US Border Patrol launches police-state sweeps against California immigrants

More than 470 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in San Bernardino and San Diego counties in California since June 4 in a wave of random sweeps carried out by the Border Patrol (BP), part of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. People are being detained at random to confirm their immigration status. Those who are considered deportable are then sent to jail while their deportation is processed. No consideration is given to the fate of immigrant families or to their US children; people are simply whisked away.

In the course of three weeks, daily BP sweeps took place at bus stops, near markets and during routine traffic stops mainly in the cities of Ontario, Temecula, and Upland in San Bernardino County; Corona in Riverside County; and Escondido in San Diego County. Many of ! those arrested have already been deported to Tijuana, Mexico.

The targets of the raids are ordinary immigrants, some of them with many years of residence in the United States. Over the course of three weeks, approximately 10,000 people who had committed no crime were stopped and asked to prove their right to reside in the US. Church officials and immigrant advocates indicate that the main criterion for stopping these individuals was the color of their skin.

Those who could not produce documentation were taken into custody until a relative or friend brought in their documents. Of the 470 arrests made, most were from Mexico. While awaiting deportation, immigrants from Central and South America and Mexico who requested a court hearing are detained, often in privately run prisons in the company of felons, where many are beaten, humiliated and assaulted, according to Human Rights Watch reports.

A special mobile task force consisting of 12 agents from the Temecula Station carried out the sweeps in San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties.

The primary objective of the raids, according to BP agent Tomas Jimenez, “is to prevent the entering of terrorists and terrorist arms to the United States.â€