ICE fears prompt foreign workers and students to keep visas close
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On TikTok, on Instagram and in family group chats, foreign students and workers — and even U.S. citizens — are advising each other to keep their passports and visas close when out and about.
Why it matters: Foreign-born Americans and immigrants say they're afraid of getting swept up in aggressive immigration raids, even though they're here legally.
- “My phone’s been ringing off the hook the last two weeks with questions of ‘what do we do if ICE comes knocking on my door?’” said L.J. D'Arrigo, who leads the immigration practice at Harris Beach Murtha, a law firm in Albany N.Y.
- “There’s a lot of widespread hysteria among those legally in the U.S., including U.S. citizens, green card holders and foreign nationals on temporary visas,” D'Arrigo said.
Driving the news: President Trump campaigned on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and ICE arrests have ramped up since he's taken office.
- He's also pulled back regulations keeping ICE out of schools, churches and hospitals.
- International students who are here legally have also been targeted with an executive order that calls for the visas of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests to be canceled.
Between the lines: The Trump administration has broadcast much of their arrest and deportation efforts. Just the image of a widespread crackdown can be enough to spark fear and even make illegal border crossings temporarily slow.
- The reality of those efforts is more complicated, with severely limited resources to detain and deport people, Axios' Stef Kight notes.
Zoom in: Vidya Gopalan, an Indian American influencer, said on TikTok that she's carrying her passport with her even though she's a citizen. She added that she's directing her parents and in-laws to do so too and is especially concerned for them because they have accents.
- In another TikTok, a lawyer said she's asking her kids, who have U.S. passports, to carry them around because they have Nigerian last names.
- International students have posted online videos of themselves making copies of their documents or pocketing them before leaving home.
- "The environment has made it feel like a small but essential step for peace of mind," a University of Michigan Ph.D. student from India told Axios on the decision to carry around documents.
“There are legitimate reasons for some foreign national populations in some industries that typically employ seasonal migrant workers, like hospitality, manufacturing or landscaping, to be concerned” regardless of their legal status, D’Arrigo said. “That’s low-hanging fruit. That’s probably where ICE will go next.”
- “We are recommending that they carry a copy of their visa or other type of documentation confirming their legal status,” he said.
- “In the last four years I haven’t made that recommendation. I made it in 2016 and again now. It really does matter who the administration is and who their enforcement priorities are, and this administration has made it clear that every employer is a priority target for enforcement," whether that be an audit or an actual raid, D'Arrigo said.
