Date: 2025-07-04 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028495
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
ICE ... A VERY SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS
WP: Rumors of raids at playgrounds and parks — all false, according to federal officials — have left the city on guard for days.
ICE ... A VERY SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS
WP: Rumors of raids at playgrounds and parks — all false, according to federal officials — have left the city on guard for days.
A child swings at a park in D.C. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post)
Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/05/10/ice-nannies-parks-dc-fears/
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
The United States has a legal system.
Whether the United States has a 'good' legal system may not give the same answer.
O grew up in the UK where the legal system is about as good as any in the world ... and my knowledge of the US legal system relative to the UK system is that it is much more likely to be compromised in some way than the British system.
I worry that the US legal system is quite likely to become quite seriously compromised by the Trump administration and the Trump family and friends!
Peter Burgess
Rumors of raids at playgrounds and parks — all false, according to federal officials — have left the city on guard for days.
Written by Marissa J. Lang
May 10, 2025 at 8:00 a.m. EDTToday at 8:00 a.m. EDT
By the time lawyers arrived Wednesday morning at the leafy playground in one of the District’s most affluent neighborhoods, the rumors had already alarmed parents across the city.
ICE agents were taking nannies and leaving children in the park, messages on group emails, WhatsApp chats and text chains warned.
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“Not trying to create hysteria,” began one message that ricocheted from one parent to another. It went on: “They are in Forest Hills right now in full tactical gear and children are being left behind.”
As concern grew, neighbors lined the block. An elected official jetted to the Forest Hills playground. Immigration attorneys handed out know-your-rights cards in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole to any nannies they could find.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later told The Washington Post that agents had not targeted nannies at that playground nor any other in the District this week.
Still, the unease gripping the nation’s capital has not abated. Tales of nannies being questioned and detained came during a week in which D.C. restaurants were served documents by Homeland Security demanding to see proof of workers’ legal status and as reports continued to spread of ICE arresting Maryland parents in front of their children. Fears agents would show up unannounced at schools prompted at least one to cancel a field trip.
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown — with the expressed goal of deporting 1 million immigrants this year — has stretched far from the U.S. border and inflamed anxieties in unexpected places. Neighborhoods that have historically been immune to the fear that takes hold in immigrant-dense communities have instead been on edge, scrambling to discern rumor from real danger as legal-support hotline numbers and all-caps warnings circulate.
An ICE official declined to say Friday whether agents made arrests in D.C. on any day this week, citing safety concern amid ongoing enforcement efforts. The Post could not independently verify any confrontations between immigration agents and child-care workers at D.C. parks.
“Any rumors that ICE officers are targeting nannies at playgrounds are completely untrue,” ICE spokesperson James Covington said to The Post in a statement. “Such rumors amount to nothing more than scare tactics and unnecessarily place our brave officers’ safety in jeopardy.”
The wave of panic at Forest Hills appears to have started when two unmarked SUVs with dark-tinted windows were seen idling in a nearby alley, sparking concern that ICE officers were coming to the park to question child-care workers, an industry fueled by immigrant labor. But the vehicles didn’t belong to ICE; they were from the U.S. Marshals Service, which, officials said, was executing an arrest warrant on a murder suspect in a nearby apartment building.
“I am born and raised in D.C. and I have never experienced or witnessed anything like this,” said Caroline Dennin, 32, who alerted her playgroup chat about the alleged immigration enforcement Wednesday.
She’s been struggling, Dennin said, with how to talk about this with her children, aged 3 and 5.
“It feels like even these spaces that are supposed to be safe and child-friendly aren’t anymore, and that just makes all of us question what is going on,” she said. “It makes me wonder, next time we go to a restaurant, will agents come in to continue their work? Should we be out and about with our kids? Is this the new normal?”
Ava Benach, 52, has been an immigration attorney in the District for nearly 30 years — through waves of immigration crackdowns and the changing winds of presidential administrations. But, she said, the climate of fear in D.C. today is nothing like she has ever experienced before.
“It’s not just among the undocumented. It’s among permanent residents. It’s among citizens,” she said. “What American communities are waking up to is this is not just a problem in your immigrant communities. It is a problem everywhere.”
Benach lives and works in the same part of the District as the playground where the alleged ICE sightings were first reported. When she heard about it, she said, she “didn’t doubt for a second that ICE was at the playground.” So she jumped in her car, with several staff attorneys from her practice, and headed to the park.
What surprised her, she said, was seeing so many neighbors do the same thing — to see if, or how, they could help.
“It is pretty remarkable to see people, who have heretofore contained their activism to social media posts and very nice lawn signs, show up to these parks and bring their privilege and their bodies into that moment,” Benach said. “I think people are seeing that an engaged citizenry that objects to this kind of enforcement can have a real positive effect.”
ANC Commissioner Courtney Carlson, who lives in and represents residents in Ward 3, was one of several neighbors who “hightailed it” to the park Wednesday.
Afterward, she sent a message to her neighborhood WhatsApp group. “If you’re at the office and you’re worried about your nannies,” she recalled saying, “there are a lot of neighbors who are willing to stand up and be present at any of these supposed ICE raids — and make sure your kids are okay.”
Steve Thompson, Lauren Lumpkin and Teo Armus contributed to this report.
The comments reflect a deep mistrust and fear of ICE activities, with many expressing skepticism about official statements denying ICE's targeting of nannies at playgrounds. There is a strong sentiment that ICE's actions resemble those of authoritarian regimes, using fear and intimidation as tools. Some comments highlight the role of community members in resisting and responding to these rumors, emphasizing the importance of local vigilance and communication. Overall, the comments convey a sense of anxiety and distrust towards ICE and the broader immigration enforcement policies under the Trump administration