How many people has ICE maimed, killed or Disappeared in Minnesota?

Minneapolis (Special to Informed Comment) – How many people have ICE agents maimed and killed in Minnesota? There are the recorded murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Then there was the death of Victor Manuel Díaz, another Minnesotan, in a holding facility in Texas. Then there are the severely injured like the unnamed Somali elder in a coma and Alberto Castaneda Mondragon who, ICE maintains, ran himself into a wall headfirst.

Then there are the less visible injuries ICE is inflicting.  Many of those detained are left without their medications which can lead to life-threatening complications; nor are they able to access medical care in some detention centers like Whipple in Minneapolis. Then there are those who are released without their belongings, including their phones or jackets, into the Minnesota winter. Lastly, there are those abducted whose whereabouts remain unknown, like three missing Oglala Sioux men.

How many others are missing?

The answer to that is hard to know. Indeed, the number of those missing Minnesotans is not known yet. The Trump administration is no longer releasing statistics on those detained, deported or released.  James Cook, who is one of the lawyers for the disappeared Oglala Sioux citizens points out that it is almost impossible to know how many Minnesotans have been deported without any statistics from the Trump administration. But, he says, “We can safely say that it’s been hundreds if not thousands [of Minnesotans deported already].”

In an effort to safeguard the community from further abductions, Fartun Wali of the women-led Somali aid organization Isuroon says, nonprofits like hers have begun the work to teach everyone their rights under law. Her goal is to “turn everyone into lawyers to protect themselves.” But these efforts do not help those who are already missing.

A handful of those Minnesotans who are let go instead of being deported are being released in other states, like Juan Tobay Robles,  a Minnesotan who was freed on a judge’s order. Only he was released in Texas and his lawyer has yet to hear from him.  Others must find their way home from other countries like Honduras where they have deported in spite of having U.S. citizenship. And those who do not have their documents with them may find that return very difficult.  Others, including clients of the Center for Victims Of Torture, may be released to the very countries they originally sought refuge from, making their release another form of murder. That’s what happens when deportations take place in a day. This is what happens when the federal government punishes a state.

File photo, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Cyber Crimes Unit. Public Domain. Via Picryl

Then there are the less immediately obvious injuries, such as the use of teargas, bear spray, HC smoke grenades and LRAD against protestors and others in Minneapolis. All these methods of crowd dispersal have known long-term health impacts including reduced lung function, hearing loss, eye damage and  reproductive issues. Hexachloroethane, the main ingredient in the HC smoke grenades, is a known carcinogen that acts upon the central nervous system, kidneys, thyroids, and livers of those exposed to it. It has even caused deaths in animals exposed repeatedly to repeated high dosages.

And its worth bearing in mind that one need not be protesting to be exposed to these chemicals or, indeed, to be pulled from one’s car and detained. One need only be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like the mother who had to perform CPR on her baby after being caught in the waves of teargas on her way home from a soccer game or the couple who were dragged from their car, beaten, and detained before being released.

Yet what of those abducted who are not released? What of those abducted that ICE has lost? These are Minnesota’s missing. And as one teacher marching against ICE put it to me, “My students just want their friends back.”