In many high school classrooms across the country, health educators are instructing high school students about sex education. They are reminding them that if they choose to engage in sex they must be wary because they are not only sleeping with that one (hopefully carefully selected) partner but with all of the previous sexual partners that their partner has had, as well as the entire history of those who came before.
 
Similarly, immigration attorneys need to be reminding clients that when they choose their residence, they are “sleeping” with the entire immigration history of those who previously lived in that house. As we’ve learned all too well in the past year, ICE has been catching up on all those outstanding warrants of deportation/removal and showing up at the prior homes of those who skipped court or never left the U.S. as ordered to do so by the Court. When they arrive, the new inhabitants of the home answer the knock at the door and physically open the door to allow ICE to enter. Once that door is opened ICE begins their questioning and search for the absconder. In the course of such inquiry it is often learned that those now inhabiting the house are illegally present in the U.S. They then are taken into custody and often deported, simply because they, unwittingly, have chosen to live in a home that possesses a previous negative immigration history.
 
Knowing all too well that many immigrants chose to settle in areas inhabited by other immigrants from their country because of language and comfort level, how can this be prevented? Most probably it cannot. However, being aware that a home’s previous immigration history attaches to the new tenant (and may very well forever negatively impact them) and thus knowing that questions must be asked regarding previous tenants is as equally important as warning teenagers to pause for a moment and take the full sexual history of any prospective partner before “signing on the dotted line”.