Every day, families are torn apart by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The group of officers, established in 2003, was created to protect national security and public safety as a response to the events of 9/11. It’s stated on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement government website that their primary mission is “to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration.” Yet, the news today seems to portray a different story.
Right now, there is news going around about a Venezuelan man, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, who is being charged with assaulting an ICE agent during a traffic stop. However, he is the one who still has a bullet lodged in his back.
No lights.
No sirens.
A wrecked passenger side.
A masked man who shot him in the back.
And no response as to why force was used.
The report the U.S. Department of Justice gave about the incident was titled “Illegal Alien from Venezuela Charged with Assaulting and Resisting a Federal Officer in Austin.” Official government communications should not use terms such as “illegal alien” to describe human beings. A person’s immigration status is a legal classification; it is not their identity.
Garces Perez came to Austin two years ago seeking asylum to provide a better life for his family. He had work permits, giving him the opportunity to work for DoorDash to pay for the medical care of his disabled son. Nothing about seeking asylum or working with authorization makes someone less deserving of dignity, safety, or due process.
And Wilber Rafael Garces Perez is not an isolated story.
Behind every statistic about immigration is a person. Behind every deportation order is a family. Behind every headline about an “illegal alien” is someone who has a name, a history, and people who depend on them.
That distinction becomes especially important during Hispanic Heritage Month.
Hispanic Heritage Month is supposed to be a celebration of culture, history, and the contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities. Colleges should be full of events, food, music, and stories meant to recognize the people who have shaped this country. But celebration cannot exist separately from reality. For some Hispanic families, immigration enforcement is not an abstract political debate happening on television. It is something that can affect their parents, their children, their neighbors, and their communities.
There are more articles than I can count about cases similar to Garces’ involving allegations of excessive force by immigration officers. The debate surrounding immigration enforcement has become increasingly polarized, but the people caught in the middle are not political talking points. They are families.
That is also why the language used to discuss immigration matters.
When government agencies use terms that reduce people to their immigration status, it becomes easier to forget the person behind the label. “Illegal” describes an action or legal status; it should not become a substitute for someone’s humanity. Someone can be undocumented, seeking asylum, awaiting a hearing, or facing removal proceedings while still being a parent, a child, a student, a worker, or a neighbor.
The same question should apply regardless of someone’s political beliefs: What happens to the people affected by these policies?
Currently, President Trump is taking the case against Ricardo Aparecido de Cunha to the Supreme Court. The case addresses the administration’s mandatory detention policy and whether certain immigrants are entitled to bond hearings. The legal arguments surrounding the case are complicated, but the underlying consequence is simple: decisions made in courtrooms and government offices can determine whether families remain together.
Immigration policy is often discussed through numbers—how many people crossed the border, how many were detained, and how many were deported. Numbers matter. Laws matter. National security matters.
But people matter, too.
Hispanic Heritage Month should not require anyone to ignore the fear, uncertainty, or pain that exists within Hispanic communities. If we are going to celebrate Hispanic history and culture, we should also be willing to acknowledge the experiences of Hispanic people living through the immigration system today.
It’s hard to shame such horrible actions when the “man” deemed to run the country supports the tragedies.