ICE claims that it’s not carrying out sweeps. The operations target specific individuals, according to the agency, and avoid “sensitive areas” like places of worship. But ICE agents reportedly arrested six homeless men on February 8 as they were leaving a church-run shelter in Alexandria, a DC suburb in Virginia. Religious organizations are protesting the arrests and asking for phone calls to ICE (888-351-4024), the Department of Homeland Security (202-282-8000), and members of Congress (202-224-3121).
ICE Agents Arrest Men Leaving Fairfax County Church Shelter
By Julie Carey, NBC4 (Washington, DC)
February 15, 2017
Some are questioning the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are handling arrests in Fairfax County after at least two men were arrested near a church shelter.
Oscar Ramirez said he had just left the hypothermia shelter at Rising Hope Mission Church on Russell Road in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County, Virginia, when about a dozen ICE agents surround him and other Latino men.
"'Stop right there. Stop right there. Stop right there. Stay by the wall, where we can see your hands,'" the agents said, according to Ramirez.[…]
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Faith leaders protest ICE raid outside Church
By Peggy Fox, WUSA-9 (Washington, DC)
February 17, 2017FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA (WUSA9) - Faith leaders protested at ICE offices in Fairfax County
infuriated over news of a raid outside a church in Alexandria along the Route One corridor."[ICE has] no business arresting people en mass without reasonable suspicion to think that they may have committed some kind violation of the law," said Nicholas Marritz with the Legal Aid Justice Center.
A fewer dozen Faith leaders and legal advocates for immigrants are demanding answers from the federal government about the ICE raid that happened outside the Rising Hope United Methodist Mission Church on February 8th.[...]
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URGENT ACTION from Interfaith Immigration Coalition
Call the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration Customs Enforcement
Tell them to Stop ICE Raids and Respect Places of Worship
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently detained six men coming out of the hypothermia shelter at Rising Hope Mission Church in Alexandria, Virginia. Places of worship are considered a “sensitive location” by ICE, which means that it is not ICE policy to make arrests or other enforcement actions at or near sensitive locations, such as houses of worship, schools or hospitals. ICE’s arrests of individuals leaving the church’s ministry of shelter clearly violates that policy.[...]
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