Miami – Fear of raids and deportation has thousands of undocumented immigrants on edge here and in other U.S. cities, many of whom are remaining behind closed doors they worry may soon be knocked on by federal agents.
On May 4, Michelle Erika Valentin opened the door of her house in South Florida and two cops entered with the excuse of having received an emergency 911 call.
Minutes later, the officers arrested her husband, Jaisser J. Ramirez, and his cousin Edgardo A. Garcia, both undocumented.
And what until that moment the couple had considered a stable life was now filled with uncertainty.
Two weeks before his arrest, Ramirez – who came to the United States when he was 12 years old from his native Honduras – worked in a construction company and with what he earned supported a wife, a daughter and a baby with kidney problems.
Today the Honduran immigrant, now 23, waits in an immigrant detention center in Krome, Miami-Dade County, Florida, to see what kind of future is being decided for him.
The Ramirez case in one out of many that have been reported over the past few days by immigrants’ rights organizations.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Barbara Gonzalez said that these detentions are not raids.
“Our operations are not random; they are planned ahead of time. They are based on the intelligence we have,” she said.
Rosa Kasse of the Hispanic Coalition rejects that explanation.
“The raids aren’t a rumor, they are as real as you and I are standing here,” she said.
But undocumented aliens have not been the only ones affected by these events.
Sara, owner of a store in Aventura, a city north of Miami, had to fire a visa-less employee after more than a year and a half working for her.
“My heart was heavy but I had to let her go,” the business owner said about the only person she knew that she trusted enough to leave in charge of the store.
“I’ve tried to hire somebody else, but people who want these jobs mostly don’t have their papers,” she said.
U.S. companies that hire undocumented immigrants risk being fined up to $10,000, according to Immigration.
The sectors considered most affected by these measures are construction, hospitality and agriculture, which traditionally have benefited from employing undocumented labor.
Immigrant families suffer the consequences because in general when one of the members is taken away, the family structure is affected and in the end breaks up.
For Michelle Erika Valentin, having her husband away affects the future of her children, who are U.S. citizens, and her own.
“That is the risk families take when they come here illegally; it may sound cold, but it’s a fact,” an official at the Department of Homeland Security said.
Ramirez has not seen his children for two weeks. According to his sister, he asked that they stop visiting him because of the humiliating treatment and searches he is put through after each visit.
Faced with possible deportation, the accused still has the chance that the process might be canceled if he meets certain requirements.
He would have to have lived in the United States for 10 years, to have had good conduct, never to have been accused of any crime and show that his leaving the country would mean extreme hardship for close family members who are citizens or permanent residents.
Although Ramirez fulfulls all these requirements, the final decision is at the discretion of the immigration judge handling the case.
