Immigrant Activists Say ICE Is Purposely Targeting Them. They're Urging Biden To Help

In a new report, activists say ICE systematically retaliates against them for their work, despite the agency's denials. Advocates want the Biden administration to officially forbid the practice.

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Sometimes the battle over immigration policy gets personal. Immigrant advocates claim they've been targeted for retaliation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because of their activism. Now they're looking to the Biden administration to do something about it. NPR's Joel Rose reports.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: For years, activist Maru Mora-Villalpando has organized hunger strikes to protest conditions at an immigrant detention center in Tacoma, Wash.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARU MORA-VILLALPANDO: So repeat with me. Freedom is non-negotiable.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Freedom is non-negotiable.

ROSE: That was in 2017. A few months later, ICE placed more of Mora-Villalpando in deportation proceedings. Mora-Villalpando is an undocumented immigrant. She's been living in Washington State for more than 20 years with no criminal record. To her, this was all about intimidation.

MORA-VILLALPANDO: It was very clear ICE didn't like my work and they believed that putting me in deportation proceedings would impact negatively our image.

ROSE: If ICE was trying to silence Mora-Villalpando, it didn't work. She went to court and obtained internal documents and emails from ICE. In one of those emails, a high-ranking ICE officer describes Mora-Villalpando as an instigator. Another officer suggests that trying to deport her might, quote, "take away some of her clout."

MORA-VILLALPANDO: I even had to look up that word. I didn't know that word in English. Honestly, I was like, what are they talking about?

ROSE: For immigrants' rights advocates, those emails are vindication of what they've been saying for years, that ICE is deliberately retaliating against them for their work. ICE consistently denies this charge, but advocates say there's a growing body of evidence that cannot be ignored. And they want the Biden administration to put an end to the practice.

SEJAL ZOTA: This report exposes how ICE has targeted organizers and leaders of each group.

ROSE: Sejal Zota is the legal director of Just Futures Law. It's one of several organizations behind a new report documenting allegations of retaliation from across the country - Texas, North Carolina, Illinois and Vermont - where immigrant advocates say they've been spied on, intimidated and even deported for their activism.

ZOTA: Some of the stories of activist retaliation have previously been told piecemeal, but documenting the accounts of groups from around the country, I think it becomes clear that this is a broad and national problem.

ROSE: ICE denies retaliating against anyone. The agency says it is simply enforcing immigration law against people who are living in the country illegally. But sometimes activists come to the agency's attention because of their work. Advocates say Mora-Villalpando's case and others documented in the report are textbook examples of retaliation. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was asked about similar allegations during an interview in April.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: That is unacceptable retaliation in response to the constitutionally protected right of free speech. That's just unacceptable.

ROSE: Immigrant advocates were glad to hear Mayorkas say that, but they want the administration to back those words up with action. They're calling on Mayorkas to take a formal stand against retaliation in the official ICE enforcement guidelines he's expected to issue in the next few months. Otherwise, activist Maru Mora-Villalpando worries the practice will continue.

MORA-VILLALPANDO: I've always believed that, when we get attacked, it's because they're afraid of us.

ROSE: Since ICE started trying to deport her, activists in Washington succeeded in pushing the state to prohibit for profit jails. They hope to shut down the ICE detention center in Tacoma by 2025. Mora-Villalpando says the agency's attempt to deport her backfired.

MORA-VILLALPANDO: They gave us a larger microphone, you know, a larger bullhorn to say this is wrong, and this is why we're going to continue fighting.

ROSE: Mora-Villalpando is still fighting her own deportation case and using whatever clout she has to help immigrants in detention.

Joel Rose, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.