"Take Precautions"

Mexico is warning its citizens living in the United States to "take precautions" and to stay in contact with consular officials after the deportation of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, an undocumented mother who had a routine visit with the US Immigration authorities. Garcia de Rayos was deported back to her "native Mexico" on Thursday, February 8th, 2017 just 24 hours after her routine check in with immigration authorities. This was Garcia de Rayos eighth visit since her 2008 arrest and conviction for using a fake Social Security number. In previous meetings the married mother of two was released  and able to return to her family, but this week she was detained and deported. Her attorney argues that this was a result of President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. US immigration officials argued that there was nothing significant about her case,"She committed a crime and her deportation order was enforced."

"The case involving Mrs. Garcia de Rayos illustrates a new realty of the Mexican community living in the United States, facing the most severe implementation of immigration control measures," Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday. Activists argue that this may cause some unauthorized immigrants who fear deportation to skip routine checkins with US immigration authorities. City Councilman Greg Caspar from the Texas Capital says that the children in Austin Texas "have not come to school" and "families ... have locked themselves into their apartments" in the last 24 hours due to the actions of ICE.

"About 160 people have been arrested from a dozen countries during a five-day, five-county operation aimed at undocumented criminals, immigration fugitives and people who re-entered the United States illegally after deportation." ICE states that these arrests were part of what is called a regular "enforcement surge".  Mexican Foreign Ministry urges immigrants to 'know the risks" in the following statement, "It is important that fellow nationals familiarize themselves with the different scenarios they might encounter and know where they can go to receive new information and know all their rights."

I found this reading very interesting since I had heard rumors going around about ICE doing these operations but I never thought it was real until this article. I love the way the article tells the story of the families as well as the one of the officials in full detail and embedded links to articles with more information about the case, it is worth the read.