'Dreamer' Arrested By ICE, First Under Trump

SEATTLE, WA — A Mexican immigrant who was living and working in Seattle under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was arrested and detained on Friday by Immigration and Customers Enforcement officers, and his arrest may be the first of its kind under the presidency of Donald Trump.

Under the DACA program, recipients — also called "dreamers" — receive permission from the Department of Homeland Security to live, work and study in the U.S. The program was established in 2012 by Barack Obama, but it's unclear if the Trump administration intends to honor DACA.

Daniel Ramirez Medina, 23, is challenging his arrest in federal court in Seattle, according to his attorneys. The suit, filed Monday in Seattle, asks the government to release Ramirez and challenges that his detention violates due process standards. According to a Reuters report, Ramirez showed ICE officers his DACA work permit, but they told him, "It doesn't matter, because you weren't born in this country."

Ramirez came to the U.S. in 2001 when he was 7 years old and has no criminal record, according to Reuters.

Ramirez was arrested when ICE agents came to his home Friday morning to arrest his father — although it's unclear why officers were after Ramirez's father. Ramirez is being detained in ICE's Northwest Detention Facility in Tacoma, Washington.

“Trust in our government depends upon the executive branch keeping its word,” said Mark Rosenbaum, one of Ramirez's lawyers. Rosenbaum is director of Public Counsel’s Opportunity Under Law Project. “In establishing DACA, the federal government created a clear and reasonable expectation among DACA recipients that they would be able to live and work in the United States without being subjected to arrest and deportation.”

Late Tuesday, ICE spokesperson Rose Richeson said that Ramirez had admitted to being involved in a gang and was arrested because he was a public safety threat. However, Rosenbaum pushed back, saying that his client had been pressured to admit gang involvement by ICE officers.

There are some 750,000 people living in the U.S. eligible for DACA consideration. The program was intended to provide a way for people who were brought here as young children to be able to make a living and work toward citizenship.

News of Ramirez's arrest comes after ICE agents arrested about 700 people last week amid a crackdown on immigration in cities across the country.

Multiple federal and state elected officials — including Gov. Jay Inslee, U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Seattle — said on Tuesday they would contact ICE about Ramirez's arrest.

"This report is highly disturbing and could send many families in Washington state and around the country back into the shadows. Our office is working to get more information from federal officials and will then evaluate next steps," Murray told The Stranger.

What is DACA?

On June 15, 2012, the U.S. began allowing people of a certain age who came to the U.S. illegally to apply for "deferred action" in two-year increments. "Deferred action" refers to the government electing not to seek their removal. Essentially, dreamers are allowed to live illegally in the U.S. with some legal protections from immigration enforcement.

Under DACA, recipients can apply for work authorization, called I-765 authorization. Learn more about DACA here.

Is Donald Trump Anti-DACA?

President Donald Trump has not made a clear statement on his position on DACA. The DACA program, in general, is unpopular among conservatives because it grants a level of amnesty for illegal immigrants — even if those illegal immigrants came to the U.S. unwillingly as infants or young children.

Republican Iowa Rep. Steve King, for example, said last week in reference to what Trump should do about DACA: "All he had to do was sign an executive order on the first day [to repeal DACA]. That should've been done."

Trump's chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has said that Trump might work through Congress to change DACA. However, other members of Trump's Cabinet — Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Steve Bannon — want the president to simply dissolve the program.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez released a joint statement on Tuesday calling on Trump and ICE to clarify how DACA will be handled.

"Additionally, given the uncertainty around President Trump’s immigration policies, the Administration and ICE should clarify their stance on [DACA]," they said. "Uncertainty and ambiguity lead to fear in the immigrant community. No person should live in fear that they or a family member will be taken away by the federal government without notice or cause. This fear makes our communities less safe as it makes immigrants less likely to report crimes or work with local law enforcement. And it robs our friends and neighbors of the American dream they were promised whenever they came to our country."

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