Thread: Obama Expands Flawed Program of ICE-Police Cooperation

Obama Expands Flawed Program of ICE-Police Cooperation
New America Media, Commentary, Bill Ong Hing, Posted: Jul 23, 2009

Editor’s Note: The expansion of 287(g) programs that allow local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law flies in the face of problems with the program that have already surfaced. UC Davis law professor Bill Ong Hing, who sat on the UFCW Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights, says he has heard firsthand about problems with the program.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano’s announcement earlier this month that the 287(g) agreement program would be expanded sent shock waves through the immigrant rights community. The program formalizes partnerships between the federal government and local law enforcement officials under which local police are authorized to enforce federal immigration laws. Immigrant groups are upset because during the Bush administration, local police, operating under the auspices of 287(g) agreements, committed heinous due process abuses and wreaked havoc in immigrant communities. The best-known example is Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix who is infamous for loving to abuse and humiliate his immigrant arrestees.

The expansion of the 287(g) program is also disappointing to many of us who served on the United Food and Commercial Workers National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights. The commission was created in response to a raid in 2006 of six meatpacking plants in America’s heartland. More than 12,000 workers, most of them U.S. citizens and legal residents, were herded together at gunpoint and denied access to phones, bathrooms, families and legal counsel. The UFCW represented workers at five of the plants in Minnesota, Colorado, Texas, Iowa, and Nebraska. In its report last month, in addition to calling for a halt to ICE raids, the commission recommended that DHS cease entering into any new 287(g) agreements until the program is fully evaluated. It also said that agreements with certain agencies that have resulted in serious complaints (such as the agreement with Arpaio) should be suspended. Instead, this month, ICE announced 11 new 287(g) agreements with law enforcement agencies from around the country.

One particular 287(g) victim that the commission interviewed stands out. High school senior Justeen Mancha, who was born in the United States, was in her bathroom getting ready for school about 7:30 a.m. Her mother already had left for the morning, driving Justeen’s younger brother to elementary school along the way to work. As Justeen was brushing her hair, she heard a frightening crash at the front door of the house. It turns out it was ICE agents storming into her home, without a warrant or probable cause of any crime or immigration violation. Apparently, they only had some vague sense that Mexicans were living at this house. As she stepped out of the bathroom, Justeen faced seven armed agents with weapons drawn pointed at her, screaming, “Turn around and place your hands on the wall!â€

The groups that hire illegals are going to cry the loudest. So tax their gross income at 25% non-deductible for hiring illegals for Health Care Payment for the Elderly and Veteran Americans.