This is the most heart rendering column I have written and shared with you. It will be shocking to read, as it was for me to research and document. Deportation is occurring with frequency, but this became a personal look.
Walter W. Babb, Bill, is the son of my late high school classmate Sam Babb, who many from Greene County will remember. The “oldies” may remember his grandparents, Walt and Wilma Babb, who resided on a farm near Squirrel Hollow.
Bill went to Iowa State and completed a degree in engineering. He left Iowa 20 years ago to begin what is now a successful company, Better Builders, in Seattle, WA.
He employed Federico Duran. Fred as he was known, came to the United States from Mexico as a young teenager. He helped Bill build the company. He also assisted in management of rental units. He and his wife have four children. There is no history of violence, drugs, or criminal activities with him or his family.
On Dec. 4, Fred was illegally arrested by ICE and taken into custody after decades of patiently waiting, with no response, for a lawful work visa.*
Fred was stopped and arrested without a clear traffic violation or any explanation. He was housed in a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington for 5 days, then transferred to El Paso, Texas. It was 7 days before he was able to contact his family. There was no formal hearing, no timeline, no clarity, and no DUE PROCESS which is a right of all under the Constitution of the United States but was nullified by the January 20 Executive Order.
15 days later Fred was transferred to a detention facility in Indiana. Bill contacted two immigration lawyers who said they were restricted from interacting with the detainees. Fred determined that he should self deport back to Mexico to allow reunification with his family but has since learned even this action could take from 30-60 days. A GO FUND ME site has raised $25,761 to assist Fred and his family during this tragic time. 71 persons have donated.
10.5 million persons are targeted for deportation, yet over half have no criminal history and 93 per cent have no violent convictions according to documentation from the CATO institute.
The executive order, with no input from Congress, has set this country into fearfulness, divisiveness, and a workforce/labor shortage.
I am so sad for Fred, and the thousands like him, and further saddened that the budget tradeoff for health care was immigration deportation.
*As background, in case you need it, on Jan. 20, 2025, the President signed Executive Order 14159, entitled “Protecting the American People against Invasion”. Included was expanded use of expedited removal, an immigration policy that allows for the deportation of individuals without a court hearing.
The President pledged to deport “the worst of the worst.” He frequently speaks about the countless “dangerous criminals” — among them murderers, rapists, and child predators — from around the world he says entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration. He promises to expel millions of migrants in the largest deportation program in American history to protect law-abiding citizens from the violent threats he says they pose.
For further information, ICE is the acronym used for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with structure under the Department of Homeland Security, Cabinet Director, Kristi Noem. There are 20,000 employees in the workforce, having a salary range of $63,000-$144,000, with a retention or signup bonus of $50,000. The categories range from ERO, Enforcement and Removal Operations, 6,100 are currently identified; 750 individuals are identified as Enforcement Removal Assistants. The final category is HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, for research and identification of immigrants living in the United States.
Tom Homan is the so-called Border Czar, reporting directly to the President.
The ICE agents are different from CBP staff, or Customs and Border Patrol, who have authority within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Border Patrol personnel wear name tags and do not wear masks.
Total ICE arrests shot up at the end of May, 2025 after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller gave the agency a quota of 3,000 arrests a day, up from 650 a day in the first five months of Trump’s second term. ICE arrested nearly 30 percent more people in May than in April, according to the Transactional Records Clearinghouse, or TRAC. That number rose again in June, by another 28 percent.
According to the American Immigration Council, on July 1, the U.S. Senate passed a budget reconciliation bill (the “Big Beautiful Bill”) that includes an unprecedented allocation of funds for immigration detention and enforcement while simultaneously stripping healthcare from millions of Americans. The bill earmarked $170 billion for immigration and border enforcement related funding provisions.
Information shared has come from the following: Associated Press reporting, Wikipedia, the American Immigration Council, and the CATO Institute.
VIEW FROM MY WINDOW is shared by Mary Weaver of rural Rippey.
