Recently in ICE raids Category

It's difficult for me to blog about anything else when I feel so accountable to unauthorized migrant youth, but this trailer for the documentary "In The Shadow of the Raid" takes me back to the reason I got involved in U.S. migration policy in the first place.

In the Shadow of the Raid - trailer from Streetdog Media on Vimeo.

The Bush Administration continues to abuse immigration law to trump up the stories of security threats it wishes immigrants posed--voters are much more compliant when they believe they are facing imminent external threats.  George Bush looks wistfully back at his post-9/11 approval ratings and dreams of a populace permanently under siege.

First, Lyglenson Lemorin, the Haitian-born bumbler who threatened national security with ninja stars (not joking), to whom the feds couldn't get any criminal charges to stick, was recently ordered deported by Immigration Judge Kenneth Hurewitz in Miami.  No such thing as double jeopardy for immigrants!

Judge Hurewitz's asylum denial rate, incidentally: 89.4%.  The national rate: 59.8%.  Interesting that Hurewitz was the one selected to hear the case.  Did I mention that Immigration Judges and DHS prosecuting attorneys are both part of the executive branch?

Please visit change.gov and let President Elect Obama know what you want done.  Even though I don't agree with many of Obama's stances on immigration I've always seen his presidency as a first step towards taking back the government.  Bush and Cheney have hijacked so much of the it that we've got a lot to get back.

Hopefully letting your voice be heard at change.gov will be more than a cathartic exercise.  I believe the first thing we need to do is ask that the raids be stopped and then I'd like to see the DREAM Act passed. 

If you're a pro-migrant reader of this blog let us know what you'd like to see. 

It looks like someone finally got Immigration and Custom's Enforcement to show the U.S. public their balance sheet.  Through a freedom of information request, the Des Moines Register was able to find out that the cost for the Postville raid "totaled $5,211,092 as of Aug. 21" meaning "it has cost taxpayers an average of $13,396 for each of the 389 illegal immigrants taken into custody."

Multiply that by 12 million and the U.S. is going to have to spend $160 billion to deport every unauthorized migrant in the U.S. the Postville way.  And that assumes they're all neatly working together in a factory like in Postville. 

You see, nativists would have you believe that it helps the economy to pursue this deportation-only policy.  You see how much U.S. taxpayers are spending for the Postville raid, or you you look at a place like Riverside, New Jersey, and it's pretty clear that's not the case.    

If you need anymore proof that nativists are lying about the correlation between crime and unauthorized migrants see this article from the Associated Press on the Postville raid:

POSTVILLE, Iowa - Postville's police chief says he's trying to add another officer to his staff as crime has risen in the city after an Immigration raid in May.

The Agriprocessors meatpacking plant was raided May 12, when 389 people were charged with being in the country illegally. Most were also charged criminally.

Postville Police Chief Michael Halse says the workers who have come to replace those picked up in the raid are temporary. He says he doesn't know their backgrounds or where they came from.

Halse says he hopes life will return to the way it was before the raid, but predicted that normalcy could be years away.

Associated Press (7 September 2008)

Then again, nativists don't like to listen to local police chiefs when they say they shouldn't be enforcing broken federal immigration law, so I can't imagine they'd care about this.

As the Democratic National Convention gets underway, DHS continues its campaign to terrorize immigrant communities for the administration's political ends.  Adam Nossiter reports in the NY Times today:

LAUREL, Miss. -- In another large-scale workplace immigration crackdown, federal officials raided a factory here on Monday, detaining at least 350 workers they said were in the country illegally.

Numerous agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended on a factory belonging to Howard Industries Inc., which manufactures electrical transformers, among other products.

As of late Monday afternoon, no criminal charges had been filed, said Barbara Gonzalez, an agency spokeswoman, but she said that dozens of workers had been "identified, fingerprinted, interviewed, photographed and processed for removal from the U.S."

The raid follows a similar large-scale immigration operation at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, in May when nearly 400 workers were detained. That raid was a significant escalation of the Bush administration's enforcement practices because those detained were not simply deported, as in previous raids, but were imprisoned for months on criminal charges of using false documents.

The mass rapid-fire hearings after the Postville raid took place in a temporary court facility on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa. An interpreter was later sharply critical of the proceedings, saying the immigrants did not understand the charges against them.

It's been years since I've sat down and wrote an op-ed to be published.  I had forgotten how hard it is.  I write my blog posts like I write emails.  I don't fret over every word.  I don't pay attention to the structure. 

With op-eds it's different.  There's a specific formula to them.  I'm sorry to say that my return to formal opinion journalism hasn't resulted in my best work, but it gets the point across.  Without further ado I link you to my first published piece with New America Media.

Over at the Sanctuary, Duke has posted the account of interpreter Erik Camayd-Freixas, who has gone into more depth then anyone about the proceedings in Postville, Iowa.  I think it's one of the most valuable first-hand accounts of what happened in Postville and it also busts the myth of the criminality of these migrants.  Some of my favorite quotes though, are the ones that humanize the migrants of which we have heard so little.  You should read the whole thing here, but I'll highlight some of them below:

Saturday, June 14 (Flag Day)

11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

at the Regional Transportation Center (Greyhound Bus and Amtrak Train Stations)

Join this lively, yet peaceful solidarity action

*  Distribute flyers  *  Inform travelers of their rights  * 

*  Show solidarity with those at risk of deportation  *  Hold Banners & Signs *

Crossing A Border is NOT a Crime, but a Civil Offense - Yet Families are being Torn Apart because of Border Patrol's activities at the Regional Transportation Center

All Those Who Show Up will Get an Attractive "United Nation's Blue" Wrist Band that says "Justice for Immigrants"

Bring a flag, help distribute "Know Your Rights" literature

We will supply you with a sign

Continue for Directions:

Roberto Lovato has been sounding the alarm for weeks now on the deaths in detention scandal that ICE is now trying to brush under the rug.  I have to admit I’ve not yet given the issue the attention it deserves in this small corner of the blogosphere. 

As is often the case, Nina Bernstein broke the story in the NY Times.  The Times’ editorial board, headed up on this issue by Lawrence Downes, followed up with an opinion piece citing Bernstein's article. 

Ms. Bernstein chronicled the death of Boubacar Bah, a tailor from Guinea who was imprisoned in New Jersey for overstaying a tourist visa. He fell and fractured his skull in the Elizabeth Detention Center early last year. Though clearly gravely injured, Mr. Bah was shackled and taken to a disciplinary cell. He was left alone — unconscious and occasionally foaming at the mouth — for more than 13 hours. He was eventually taken to the hospital and died after four months in a coma.

Nobody told Mr. Bah’s relatives until five days after his fall. When they finally found him, he was on life support, soon to become one of the 66 [ed. note: the Post reports the number is now 83] immigrants known to have died in federal custody between 2004 and 2007. Mr. Bah’s family still does not know the full story of when or how he suffered his fatal injuries.