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TechnoratiPanel Slams US Over Immigration Raid Tactics
A national commission blasted the federal government for its tactics in a series of workplace immigration raids, saying in a report released Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had violated workers' rights and traumatized communities.
![[US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, seen here May 13, 2009. Several lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security have been filed as a result of the immigration raids. (AFP/Getty Images/File/Alex Wong)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/napolitano_ice.jpg "napolitano_ice.jpg")
The commission, which included U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Dennis Hayashi and others, was set up by the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union representing workers at several Swift meatpacking plants where raids took place.
"I was totally shocked by the level of abuse," said UC Davis law Professor Bill Ong Hing, a member of the commission, which heard testimony at five hearings across the country. "ICE showed up with weapons drawn and no warrants. ... We saw deprivation of prescription drugs, separation of newborns from nursing mothers."
The report described the 2006 Swift raids in which thousands of workers - most of them U.S. citizens or legal immigrants - were held by heavily armed ICE agents for up to eight hours without food, water or the opportunity to use a bathroom or a telephone.
Testimony alleged racial profiling and violations of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and detention without due process. Out of an entire Swift workforce of 12,000, ICE had warrants identifying 133 suspects of identity theft, the report said.
Iowa-born Swift worker Michael Graves said he was handcuffed and held at gunpoint: "It baffled me the way they treated us like criminals."
In the Bay Area, 63 workers were arrested at 11 Mexican restaurants in the El Balazo chain last year.
ICE spokeswoman Cori Bassett said she could not comment on the report, but said: "The men and women of ICE have a sworn duty to uphold the nation's immigration and customs laws. We do so professionally, humanely and with an acute awareness of the impact that enforcement has on the individuals we encounter. Anyone encountered who is in violation of those laws has full access to due process under the law."
Several lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security have been filed as a result of the immigration raids, including by workers at Micro Solutions Enterprises, a toner cartridge company in Van Nuys. But the report's authors said a better solution would be to change how immigration enforcement is conducted.
Earlier this spring, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she would direct federal agents to focus more on arresting and prosecuting employers and less on targeting illegal workers. With the exception of one worksite raid in February in Bellingham, Wash., which Napolitano said she did not know about beforehand, the Obama administration has not conducted workplace raids.
Joseph Hansen, the president of the food and commercial workers' union, emphasized that he was not opposed to workplace immigration enforcement across the board and commended ICE for its more targeted approach at a seventh Swift plant where agents asked management to produce specific individuals suspected of being undocumented immigrants.
"We're not specifically calling for a moratorium, but we'd like to meet with Secretary Napolitano," he said. "There's a right way to do these things without violating people's rights."
5 Comments so far
Show AllThe illegals, or opportunetists are taking what is left of jobs in this country away from our citizens.
Because the Bush and Clinton families allowed this to happen
in order to destroy the working classes and unions, we
have been reduced to a third world country, and we simply
do not have politicians with the back-bone to address the situation..
Another example of why the rest of the world does not trust the USA (United States of Aggression)
It does not matter what Administration was in power. We expect this behavior from the Bush regime but one would expect Obama to take positive, progressive, public action to expose this to the American people, to take action to assure it does not happen again and to prosecute, fine and jail those responsible for this behavior. Not just the front line perpetrators, but also the middle and top level people who knew this was going on.
America is spending Billions on keeping "Illegals" out of the country. Billions more are spent on raids and sending "Illegals" home. These people are not "Illegals". They are opportunists. Like many of our forefathers they are looking for a better life. As soon as they cross the boarder they can get a job. Most of these "migrant workers" are hired very quickly after coming to the USA.
If we where really interested is stopping the flow of "migrant workers" all we need to do is target the employers. If an employer hires a "migrant worker" who is in the USA without proper papers, the employer is the person who is breaking the law. If the fine for this illegal behavior was set at $50,000 or 50% of the value of the business (which ever is higher) and also 20 years in jail this would discourage the hiring of people who do not have proper papers. If the people here without papers could not get work, they would go home and word would spread quickly and the flow of people north would stop. No need to spend billions on walls and boarder guards.
However, America needs these "migrant workers". They are paid so poorly that no born American will take the jobs. Our food would increase in cost if the farmers and business owners had to pay reasonable wages. So the immigration department would have to go out and recruit workers, process them quickly, link them up with employers and assure they are paid fair wages.
America needs to take a look at the issue and find a solution which is appropriate and fair. International respect for America might increase and most Americans might feel better about themselves and their government.
DHS is way too big to do anything but corruptly consume tax dollars. Give it the Ma Bell treatment.
These raids occurred under the Bush regime. Janet Napolitano now has the responsibility of cleaning up that mess. Why was the companies that hired these "illegals" and were thereby breaking the law not forced into court at the time. It is obvious to me that large companies are still hiring "illegals". When I was in business I knew without any doubt that employing "illegals" was a no no. I went by the law. Seems to me that enforcement, meaning checking paperwork, inspecting employers records and prosecuting those who continued to abuse these "laws" has not done. Of course the ability to do that has to be funded by the government. Your taxes are going in the most part to fund WAR, not LAW!
any government that would name an agency which deals with immigrants, ICE, is definitely a fascist government. their name, uniform and deportment is designed to intimidate and instill fear just as the nazi SS with their skull and crossbones insignia once did many years ago.