The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is under fire for what critics are calling aggressive and overzealous tactics by stationing agents outside a school in Detroit,NPR reports. ICE officials are reviewing the case, and the union that represents agents is complaining that ICE isn’t standing behind its officers.
Three SUVs with tinted windows, apparently with ICE agents inside, were parked near the Hope of Detroit Academy on Mar. 31 Some parents who may have been undocumented immigrants started to panic and sought refuge in the school. Abdel says the building was like a ghost town that afternoon, and things didn’t settle down for at least a week. Critics say the agents who carried out the operation ignored their agency’s own guidelines prohibiting enforcement near schools and churches. ICE director John Morton flew to Detroit to meet with community leaders. ICE said elements of the operation appeared to be inconsistent with its policies.