It wasn’t long after President Donald Trump’s inauguration that the rumor mill was up and running. Social media, text message threads and even workplace circles were awash with stories of seeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents out in communities, a presumed show of force after a promise of “shock and awe.”
Not all of those stories have been true, but even rumors can have real consequences, advocates say.
What’s played out across the country is happening here in Baltimore — threats of mass deportations have many on edge, and not just members of immigrant communities. Misinformation and unverified reports of ICE activity have run rampant in Maryland and across the nation, which immigrant advocates say is exacerbating fear among documented and undocumented immigrants alike, upending the daily routines of many concerned with facing arrest or questioning.
The specter of getting caught up in an ICE operation can prevent families from sending their kids to school, visiting the doctor or going about their daily lives, said Valeria Gomez, an assistant professor of law at the University of Baltimore.
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“I think chaos is the goal, and I think spreading fear is the goal,” said Gomez, who is the director of the university’s immigrant rights’ clinic. “This spreading of rumors and fomenting of fear, I think, is one of the things that the administration is trying to achieve.”
In recent weeks, many ICE sightings have been conflated with “mass raids,” though it could have been officers continuing routine or targeted enforcement. It can also be difficult to distinguish immigration officials from other law enforcement officers. On Thursday afternoon, parents waiting at Baltimore City College an hour before pickup time said that a rumor had spread on social media among students and teachers that ICE was on campus.
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“This is very suspicious,” said one woman, who said her 15-year old daughter attends the high school and, like the other parents, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her family’s privacy. “We don’t have a chance to be able to take this lightly.” According to Baltimore City Public Schools, there were “no ICE agents.”
A similar scene played out at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School in Montebello, where a Facebook post claimed that students were saying kids couldn’t leave the school building because of the agents. But no immigration officials ever seemed to arrive.
As a result of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the Homeland Security Act helped to establish the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, now known as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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ICE’s Baltimore field office arrested 1,434 people last fiscal year, the third-lowest of offices nationwide, according to agency statistics. Of that total, 46% had criminal convictions and 12% had pending criminal charges, meaning a higher percentage of Baltimore-area arrests were people without criminal histories than the national average, according to ICE’s most recent annual report.
CASA, a national organization serving working-class Black, Latino, African-descendant, Indigenous, and immigrant communities, has received thousands of calls to its raid hotline, which was launched this month.
The organization, which operates out of four states, including Maryland, received about eight calls per day the first week the hotline launched. That jumped to 20 calls per day the following week. A quarter of the calls were found to be “actionable,” or confirmed detentions. CASA declined to provide what percentage of the calls were from Maryland.
“What has been happening is that people have been calling the raid tip hotline and have been reporting anything out of the ordinary,” said Jossie Flor Sapunar, national communications director for CASA. “We get some wacky calls. Either there is not enough information to investigate or it turns out to be nothing. But I’m glad people know to call. We have eyes in every neighborhood.”
Advocates say there is reason to be concerned and take credible reports seriously. Though federal officials have maintained that ICE is prioritizing criminal offenders, collateral arrests are likely to occur, Gomez said.
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“There is this tone of there’s a new sheriff in town, and my fear is that ICE officers become emboldened and go beyond what the call of their mission might be,” said Gomez.
Share verified, specific information with trusted experts like CASA, said Lucia Islas, a long-time Latina advocate and president of Baltimore’s Comité Latino.
“Spread power not panic,” said Islas. “Stop using people’s fear to get attention or to try to be a hero.”
The chilling effect hasn’t only touched those who are undocumented. There are reports of green card holders and even citizens getting caught up in ICE’s growing enforcement net. Their guidelines now include pursuing some people who have entered the country legally through Biden-era programs that require background checks and U.S. fiscal sponsors, as well as the freedom to conduct enforcement at “sensitive locations” like schools and churches, previously off-limits.
Last week, the Department of Justice gave other federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the green light to assist with immigration enforcement.
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Trump’s policies combined with the uncertainty of how they will be enacted have also taken a toll on the mental health of the immigrant community, advocates say.
Donna Batkis, a licensed clinical social worker and member of the Latino Racial Justice Circle, says 80% of the immigrant community she works with is dealing with some form of trauma related to Trump’s immigration policies.
“The number of people suffering is incalculable,” she said, adding that children are especially susceptible to trauma with the unknown of potential deportations.
“Not being able to say who is safe or not is a calculation that is cruel. It’s supposed to erode people’s spirit. The one thing I know about the immigrant community is that they have faith and spirit. But that’s what bullies do,” Batkis said. “Don’t let them take away your mental health. Don’t let them take away your joy.”
Batkis said she and a group of mental health care workers within the immigrant community plan to gather next week to discuss how to build support among themselves.
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“No one else is going to take care of us,” she said.
Ellie Wolfe contributed to this story
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