(Photo by Natalie Delgadillo)

(Photo by Natalie Delgadillo)

Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Columbia Heights on Monday evening to protest a series of reported ICE arrests in the District last week.

In the neighborhood’s plaza at 14th and Park streets NW, clergy members and organizers from immigrant advocacy organizations took turns leading chants and calling for Mayor Bowser and the D.C. Council to intervene.

“We live this every single day,” said Maria Albarado, a protester who found out about the recent detentions from her neighbors after people were arrested near her home. “It’s an abuse. It’s not human. A piece of paper does not mean you can treat us like animals.”

The protesters are demanding that Bowser ask for the detained immigrants’ immediate release and provide them with legal counsel; that the D.C. Council immediately institute a stronger sanctuary policy preventing any city worker from cooperating with ICE; and that District Attorney General Karl Racine investigate reports of collaboration between D.C. police officers and ICE agents.

There were at least four reported incidents involving ICE in the District last week, according to immigrant advocacy organizations. They originally estimated that a dozen people had been arrested, but speakers at the rally said they believe the number is closer to 20.

Two arrests reportedly happened in a private residence near Georgia Ave NW, and another at a restaurant in Columbia Heights, where ICE agents allegedly arrested a man who was eating dinner. Agents reportedly rounded up around nine people at the Sarbin Towers apartment building in Mount Pleasant, including residents of the apartments and passersby off the streets.

Justine Whelan, an ICE spokesperson, told DCist on Monday that ICE does not conduct “indiscriminate raids” of the type described by advocates.

Organizers said that they believe D.C. police assisted in one of the arrests that happened last week, though MPD denied those allegations to DCist on Monday.

“MPD does not inquire about immigration status, being that D.C. is a sanctuary city. With that said, to our knowledge MPD had no involvement in the alleged arrests you mentioned,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“We feel there is an escalation in ICE work in the DMV area. We have seen a series of detentions by ICE. The goal of the rally is to call publicly for the D.C. Council to stand up and intervene,” said Omar Angel Perez, the lead organizer of DMV Sanctuary Congregation Network, ahead of the event.

After the rally, the protest turned into a march to Sarbin Towers, where most of the arrests took place. Protesters blocked traffic on 16th Street NW for about 15 minutes.

Nelsy Alvares is a Columbia Heights resident who says she heard about last week’s ICE arrests from her church. Yesterday’s rally was the first she had ever attended. She came because “it looks like the situation is getting worse here. And where are the people from the city government? I don’t see them anywhere.”

Alvares said she has many friends and neighbors who want to attend marches, but feel too afraid. She decided to come with a few women from her church to speak up for them.

Mayor Muriel Bowser’s absence was a recurring point of contention for the organizers and demonstrators, who said that D.C.’s sanctuary policies are not strong enough to protect residents.

Since 1984, the District of Columbia has prohibited D.C. police from asking about immigration status (in 2011, then Mayor Vincent Gray reaffirmed the policy), and city officials limit cooperation with immigration authorities. MPD generally does not honor ICE detainers, or hold immigrants past their release date for ICE to pick them up.

Still, Monday night’s rally isn’t the first time that advocates have called on Bowser to do more. In the days after Donald Trump’s election, protesters confronted the mayor and demanded she more forcefully decry his deportation plans. And after ICE arrested 14 people in D.C. in October, advocates rallied outside the agency’s headquarters as well as the John A. Wilson Building.

In a statement, Mayor Muriel Bowser reaffirmed D.C.’s status as a sanctuary city and condemned the Trump administration’s ramped up immigration enforcement actions.

“We know these inhumane actions do not make us any safer, and that this is not the type of leadership, or lack thereof, that Americans want,” she said.

The wife of one of the detained told the Washington Post that ICE agents came to her door posing as city police officers, asking about the whereabouts of her husband. They both chose to cooperate under the impression that they would be speaking to police about an assault her husband recently experienced. Instead, he was arrested and is now detained.

Organizers are currently in contact with the family members of people who have been detained. Perez told DCist on Monday that they don’t yet know where many of those arrested have been sent.

Filed Under: ICE, ICE raids, immigration, protest,