Washington – When the National Guard troops were deployed here earlier this month, President Donald Trump promised that they would fight the crime and make the streets safe again. But in neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights, the acquisition has created a true sense of terror for immigrants, who say they feel they are being racially attacked and living in a dystopian version of the city they love.
Immigrants and immigration defenders told NBC News that the federal acquisition of the capital of the nation two weeks ago has left vibrant communities and “deserted” companies. Both naturalized citizens and those in the country illegally said that there is now a palpable feeling of fear. People are afraid to go shopping, appear to work and make their daily lives, they said.
Margarita, a mother of four 38 -year -old children, is an undocumented immigrant who came to the United States from El Salvador. He opened a Latin restaurant earlier this year and said that half of his employees are too terrified to come to work.
An employee entered with tears that ran his face after witnessing an arrest and “how they mistreated people in front of his face,” he said in Spanish.
Another employee entered “scary tremor” and said he felt that federal officers were like “cats to catch mice,” he said.
“I can’t tell the people who come to work in good faith. If something happened to them, that would be in my conscience,” said Margarita. His business has been “extremely” affected, he added.
“It feels like a different DC,” he said. “It is horrible to see the way people are traumatized by what is happening.”
Margarita, along with other NBC news that NBC spoke, asked not to be identified by her first name and surname or to remain anonymous for fear of being deported or attacked to speak.
They said that the city’s landscape has been transformed since Trump announced the federal acquisition on August 11 with the aim of combating crime and increasing immigration arrests. He has sent more than 2,200 troops from the National Guard, which now carry firearms, and hundreds of federal agents more to Washington. At the time of its ad, the violent crime had decreased by 26% compared to last year, according to DC police data. Last week, the Department of Justice said he was investigating whether Washington’s police manipulated the data to make crime rates seem lower.
A White House official said Tuesday that more than 1,000 total arrests have been made since the National Guard was called. The official refused to specify how many of them were immigration arrests, but said that “less than half of all arrests have involved illegal aliens.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that the acquisition approach was “to make DC safe and beautiful and eliminate public security threats and violent criminals in our streets.”
“If the Federal Police, with the help of the Metropolitan Police Department, is with illegal foreigners, of course, we will comply with the law and order of this administration and we will eliminate the illegal criminals of the capital of our nation,” he said.
The Administration has highlighted arrests of alleged gang members, or those with a history of being arrested or convicted of violent crimes, including accusations of child sexual assault and abuse.
Washington residents said they have witnessed arrests by groups of what they seemed to be immigration agents in the streets. Some said that the control points are increasingly seeing where the officers stop each vehicle and ask the drivers their licenses.
Granados, a naturalized American citizen originally from El Salvador who has lived in the United States for about 40 years, said in Spanish that he and many other Latinos feel that “there have been racial profile here against us. Our people are hidden for fear.” He asked that his full name be used for fear that he could be attacked even though he is a citizen.
Granados said he was walking in the center of Columbia Heights, where there is a large immigrant community, when he saw federal agents “grab two men, tied them when I passed and pushed them and threw them into a car and left.”
“I didn’t sleep, I felt terrible,” he said, his voice sprouting with emotion.
He said that he personally knows people who worked in his industry, remodeling, who have been arrested. “They are people who have not done anything. They mistreat you without knowing who you are,” he said.
The Trump administration has denied the statements of racial profiles in its immigration arrests.
“Any statement that individuals have been” attacked “by the application of the law due to their skin color are unpleasant and categorically false. What makes someone an ICE target is that it is illegally in our country, not in their skin color. This type of spots is designed to demonize and village our brave application of the ice law,” said the Secretary of Security of ICE, NBC News.
Amy Fisher, a central organizer of the mutual aid network of migrant solidarity in Washington, DC, said that the group has been increasing deliveries to immigrants from essential elements such as “food and diapers and other things that they cannot buy because they are not going to work and fight to reach purposes, and others are too afraid to go to the supermarket store.”
The group has also seen an “exponential” increase in calls to their direct line, where people can inform immigration application actions that are then transmitted to the community.
“The direct line is going crazy,” said Fisher. He would previously receive some dozen calls a week, but after the acquisition he received 500 calls from Monday to Friday during the first week of the federal acquisition.
The employees and owners of companies in Columbia Heights told NBC News that the federal acquisition has let their businesses hurt as workers and customers have disappeared.
Genesis Quintero Lemus, 20, a head of the green card of El Salvador, who is a fruit seller with his mother, said people weigh the risk of staying open.
“Many of us cannot afford to stay at home, because this is our only livelihood,” he said. “I know many workers, and I know they are working people who are only there to keep their families.”
People have also scared due to recent immigration raids and nearby arrests, even in a Latin grocery store, said Quintero Lemus.
“Who do they go to me? For me, it seems that they are racial profiles,” said a bakery employee in Columbia Heights who is a naturalized citizen of El Salvador.
She said the business is inactive and that employers are reducing working hours due to customer decrease. The constant presence of the application of federal law has also made people afraid of being on the street, he added.
“Having them here does not make me feel safe. I don’t feel safe at all,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous even though she is a citizen for fear that she can be attacked to speak.
“I’m afraid that just because of my complexion, I’ll take myself and I’m a American citizen,” he said.
Aris Compres, the owner of a Dominican jerrent in the area, also said that the acquisition has been “terrible for business.”
He said his message to Trump was: “It is not working. It is an attack against the community. We see it. We are the ones that are the effects, all, the business owners, the community.”
Daniella Silva reported from New York City, and Megan Lebowitz de Washington, DC
