Policy

DREAM Activist's Family Raided By ICE

The law helps some family members, but not others

|

Erika Andiola, a young undocumented immigrant and activist, may be free from the threat of raids and deportation, but her family is another story.

On Thursday night, Andiola's home in Arizona was raided by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, who knocked on her door then arrested her mother, Maria Arreola, after she opened to check on her visitors. When her older brother refused to provide documentation of his own legal status, he was brought in as well.

"My mother came out of her room without really understanding what was happening, just that there was a really strong knock on the door," Andiola, a co-founder of DRM Action Coalition and nationally prominent supporter of the DREAM Act, told reporters over the phone. "They went ahead and handcuffed her right in front of me and my younger brother, who is 16 years old."