MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
By now you've probably heard about the Trump administration's efforts to ramp up deportations of undocumented people. And those efforts go beyond raiding workplaces and serving outstanding warrants. Now they've sent the National Guard and surged federal agents into Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., where they've stopped Uber drivers, workers at construction sites and restaurants and people walking down the street. Critics have always said that U.S. citizens would be caught up in these kinds of indiscriminate actions. And now one person we've met in Washington, D.C., says it happened to her just over a week ago.
CHILO: I saw two Army policemen or whatever they are. They start looking at me very strange, and I got scared.
MARTIN: She asked us to use her nickname, Chilo (ph), because she says she's afraid of repercussions from speaking out. She is a naturalized citizen who's lived in the U.S. since she was adopted at age 9 from Nicaragua. Now 53, she's married and the mother of a high school-aged daughter. She got her citizenship at age 14, and she's lived here ever since. She says she was walking past a gas station in her neighborhood on her way to a CVS.
CHILO: They stopped me, and I asked them what I did wrong. They said, you look like from another, you know, country. And I said, I've been a citizen my whole life. I've been here. I can show you my passport, and I can show you my ID. And I'm a citizen. Oh, you don't look like a citizen. You just look like some - from another country.
MARISSA MONTES: This is why I say that we know that they're profiling. If you are not a white person, you are at risk of being questioned and detained by immigration enforcement.
MARTIN: That is Marissa Montes. She is a professor at Loyola Law School and director of the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic. Montes lives in Los Angeles, where President Trump deployed National Guard troops after days of protests against immigration raids. She says her clients have been targeted by immigration enforcement.
MONTES: We're seeing now raids that are being conducted where basically ICE agents are questioning people on the basis of what they look like. So presenting as other nationalities, not just Latino, or speaking other languages.
MARTIN: Chilo told us she thinks that's what happened to her in D.C. because she has black hair and brown skin. She also has a mild learning disability which can affect her comprehension. She told us the two men wore camouflage and masks. They did not identify themselves. And she says they got all up in her face.
How did that make you feel?
CHILO: Like, I feel I don't belong here. I don't belong here (crying).
MARTIN: Oh, I'm sorry. Had anyone ever made you feel that way before?
CHILO: No.
MARTIN: Did they explain why they were stopping you, or did they apologize after they stopped you?
CHILO: They did not apologize.
MARTIN: Did they leave you alone after that?
CHILO: I just ran to the store.
MARTIN: Oh. Were you scared?
CHILO: I got scared 'cause I thought they're going to take me away.
MARTIN: Chilo had her REAL ID and a copy of her U.S. passport with her because her mother, who also lives in D.C., advised her to carry proof of citizenship ever since the immigration raids began. Here's Marissa Montes again.
MONTES: It is completely illegal for the federal government to detain a U.S. citizen for immigration purposes and to subject them to deportation.
MARTIN: Not only are U.S. citizens not required to carry proof of citizenship, Montes said, they also have the right to know who is questioning them.
MONTES: You can actually report them to local law enforcement, especially if they're not willing to say who they are, because then they're committing a crime of potentially acting as law enforcement.
MARTIN: But if you are stopped, Montes says, here is some advice.
MONTES: It's actually the duty of ICE to determine if you are a U.S. national or not, so make them do their work. You might be subject to the detention, but if you're asserting that you're a U.S. citizen and you are, they have to also then prove that you are one.
MARTIN: As for Chilo, she's still upset, but she says...
CHILO: I don't want them to think they won.
MARTIN: She wants to be able to go out again, just like anybody else.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
NPR reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on Chilo's case. DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said, quote, "allegations ICE law enforcement officers are engaging in racial profiling are disgusting and categorically false." She added that what makes someone a target of ICE is if they are illegally in the U.S., not their skin color, race or ethnicity. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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