The Eastern Shore is experiencing a humanitarian crisis due to ICE’s presence. Across our area, hundreds of individuals have already been taken by ICE, separated from their families and communities, causing trauma that will last lifetimes. With the recent loss of Temporary Protected Status, especially for Haitians and Somalians, these numbers only continue to increase exponentially right here in our community.
Every single day, masked men and women in unmarked vehicles incite terror all around us, picking up individuals and sending them off to be detained and potentially deported; stories from detention centers describe the violence, negligence, and cruelty ICE causes, while some individuals are immediately deported to countries they have never even been to. Just in our county alone, an elderly man who has been here for decades was taken by ICE and immediately deported. Students are being reported for truancy for not attending school due to fear of being detained; others are unable to graduate for the same reason. A mother who was on the pathway to securing citizenship was taken in front of her children and immediately deported. So many fathers, with children at home and babies on the way, have been taken while on their way to work, while getting groceries, while getting gas, while trying to provide for their families. Many already taken were primary breadwinners, leaving their spouses struggling to pay utilities and buy food. One mother secured a full-time position at a local farm, but the next day she was called into DHS for her immigration interview; she was taken on the spot by local ICE, while her two young children were left alone. One man sat handcuffed on a plane for thirty hours, having no idea where ICE was sending them.
People have been ripped out of their vehicles, their personal belongings stolen, and family members are harassed when trying to find out information and retrieve their belongings at DHS. These are only some of the stories of what’s happening here in our area, examples of the terror and trauma that is happening here in our own backyard. These individuals work and worship here–they have businesses, homes, and families, and are an important and vital part of our community.
History has taught us that legality doesn’t always mean ethics or humanity; We’ve seen ICE terrorism in Minneapolis, in Texas, in New Jersey, and here on our own Eastern Shore. We cannot normalize what is being inflicted here in our streets; we cannot normalize the cruelty and violence that our neighbors–fathers, mothers, children–are experiencing each and every day.
Wicomico Immigrant Rights Collective is a community-driven mutual-aid network, along with other community members and groups in the county and across the Eastern Shore, picking up the pieces of this crisis. There are so many ways to resist this violence and support impacted families. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Email IRCWicomico@proton.me to find out how you can support our immigrant neighbors!
