“I was really scared. I couldn’t stop shaking,” Emely recalled in a recent interview.
“It was like they were trying to kidnap me,” added Juanita.
The mother and daughter were speaking out for the first time since Juanita’s arrest became part of a court case that secured a major victory for immigrants’ rights in Oregon. The lawsuit challenged ICE’s tactic of detaining people without warrants or probable cause, a practice advocates say has fueled widespread racial profiling and chaotic arrests.
Last month, a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs and issued a preliminary injunction blocking ICE agents in Oregon from continuing their “arrest first, justify later” tactics, as lawyers labeled it. The judge said ICE’s conduct had been “brutal and violent”, saying agents’ arrest strategy “systematically violates federal law and individual constitutional rights”.