Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has led some people to take drastic measures to ensure their safety
I
t was a normal Tuesday morning for Mohamed when he left his San Diego, California house for his daily exercise in mid-January. But as he walked around Colina del Sol park, four US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached and encircled the middle-aged father, who is using a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation from federal agents. The officers, Mohamed said, who wore jackets with ICE emblazoned on them and balaclavas that obscured their faces, asked for his green card before they began drilling him with questions about what he was doing in the park.
“I was terrified,” Mohamed, a lawful permanent resident from Somalia, said through a translator. The ordeal ended shortly thereafter, but the experience has left a lasting impact on him. “I have high blood pressure,” Mohamed said about the encounter he believes was racial profiling. “I used to do my daily exercises; now I don’t even do that anymore because I’m scared.”
The Guardian spoke to several US citizens and legal permanent residents who said that they were racially profiled by ICE and US Customs and Border agents in recent weeks following the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown that has swept the nation. The incidents have led to lasting stress, they said, with some of them taking drastic measures to ensure their safety including sleeping with their passports, or only traveling at night. They feel they have little recourse to hold the agents accountable for what they perceive as mistreatment.
