MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Early risers met for breakfast and were going to work together for a paver installation company in Miami when their American Dream ended.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained them and drove them away in a van shortly before 7 a.m., on Thursday at Northwest 119 Street and 11 Avenue near North Miami.
It’s a scene that is playing out more regularly around the country prompting advocates of undocumented migrants to organize the “No Kings” protest. There is one planned in South Florida.
Attorney Saman Movassaghi Gonzalez, based in Pembroke Pines, attributed the increase in immigration law enforcement detentions to a quota.
“At some point, they are going to scale back ... once they either meet their quotas or once the employers start kicking and shouting that they don’t have any employees,” Movassaghi Gonzalez said.
The detentions are also affecting agricultural workers, day laborers, car washers, landscapers, factories, housekeepers, delivery workers, and the restaurant and hospitality industry.
Some parents are missing work and opting not to earn much-needed money out of fear that they will be separated from their children. Some teens are also missing work.
Advocates with The American Immigration Council reported high school graduates opted to skip graduation ceremonies with their families out of fear.
“It is inevitable that more young people — including young Dreamers who have long considered the United States their home — will face arrest, detention, and deportation to countries they do not know," Attorney Emma Winger wrote.
President Donald Trump’s administration ended humanitarian parole programs that made more than 530,000 migrants eligible for work permits that have been revoked.
The migrants who had U.S. sponsors are from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua -- all countries experiencing crises.
The Associated Press reported the U.S. Health and Human Services shared data with Homeland Security related to states like California and Illinois that allow migrants to access Medicaid.
ICE agents have also detained migrants who voluntarily show up to appointments while seeking permanent residency or U.S. citizenship in South Florida.