When a softer touch means electric shocks

When Markwayne Mullin replaced Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary, some news media described his pledge for a “softer touch” on immigration enforcement. But with DHS’ recently announced plans for ICE officers to wear “electric shock gloves,” literally nothing could be farther from the truth.

Planned for early next year, those gloves, when activated, will stun those migrants into cooperating -- at a cost to taxpayers of up to $20 million. “Recipients don’t pass out but the pain can compel them to cooperate with officers,” USA Today reported. “The glove causes pain and distraction through sustained physical contact.”

They’re not meant to be used for punishment or on children, the elderly, disabled or pregnant people” (how would they know who might be pregnant?) according to the manufacturer’s manual. But they can be used to coerce someone out of a car or a home or into jail.

In Iowa, stopping motorists, even for minor infractions, is often the first step in immigrant apprehension, whether or not that’s what they were stopped for. According to the nonprofit Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, “Iowa drivers are being stopped for minor traffic violations before being transferred over to ICE. The data shows that often, this is how people enter the deportation pipeline from Iowa.”

An IMMJ report accuses the Trump administration of “actively hiding data about its deportation actions in our community and across the country.” But information released last month by the University of California Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project says ICE arrests made on the streets, in immigration courts and routine appointments increased 11-fold in Trump’s first year back in office. Overall, its arrests quadrupled. The New York Times reported a 276% daily increase in Iowa ICE arrests in the first five months of last year. In Iowa ICE detained 1,779 people, of whom 1,533 were deported. The vast majority of detainees were male and 63% were citizens of Mexico or Guatemala..

Eight Iowa county jails - Woodbury, Pottawattamie, Polk, Hardin, Linn, Muscatine, Sioux, Scott and Marion - have agreements to detain people on behalf of ICE for 72 hours or more. If that weren’t bad enough, local and state police will be, in Mullin’s words, taking “the front row” on ICE’s work -- with DHS acting “as more of a transport rather than on the front lines.” Under the federal program, 287(g), local police and sheriffs get trained to take on ICE enforcement activities.

Those are the very people communities are supposed to trust for help and call in emergencies. But it can be hard to tell local police from ICE agents when they show up as masked men in unmarked cars wearing bulletproof vests labeled ‘police,’ and stop people on the street with guns, says IMMJ: “For vulnerable communities, these realities represent real terror that haunts them daily.”

Asked by CNN about the electric shock gloves, Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, whose city and state lived through some of the worst ICE tactics, called it outrageous to introduce a new tool of violence. “This agency is completely out of control,” she told CNN.

The shock gloves of course aren’t the worst threat facing immigrants, but they’re a reflection of the inhumanity with which this administration views and treats those here without proper papers, many of whom are filling jobs others won’t. The DHS website says the gloves are designed “to safely arrest and remove criminal aliens from our country.” But deportation is -- or should be - a process involving pleas, attorneys and scheduled hearings, not achieved by throwing an electrified leash on someone exiting a car or an interview and transferring them to a holding pen.

All of this is rationalized in the name of safety, though it doesn’t offer any. To attract local police participation, DHS claims, “It helps you keep your community safe from potentially dangerous criminal aliens.”

But since Trump took office, the word “criminal” to describe undocumented people has become almost meaningless. Merely being here without a visa is not a criminal offense but a civil infraction. Someone may be placed in removal proceedings and charged a fine but it’s not a federal crime.

Someone caught while entering the U.S. without permission can be criminally charged, as can a person who was ordered deported but stayed or re-entered without authority. But since Trump’s return to office, even people attending check-ins with immigration officials are getting nabbed and deported. ICE arrested 10,000 people over five days in late June, at such check-ins, traffic stops and on the street.

On his confirmation, Mullin said, “My goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day.” So much for that.

In related moves recently:

--A new federal requirement makes every noncitizen 14 or older register with the federal government within 30 days of entering¹⁷ and provide fingerprints and home addresses so they can be tracked. Even foreigners here lawfully who didn’t register or weren’t carrying their permanent residence cards have been handcuffed and hauled off.¹⁸

--Mullin is threatening to stop international air traffic from arriving at “sanctuary cities” which include Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. That would mean visas couldn’t be processed in those major transportation hubs.

--Federal agents in Minnesota have launched “Operation Puppet Master,” an undercover surveillance of progressive organizations, labor unions and groups who protested the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Fifteen people were charged with helping “violent opportunists and agitators.” The operation became public when a defense lawyer made a motion for the release of materials the government collected.

-- ICE is arresting people at airports who have open immigration cases and no criminal history – apparently to meet the administration’s goal of 3,000 deportations a day.

--During traffic stops, ICE agents in one recent week. shot and killed two people, one in Texas whom they believed to be someone else, and the other in Maine, who they said had a removal order.

Whether or not it makes the headlines, multiple such stories play out every day. “ICE’s detentions and deportations are collectively impacting all immigrants and refugees in Iowa,” says IMMJ. They may include the people who clean your hotel room, farm your land, fix your roof or care for your aging parents or kids.

But there are steps you can take: Stand by those migrants under threat. Attend an IMMJ training. Research the candidates’ positions on this horrific seizure of our streets and communities. And use your vote in November’s midterm elections to end these shockingly abhorrent practices.

I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative. Click below for the full roster.

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative