Thread: New panel to report on possible ICE misconduct to Congress

New panel to report on possible ICE misconduct to Congress
OSKAR GARCIA

OMAHA, Neb. - A new group that includes a former governor and the president of a labor union that sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to renew investigations of the agency’s tactics during workplace immigration raids.

The group of experts and leaders in law, labor and civil rights includes former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and will be led by Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. They plan to report any findings of misconduct to Congress this summer.

“Everything that I learned in grade school and high school … is being trampled on by ICE and it just needs exposure,â€

I think it is important to determine who is funding this watchdog group. George Soros? Ford Foundation? La Raza? It must be some OBL.

The union organized the investigatory group and invited Vilsack and other leaders to join. Among the group members are Mary Bauer, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project, and Samuel Kyles, an influential Baptist pastor in Memphis, Tenn., who was with Martin Luther King Jr. when he was assassinated nearly 40 years ago.

Kyles said he joined the group because of his ties to Hispanics in Memphis, and compared the group’s investigation to King’s work.

“Anywhere people are fighting for their rights, they have no problem using Martin Luther King as a model and they’re right in doing that,â€

[quote]“Everything that I learned in grade school and high school … is being trampled on by ICE and it just needs exposure,â€

“Hansen’s union filed a federal suit against ICE in September, accusing the agency of mishandling the Swift raids and seeking an order to stop what it called illegal workplace raids. The case is still pending in federal court in Amarillo, Texas.â€

Is there a connection between:
*Clinton?
*Vilsack's $400,000 presidential campaign debt & Clinton promised to help?
*Ice Swift immigration raids?
*The union organized the investigatory group and invited Vilsack?

Obama, Clinton would consider suspending immigration raids.

During a Democratic presidential debate in Austin, Texas, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton said they would consider suspending work site immigration raids until Congress passes an immigration overhaul which includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-105105-texas.html+debate


Note dates of articles--March 20 and 27--span of only 7 days.

As immigration raids rise, human toll decried
Arrests across US break up families
By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff | March 20, 2007

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a meatpacking plant in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Dec. 16, arresting 99 workers who could not prove they were in the country legally, then-governor Tom Vilsack was livid.

Immigration officials "chose to pursue a solitary path that limited the operation's effectiveness, created undue hardship for many not at fault, and led to resentment and further mistrust of government," Vilsack wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The ICE raid was part of the agency's largest-ever enforcement operation, hitting Swift & Co. slaughterhouses in six states and resulting in the arrests of 1,297 workers. As of March 1, 649 of those workers had been deported.

Like the March 6 raid on the Michael Bianco Inc. leather goods factory in New Bedford, in which more than 300 workers were arrested, the Swift operation left some children stranded for hours, and many others in the care of friends and relatives. ICE flew many detainees to an out-of-state federal detention facility before immigrants' advocates had a chance to speak with them about their children. Some detainees were not initially honest with ICE investigators about whether they had children, fearing they, too, would be taken into custody even though some of those children were US citizens.

And like the New Bedford raid, the Swift raids drew harsh criticism from the governor, who criticized ICE's limited cooperation with state officials, including its refusal to release information in a timely fashion on who was detained and where.

Immigration raids nationwide have increased in recent months. Scenes similar to those in New Bedford and Marshalltown have played out in cities like Worthington, Minn., and Stillmore, Ga., where a poultry plant was raided last Labor Day. In Santa Fe, 30 undocumented workers were arrested in a raid in February, and Mayor David Coss said he was outraged that "families are being torn apart, literally."

Arrests of undocumented immigrants have grown 750 percent between 2002 and 2006, going from 485 arrests to 3,667. That dramatic increase in scale and frequency has produced far more visible humanitarian consequences than ever before, an immigrants' advocate said .

"This is the hidden underbelly of immigration enforcement," said Christopher Nugent, a Washington-based immigration attorney. "This is nothing new. It happens all the time."

Nugent and others said families are separated and children left with friends or relatives every day in the course of normal ICE immigration detentions. But the welfare of children affected by immigration raids has become a bigger issue in recent months as the scope of the immigration raids has expanded.

The Bush administration has stepped up enforcement efforts to answer its critics and build a credible stance to push for comprehensive immigration reform that includes a guest worker program and paths to citizenship for some of the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country.Continued...

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/artic ... l_decried/

FOXNEWS.COM HOME > POLITICS

Hillary Clinton to Help Tom Vilsack With Campaign Debt
Tuesday, March 27, 2007

DES MOINES, Iowa — Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton has agreed to help one-time candidate Tom Vilsack, who endorsed her on Monday, as he seeks to retire a campaign debt of more than $400,000.
Clinton spokesman Mark Daley said he was uncertain how Clinton would go about raising money for Vilsack, but he conceded that at some point, she would have to contact her supporters. "Someone in her shop is going to have to reach out," Daley said

Vilsack and his wife, Christie, endorsed Clinton in her bid for the Democratic nomination at an Iowa news conference on Monday. Daley said there was no connection between the fundraising and the endorsement.

"There was no quid pro quo," Daley said. "They have a long history and if she could be helpful she wants to be helpful."

The help for Vilsack comes as one of Clinton's top supporters in New Hampshire disputed reports of another promise in exchange for an endorsement. Bill Shaheen, in an interview with The Associated Press, said suggestions that he withheld his endorsement of Clinton until he was promised an ambassadorship were wrong.

"Did she promise (an ambassadorship)? No," Shaheen said. "That's not how I work. I don't think Senator Clinton is thinking that far down the road and I would be disappointed if she was."

Shaheen joined the Clinton campaign last week as co-chairman of her national and state campaigns. After the endorsement, Shaheen met with bloggers and told them if Clinton wins the White House, he wants to be part of her team negotiating peace in the Middle East.

Last month, a key black Democratic leader in South Carolina negotiated a $10,000 per month consulting contract with Clinton's campaign, a development that came to light when state Sen. Darrell Jackson endorsed the presidential hopeful.

The campaign denied there was any deal made for Jackson's endorsement.

Vilsack announced he would run for president on Nov. 30, about a month before the end of his second term as governor. He ended his campaign Feb. 23, citing an inability to raise enough money.

The Vilsacks became among the most high-profile backers of Clinton's bid. Christie Vilsack said is was a natural decision because her ties to Clinton date to the 1970s. At that time, Christie Vilsack's late brother, Tom, was a lawyer who worked with Clinton during the Watergate-driven impeachment investigation.

In a letter to his backers in Iowa, Vilsack said he will go all out for Clinton.

"Christie and I plan on spending the next 10 months helping Hillary win the Iowa caucuses and the other states necessary to win the Democratic nomination — and after that the White House in 2008," Vilsack said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,261841,00.html

Originally Posted by zeezil

New panel to report on possible ICE misconduct to Congress
OSKAR GARCIA

With the little that they do they shouldn't have much to worry about.


In fact if the rest of us all did our jobs like ICE does theirs we would all be setting out in the open naked and only the boys would have anything to play with.