ICE Isn't Targeting the Worst But Legal Immigrants Playing by the Rules, Including Musical Stars Who Visited the White House

The big lie of Donald Trump’s mass deportations is that they would only target criminals, the “worst of the worst.” Instead, Trump has overwhelming targeted legal immigrants who were working through the system and complying with everything asked of them. The latest case is two young musicians who were recently honored on the floor of Congress.

The New York Times reports:

Last June, two teenage brothers from South Texas and their high school mariachi bandmates traveled to Capitol Hill. They had been invited there by their congresswoman, Monica De La Cruz. She was going to recognize the band on the House floor for winning a state mariachi competition.

“Your community is so so proud of your hard work, your talent, and your dedication,” Ms. De La Cruz, a Republican, told the students.

Nine months later, the brothers, Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, and Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar, 14, along with their parents and younger brother, are in ICE detention and facing deportation. …

The family entered the United States in 2023 at the border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, on an asylum claim and settled in nearby McAllen, according to Luis Antonio Martínez, the father.

In an interview last week, Mr. Martínez said that he and his wife and children were fleeing threats in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he had been kidnapped by cartel members.

The family had been attending its required court dates and last had a check-in with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in January, where they were told to return in June, Mr. Martínez said.

Then he received a call from ICE saying that the family needed to check in on Feb. 25. They were detained at that check-in.

The most chilling line in the report is actually this one: “They hope to be released by asking for habeas corpus, a last-resort legal procedure that many detained migrants have come to rely on.” A last resort? Habeas corpus—showing actual cause for imprisoning someone—is the very first requirement the government should be expected to meet, but which this administration systematically refuses to do.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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