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• Immigrant advocates report increased ICE activity, racial profiling
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WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - When U.S. immigration agents swooped down to arrest a Salvadoran man in Mount Pleasant, a Washington area known for its Hispanic immigrant population, residents alerted neighbors who flocked to the scene, chanting at officers to get out before the man was hauled away.

And when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained a Guatemalan man on Monday walking with a crutch who said he had no criminal record in nearby Petworth, another area with a sizable Hispanic population, people heading to work and walking dogs stopped to shout at them. After a back-and-forth with protesters, officers released the man.

Such arrests, like the two witnessed by Reuters, are becoming increasingly common in the nation’s capital, according to immigration advocates and residents, who say the raids are fomenting distrust among some residents.

Mount Pleasant has been home for decades to immigrants from El Salvador and other Central American countries who run restaurants and other businesses even as the area has gentrified. Riots broke out there in 1991 after a D.C. police officer shot a Salvadoran man. Nearby Petworth, a leafy residential neighborhood, also has a large Hispanic population.