My Name is Innocent: Age of Immigrants in America


10.5 Million Undocumented Immigrants in America, 6,000 ICE Officers

Being an ICE officer is tedious, unenjoyable, and probably more than a little confusing right now. Having recently seen the removal of a president dubbed "Deporter in Chief," despite limiting ICE's pursuits to criminals and expected gangbangers while curtailing arrests of immigrant families and workplace raids, we now moved to a president's whose motto seems to be "I build a wall around those who are different than me."

In the age of Big Data and Big Brother, our country went from trying to arrest less of the more-innocent immigrants to arresting anyone they can catch. And catch they can.

In the Beginning


Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
- "The New Colossus," poet Emma Lazarus, published on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty

 If you live in American and are not 100% of Native American descent, you have at least one immigrant in your family tree. We are all immigrants, and without immigration, America never would have formed. The first settlers encouraged people from other countries to come join us. Once, new citizens were treated equally to more established citizens (if you were a white male, of course.) 

 Since then, many politicians seem to have forgotten who we are. It seems that there are many people today who are trying to create the view of an "American nationality" - middle to upper-class, Christian, white, etc., etc. But there is no American nationality. Until a few hundred years ago, there was no America. If you go to England, you can visit sites like the Tower of London, which has a long, sordid past, now open to the public as a museum and gift shop. America? Well, we definitely have spilled our fair share of blood, but we are a baby country. And now we are acting like a bunch of babies fighting with their new siblings for Mother Country's love.

So You Think You Can Escape?


 Sidenote: When Christopher Columbus left some of his men behind after his first trip to the islands, they were eaten by cannibals. Apparently, traveling to other countries has never been safe.

 It must be difficult to live in America if you have no social security number to access things like employment, housing, college financial aid, etc. One thing immigrants could easily receive was a license from Washington's Department of Licensing. At least, until the Seattle Times uncovered that the DOL had been regularly providing ICE with license applications and photos. States are "free," i.e. may receive letters of threats from higher-ups like Jeff Sessions, to choose whether they are going to mandate immigration laws or not.

 Reported by the New York Times, in December 2017, ICE received access to the largest private database of license-plate scans. ICE also has access to visual recognition software used by some states to try to crack down on duplications of drivers licenses. Collateral arrests have risen again, where ICE goes to a location to arrest someone in their sights but ends up arresting one or more illegal immigrants they had been unaware of before.

And What about the Children?


 For those whose situations are so bad in their own countries that they are willing to take the risk by traveling here with their families, ICE showing up at your American door may be the least of your worries. Your children might not even make it that far. Let us not forget that children are dying in our detention centers, at the hands of our government, and that thousands of migrant children have been "lost."

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