ICE's deportation actions signal that anyone who isn't a US citizen is 'at risk – period,' immigration attorney says.

Summary

Wisconsin resident Bradley Bartell voted for Trump’s promise to crack down on “criminal illegal immigrants,” but now his Peruvian wife Camila Muñoz has been detained by ICE.

Muñoz, from Peru, overstayed her visa but had applied for legal residency. On their way home from a honeymoon, immigration agents detained her at a Puerto Rico airport.

Despite no criminal record, she remains in a Louisiana detention center. Her case reflects ICE’s broadened enforcement that now includes documented immigrants.

Bartell, once supportive of stricter immigration policies, now questions the impact on families like his own.

  • BigFig@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11211·
    7 hours ago

    Hold the fuck up, she was already OVERSTAYING her Visa and these idiots thought it was a good idea to TRAVEL? Nah they both got what they fucking deserved. It doesn’t matter that you’re awaiting your residency application, you have already passed your exit date, why the fuck would you be traveling for your honeymoon

    Edit: I’m literally standing in the airport awaiting my fiance’s return from Mexico right now, this shit makes all the people who actually read their paperwork and follow the rules, look bad when they get lumped in with these idiots.

    • AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee
      191·
      4 hours ago

      Nobody deserves to be punished for arbitrary political boundaries.

      That being said, it’s satisfying to see the people supporting those boundaries get punished by them.

      • BigFig@lemmy.worldEnglish
        44·
        3 hours ago

        I agree, but she and anyone else in her position have SIGNED paperwork in agreement with the terms that by X date you will leave the country. What the fuck else are we supposed to do if we just shrug and say oh well it’s just a date. These two were blatantly attempting to trounce the laws and just do whatever they wanted.

    • aramis87@fedia.io
      31·
      6 hours ago

      Apparently she got stuck in the States when all the borders were closed during the pandemic, which seems pretty reasonable grounds for overstaying.

      But - she didn’t leave when the borders re-opened. She had fallen in love and at some point she filed paperwork to normalize her status - though they’re pretty coy about when they filled the papers, so I suspect that was done after the borders re-opened and she should have left.

      .

      I’m also going to point out what I haven’t seen in any of the comments so far which is that, with ICE being pressured to increase the number of deportations, they’re opting to go for low-hanging fruit. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean raiding places that they’ve known for decades are hiring illegal immigrants, arresting and prosecuting and imprisoning the owners and managers.

      It does mean that they’re hanging out at at least some airports, and it sounds like they’re running passenger lists ahead of time (because they knew exactly who to approach). I mean, why to go the trouble of driving out to some farm or factory in the middle of nowhere, trying to chase down people who know the area better than you ever will, when you can sit at a comfy air-conditioned desk and only bother to get up when the computer lets you know that your “target” is trying to check in for their flight?

      • BigFig@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        3 hours ago

        Agree completely, and to me when people like these two decide to do whatever they want because their love is “special”, it shows ICE that hey, this is way easier and they’ll focus more on these situations. This puts all the completely legal and above board immigrants in danger now.

    • HowAbt2morrow@futurology.todayEnglish
      122·
      6 hours ago

      Exactly. Did my dude think he could Karen his way through Customs? Papers have to be in order with Biden or Trump, now it’s worse though because they detain your ass.

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
          6·
          3 hours ago

          You still need to identify yourself to get on the plane. If your visa is flagged as expired, they are going to know and snatch you up

          • jballs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4·
            3 hours ago

            Right, but I’m just saying this is no different from flying from Minneapolis to Denver. Someone saying “well of course ICE was gonna snatch you up, you set foot in an airport” is kind of crazy.

            • BakerBagel@midwest.social
              5·
              2 hours ago

              I’m not defending ICE scooping up people. If you know that your visa is expired, you should assume that you are on their radar. Airlines verify all their passengers with TSA to ensure that no one is on a no fly list or q watchlist. Airports are secured locations where your identity has to be verified. Literally all it takes is for ICE to see you have signed up for a flight next Friday, and they can have an agent waiting for you at your gate.

            • BigFig@lemmy.worldEnglish
              21·
              2 hours ago

              Not really, you are knowingly living here with an expired visa, you had ample opportunity to plan, reapply, change status, and many other options, they just…didn’t. So, as a non citizen with an expired visa they no longer have freedom of movement (as a visa grants you specifically, freedom of movement within the borders of the United States and it’s Territories)