Fighting for Security
"It's taken Maria, a Mexican immigrant, a decade to build a life in the United States. Now a single arrest after a fight with her boyfriend could force her to abandon him and their children.
“All these years I’ve just been taking care of my kids, working and going home,” Maria said, sobbing in between sips of coffee at a North Austin café.
Austin-based immigration attorney Daniel Kowalski said ICE is using little to no discretion in determining which immigrants should be processed for deportation. “They’re not targeting people who are really dangerous. They’re just catching everyone who is removable for the largest offense or smallest offense,” he said. Not only does that create fear of police, Kowalski said, it has also generated a massive backlog in immigration courts."
BRANDI GRISSOM in the Texas Tribune.