ICE in the U.S. melting pot

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following column appeared first in the Feb. 24, 2017 issue of the Finger Lakes Times in Geneva, NY.

ICE in the U.S. melting pot

By Michael J. Fitzgerald

Finger Lakes Times columnist

When social media went wild two weeks ago with tales of supposed raids being conducted by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the public’s reaction went beyond just concern for illegal immigrants.

It invoked a just-below-the-surface fear that agents from ICE — the menacing acronym for the agency — could bang on any door, anywhere, anytime unfettered by procedures and protocols we expect from normal community police.

Even a cursory reading of the policies and procedures of ICE and its agents reminds us ICE is not a U.S. version of some Eastern European-style secret police — the kind made famous in legions of spy movies.

But coming in the wake of our newly inaugurated president’s executive order banning residents of seven largely Muslim nations from entering the U.S. — and inflammatory calls by him for a Muslim registry — the rumor stoked fears and easily gained traction.

The images of ordinary citizens being swept up accidentally in some ICE-orchestrated roundup were too easy for people to envision.

ICE is a branch of U.S. Homeland Security and has a well-defined role in enforcing the panoply of U.S. immigration and customs laws. But ICE’s most-visible public face in recent news reports has been that of dark-jacketed agents taking suspected illegal immigrants into custody, sometimes in less-than-cordial encounters.

It was that image that helped ignite the erroneous — and near-viral — social media reports that claimed ICE agents were conducting raids on farms in the Finger Lakes, while putting up roadblocks, checking people’s identification papers and making arrests in other parts of the nation.

Official ICE statements about the rumors were not particularly reassuring.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, an ICE spokesman said the agency does not do roadblocks to randomly check identifications and citizenship status.

The reason?

The agency currently doesn’t have enough officers to do so — not a particularly reassuring explanation.

That sobering thought suggests it might be a good idea to have official identification close enough to flash if challenged by ICE — or any law enforcement — in today’s highly charged atmosphere about immigration and citizenship.

The concerns about the ICE raids (which turned out to be false) came barely two weeks before the 75th anniversary of the internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.

The parallels between the order of then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and incumbent President Donald Trump’s order aimed at residents of seven Muslim nations were cited frequently in fiery and often heartbreaking speeches about the shameful Japanese internment.

The executive order of our new president brings to mind George Santayana’s famous quote: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

One of the greatest ironies about current anti-immigrant statements voiced by a minority of U.S. citizens is that these feelings are often more prevalent in regions of the U.S. that are homogenously Caucasian.

Parts of the country that have seen their population swell with people from a cornucopia of nations appear to embrace the diversity, not repel it.

The notable exceptions have been in areas where too many newly arrived immigrants have moved in too quickly, overwhelming their new communities with the need for housing, schools and, of course, meaningful work.

But even then, as immigrants settle in, the cross-cultural benefits for everyone eventually calm the waters.

Once the United States prided itself on being a “melting pot” of races and religions, a nation of shared values held together by faith in the U.S. Constitution.

We were a nation of faith in people and each other, not fear.

If we take a moment to reflect that we are all a nation of immigrants, perhaps we can get back to that and be less worried.

But carry your identification until this phase of our history is well behind us.

Fitzgerald worked for six newspapers as a writer and editor as well as a correspondent for several news services. He splits his time between Valois, NY and Pt. Richmond, Calif. You can email him at Michael.Fitzgeraldfltcolumnist@gmail.com and visit his website at michaeljfitzgerald.blogspot.com.