IMMIGRATION DAILY FROM ILW.COM

COMMENT

Vigilantes At ICE

In recent months, ICE enforcement against the undocumented
increased sharply - notable ICE raids include: Universal
Industrial Sales, Inc. in Utah (February), Micro Solutions
Enterprises in California (February), Resort in Virginia (April),
and the Pilgrim's Pride Raids in Texas, Florida, Tennessee,
Arkansas, and West Virginia (April). ICE has also made numerous
unpublicized raids, several of them warrantless (and of doubtful
legality). During these ICE raids, unlawful detentions of
children, mentally ill individuals, and even US Citizens have
occurred. Congress's concern about the ongoing ICE raids prompted
the House Immigration Subcommittee to hold a hearing on February
13, 2008 entitled "Problems with ICE interrogation, detention,
and removal procedures", testimony at the hearing highlights
numerous systemic abuses plaguing ICE.

Essentially, ICE seems determined to try out the anti-
immigrationists's pet "attrition thru enforcement" theory (aka
mass deportation), not that it will ever work. Following the
terrorist attacks of 9/11, Congress created the huge 15,000+
employee agency that is ICE, with full support from the US
public, primarily to ensure that another 9/11 did not happen ever
again. Hounding busboys and gardeners is not ICE's core mission,
something Congress would do well to remind ICE about, perhaps
during the FY 2009 appropriations bill. By squandering away
valuable national security resources on harassing the
undocumented, ICE appears ready to accept full responsibility for
the next terrorist attack on US soil. Al Qaeda is our enemy,
Mexican workers are not, something apparently not clear to those
at ICE.

So far, the Office of Professional Responsibility at ICE has
proven incompetent and/or powerless to stop the crisis of abuses
at ICE. We believe that Congress should appoint an independent
ombudsman with a roving brief and significant authority to ensure
that ICE remains on target, and does not frivolously jeapordize
our national security in chasing dishwashers. There already
exists a CIS Ombudsman, and Congress could just roll-in ICE
oversight responsibilities into that office, or create a parallel
ICE Ombudsman office with similar reporting responsibilities.
Occasional oversight is not enough, systemic abuse must be met by
systemic change, we urge Congress to consider an independent
ombudsman for ICE.

http://judiciary.house.gov/oversight.aspx?ID=410