Illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens are being swept up by ICE agents on their first attempts to gain residency in a ramp-up of the crackdown on migrants, according to Bay State lawyers.
“It’s cold. It’s callous. It’s heartless. It’s noncompassionate. It’s un-American — there is no need for it,” said immigration attorney Jeffrey B. Rubin.
Rubin will be in immigration court this morning at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building downtown arguing for bond release for his client, Fabiano de Oliveira.
Oliveira, 33, was arrested Jan. 9 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — better known as ICE — as he and his American spouse were interviewing at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Lawrence. The couple was beginning the routine process of determining whether their marriage was lawful — a prerequisite for gaining residency for illegal immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens — when he was grabbed.
The interview is the initial step in obtaining a green card.
Oliveira is a Brazilian native who entered the country illegally in 2005, his lawyer said.
Rubin said the aggressive enforcement approach has not been used by ICE for at least a decade.
“This used to happen back in the mid-2000s. I’ve been around long enough to remember,” Rubin said. “It’s new for recent time. It appears they just initiated that only a few weeks ago.”
Ira Mehlman, the media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that favors restricting immigration, said last night ICE is “doing what it’s supposed to do.”
“Marriage fraud has been a persistent problem,” he said, adding he didn’t want to comment on specific cases. “There’s no question ICE is stepping up enforcement — which was nil under President Obama.”
During Obama’s tenure, immigration authorities streamlined the green card process by allowing certain illegal immigrants to apply in the United States before going back to their native countries to obtain required paperwork. The change was meant to keep families together in the U.S. and to expedite a process that in the past could take more than several years, experts said.
ICE officials did not return multiple requests for comment yesterday to discuss the tactic of arresting spouses of American citizens. An ICE spokesman yesterday also said he could not respond to questions specifically about Oliveira’s case by deadline.
Karah de Oliveira, 28, of Beverly, said the couple have a 5-year-old boy and were married in the fall of 2016 and began dating in 2010.
She said the day her husband was hauled off in handcuffs by ICE haunts her. They were granted the petition that determined their marriage was legitimate, she said.
“I cried for a good five days after. But I can’t do that in front of my son because I don’t want him to realize anything is wrong,” she said. “My husband is in prison. He does not belong in there. My son is without a father.”
Rubin said his client — who is a painter — has a nearly spotless record that only includes a driving without a license infraction that an FBI fingerprint check “didn’t even reveal.”
Immigration attorney Zoila Gomez said two female clients with American husbands were also arrested by ICE at Lawrence’s immigration office earlier this month.
One of the women is from El Salvador while the other is from the Dominican Republic, she said.
“By ICE arresting anybody who applies for this type of benefit,” she added, “what they’re saying is, ‘Don’t do it. Because if you do apply, we’re going to arrest you — we’re going to deport you.’ ”
Joe Dwinell contributed to this report.
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