Thread: ICE detains 50 after authorities raid building in Detroit

ICE detains 50 after authorities raid building in Detroit

Published March 20, 2017 FoxNews.com


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Federal authorities arrested 50 people for violating immigration laws in Detroit Saturday as part of an investigation into an alleged cockfighting and illegal gambling ring.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Khaalid Walls told the Detroit Free Press that 86 people were found inside an abandoned building. He added that those arrested will be held in ICE custody “pending removal proceedings.”

Walls said the building was raided in part of an investigation that had been going on for several months, the paper reported. Officials said they found more than 100 birds in the building.

Nearly 140 federal, state and local law enforcement officials were involved in the raid, which was led by Homeland Security Investigations. The Free Press reported that the U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Agriculture Department and Detroit police assisted.

One person was arrest on a criminal charge. The details of the arrests were not immediately available.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/20...n-detroit.html

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A commercial building on the 1200 block of N Green St. in Detroit's southwest was raided for possible cockfighting and immigration violations on Saturday resulting in the seizure of 100 "birds" and arrests of more than 50 people, the building is pictured here Monday, March 20, 2017. More than 140 law enforcement from multiple agencies, including ICE, Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Internal Revenue Service, Michigan State Police, Detroit police and Trenton police, participated in raid. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive Detroit)

Tanya Moutzalias | tmoutzal@mlive.com

By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com
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on March 22, 2017 at 3:55 PM, updated March 22, 2017 at 5:23 PM


A massive raid Saturday at a vacant southwest Detroit building exposed an underground cockfighting ring and led to the arrests of 51 people suspected of living in the U.S. illegally.

The arrested immigrants were transported from Michigan to the Northeast Correctional Facility in Youngstown, Ohio, where they're awaiting deportation hearings to be held via teleconference in Kansas City's U.S. District Court, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Khaalid Walls confirms.

Apparent cockfighting ring raided in southwest Detroit


Bradley Maze, a Farmington Hills-based immigration attorney who is defending at least three of the detainees, said his clients are accused of being in the country illegally but don't have any criminal convictions.

All of the detainees were living in southwest Detroit, a popular U.S. destination for Hispanic immigrants.

Nearly 140 law enforcers, including Detroit police, participated in Saturday's Department of Homeland Security-led raid. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development seized and euthanized nearly 100 birds, many of them roosters.

100 roosters, 50 immigrants seized in raid in southwest Detroit
A massive immigration raid involving a possible cockfighting ring in southwest Detroit Saturday resulted in the seizure of 100 birds and the arrests of more than 50 people, says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Khaalid H. Waals.

"ICE routinely transfers detainees to other detention facilities based on available resources and the needs of the agency," Walls told MLive by email when asked why the detainees were moved to Ohio.

Walls wouldn't comment on Michigan's immigration detainee capacity or if it is near the maximum. He said those figures would need to be requested via a Freedom of Information Act records request.

Ann Arbor-based immigration attorney Brad Thomson says it's unusual for immigration detainees to be moved outside the state; he said it's a capacity issue.

"They literally didn't have enough space, so they had to ship them out state," Thomson said, adding that Michigan houses immigration detainees at jails in Calhoun, Monroe, St. Clair and Sault Ste. Marie counties.

MLive left messages seeking comment with the sheriff's offices overseeing the three Lower Peninsula jails but received only a response from the Monroe County Jail.

Monroe County Sheriff's Major Troy Goodnough confirmed the jail has an agreement with ICE to accept immigration detainees. He said the capacity is equal to the jail's capacity, 363, and it isn't currently full.

Thomson said what will happen with jailing detainees under President Donald Trump's stepped-up immigration efforts if Michigan runs out space is a "big concern" among immigration attorneys.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/in...d_in_cock.html

Let them await their deportations hearings in THEIR country...and do it via Skype.

These immigration lawyers make my skin crawl! There is NO excuse for defending illegals other than greed. They are feeding on other people's misery.