By Elliot Alford 
/ Alford Law PLLC
I have seen a few examples of the Spanish-language media reporting things in an inflammatory way. Recently, people asked me about children being deported through raids of schools.
It is important to understand that the federal government is a fairly predictable actor. When I heard about this news story, I immediately had an idea about what was going on. Generally speaking, ICE does not raid any place except when there is a complaint of criminal activity or an order for deportation already exists for one or more people. In the case of the children, odds are they had already been ordered deported by an Immigration Judge, and ICE was merely getting around to enforcing that order.
The government is constantly trying to save money and allocate resources. At some point, they decided that it was “worth it” to begin enforcing the deportation orders against children. Generally speaking, no one needs to worry about being raided unless they have a deportation order against them or they are involved in criminal activity, which includes working without a permit using false documents.
— Elliot Alford is an attorney and business consultant based in Flagstaff at 3 N. Leroux St., Suite 200. He practices in immigration, divorce/custody, criminal defense, civil and other areas of the law. If you have any questions about this issue, Alford Law offers free consultations in downtown Flagstaff. He can be reached at 928-607-1701 or ElliotAlford@gmail.com. Click here to see previous commentaries.