By Michael Woyton
The oft-times masked and unidentified thugs parading around under the umbrella of ICE have reached a new level in terror — and it isn’t even nine months since President Donald J. Felon was inaugurated for the second time.
In Chicago, ICE agents used a rarely enforced federal law to fine a legal resident $130 for not having his registration card on him.
Rubén Antonio Cruz, who is originally from El Salvador, was confronted Thursday by ICE agents while he was sitting with a friend, NBC Chicago reported.
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He said he was looking at his phone when agents got out of their vehicle and asked if he had his papers.
“I told them yes, but that they were at home … that I could show them if they wanted,” he told the news organization.
Cruz was placed in the agents’ car, driven around the neighborhood and questioned before they verified his identity.
“The agents eventually confirmed he is legally in the country but still gave him a $130 citation for not having his documents on him,” NBC reported.
While federal law requires permanent residents to carry their registration with them at all times, legal experts said this rule is rarely enforced.
Illinois is a state that, unlike some others, does not have a “show me your papers” law which allows local police to demand proof of residency, RawStory said.
Ed Yohnka, communications director for the ACLU of Illinois, said that ticketing a lawful permanent resident, which forces them to appear in court and pay a fine for not carrying documentation, is unnecessary and cruel.
“America has never been a place where people need to ‘show one’s papers’,” he said.
Yohnka added that it doesn’t make communities safer or stronger.
“It is simply part of the Trump Administration’s attempt to make life uncomfortable for all immigrants,” he said. “It is just awful.”
And what are people supposed to do when “authorities” grab citizens or legal residents off the streets and declare that their government-mandated REAL ID is fake?
It’s a no-win situation with ICE.
Again, cruelty is a feature not a bug in the Stephen Miller administration.
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Props to the hoverboarding Shark in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Lead art: ICE.gov
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