Thread: Trolley station or training ground for Border Patrol agents?

May 29, 2009

Trolley station… or training ground for Border Patrol agents?

By Pablo Jaime Sáinz

What was supposed to be a routine trip to work or school, turned out to be a trip where their destination turned into a deportation for the 21 undocumented Mexican immigrants who were detained during a raid at the Old Town trolley station last week.

For three minors in that group of 21 immigrants, it was a one-way trip to Tijuana, that Wednesday afternoon, May 20, when they were deported to the neighboring city.

The deportation of these three high school students has caused a great controversy among the Mexican community and immigrant rights activists in San Diego.

The raid was a joint operation between the Border Patrol and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). According to some witnesses, the participating agents were dressed as civilians.

Spokespersons for the Border Patrol have declared that the immigration officers were only doing their jobs! Meanwhile activists and the families of the deported immigrants have said that it is a violation of their human rights.

Representatives of the American Friends Service Committee, an immigrant-rights non-profit in San Diego, said that the agents engaged in racial profiling in order to question patrons of the Old Town trolley station.

In the past there have been other cases where the Border Patrol ran these types of operations at trolley stations to arrest undocumented immigrants.

For Pedro Rios, American Friends Service Committee director in San Diego, this type of raid creates fear among the Mexican community in the region.

“This type of operation foments fear and distrust of law enforcement agents,â€

People who break the law live in fear, not law a biding citizens or legal residence!!!

RELATED

Border patrol aprehends illegals at Trolley in San Diego.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-156954-tro ... ml+station