San Antonio \u2014 SAN ANTONIO: We\u2019ve all seen the controversial images of ICE carrying out the law at a different pace than we have seen before. Today, FOX San Antonio takes you on a ride along with the men and women of ICE right here in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 6 a.m., and before most of the city wakes up, ICE agents are already on the move. Their targets: immigrants with outstanding deportation orders and criminal histories.<\/p>\n
Our ride-along started just hours before shots were fired at an ICE facility in Dallas, where two migrants in custody ended up dead at the hands of a gunman professing his hate for ICE agents, a reminder of the growing danger both agents and migrants face as tensions rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis morning we\u2019re looking for a male foreign national, about 35, who absconded from another field office and is now in the San Antonio area,\u201d said Miguel Vergara, Field Office Director for ICE\u2019s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).<\/p>\n
Each address is carefully checked, and every approach coordinated, part of an operation ICE has been running constantly since President Trump took office.<\/p>\n
\u201cICE is working seven days a week, 24\/7,\u201d an agent told FOX San Antonio.<\/p>\n
While agents say their focus is public safety, every knock on a door carries risk and scrutiny.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re public servants, employees of the U.S. government. This is what the American people voted for, to have us out in the street enforcing laws passed by Congress,\u201d said Vergara.<\/p>\n
Vergara says criticism and even hostility come with the badge. During our ride-along, a woman in an upscale neighborhood cursed at the agents for stopping in the middle of her street to pick up a target.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no need for confrontation,\u201d Vergara said. \u201cICE officers are out here every day enforcing the law, doing the job to the best of their ability, often under incredible adverse circumstances, without injury to either alien or officer. To me, that\u2019s just great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treating people in custody humanely is part of the job. But when that line is crossed, as seen in a viral New York video showing a woman being slammed to the ground while pleading for her husband\u2019s release, agents can end up under investigation or placed on administrative duty.<\/p>\n
Vergara says the job now puts their own families at risk as some members of the public fail to separate duty from personal life. That\u2019s why, he says, many ICE agents choose to cover their faces for safety, not secrecy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people out there actively looking to get us on video, find our personal information, protest at our homes, vandalize property, and even attack family members,\u201d Vergara said.<\/p>\n
Not every case ICE handles is clear-cut. Vergara says officers often face difficult choices when families are involved. Agents consider a person\u2019s background, including their length of stay in the country, and whether children or spouses will be impacted. Each decision, he says, weighs heavily on those enforcing the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s a difficult decision because we all have families,\u201d Vergara said. \u201cBut they are here in violation of the law, and there are consequences for their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what his number one concern is at the end of the day, Vergara didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody going home safe,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to go home tonight. I want to be a husband, a father. I want everyone on my team to go home, and I also want those in our custody to be safe. We\u2019re responsible for their welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio \u2014 SAN ANTONIO: We\u2019ve all seen the controversial images of ICE carrying out the law at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":285317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,13045,5375,13959,5410,6501,5292,1193,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-285316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-deportation","10":"tag-enforcement","11":"tag-families","12":"tag-ice","13":"tag-immigrants","14":"tag-public-safety","15":"tag-risks","16":"tag-san-antonio","17":"tag-sanantonio","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115336080528765726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}