ICE Raids: mass immigration raids apparently did not materialize over the weekend

The Trump administration has announced that nationwide crackdowns on illegal immigrants will not materialize on Sunday, reports Laura Podesta of CBS News. There have been few unusual reports of activity by immigration officers.

The New York Times said that "instead of a massive and simultaneous sweep, the operation conducted by the US Immigration and Customs Service will be conducted in the form of". a series of smaller raids spread over several days.

Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), quoted by Reuters press service, said that there had been no confirmed operation in from big southern cities like Atlanta. Reuters quoted it as follows: "Immigrants and immigrant communities all over the country are hiding and people live in these terrified and terrorized places, because that's the purpose of all this whether coercive measures are taken or not ".

The American Immigration Council has reported no mass arrests, Reuters added. This organization has lawyers ready to help those taken to the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, the largest in the country.

No sweeping

KHOU-TV, affiliated with CBS Houston, said that there was no sign of large-scale ICE operations in any major US city.

But usually occupied immigrant communities in Houston were unusually quiet and slow on Sunday. The parking lots of the usually crowded flea markets of southwest Houston were visibly empty. Fewer people were outside.

"We suspected people staying at home out of fear they were coming out, they would be the target of an ice raid," said Cesar Espinoza, executive director of FIEL, the immigrant advocacy group in Houston.

Espinoza says that many families have settled at home and do not even open the door to their volunteers. "There is a lot of tension, a lot of fear," said Espinoza. "People are in panic mode."

CBS Chicago also notes that fewer food vendors have been spotted in Chicago. There were sporadic reports of raids Sunday, but none were confirmed by ICE, alderman or city leaders.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has not reported any arrests when he spoke to the media on Sunday afternoon, CBS New York announced.

Many Democrats have criticized the handling of the situation by the administration.

Still in perspective?

About 2,000 people would be targeted by the raids. The White House has said it has received a final order of dismissal from immigration judges.

ICE operations were to take place in at least nine major cities.

In a number of them, officials have spoken out against searches, have limited access of immigration officers to databases of local police and have taken others. measures to protect migrants from agents. The activists did their best to let the immigrants know their rights if ICE agents came to knock on their door.

The renewed threat of massive deportations has made immigrant communities even more emotional since Mr Trump has pledged to illegally expel millions of people living in the country. Although these control operations have been common since 2003, he has made his beginnings and the politics around him unusual. Trump announced the sweeps last month, then delayed them to give lawmakers a chance to address the southern border.

Churches intervene

Religious leaders across the country have used their pulpit Sunday to calm the concerns of immigrant communities and engage in action to help those potentially threatened by the operation.

Sunday being the planned start, the churches tried to define a strategy to respond to it.

Last month, Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, wrote a letter to the priests of the archdiocese, in which it was written: "Threats of an extensive coercive action on the part of the 39; ICE are supposed to terrorize communities ". He urged the priests of the archdiocese – who serve more than 2 million Catholics – to leave no immigration officials in churches without identification or mandate.

Reverend Robert Stearns, of Living Water, Houston, has organized 25 churches in the city to allow families who wish to seek refuge, to settle their legal status. A dozen churches in the Los Angeles areas have also declared sanctuaries.

Participation in religious services on Sundays varied.

In Los Angeles, Reverend Fred Morris examined his congregation at the United Methodist Hispanic Mission in North Hills and was relieved to see everyone attending the Sunday morning ceremony. He feared that many would stay at home, fearing that Trump's threat of immigration would be threatened.

"Everyone is nervous," said Morris. "They are angry, very sorry to be terrorized by our president."