Thread: Raids Terrorize Communities

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Raids Terrorize Communities

New America Media, Commentary, Alix Nguefack, Jul 30, 2006

Editor's Note: Congress has yet to deliver new immigration legislation, but immigrant communities are already feeling the sting of a crackdown, writes Alix Nguefack of the American Friends Service Committee’s Immigrants Rights Program. AFSC is a member of the Detention Watch Network, a national coalition working to reform the U.S. immigration detention system. IMMIGRATION MATTERS regularly features the views of the nation's leading immigrant rights advocates.

Without any public notice, Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and cooperating local police started a new wave of raids in New Jersey between May 1 and June 26. Information on these raids trickled in as rumors, creating widespread fear and confusion in immigrant communities.

Consequently, many undocumented immigrants have stayed home, avoiding work sites, schools and even walking in the streets. Ironically, staying home was not a better option because ICE raided many households.

There is still a long way to go before undocumented people can really come out of the shadows in the Unites States today. While Congress debates immigration reforms and as immigrant advocates gather in hopes of better policies, arrests targeting immigrants are taking place around the country.

The random raids dash immigrant communities’ hopes for a better life. These raids have come in the wake of punitive provisions in the House and Senate immigration bills; respectively known as the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006.

Instead of access to some sort of legal status, immigrants now face only the risk of detention and deportation, sometimes to a hostile country. Arrest, detention and deportation have wreaked havoc in communities, separating families-- including parents and children—often indefinitely.

Immigration officials said that the rumors of raids were speculations, that they were not conducting random sweeps and that all the arrests were the result of investigations.

However, some victims of the “unofficial raids” said these were randomly carried out in different locations. On May 1, 2006, about 25 Mexican men and women were detained in New Jersey. Interviews with these individuals revealed that they were arrested during early morning home raids in Union City, NJ, a community where 60 percent of the residents are foreign born.

One family member estimated that 50 to 60 Mexican immigrants, including women and children, were arrested and and sent to various detention centers and county jails in the state. Other persons were arrested in front of their houses as they came from work in the morning.

Several detainees’ relatives said that they were shown photographs and asked about people staying in their residence. The detainees were often not the original targets of the actual arrests. Similar circumstances were described in raids in other communities.

Meanwhile, some 32 Indonesians were arrested early in the morning of May 24, 2006 in a largely Indonesian neighborhood in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Many of those arrested lived in an apartment building on Woodbine Avenue. Neighbors reported that ICE loudly banged on doors until either the landlord or the residents allowed them in. ICE officers then claimed they were looking for other individuals, showing pictures and asking if they knew the identities of the people in the photos.

A witness stated that ICE arrested people who drove up during the mass arrest and towed their cars. While it was revealed that many individuals in the neighborhood had old deportation orders stemming from previous asylum claims, none of the officers were specifically looking for any of those arrested. These abuses have been current features of ICE raids, leading to the conclusion that racial profiling is being used to arbitrarily target immigrant neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, ICE admitted to official raids known as “Operation Return to Sender,” which occurred between May 26 and June 13 in 34 states, leading to the arrest of about 2,179 immigrants. The ostensible goal was to target allegedly dangerous individuals, as well as those who have been issued deportation orders. However, only half of those arrested had any criminal records at all, and more than 600 of those were for minor offenses.

With a final order of deportation, there is not much a detainee can do, because current laws have made it a dead end with no judicial discretion or review. People may be sent to their country of origin in a week, leaving behind spouses, children and a life built slowly through long hours of hard labor with little pay. They also may remain in detention for an unknown period. Those who are tired of being detained in prison-like conditions, who have signed papers—sometimes unknowingly==agreeing to their departure from the U.S., may still remain in detention centers indefinitely.

There is no need to have a half dozen ICE/police officers barging into a home when there is no certainty about who they are looking for. There is no need to scare children or remind victims of torture of the persecution and trauma from which they have fled.

At the end of the day, we are talking about real people, real families being torn apart, U.S. children being separated from their parents, real breadwinners sleeping in detention centers and county jails for the simple fact of being undocumented. Whole communities are being terrorized

There is no need to have a half dozen ICE/police officers barging into a home when there is no certainty about who they are looking for

There will be NO need when they are sent home. They seem surprised....they knew this could happen.....there should be NO surprises for someone breaking the law.

There is still a long way to go before undocumented people can really come out of the shadows in the Unites States today.

Get out of the shadows and start heading home.

It's about time. There needs to be many more raids. This should have been going on during the entire Bush administration.

Dixie

Terrorize

Oh no, not "terrorize"!?!?!?!

It is called law enforcement. It is called paying the piper, it is called preserving America, it is called doing our duty.

Without any public notice

Is that a new "civil right"? Make public announcements to criminals about a pending arrest or investigation? That would be funny as heck if it wasn't so sad.

Terrorized! Please... we American's are the one's who are terrorized by the illegal alien population.

Terrorists, rapists, drug smugglers,drunk drivers, murderers, human trafficers,pedophiles,gang violence, voter fraud, identity theft,social services fraud the list goes on and on...!