by Written by Felicia J. Persuadohttp://amsterdamnews.com/ St. Petersburg News
Will Kim, a Ph.D. student, anticipated a peaceful return to the United States after attending his brother’s wedding in South Korea. Rather, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers met him at San Francisco International Airport.
Detained was Kim, a lawful permanent resident who has been in the United States since he was five years old and is now developing a vaccine to prevent Lyme disease. His supposed transgression? a misdemeanor marijuana accusation that was sealed in 2011 and was frequently settled with community service. His truth? Fear, detention, and a startling reminder that even legal immigrants are at risk in Trump’s America.
Kim’s situation is not unique. Legal status is no longer a shield for DACA beneficiaries or green card holders. It has turned into a reversible technicality under the second Trump administration, influenced by political spectacle, racial profiling, and fear-based policies.
Consider Despite having no criminal history, ICE officials arrested 31-year-old Danish national Kasper Eriksen during a regular naturalization appointment in Mississippi. Eriksen has been in the United States for more than ten years. According to Newsweek, the father of four spent months in custody after being moved to Louisiana’s LaSalle Detention Center. While his lawsuit dragged on, his wife, Savannah Hobart Eriksen, was left in the dark.
Think about A 20-year-old Purdue University student named Go Yeon-soo is the daughter of an Episcopal priest. Go’s stay was lawfully extended through 2025 when she arrived in the country in 2021 with a valid R-2 visa. However, she was arrested after appearing at a standard court hearing regarding her status. Numerous advocacy organizations and the Episcopal Diocese of New York are now demanding her immediate release, claiming ICE misunderstood her immigration status and circumvented legal processes.
After returning from a wedding in Canada, Vermonter Esther Ngoy Tekele, 24, was taken into custody by ICE, according to her family. Junior Dioses, a green card holder who has been in the United States for 20 years, was also detained for 48 days following his return from a vacation to Peru in April. When I was there, I kept asking myself, “Why am I here?” every day, he told KSL News.
ICE’s stated daily detention quotas might hold the key to the solution. Immigration enforcement has evolved into an inventory management system that counts people as if they were warehouse items. It’s a show, not an enforcement.
Current legal status is a potential liability rather than a promise of protection.
Furthermore, citizenship is not a guarantee of immunity. Because he appeared Hispanic, a Puerto Rican Army veteran was arrested. Even though a U.S. citizen in Chicago had a legitimate ID, they were detained for hours. Citizens who speak Spanish and Native Americans have experienced being wrongfully detained with little responsibility or remedy. This has nothing to do with border control. It has to do with racism, optics, and unbridled power.
As of July 27, 2025, 56,945 individuals were in ICE custody, according to TRAC immigration data. Among them, a startling 71.1% of the more than 40,000 inmates had no previous convictions. Aside from illegal entrance, deportation requests based on alleged criminal behavior accounted for just 1.49% of new FY2025 cases.
In the meantime, immigrant communities are experiencing a wave of terror. Families are self-deporting from Florida and Tennessee, abandoning their houses and even their pets. Undocumented renters in California refrain from claiming their legal rights out of fear of being discovered. This is psychological warfare, not immigration.
Legal status won’t save you. That’s the plain message. The American system no longer makes a distinction between presence and threat, between paperwork and punishment. Only bodies are seen to be detained, deported, or vanished.
The only daily newswire and online resource devoted solely to Caribbean Diaspora and Black immigrant news in the Americas is NewsAmericasNow.com, which Felicia J. Persaud founded and publishes.
