Thread: Civil rights groups allege immigrant workers were denied rig

Civil rights groups allege immigrant workers were denied rights
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Employees detained during a raid by federal agents in Van Nuys were denied access to attorneys, a court petition says.
By Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 15, 2008
Civil rights groups filed a petition in federal court Thursday seeking a restraining order against immigration officials who allegedly blocked workers detained in a raid at a Van Nuys manufacturing plant from consulting with their attorneys.

When the workers were interviewed by federal agents their attorneys were not allowed to be present, according to the petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the National Lawyers Guild and the National Immigration Law Center. The petition says workers were told they did not need attorneys even after they asked for one.

Department of Justice attorneys are reviewing the claim.

"During all ICE enforcement operations, aliens are afforded access to a lawyer after routine processing," said Virginia Kice, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. "That standard operating procedure was followed during last week's enforcement."

The action comes a week after agents swept through Micro Solutions Enterprises, arresting 130 workers on immigration violations.

When Ana Mariela Guerra was asked about her legal status, she asked to see her attorney but was told it was it was not necessary, said her lawyer, Nikhil Shah.

"It's an outrageous violation of the right to counsel," said ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham. "We've had problems with ICE respecting these workers' right to counsel almost from the moment they were arrested. It's very disturbing."

A separate claim filed Wednesday accused the Los Angeles Police Department of violating the civil rights of a woman arrested in connection with the Van Nuys raid.

The claim said LAPD officers unlawfully acted as "deputies" to ICE agents when they arrested Teodosia Galicia Canalez at her home on criminal charges.

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... &cset=true

Here's the key line that rebuffs the whiner's claim:

"During all ICE enforcement operations, aliens are afforded access to a lawyer after routine processing,"

Maybe the U.S. should adopt Mexico’s methods for handling illegal immigrants.

Illegal Immigrants do not have civil rights, they are not citizens nor bound by the Constitutuion of the United States, which grants those rights. Sorry, squatters, your not gonig to barrow our laws, when they benefit your dishonest behavior.

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

Illegal Immigrants do not have civil rights, they are not citizens nor bound by the Constitutuion of the United States, which grants those rights. Sorry, squatters, your not gonig to barrow our laws, when they benefit your dishonest behavior.

Dixie

Thank You . They have NO rights . Sent that to the freaken ACLU

Lawsuit Filed After Suspected Undocumented Workers Allegedly Denied Attorneys

POSTED: 3:31 pm PST February 14, 2008


LOS ANGELES -- Civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging immigration officials illegally denied attorneys to suspected undocumented workers caught during a raid on a business in Van Nuys.

The suspected illegal immigrants were picked up Feb. 7 during a raid at Micro Solutions Enterprises, a computer printer cartridge manufacturing plant in the 8200 block of Woodley Avenue.

No employers were arrested during the raid, although Virginia Kice of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said last week the investigation was on-going.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups, claims ICE barred attorneys from accompanying the suspected undocumented workers to interviews, and requests that a judge order the agency to allow attorneys to represent them.

Kice had no immediate comment regarding the lawsuit.

According to the ACLU, during the interviews that attorneys were kept out of, the workers were asked questions and charged with immigration violations.

The suspected undocumented workers eventually will have their deportation cases heard before an immigration judge.

One plaintiff in the lawsuit is the National Lawyers Guild, which has offered free legal aid to the 130 workers.

"We are deeply concerned that ICE is trying to deport people without due process, as required under our nation's basic laws," said NLG lawyer Stacy Tolchin in a statement.

Evencio Olivares-Gonzalez, an MSE employee who was detained during the raid but released a few days later has been ordered to report to an interview for further processing with ICE officials within the next two days.

He also "fears that he will be denied the assistance of counsel at his interview," according to the lawsuit, which alleges that ICE officials asked "a number of questions designed to obtain evidence for use against (the workers) in deportation proceedings."

Among the defendants named are three ICE officials at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, who allegedly barred NLG attorneys from "representing their clients at the interviews at issue in this case," the lawsuit states.

ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham said the lawsuit "seeks to hold the government accountable for its blatantly illegal conduct."

The lawsuit seeks an injunction plus attorneys' fees.

In addition, the ACLU announced that workers detained in the raid but later released, their family members and groups supporting them will hold a vigil outside the Federal Building at 5 p.m.

The rally is designed to highlight "potential civil rights violations and inefficacy of raids targeting low-wage workers," according to the ACLU.

Participants will place flowers at the altar of the Virgin of Guadalupe mural outside Plaza Olvera Church.

The ACLU also said it was investigating possible civil rights violations during the raid, including what it said was mass handcuffing of workers, ICE agents using threatening gestures, and preventing detained workers from calling their families.

Speaking earlier this week, Kice said ICE agents acted in a responsible and professional manner during the raid and that the workers were calm throughout.

http://www.knbc.com/news/15305948/detail.html

I don't care about any "perceived "rights that are due illegal invaders.

Period

Who the hell gets a lawyer at the scene of the crime/arrest?

Look who is representing them....The National Lawyer's Guild

The NLG was founded in 1937 by Communist Party USA attorneys and liberal fellow-travelers as a pro-New Deal, progressive alternative to the segregated and comparatively conservative American Bar Association (ABA). Many have alleged that the Communist International (Comintern) spearheaded the Guild's creation. While there were elements within the early Guild that were dedicated communist revolutionaries -- NLG founding member David Freedman candidly advocated socialism as a desirable alternative to American capitalism -- these were by no means the only actors within the fledgling organization: future Supreme Court Justices, New Deal supporters, civil libertarians, and other liberals were among its earliest members.

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/grou ... grpid=6162

In 1999, NLG member Chip Berlet, who is also an activist with Morris Dees's Southern Poverty Law Center, described the Guild's saturation with Communist and far-left ideologies: "The cacophony at some [Guild] meetings ... [arises from] debates featuring cadres from Leninist, Trotskyist, Stalinist, and Maoist groups, along with Marxists, anarchists, libertarians, and progressive independents -- interacting with a preponderance of reluctant Democrats -- all intertwined with multiple alternate identities as lawyers, legal workers, labor organizers, tribal sovereignty activists, civil liberties and civil rights advocates, environmentalists, feminists, gay men and lesbians, and people of color."

The Guild partially controls the Los Angeles chapter of the Workers World Party front group, International ANSWER. Additionally, the Guild co-founded the anti-war organization Not in Our Name; other co-founders included the Revolutionary Communist Party, the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party, Refuse and Resist!, and the International League of Peoples' Struggle.

This group of people is absolutely anti-American! They worked against us in the Cold War and every other issue. A bunch of anarchist misfits who favors the "restructing of society."

ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham said the lawsuit "seeks to hold the government accountable for its blatantly illegal conduct."

What about the illegal conduct of their clients?