Thread: Immigration raid targets wrong hotel room, scares family

Immigration raid targets wrong hotel room, scares family

By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY

It would be unnerving for any hotel guest to hear someone trying to enter their room before dawn.

But for James Mitchell, the scenario that played out last Tuesday morning in Mobile, Ala., was a scary nightmare, the local Fox TV news team reports.

Mitchell, his wife and two young kids were asleep in their room at the Emerald Palm Hotel when law enforcement officers burst into their room at 5 a.m. while pursuing a criminal alien with an arrest record.

Mitchell told the Fox10 News:

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"Our door gets beat on, and he said 'security.' And I said what's security doing here? He said, 'No, it's the police,' and I open - cracked the door - and he just pushed the door open and comes walking up in my room ... out of no where with flash lights on my kids and my wife."

While the story doesn't say exactly what happened next, authorities apparently left the family's room - without an explanation. Mitchell contacted Fox 10 News to find out which agency raided the room and why.

"Finally, I'm like, 'I want to get to the bottom of this and find out who was responsible for humiliating my wife, kids and family at five in the morning, while we're under dressed.' It was very humiliating," Mitchell said.

Fox10 News discovered that the raid was conducted by members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency confirmed that they were seeking a criminal alien, the story says.

Agents ultimately caught Anatoly Polishchuck in the hotel's parking lot, the story says. The hotel had previously evicted him from his room due to overdue rent. The man has an arrest history dating back to 2004, but the story doesn't say why immigration officials wanted to detain Polishchuck.

Readers: Have you ever had a scary moment in a hotel where someone tried to break into your room - or succeeded?

Posted May 19 2011 8:12AM

http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/ ... a/170972/1

This isn't a pefect world, mistakes happen. Forgive them for not taking the time to offer an explanation, especially since they were in hot pursuit of a criminal suspect. How does junk like this end up in a national newspaper?