More than 65,000 immigrants are being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as of mid-November, according to figures from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Many of those individuals have been arrested by ICE agents while attending their Immigration Court hearings, including in San Antonio. Videos taken by bystanders and immigration rights organizations show some of these arrests turning violent.
The nonprofit American Gateways has worked since 1987 to empower individuals to understand the immigration court process and advocate for themselves if they do not have an attorney.
Laura Flores-Dixit, managing attorney for American Gateway’s San Antonio office, often appears at Immigration Court to represent clients or advise individuals.
She said ICE agents have been ramping up detentions at immigration proceedings of people who entered the U.S. without permission at any point but were not subject to the expedited removal process.
Flores-Dixit explained these ongoing detentions cause fear among the immigrant community.
“Just the mere presence of ICE at the courts has unfortunately resulted in a lot of people not showing up to court,” she said. “People aren’t attending their hearings out of fear of being detained.”
Flores-Dixit said the vast majority of people who go through these civil immigration court proceedings do not have any type of criminal history on their record.
She emphasized that these arrests have far deeper implications.
“This erosion of due process, while right now it may seem limited to immigrants, has large implications for everyone in the United States,” she said. “This is not an issue that should only be important to the immigrant community or mixed status families but to all Americans in the U.S.”
View a recent declaration published by Flores-Dixit in support of federal litigation on this issue:
