Throughout the United States, citizens are carrying their passports with them on a daily basis, at a time when ICE operations are multiplying and fueling a general climate of fear, and reports of Americans being detained are mounting. “It feels like the 1930s and 1940s in Germany.”
At a time when the US Immigration Services (ICE) continues to carry out operations in several cities across the country, many Americans say they no longer leave home without their passport, for fear of being, by mistake, placed under detention and eventually “disappear in a maze of immigration custody.”
According to an investigation by , at least 170 citizens Americans have so far been detained during ICE enforcement operations.
There is no legal obligation in the United States to carry a passport, but “do whatever is necessary to avoid problems”, said an American to .
According to the British newspaper, the majority of citizens who are adopting this practice are of Latin American origin. Walter Cruz Perezresident in a suburb of New Orleans, has been a US citizen since 2022 and “I didn’t even think twice before: all he had to do was bring his driving license”.
But since ICE operations intensified in New Orleans, it has gained “habit of putting your passport in your cell phone case”. In his community, “you see in the news that people don’t even have the opportunity to identify themselves”.
“There is no legal requirement for US citizens to carry ‘papers’ or carry proof of citizenship with them”, notes Bree Bernwangersenior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“There should be no reason to have to carry documents, because immigration agents they shouldn’t stop people or detain them” unless there is reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed.
But at the same time, people “have to make their own decisions about what they feel comfortable with in the face of this rule-free law enforcement.”
The US Department of Homeland Security “vehemently denies that North American citizens have been detained, even if inadvertently, during immigration control actions”, but reports of illegal detentions continue to occur.
In Minnesota, where ICE operations have targeted the large Somali-American community, many “feel they have little alternative unless you carry your passport, to prove that they are citizens”, says .
These Somali-Americans “are being stopped by ICE and invited to prove their citizenship,” he said. Jamal Osmanmember of the Minneapolis City Council. “It seems like It’s the 1930s and 1940s in Germany. It feels like a hundred years ago, when people had to carry their documents.”
