Thread: LULAC official seeks raid investigation

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Posted on Thu, Jan. 19, 2006


LULAC official seeks raid investigation


Associated Press

LEAGUE CITY, Texas - Police and federal agents detained 62 people Thursday in a raid an official with the League of United Latin American Citizens called an act of intimidation for immigrants.

Police conducted the raid as part of an investigation into two sexual assaults and an old intoxicated manslaughter case in which four people died.

Sixty of the men were released and told to check in with immigration officials about their status. One man was taken into federal custody on a warrant for assault and the other had an extensive criminal history in California, police said. Neither of those detained were connected with the League City cases.

"It's a far stretch to say you are looking for (three) men but end up detaining 60," Jose Luis, the deputy director of LULAC's district office, said in Friday editions of The Galveston County Daily News. "We have seen this before, and almost never are the people they are looking for ever found."

Luis called for the local LULAC chapter to investigate the raid, which was conducted by police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at two spots where day laborers routinely congregate.

"Unfortunately they have found a legal loophole to conduct such (operations)," Luis said. "This is an act to intimidate people in the community."

League City police Sgt. Dan Krieger said the effort was to get bad people off the street and that the department understood the worries that it might cause an erosion of trust within the immigrant community.

"That's always a concern in our mind," he said. "These people live in our community too, and they are at times victims of crime. That's why we focus with the officers to maintain a professional approach and treat everyone fairly," he told the newspaper.

The 60 immigrants who were released were told to follow up with immigration officials to "update their status," said Luisa Deason, a spokeswoman for ICE.

Deason said the goal of efforts like the raid was to find people at risk to the immigrant community and not simply to round up illegal immigrants for deportation.

Link to article.

https://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-75219.html#75219