Muscatine, Iowa – Felipe de Jesus Hernandez Marcelo went to the Iowa State Police Department to hope his property will be restored to its original state.
Police in Mascatin, Iowa, had his car and the cash he carried when he was shot and was killed on June 21. Hernandez28, recalled in court testimony that the department said he could not rewind the items. Instead, police arrested him on an old warrant for failing to pay his traffic ticket.
Within a few hours, Hernandez Handed over to immigration and customs enforcement. He has been detained since, awaiting dismissal procedures and entered the country illegally from his native Mexico in 2021.
Hernandez is one of the growing number of victims and relatives of crimes who have been arrested and detained indefinitely during the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.
ICE has eliminated a policy that has saved many victims from detention and dismissal. The number of people applying for visas allows some victims and their families to stay in the country. Others were detained during a long application process. Among those detained, many were declared ineligible for release under another ice policy change.
Critics say the results are not only cruel to the victims and their families, but also to undermine public safety by making it illegally unlikely that the U.S. will report crimes and work with police.
“Now, this type of thing is the new normal. This happens in every city every day,” said Dan Kowalski, a retired attorney and immigration law expert. “Any connection to any level or type of state or federal law enforcement, civil or criminal, puts you at risk of being detained in ice.”
In January, the ICE canceled a policy that called on agents to avoid detention and seek to evacuate immigrants who were victims of crime. It protects those carrying so-called U and T visas that allow victims of crime and trafficking and their relatives to remain in the country. These protections extend to those who apply for such visas and are waiting for a decision, which can take years to process.
Hernandez Applying for a U visa is being sought and appears to be eligible as a victim of a felony assault and a victim of the main witness to the two charged in the attack. But Muscading County Attorney Jim Barry has not proved his qualifications yet. Hernandez’s lawyer. Barry did not reply to the message.
Biden-era policy calls on ice sheet agents to look for signs of victimization of immigrants and see it as a “positive discretionary factor” when deciding whether to detain them. The purpose is to avoid preventing immigration victims from working with the police to report and resolve crimes.
But some conservatives believe that only victims should not benefit immigrants.
The new policy allows ICE agents to detain victims of crime, including U and T visa holders, as long as they check with the police “to ensure that criminal investigations and other law enforcement actions are not compromised.” The agent does not need to look for any evidence of the victimization.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the number of U visa applications dropped by nearly half in the quarter ending in March, including the first 2½ months of the new Trump administration.
Some immigration lawyers say the decline reflects concern that the application itself can potentially remove someone from the government.
Immigration attorney Bethany Hoffmann said one of her clients, whose wife was a victim of a kidnapping, was arrested by ICE when he was appointed as part of the U Visa application process and was granted fingerprints.
“I’ve been practicing for 17 years, but I’ve never seen it,” she said, adding that the man had no criminal history but was given a 10-year-old dismissal order.
Other U visa applicants nationwide have been detained by ICE, including a woman detained in Maine in 2021, court documents show.
Intensifying the impact is another new practice in which Ice and Immigration judges demand indefinitely detaining anyone entering the country without permission.
Over the past 30 years, immigration lawyers have said many of these detainees can be released and pending dismissal procedures as long as they are deemed a risk or danger to the community. Stable work, local relatives and minimal criminal history, Hernandez It was supposed to be the candidate for release.
But instead, he stayed in the Mascatin County Jail where Ice was detained for nearly three months.
Hernandez Separated from his 9-year-old son, who was raised as a single father, he was unable to participate in a vital medical appointment to recover from a gunshot wound, nor to work, and to work in construction jobs that paid his family’s bills.
He said he was rejected for the first five days due to pain.
“I was locked in a cell for a few days. It felt like it was forever.” Hernandez This month recalled in court testimony.
A federal judge ruled on September 10 that ICE was detained Hernandez No bond hearing is illegal and an immigration court is ordered to hold one within 7 days. She found that he was suffering “irreparable harm.” A hearing is planned on Wednesday.
