Just another body to meet the daily quota

 

JEFFREY ST. CLAIR > 

On August 21, Escobar Molina was walking from his apartment in Northwest DC to his truck, preparing to go to work, when two federal vehicles pulled up near him. Armed and masked agents got out of the cars and grabbed Molina by the arms and legs. The agents didn’t identify themselves. Molina was immediately handcuffed and repeatedly called an “illegal.” The agents didn’t ask Molina for identification, where he lived or even what his name was before they detained him. As they dragged him to one of the ICE vehicles, Molina said, “I have papers.” One of the agents snapped, “No, you don’t. You’re an illegal.” After he was stuffed into the van, Molina said again he “had papers,” proving he was a legal resident. The driver of the van turned toward him and yelled, “Shut up, bitch! You’re an illegal.” Molina was taken to the ICE processing center across the Potomac in Chantilly, Virginia, where he was kept overnight.

A native of El Salvador, Escobar Molina is 47 years old and has lived in DC since 2000. He has an 18-year-old son who is an American citizen. Molina has no criminal record and was awarded Temporary Protective Status in 2001, which gave him the right to live and work legally in the US. The morning after his illegal arrest, the supervisor of the ICE facility in Chantilly realized the arresting agents’ “mistake” and released Molina from custody.

Molina was clearly a victim of racial profiling by lawless federal agents who made no attempt to determine his identity, legal status or ties to the community where he’d lived productively for a quarter of a century. He was just another body to meet Stephen Miller and Tom Homan’s daily quotas. As such, Molina has joined a class action lawsuit challenging ICE’s policy of warrantless arrests in the DC area, many of which take place without probable cause and are based almost exclusively on the target’s presumed race or ethnicity.