DC's Immigration Dragnet

In Washington, D.C., what began as a local law enforcement crackdown on unregistered vehicles has turned into something else entirely, feeding the growing pipeline for immigration detention and deportation.

Evident Media, along with our partners at Bellingcat, have geolocated, mapped and verified over 40 videos and photos from across the District. Many show strikingly similar tactics: traffic stops that quickly turn into detentions, officers pulling workers off mopeds and raids at known locations for immigrant laborers like Home Depot.

The arrests raise constitutional questions, as the targeting of people based on their occupation or race would violate 4th Amendment rights. “What we’re seeing right now is, I think, ICE taking the easiest way to hit numbers and to get on video,” said Michael Lukens, Executive Director of immigrant law center AMICA. “So you see them in areas ... where there are larger immigrant populations. I would call that high-level racial profiling.”

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