Thread: No Cinco De Mayo Immigration Enforcement: Detroit Police Chief

Members of Detroit’s immigrant community have been nervous that the annual Cinco de Mayo celebration could be targeted for raids.

By Beth Dalbey (Patch Staff) - April 2, 2017 11:17 pm ET



DETROIT, MI — Immigrants attending the Cinco de Mayo parade next month won’t have to worry about sweeps by the Detroit Police Department, Police Chief James Craig said Saturday. Concern of a crackdown during the event has heightened, but Craig said during a conference of the Society for Professional Journalists that his department won’t be targeting immigrants who may be in the country without documentation, The Detroit News reported.

“What the Detroit Police Department will not do is stop people and check whether they’re legally documented or not,” he said. “That’s not our job.”

Through executive orders and other actions, President Trump signaled to undocumented immigrants that his administration will more vigorously enforce immigration law and step up deportations.

However, Craig said that during Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly’s visit to Detroit last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they don’t want local jurisdictions involved in immigration enforcement.

“We’re not trained to do it, and frankly I don’t want to do it,” Craig said at the SPJ conference. “I’ve got enough to do with the challenges that we’re dealing with every day.”

Craig also has said he has received assurances that ICE and Homeland Security won’t target the Cinco de Mayo parade and festival. What’s unclear is whether Michigan State Police and other police jurisdictions plan immigration enforcement activities.

ICE agents have conducted a series of raids in Metro Detroit, including one last month in which about 50 Latinos were detained in an an illegal gambling and cockfighting raid in southwest Detroit in an area that is known locally as Mexicantown. Those detained in the raid are being held in Youngstown, Ohio, and their hearings will be held in Kansas City, Missouri, raising questions about whether they haveadequate access to legal counsel.

That was among topics addressed during Kelly’s visit.

“I pointed out the extreme chilling effect on access to counsel that distant detention and even more distant courts in third locations has and urged coordination in the event of future major enforcement actions to ensure local detention space or alternatives to detention were available,” Susan Reed, of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, told the Detroit Free Press. “Secretary Kelly indicated very clearly that people would be detained wherever there was bed space available.”

https://patch.com/michigan/detroit/n...t-police-chief

Craig also has said he has received assurances that ICE and Homeland Security won’t target the Cinco de Mayo parade and festival.

Why is Secretary Kelly or another DHS spokesperson telling them anything? Just keep your mouth shut and let Detroit think what they want. There should be reason for fear in the illegal alien community and ICE shouldn't be making the illegals feel safe like they were forced to do during the Obama administration. Illegal aliens should never feel SAFE from apprehension and deportation!

We should not have Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the United States. There is nothing right or proper about it. The Mexicans defaulted on loans to France, Spain and England. Spain and England withdrew when they heard France was taking action. France invaded to take over Mexico to get its money back. We in the US settled Mexico's debt to US with a war, a purchase of lands and a treaty. Mexico however stiffed Spain, England and France.

What is to celebrate in our systems of "values" about Cinco de Mayo? Even most of Mexico doesn't celebrate this convoluted issue.

We would likely not be a country without France. Why would we celebrate their defeat when they were robbed by Mexico through loan defaults?

No, we should not have Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the United States. It's nothing but a Gypsy Dance.

Kelly is not taking orders from Trump but someone else - he is not doing what Trump promised to do. Seems like Trumps talk on immigration was a hype except for the little by little removing of KNOWN criminals.

Just confirms how many illegals are in Detroit colonizing. IMO

By Gus Burns |
on April 04, 2017 at 2:53 PM, updated April 04, 2017 at 5:18 PM

Detroit's police chief, during a discussion last week with a largely Hispanic crowd about immigration, said he's heard concerns about the targeting of residents living illegally in the U.S. during Detroit's annual Cinco de Mayo Parade.

Chief James Craig said he received "strong assurance" from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials "that there would be no sweeps, no enforcement action, at Cinco de Mayo."

The holiday celebrates the Mexican Army's defeat of the French during the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. This year's 53rd annual parade and celebration in Detroit is scheduled for Sunday, May 7.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Khaalid Walls confirmed that no sweeps are planned, but hasn't ruled out the possibility that known individuals could be targeted for immigration violations.

"We did meet with the chief and stated we never do 'raids' or 'sweeps' but always targeted (identified individuals) enforcement actions," Walls said. "It is accurate we therefore do not have any such or similar actions planned for the Cinco De Mayo parade in Detroit."

ICE officials told Craig they do not perform mass sweeps, but "targeted enforcement" on individuals sought for immigration violations. They also conduct "collateral enforcement," meaning if during the the arrest of a specific target they encounter others with immigration violations, they may detain them too.

Craig said Detroit police never ask the immigration status of witnesses, victims or suspects, but if someone is booked on a suspected felony offense their fingerprints are entered into a national database accessible by immigration officials.

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

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Khaalid Walls confirmed that no sweeps are planned, but hasn't ruled out the possibility that known individuals could be targeted for immigration violations.

They also conduct "collateral enforcement," meaning if during the the arrest of a specific target they encounter others with immigration violations, they may detain them too.