ICE Raids Spark Fury: Protests Clash with Immigration Crackdown
Deporting the Wrong People: Targeting Legal Visa Holders
One of the most troubling aspects of the current ICE strategy is its targeting of individuals on long-term temporary visas, such as students, who have no criminal convictions.
These are people who entered the U.S. legally, often to pursue education or contribute economically, yet find themselves caught in ICE’s net due to minor visa issues or overstays. For instance, consider the case of a graduate student in Minneapolis, detained despite being enrolled at a university and having no criminal record. Such incidents are not isolated—reports indicate ICE has deported students on F-1 visas across the country for technical violations rather than criminal acts.
This approach is fundamentally flawed. Deporting students and other long-term visa holders without criminal convictions punishes those who are here legally and contributing to society. These individuals pay tuition, bolster academic institutions, and often plan to transition to permanent roles in the U.S. workforce.
Targeting them diverts resources from the real issue: the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom entered illegally. ICE’s focus on “easy targets”—people with documented addresses and no criminal history—suggests a preference for efficiency over justice. It’s a shortsighted tactic that fails to address the broader challenge of illegal immigration while alienating communities and wasting taxpayer dollars.
Deportation Rates: Falling Short of Past Administrations
The Trump administration has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, with officials promising unprecedented deportation numbers. Yet, the data tells a different story. Despite the high-profile raids, current deportation rates lag behind those of the Obama and Biden administrations, contradicting claims of a tougher approach. Let’s break it down:
Obama Administration (2009-2016): ICE averaged about 12,900 interior removals per month, peaking at over 154,000 annually. Obama’s enforcement earned him the moniker “Deporter-in-Chief,” reflecting a robust focus on deporting undocumented immigrants, often with criminal records.
Biden Administration (2021-2024): Interior removals dropped to an average of 3,200 per month, a deliberate shift toward leniency and a focus on public safety threats rather than mass deportations.
Trump Administration (Second Term, 2025): Early figures show ICE removed 4,300 noncitizens in February 2025. At this pace, annual deportations would reach roughly 51,600—well below Obama’s peak and even Trump’s first-term average of 81,600 interior removals per year.
These numbers debunk the narrative that the current administration is outpacing its predecessors. In fact, it’s deporting fewer people overall, and the emphasis on legal visa holders like students only compounds this failure. Instead of targeting the undocumented population—the stated priority—ICE is expending effort on individuals who pose no threat, leaving the larger issue unaddressed. This gap between rhetoric and reality undermines the administration’s credibility on immigration enforcement.
The Hierarchy of Due Process: A Framework Disregarded
U.S. immigration law establishes a clear hierarchy of due process based on an individual’s legal status, designed to ensure fairness in enforcement. The current approach, however, flouts this framework, particularly for long-term temporary visa holders. Here’s how it’s supposed to work:
Short-Term Temporary Visa Holders (e.g., Tourists): Individuals on visas like the B-2 tourist visa can be deported at any time with minimal process. Overstaying a 90-day visit, for example, justifies swift removal, as their presence is transient and lacks deep ties to the U.S.
Long-Term Temporary Visa Holders (e.g., Students, Business Investors): These individuals, on visas like the F-1 or H-1B, are entitled to due process before deportation. Removal should require at least a severe misdemeanor conviction—think assault or theft—not minor infractions or visa overstays. This reflects their investment in the U.S., whether through education or economic contributions.
Lawful Permanent Residents (Green Card Holders): As near-citizens with established lives here, green card holders can only be deported for serious felonies, such as murder or drug trafficking. The process involves hearings and appeals, ensuring robust protections.
U.S. Citizens: Deportation is off the table. Citizens who commit crimes face domestic prison, not exile. Sending a citizen to a foreign prison, including Guantanamo Bay, would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment—a constitutional safeguard that’s non-negotiable.
The problem is clear: ICE is treating long-term temporary visa holders like short-term visitors, deporting them without due process or criminal justification. Students are being removed for paperwork errors, not severe misdemeanors, while undocumented immigrants—whose illegal entry inherently violates the law—face less consistent enforcement. This inversion of the due process hierarchy is both unfair and illogical, punishing those who followed the rules while letting bigger issues fester.
The Protest Misstep: Waving Foreign Flags
The protests against the ICE raids have been a vital outlet for public anger, drawing thousands to demand reform. But they’ve also stumbled in a way that weakens their impact: some demonstrators have taken to waving foreign flags, notably the Mexican flag, while opposing deportations to places like Mexico. This choice is misguided and counterproductive.
Protesting U.S. policy while brandishing another nation’s flag muddies the message. It implies a divided loyalty, suggesting that the goal isn’t fair treatment within the U.S. system but rather a rejection of it. For a movement advocating for immigrants’ rights under U.S. law, this is a strategic blunder. The American flag—or no flag at all—would better align with the cause, signaling a demand for justice within the framework of U.S. sovereignty. Instead, the Mexican flag gives critics an easy counterargument, framing the protests as unpatriotic and diluting their moral force. It’s a distraction that alienates potential supporters and hands ammunition to those who back the raids.
The recent ICE raids and the protests they’ve sparked expose a deeply flawed immigration enforcement strategy. By targeting long-term temporary visa holders like students without criminal convictions, ICE is deporting the wrong people—legal contributors rather than illegal entrants—while failing to match the deportation numbers of Obama or even Biden.
This misstep ignores the hierarchy of due process, treating students like disposable tourists instead of affording them the protections they deserve. Meanwhile, protesters undermine their own cause by waving foreign flags, a move that confuses their message and alienates allies.
A smarter policy would realign priorities: deport short-term overstays swiftly, grant long-term visa holders due process unless they commit serious crimes, reserve removal for green card holders with felonies, and never deport citizens. ICE should focus on actual illegal aliens, not scapegoat legal immigrants to pad its stats. Until that shift happens, the raids will remain a wasteful spectacle, and the protests—however passionate—risk losing their power to effect change. Fairness and common sense demand better.