Beatriz Morelos Casillas, age 37, and mother of four, was deported to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico during a routine traffic stop. Beatriz Morelos Casillas has been residing within Ohio for about 25 years. According to police records, Beatriz was deported within 10 days of her arrest. Beatriz had no criminal record, and worked while raising four children. Deportation has been striking Latinx communities heavily since Trump has been in office; many believe that there is no logical explanation for deporting innocent humans besides racist exclusion.
Lamont, California, a small town with a 94% Latinx population, has been a big target of ICE. Local grocery stores have been hubs for ICE members to stake out, forcing locals to stay in their homes. There have even been reports of resident’s homes being raided by ICE members. In the neighboring city of Bakersfield, California, a 400 bed immigration detainment center (prison) just opened up. This area of California has become a target of deportation, which is discriminatory in every sense of the word.
ICE director made this statement “When someone chooses to enter this country illegally, and they’re here illegally, and they choose to have a child that’s a U.S. citizen, they put themselves in that position, not the U.S. government, not the ICE officers” said director Thomas Horman; a classic case of victim blaming.
It does not make sense to say that it is the immigrant people at fault for being deported, when ICE is the one going above and beyond doing the most to seek out undocumented immigrants. These undocumented immigrant people who have been deported, may not have even been in that position if it wasn’t for ICE. In actuality, it is likely that immigrant families would just continue on minding their business and looking out for their families.
Mexican immigrants are the hardest working population within the U.S. founded by immigrants or children of immigrants, generated more than $1.7 trillion in revenue and employed 3.6 million people in the United States in 2010 alone. Fully legalizing the current unauthorized immigrants would add $2.1 billion in state and local tax revenue each year. Mexican immigrants work the hardest jobs, for the longest, and for the lowest pay.
While they do, in fact, contribute to society, an immigrant’s ability to stay within the united states should not be contingent upon their ability to contribute to the economy. Someone’s ability to provide should not be the deciding factor on whether they are accepted or not. An immigrant is a person. Something that is oftentimes misunderstood or even forgotten.
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