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Sorry, I thought that the narrative was that they needed the masks to be safe from all the bloodthirsty antifa lefties, not from violent illegal immigrants.
I agree that arresting illegals who might prefer death to deportation is inherently risky. But I also think that this danger is largely situational. Illegals using facial recognition to figure out the home addresses of ICE agents and then taking revenge for them deporting their buddies looks rather far-fetched.
Few illegals prefer death to deportation; they expect they can just come back.
Getting deported is viewed as a serious inconvenience that sometimes happens at random, not a life-ruining one.
I guess that it depends a lot on their country of origin. If they come from Mexico, then sure. If they come from South America, it might be a significant setback. Presumably, they will not be able to just book a flight to Juárez for lack of money, id and visa.
My priors would be that they will pass through a lot of transit countries in which they are also illegal, which likely means shakedowns and abuse.
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They did, but the perception might be different with this administration.
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