WV federal officials’ lies about ‘Operation Country Roads’ were propaganda

The words we use to describe each other matter. 

When we refer to someone as a neighbor, a brother or a sister, it immediately conjures a feeling of closeness, of shared interests.

Conversely, when we refer to someone as “vermin” or “cancer” as Adolph Hitler did to Jewish people, it sets them up as a problem to be dealt with. What do we do about vermin and cancer? We eradicate them. 

Consider the words President Donald Trump has used to describe immigrants, both documented and undocumented: “Rapists.” “Monsters.” “Poison.” 

These words were chosen for a reason — to stoke fear and distrust in people’s minds. When we’re frightened, we lose our ability to act rationally. Compassion and reason tend to take a back seat to fear. And when we’re afraid, we tend to put our trust in a strong leader who will protect us. 

Earlier this year, U.S. Attorney Moore Capito joined Trump in his verbal assault on our immigrant neighbors here in West Virginia. Capito claimed without evidence that “Operation Country Roads,” a 15-day immigration crackdown in West Virginia, arrested “illegal aliens” with “serious criminal histories, including convictions for child sex abuse, drug possession and endangering the welfare of children.” 

Using records obtained by the Deportation Data Project, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia and Dragline analyzed Operation Country Roads to determine the crackdown looked little to nothing like how it was described to the public. In addition to inflating the total number of arrests in the state, officials also falsely maligned those who were taken.

Of the 593 people arrested in West Virginia, none had criminal histories involving sexual assault or for crimes against children. Just two had misdemeanor drug charges on their record. The number of arrests of people with no criminal record whatsoever? 305.

Of the 42 people who had criminal convictions, the most common charges were for things like DUI and illegal border crossings. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s Office know exactly what they’re doing. They’re part of a political machine that wants us to be angry at each other and suspicious of our neighbors, whether they’re immigrants, transgender or people of color. Maybe, just maybe, if we’re suspicious enough of each other, we won’t notice the actual harm they’re wreaking. 

It’s more profitable for them to get West Virginians worked up about the idea of “the other” than it would be to address the issues that get worse by the day. After all, it’s propaganda that keeps them from having to address issues like the sludge in our drinking water, our skyrocketing cancer rates or the fact that we have the shortest life expectancy in the nation.

Here’s the reality: Most of the people targeted by Operation Country Roads were no different than you or me. They wanted to go to work, do a good job and support themselves and their families. 

And although Operation Country Roads is in the rearview, they’re still out there terrorizing West Virginians. 

On May 29, Weston resident Lauren Cristal drove her husband Erick to his job at Don Patron Mexican Grill. He held their puppy in his lap on the way there. She got him there six minutes late and hoped she hadn’t got him into trouble. 

According to her public Facebook post, he called her an hour later to tell her ICE had come to the restaurant and he was being detained. She rushed to the scene and was assured by an officer she would get to tell her husband goodbye, but the officer changed his mind and whisked him away in a van with tinted windows instead.   

“I hope everyone feels safer now without him in the town because I certainly don’t,” she said in the post. 

How will officials describe Erick in their next press release? Will this newlywed dog dad be the next monster we’re supposed to fear and despise? 

Throughout the Trump era, I’ve heard a common refrain from the anti-immigrant crowd: Illegal is illegal. If they’re here illegally, then they’re guilty of at least one crime. 

But simply existing in the United States without documentation is not a crime. Not under state law, federal law, or the United States Constitution. The vast majority of immigration offenses are civil in nature, not criminal. Unlike the president of the United States, the overwhelming majority of immigrants in the United States have never been charged, let alone convicted, of a criminal offense. 

But when we echo governments describing a whole human being as “illegal,” we’re framing them as suspect no matter who they really are. 

Here’s to the day when we can add a new word to how we describe the president, the U.S. Attorney, and the rest of this administration: 

“Former.”