ICE raids spark fear and protests nationwide

As ICE carries out raids across the country, fear is settling over undocumented and documented immigrants, resulting in protests nationwide.

Protests against the raids are taking place almost every day, as stories of deplorable conditions inside detention centers add to the fear, as well as stories of wrongly detained individuals and families being separated. As of right now, there have not been any large-scale raids or protests in Arizona.

Reyna Montoya, M.Ed., Founder and CEO at Aliento, a local organization supporting undocumented youth and families, joined “Arizona Horizon” to share how the organization helps individuals move forward in times like these and continues to shape the lives of thousands.

Montoya shared how there has been in shift in how Aliento conducts their efforts since the beginning of the year.

“I think that right now there’s more, heightened distrust in with any institutions. Thankfully we have had good trust with our community but now people are more hesitant in being able to come forward and ask for help because they’re afraid that the government is gonna get a hold of that information,” Montoya said.

With the recent news that people have been detained while exiting immigration court hearings, Montoya shared her thoughts on the matter.

“If we are having a conversation about not liking current immigration law, that’s a separate conversation. Currently, like it or not or despite of people’s reactions on the immigration process, the truth of the matter is that these folks did everything right. The process of the U.S. government was to go to the CBP One app, file a claim, that’s the process. People did it, they went through the legal channels and they did it the right way and they’re still going and apprehending them at courts. That is so, so out of line,” Montoya said.

When people reach out to Aliento, Montoya shared what they help to provide and what advice they can share.

“Is to not wait until the last minute, right now if something has changed in your, in your life because you got married, because you have been a victim of a crime, this is a time to speak to an attorney and not to lose hope. We, there’s a saying in Spanish that hope is the last thing that dies. So I do believe that in the goodness of American people they want to process, and majority of them are good people when they get to understand how dysfunctional our system is. And hopefully we can get out of this soon,” Montoya said.