Denver (CO), Apr 17 (EFE).- Despite the existence of current laws that prohibit local Colorado authorities from cooperating with federal immigration agents, that cooperation continues, resulting in “aggressive actions” that even infringe the basic rights of immigrants, reveals a report released today by Colorado State University (CSU).
The study, overseen by Dr. Elizabeth Kiehne, a professor in the CSU College of Social Work, found that both municipalities and police departments in Colorado continue to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and that agents are showing “aggressive and authoritarian” and come to “force” immigrants to leave the country.
Kiehne and his colleagues analyzed public ICE data, conducted four community consultations with immigrants, and completed 17 detailed interviews with immigrants living in Colorado, most of them Mexican women, mothers of at least two children, and more than 15 years in the United States.
The researchers determined that immigrants’ experiences interacting with the current immigration system include unfair or negligent treatment, racism, and “deceptive practices to sow mistrust in the community.”
“The issue is not just that the system tears families apart, destabilizes the basic unit of society and unnecessarily imprisons people, although that would certainly be enough to warrant a review (of immigration laws),” Kiehne said in remarks sent to EFE.
“The problem also lies in the way in which law enforcement officers and staff at the detention center for undocumented immigrants carry out their work: dehumanizing and traumatizing,” he added.
Kiehne is an expert in the use of “quantitative methodologies to study the sociopolitical context and its impact on the integration and well-being of immigrant families in the US”, has written several books on the subject and makes frequent study trips to America. Latina.
According to Kiehne, who lived in the Dominican Republic, ICE’s “authoritarian” behavior is something that “our immigrant communities are well aware of, but that legislators and the general public willfully ignore.”
“Thanks to their willingness to tell their stories of pain and suffering in detail, the participants in this research vividly exposed the underbelly of the immigration enforcement system,” he said.
Among those testimonies is that of Josefina, a 38-year-old mother of four, whose 17-year-old son, the only immigrant in the family, was “treated in such a bad way” when he was arrested by ICE agents. Due to the trauma experienced, Josefina still needs therapy.
Ángel, 67 years old and 45 of them in the United States, asserted that ICE agents “in every possible way are very aggressive” and “they yell at you for no reason and humiliate you.”
The report suggests that the Colorado Legislature pass “public policies to protect immigrants from abuse by federal immigration agents and to safeguard the rights of immigrants.”
A bill in this regard, promoted by Latino legislators Lorena García and Julie Gonzales, has been stuck in the Judiciary Committee of the state House of Representatives since February 27.
“Colorado legislators have the opportunity this session to take the next step in ending cooperation between local police and immigration agents. Such cooperation has been shown to make our communities less safe for everyone,” said Siena Mann, campaign manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC).
