How Team Trump Is Targeting Immigrants Who Reported Crimes
Days after he nearly died when an assailant shot him during a robbery attempt, Felipe de Jesus Hernandez Marcelo went to an Iowa police station hoping to get his belongings back.
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ICE Revokes Protection Policy for Immigrant Crime Victims
Iowa:
Felipe de Jesus Hernandez Marcelo, a 28-year-old man, visited a Muscatine, Iowa police station to retrieve his belongings days after surviving a near-fatal shooting during a robbery attempt. Rather than returning his car and cash from the June 21 incident, police arrested him for an unpaid traffic ticket. Within hours, Hernandez was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and has remained detained since then facing removal proceedings due to his undocumented status after entering from Mexico in 2021.
Hernandez represents a growing trend of crime victims and their family members being arrested and indefinitely detained during the Trump administration's intensified immigration enforcement efforts.
ICE has eliminated a previous policy that provided protection for many crime victims from detention and deportation. Applications for visas designed to allow victims and their families to remain in the United States appear to have significantly decreased. Many applicants are now being detained during the extended application process, with numerous detainees deemed ineligible for release under another revised ICE policy.
Critics argue this approach is not only inhumane to victims and their families but also undermines public safety by discouraging undocumented individuals from reporting crimes or cooperating with law enforcement.
"This type of thing is now the new normal. This scenario is happening every day in every city," explained Dan Kowalski, a retired attorney and immigration law specialist. "Any contact with any level or kind of state or federal law enforcement, civil or criminal, puts you in danger of detention by ICE."
In January, ICE rescinded guidance that generally directed agents to avoid detaining and removing immigrant crime victims. The previous policy protected holders of U and T visas, which allow crime and human trafficking victims and their relatives to stay in the country. These protections also covered applicants awaiting decisions, which can take years to process.
Hernandez is attempting to apply for a U visa and appears eligible as a felony assault victim and key witness against his attackers. However, Muscatine County prosecutor Jim Barry has not yet certified his eligibility, according to Hernandez's attorney. Barry did not respond to inquiries.
The Biden administration policy had instructed ICE agents to look for evidence of victimization and consider it "a positive discretionary factor" when making detention decisions. This approach aimed to encourage immigrant victims to report crimes and assist law enforcement.
Some conservatives, however, have maintained that victim status alone should not automatically grant immigration benefits.
The new policy permits ICE agents to detain crime victims, including U and T visa holders, provided they coordinate with police "to ensure criminal investigative and other enforcement actions will not be compromised." Agents are no longer required to search for evidence of victimization.
U visa applications dropped by approximately half during the quarter ending in March, which included the first 2 ½ months of the Trump administration, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
Immigration attorneys suggest this decline reflects fears that applying might flag individuals for potential removal proceedings.
Immigration lawyer Bethany Hoffmann reported that one of her clients, whose wife had been kidnapped, was arrested by ICE when he attended an appointment for fingerprinting as part of the U visa application process.
"I have been practicing for 17 years and I have never seen that before," she stated, noting that the man had no criminal history but was subject to a decade-old removal order.
Court records show other U visa applicants across the country have been taken into custody by ICE, including a woman detained in Maine who had been assaulted and kidnapped in 2021.
Exacerbating the situation is another new practice where ICE and immigration judges have required indefinite detention of anyone who entered the country without authorization.
Immigration attorneys note that over the past three decades, many such detainees would have been eligible for release while awaiting removal proceedings if they weren't considered flight risks or dangers to the community. With steady employment, local family ties, and minimal criminal history, Hernandez would likely have qualified for release.
Instead, he has been held at the Muscatine County Jail in ICE detention for nearly three months.
Hernandez has been separated from his 9-year-old son whom he was raising alone, unable to attend critical medical appointments for his gunshot wound recovery, and prevented from working his construction job that supported his family.
He reported being denied medication for five days while suffering excruciating pain.
"I was locked in a single cell for several days. It felt like forever," Hernandez testified in court this month.
On September 10, a federal judge ruled that ICE's detention of Hernandez without a bond hearing was illegal and ordered an immigration court to conduct one within seven days. The judge determined he was experiencing "irreparable harm" during his detention. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)