Don’t forget what’s happening in the streets of America to millions of people right now:
Because of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s increased presence, Alex, a Northeast-based hospital researcher, has been staying home more. Alex does not eat at restaurants or travel for fun. He prefers to walk 30 minutes to his work’s shuttle stop over driving his car or taking a bus on a road where an ICE agent might be.
“I look Latino,” said Alex, who is one of several people HuffPost agreed to identify by first name only for their safety and privacy. “I get very self-conscious when I’m outside in public. If I go to pick up something at the store, I get very anxious if I have to stand there waiting for too long.“
This September, after the United States Supreme Court ruled that immigration agents can use race as a factor when deciding who is a reasonably suspicious target in Los Angeles, Alex stopped going to the grocery store and started getting his food delivered.
Alex is a legal resident and carries his green card everywhere he goes. But is that enough? The Supreme Court has allowed the ICE to racially profile so he can still be stopped. And despite kavanaugh’s fatuous claims, they do detain citizens and legal residents far longer than a few minutes. If they don’t have “their papers” who knows what might happen? There are even stories of the masked ICE agents taking their Real IDs.
Jonah, a Visalia, California, resident and U.S. citizen, said he carries proof of citizenship because he lives near farms, which have been targets of ICE raids.
“I do feel American,” Jonah said. “I do wonder, though, if my neighbors see me that way.”
“I have a Spanish surname and dark brown skin, so I carry my passport with me at all times,” Jonah said. When he goes to the grocery store, Jonah’s wife, who is white, will drive to “put ourselves in the best position to not be pulled over, harassed or arrested” by immigration authorities, Jonah said.
63.7 million Latinos live in the United States. There are probably quite a few million more who look like they might be. And they aren’t the only one’s subject to such racial profiling. They can target Asians and African Americans as well, because they “look like” they might be undocumented immigrants based on their race. In fact, the only people who cannot be automatically assumed to be subject to masked ICE agents in unmarked cars randomly rousting them are white people.
This may seem remote to those of us who aren’t among the race or ethnicity that’s under scrutiny. But a whole lot of people are, and they are living in fear in America today.