Thread: ICE agents conduct operation at Arab restaurant in Dearborn

ICE agents conduct operation at Arab restaurant in Dearborn

Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free PressPublished 6:00 a.m. ET July 16, 2019


Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gave notice Monday to an Arab restaurant in Dearborn that they want its employee records.

The visit by ICE on Monday to Hamido Restaurant, a business on Warren Avenue in the heart of Dearborn's Arab-American community, unnerved the city's Middle Eastern population amid fears of ICE raids.

According to an employee who spoke with the Free Press, ICE agents told a manager they wanted him to sign some forms, which he refused to sign. The ICE agents said they would return later, according to the employee.

"We didn't want to sign the papers," said the Hamido employee, who asked not to be identified. The ICE agents "said they were going to come back and get some more information."

The agents targeting the Lebanese restaurant were with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, said ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls.


Hamido Restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan. ICE said it conducted an operation at the Middle Eastern restaurant on July 15, 2018. No arrests were made. (Photo: Google Maps)

"Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) served an I-9 audit notice today at a Dearborn business," Walls said. "A notice of inspection (NOI) informs business owners that ICE is going to audit their hiring records to determine whether they are complying with existing law."

Walls said that "no arrests were made as a result of today’s effort."

A message left for the manager was not returned.

"HSI routinely conducts work site investigations in order to uphold federal law," Walls said. "HSI’s work site enforcement strategy continues to address both employers who knowingly hire unauthorized workers and the workers themselves. These routine efforts are ongoing and not related to other operational activity."

The visit on Monday came the day after ICE was to conduct raids, according to President Donald Trump.

There did not appear to be any significant raids on Sunday in metro Detroit.

Hamido Restaurant is on Warren Avenue, the main commercial strip in the eastern part of Dearborn that is known for its Arab restaurants and stores. Dearborn is more than 46% Arab American, many of whom are immigrants.

More: Michigan has 2nd highest rate of ICE arrests of immigrants

More: Rep. Rashida Tlaib: Migrants 'treated like cattle' in detention centers

"The community needs to be on guard and they need to know their rights," said Abed Ayoub, Legal and Policy Director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "The administration has made it clear:

Everyone is on the radar for ICE raids, not just those with orders of final removal. We need to protect our community."

Under Trump, ICE has said it will remove any immigrant without proper documentation; under Barack Obama, ICE focused on those with criminal records.

"They're going after hardworking individuals," Ayoub said. "They deserve their due process. They're taking that away."

Michigan has the second highest rate of ICE community arrests among all states in the U.S. with at least 100,000 undocumented immigrants, the Free Press recently reported.

Walls said that "HSI’s work site enforcement strategy focuses on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly break the law, and the use of I-9 audits and civil fines to encourage compliance with the law. HSI’s work site enforcement investigators help combat worker exploitation, illegal wages, child labor and other illegal practices.

"HSI’s work site enforcement investigations often involve additional criminal activity, such as alien smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, document fraud, worker exploitation and/or substandard wage and working conditions."

https://www.freep.com/story/news/201...rn/1740727001/

Chicagoland Arab protest demands white supremist leave office

By staff |
July 12, 2019
Read more articles in Anti-racism

Protest demands resignation of anti Arab racist official. (Fight Back! News/staff)

Chicago, IL - On July 8, 150 people rallied outside of the Palos Township in the southwest suburbs of Chicago on the two-year anniversary of the #ResignBrannigan campaign, a campaign demanding the resignation of racist and white supremacist trustee Sharon Brannigan.
The Arab-led campaign, which takes place in the heart of one of the most concentrated Arab communities in the nation, has been a historic one. Over the past two years, the #ResignBrannigan coalition has mobilized hundreds of Arab community members and youth to rally at the Palos Township monthly meetings, and participate in different actions to increase the pressure on Sharon Brannigan. The southwest suburbs Arab community has never had such a militant and organized campaign as the #ResignBrannigan effort.
To intimidate the protesters, Sharon Brannigan has more than once invited members of ACT for America, the largest anti-Muslim hate group in the country, to the meetings. She has called the police multiple times on the protesters, has called them “violent mobs,” and had five community leaders arrested at the June 2019 township meeting. Since the beginning of this campaign, the rest of the board of trustees have been silent on Brannigan’s racism and refused to put forward a censure resolution, the least that they can do. Instead, they have constantly attempted to silence the protesters by cutting the public comment time and putting a velvet rope between the crowd and the township council.
At the two-year anniversary rally, the #ResignBrannigan coalition has made it clear that they will not stop their demand of a resignation, and that white supremacy must be confronted by any means necessary. They showed that the community is organized and will not be intimidated by any arrests, and that they have the backing of dozens of community-based organizations in the township and other Chicagoland areas.

http://www.fightbacknews.org/2019/7/...t-leave-office

THEY WERE PISSED THAT 5 OF THEM FINALLY GOT ARRESTED IN JUNE. I COULD HAVE SHOWED, BUT I HAVE SHOWED. I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS on my agenda than these people. This has become SUCH SMALL POTATOES but these PEOPLE REFUSE TO QUIT. THANKYOU ISRAEL/AIPAC/ADL/CUFI and the endless list of OPEN BORDERS ORANIZED JEWISH GROUPS that support this Islamic Invasion of the USA and of Europe.

Palos Police arrest five protestors at Township meeting

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Palos Police arrest five protestors at Township meeting

Five protestors who are part of a group criticizing popular Palos Township Trustee Sharon Brannigan for comments she made in 2017 about immigration reform, were arrested and charged by Palos Police. The group claims they were abiding by the laws when they were arrested, but Township officials say they were disrupting the meeting including as the board tried to conduct it’s business agenda

By Ray Hanania

For the past 22 months, activists from the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) in Chicago, have been protesting at meetings of the Palos Township board demanding the resignation of popular Trustee Sharon Brannigan for Facebook posts she made in 2017 the critics assert are “racist.”
Township officials said the protestors have bullied officials and members of the public, intentionally yelled and screamed during the meeting to disrupt the meeting agenda not during the public commentary period but throughout the entire board meetings. Some residents claimed they were verbally assaulted by the small group of protestors who often attend the meetings with their children.
During those 22 months, the board has tolerated the disruptions, Township officials said,which included yelling, screaming, pounding on tables, and verbal disruptions that clearly intended to proevent the board from conducting its meetings. On Monday, June 10, 2019, security officers hired by the Township arrested five of the 22 protestors who attended the meeting and who refused to silence their protests during the board meeting.

Palos Township Trustee Sharon Brannigan

Protestor leaders asserted that they were acting within the confines of the First Amendment, claiming they were “dragged” out of the public meeting disrespectfully, but Township officials said the verbal abuse took place throuhgout the meeting and was intended to prevent the meetings from taking place, a goal the protestors asserted repeatedly was their goal during the 22 months of the protest action.

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The Arab American Action Network posted this Tweet at 7:25 pm:
“5 #ResignBrannigan organizers arrested for “criminal trespass,” even though NOT ONE resisted when they were asked to leave the @palostownship meeting. Disgusting #racism from the trustees and the police!
Township officials said the protestors were arrested NOT because they resisted when arrested, as the AAAN asserted, or because they failed to leave the meeting when asked, but because they refused to quell their protests during the board’s meeting. Protestors have been allowed to speak during the public participation period of the board meetings but disruptions during the board meeting are illegal under state law.
The group has described itself as “The campaign to Take on Hate” against Palos Township but xsome Township officials described the group as “The Campaign to Create Hate” because of the often angry, loud and personal namecalling that has characterized the protestors’ actions.
For the past 22 months, people who live in Palos Township have been shocked by the abusive conduct from the small handful of protestors who ranged from 20 to 30 people, including children. Some of the protestors are leaders of Charitable Organizations and 501 C3 groups that service Arab American issues but who are violating the prohibition on political activism.
Brannigan, who apologized three times for her comments that were posted on her Facebook Page which were about the broken immigration system in America, issued her own statement that some media refused to publish. Click here to read the apology.
“Undoubtedly you’ve become aware that the Palos Township Board had protesters arrested this evening during the General Board meeting. Only the protestors who were disruptive yelling and trying to obstruct the meeting were removed and arrested,” Brannigan said in her release issued immediately after the Palos Township board meeting ended.
“For the last two years, the protesters (most of whom don’t live in the district) are responsible for violating the rights of residents. Our residents have seen their rights trampled and abused by the uncompromising and intolerant outside professional agitators. The Palos Township Board has been patient listening and understanding for the last two years. As you can see by the arrest records, only one of the five people arrested live in the township,” Brannigan said in her statement.

“The Board as well as the Department of Justice has had a combined two years of attempted conversations with the protesters and to no avail have they cooperated. More and more residents have said they wanted something done and that they are concerned about the violent rhetoric of the protestors who have gone way beyond acceptable public conduct to bully anyone who disagrees with them … they have bullied and shouted down people who disagree with their views and is about time this kind of disrespectful hate-driven angry protests be held to account.”
Brannigan concluded reflecting the view of nearly all of the people who live in the Southwest region of Chicago, saying, “By all means, dissent is encouraged but the behavior of the protesters has gone way beyond what any public agency or community should be forced to experience.”
Among those arrested on the misdemeanor charges, according to police reports, was Bassem S. Kawar, who was identified as living in Tinley Park, Illinois outside of Palos Township. Kawar was charged with “Criminal Tresspass to State Supported Land” in violation of Chapter 720 Section 21-5a, and was released on a $1,500 bond (10 percent.) A court hearing has been set for July 15, 2019 at the Bridgeview Court House.
AAAN officials vowed on Facebook to continue the protests. Palos Township officials said members of the public will continue to be permitted to exercise their free speech rights during the public participation period of the board meetings, but will not be allowed to scream, yell or disrupt the regular meeting agenda of the board.

https://suburbanchicagoland.com/2019/06/11/palos-police-arrest-five-protestors-at-township-meeting/

These audits don't typically produce anything but fines. If it is known that the business has illegal aliens working, it needs to be raided and the illegals apprehended. Furthermore, anyone that knowingly hires and illegal needs to be prosecuted for doing so!

OUR LAWS HAVE NO COLOR.

DEPORT THEM ALL ON THE SPOT.

DO AUDITS AND ENFORCE PUBLIC CHARGE LAWS NOW.

FIRE ALL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AWARDING ILLEGAL ALIENS AND NON-CITIZENS OUR BENEFITS.