health.
“I feel like it just becomes overwhelming just because we have so much that we have to do, not just for school, but family, but then also having to financially help support because there’s a lot of us,” the student said.
Bearing some of this burden has also impacted the student’s life as a teenager.
LONELINESS
“Because I’m one of the oldest cousins around here, I get home from school, [have to do] homework and I have a child [to care for], because everybody goes off to work and I’m over here babysitting most of the day,” the student said.
This has also caused the student to struggle to connect with their peers.
“I feel like [every other non-immigrant student at McIntosh has] so much freedom here and they think like life is so easy when, I guess just [from] growing up a little too fast, just [from] seeing things from a different point of view, [I] was just like ‘Oh I miss the days that I could do the simplest things, like ride a bike outside, not [having] to worry about nothing because literally just before coming here I was doing homework and taking care of a little kid,” the student said.
“I feel like I take on too much and I don’t have enough time to execute it,” they said.
And they feel out of place compared to students who are not related to or close with immigrants.
“I haven’t really found where to fit in,” the student said.
DEFIANCE
There are people in communities – immigrants and American-born citizens alike–who have either lived in communities surrounding ICE raids and arrests, or have witnessed these arrests through media outlets. These people have protested on behalf of the apparent persecution and it has resulted in violent protests across the country that the student believes is doing more harm than good. For instance, during a violent anti-ICE protest that occurred three months ago on Feb. 2 in Glendale, Arizona, three protesters were accused of stealing and destroying a police patrol car.
“I’m just like, what’s the point of trying to be heard when all you’re doing is breaking the law and making [immigrants] seem like a greater problem than we are?” the student said.
Despite the surge in violent protests, there are protests that are making an effort to be vocal about in a peaceful manner, like the 50501 movement, which focuses on protesting all actions and policies that have been enacted under the second Trump administration.
Amidst the chaos surrounding the new changes implemented by the second Trump administration is also an invitation for confusion to spread online. In the earlier mentioned case of the Tufts student who was detained by ICE for what seemed to be no reason, news outlets have recently reported that the student was arrested for an opinion piece advocating for Palestinians in which she co-authored. According to PBS, an immigration judge denied Öztürk’s bond because it was concluded that Öztürk “was both a flight risk and a danger to the community.” In another article, an editorial by The Daily Targum, the staff expresses that with Öztürk’s detainment, ICE “arrest[ed] an innocent woman.”
After her detainment, Öztürk was placed in an ICE facility in Louisiana. Öztürk, called the conditions in which she was kept, “unsafe” and “inhumane,” according to NBC.
Amidst varying perspectives portrayed online and multiple cases of immigrants being arrested like Öztürk’s case, the student emphasizes why it is important to stay informed and warns against the dangers of believing everything regarding immigrants on social media.
“Everyone should know the circumstances that we’re living in right now, especially just because they need to be aware about their surroundings. I feel like we’ve gotten so sucked up into social media in general where we need to see both sides. Like [on] TikTok, how many random things have you heard about the government in general? [People] see everything in [only] their perspective and they try to switch up the story,” the student said.
The student also reminds others that there are two sides to every story, and they acknowledge that between social media and varying individual perspectives, it is often difficult to separate fact from fiction, especially right now where there is an ongoing battle against immigration in the United States.
“I would like to say maybe hear both sides of the story or even get multiple perspectives of what’s actually going on because at the end of the day, you don’t know someone’s situation and we can put on a face. We can have a mask on,” the student said.
