Latina Protestor Questioned by ICE Despite Being An American Citizen

During a multiracial coalition protest against Donald Trump’s recent rally in Arizona Immigration
and Customs Enforcement officers arrested American citizens because they assumed that any
Latino protesters were illegal immigrants. Photo: Diane Ovalle | Mijente.

On Saturday, March 19th, protestors shut down one of the major roads in the Phoenix area to protest the upcoming Donald Trump rally. The activists came from a variety of organizations, but all had the same goal in mind: proving that many people disagree with Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.

His statements have become increasingly violent, xenophobic, racist, sexist, and Islamaphobic in recent months as he stays in the lead ahead of other Republican candidates. Protests have sprung up at campaign stops around the country. People demonstrating against Trump have been assaulted by his supporters and harassed by local law enforcement.

Trump, notably, has been in favor of actions against protestors, even going so far as to once offer to pay the legal fees of anyone who roughs up a protestor at his rallies. His rhetoric is un-American, and he betrays a gross misunderstanding of the freedoms he purports to love.

Trump isn’t the only one at fault. He may be opening up a space in public discourse where white supremacists feel increasingly safe to voice their opinions, but he is building on an existing structure of state-sponsored racism.

Jacinta Gonzalez was among several protestors arrested on Saturday. Following her arrest, she was questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and, after her colleagues were released, was transferred to an ICE holding cell.

But Jacinta Gonzalez is an American citizen, so there was no justification or precedent for ICE being involved in her arrest. ICE authorities later released her, but the fact remains that she was only detained because she’s Latina.

Law enforcement saw her, learned her name, and assumed that she was an illegal immigrant. Because as far as those officers are concerned, nobody like her is supposed to be living in the United States.