Thread: Pro-Illegals calling for a stop to ICE raids

The Pro-illegal alien activists are running like chickens with their head cut off.

From: Arnoldo Garcia <agarcia@nnirr.org>
Date: Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 6:55 PM
Subject: Action Request & Update on ICE Raid in Mississippi
To: "Arnoldo Garcia (Arnoldo Garcia)" <agarcia@nnirr.org>


Take Action – Make Calls or Send Faxes to Demand an End to Raids (see below)



Humanitarian Crisis in Mississippi:



ICE Detains Hundreds in Workplace Raid



Monday, August 25, 2008



After answering the phone, Bill Chandler, director of MIRA! (the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, based in Jackson), blurted out, "The ICE raid is in progress right now at Howard Industries, in Laurel, Mississippi." Laurel is a small town of about 18,000 people; Howard Industries employs about 800 workers.



Earlier this morning, Department of Homeland Security agents began descending on different work sites in Mississippi to unleash another brutal immigration raid. According to Mr. Chandler, DHS began renting hotel space over the past few days, indicating the presence of hundreds of Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.



MIRA also reports ICE placed the Southern Hens poultry plant under lockdown, which employs nearly 2,000 people in Mossell, Mississippi. Mossell is between Hattiesburg and Laurel on I-59.



And on Sunday night ICE set up roadblocks near the Wal-Mart in Hattiesburg, an illegal detentive stop to check for immigration status of passersby's.



ICE agents have already gone into the Howard Industries plant in Laurel, where some 800 workers manufacture ballast for office lights, neon tubes and transformers. Approximately half the workers there are Latinos. Howard Industries has three plants; one in Laurel, Magee and Ellisville. ICE also raided Howard corporate offices in Ellisville.



ICE has arrested so many workers at the Laurel Howard plant that operations have been shut down. MIRA has already received reports of scores of children being left behind without their parents who ICE arrested at the Howard Industries plant.



ICE Raid, SB 2988 and MS's Inglorious Present



The brutal ICE raid now taking place in Laurel and other parts harkens back to Mississippi's shameful past of Jim Crow segregation, police brutality and violence. The current state laws, the national anti-immigrant climate and hangovers from Mississippi's inglorious past made Jones County ripe for ICE to conduct their usual raids that trample on constitutional rights and communities.



Laurel has the distinction of being located in Jones County, headquarters for two notorious racist and anti-immigrant groups, the KKK and MFIRE, the Mississippi branch of FAIR, the national anti-immigrant group.



Earlier this year the Mississippi legislature passed and the Governor signed into law Senate bill 2988, the most draconian employer sanctions law passed to date in the U.S. that further criminalizes workers, especially immigrants, and opens the door for employers to discriminate against Latinos and others.



SB 2988 makes it a felony to work without authorization in Mississippi. SB 2988 imposes a one to five year prison sentence and hefty fines of $1,000 to $10,000. No one has yet been charged under SB 2988.



Today's ICE raid however opens the door to using both federal and state laws, including SB 2988, in a new way. This has everyone on edge. Mr. Chandler added, "Now we are all waiting to see what will happen to people being arrested at Howard Industries."



Support Needed to Counter ICE Raid Impacts



Mr. Chandler said, "We had been expecting the raids, either on the coast or in Hattiesburg. We were getting information that ICE was in hotels in the coast and other preparations were going on in Hattiesburg."



MIRA began holding community meetings on the Mississippi coast and Hattiesburg areas all last week, getting the word out for the last ten days that an ICE raid was underway. MIRA advised workers of their Constitutional rights, to remain silent if arrested, and to prepare for the crackdown.



Now MIRA is seeking the help of lawyers. There is deep worry among the community about the raids and their aftermath.



MIRA has prepared social services and legal help for all persons, including families and others, affected by the ICE raid.



Bill closed by saying, "Most of what we are getting today is that ICE is focusing on Jones County; but haven't had calls from all areas. We have had calls from chicken plants in and around Laurel. We had expected the raids to occur at chicken plants; it was a surprise, it's a different industry. Howard Industries gets state and federal funding to operate."



Support MIRA: Stop the ICE Raids



MIRA is now in meeting with families affected by the raid to assess what their needs are and also working with lawyers to deal with arraignments of workers swept up in the raid. MIRA needs attorneys to volunteer their services and help the detained workers.



Please visit the MIRA website to make an on-line donation at:

www.yourmira.org



Send in a check or money order, payable to "MIRA," write in the memo "Relief for families affected by raids" and mail to:

MIRA!

PO 1104

Jackson, MS 39215



To support MIRA's legal project, call (601) 354-9355

For media inquiries, (601) 968-5182.



*



Take Action to Stop the ICE Raids

Call or fax the following officials, demand an END to ICE raids and to stop the attack the rights of immigrant families, workers and communities



Mississippi Congressional Delegations:

House: http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/index.html

Senate: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_i ... m?State=MS



MS Gov. Haley Barbour

Tel (601) 359-3100 * Fax (601) 359-3741

governor@governor.state.ms.us



Call your Congressional delegation:

Find your Senators telephone and fax numbers at:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_i ... rs_cfm.cfm



Find your Representative's number at:

http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/index.html



Tell them: Stop all immigration detentions & deportations, end raids:



· ICE raids traumatize families, undermine worker's rights and violate the rights of citizens and non-citizens.

· Immigration collaboration with local, county and state police and other public agencies undermine community trust and make our communities vulnerable to abuse, violence and exploitation.

· ICE raids and enforcement operations destabilize our communities and disrupt the economy.

· The problem with ICE raids is so fundamental that Department of Homeland Security should end all such enforcement operations.

· Congress must stop the raids and hold hearings on the impact on DHS/ICE on immigration raids and enforcement operations. Restore due process rights and make our communities safe!



To file a complaint against ICE agent on ICE abuses during enforcement operation or immigration raid:

Call the Joint Intake Center ATTN: Duty Agent

Fax (202) 344-3390 and (202) 927-4607

Toll-free: 1 (877) 2INTAKE (1-877-246-8253)



__________________________________________________ _____

Arnoldo Garcia

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados

310 8th Street Suite 303

Oakland, CA 94607

Tel (510) 465-1984 ext. 305

Fax (510) 465-1885

www.migrantdiaries.blogspot.com

www.nnirr.blogspot.com

www.nnirr.org



Join HURRICANE: the human rights immigrant community action network -- help build community power for justice & human rights!

Unete al HURACAN: la red de accion de comunidades inmigrantes para los derechos humanos -- construyendo el poder de las comunidades por la justicia y los derechos humanos!

Click here for Hurricane/Haga click para info sobre el Huracan:

http://www.nnirr.org/resources/docs/NNI ... ative2.pdf



Get a copy of Over-Raided, Under Siege, NNIRR's new human rights report!

http://www.nnirr.org/resources/docs/Ord ... Report.pdf



--
Shaun
773.828.4336
917.755.7409

LOL. 800 EMPLOYEES AND 600 ARE ILLEGAL.

A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS. GIVE ME A BREAK!

WHAT ABOUT THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS CAUSED TO AMERICAN CITIZENS IN THAT AREA WHO HAVE HAD TO ENDURE LONG TIME UNEMPLOYMENT AND DESTRUCTION TO THEIR FAMILIES DUE TO POVERTY?

NOW THERE ARE 600 JOB OPENINGS FOR THESE CITIZENS....AND THEY ARE LINING UP TO GET THE WORK THEY HAVE SO DESPERATELY NEEDED FOR SO LONG.

NOW THEY CAN FEED THEIR FAMILIES. THEIR CHILDREN WILL NO LONGER NEED TO GO HUNGRY BY THE END OF THE MONTH DUE TO THE VICTIMIZATION FOISTED ON THEM BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND THE EMPLOYERS THAT HIRE THEM.

Maybe Alipac members should make all the contacts and tell them how
Americans feel about the raids.

Keep the raids going...Many have left the country. Maybe now more will leave. ENFORCEMENT WORKS

GO ICE!! Keep up the good work! Pro-illegal aliens, shut up with your stupid dramatic nonsense.

Yes, Shad, great idea. We should call our Congresspersons and let them know we support these raids 100% and implore them to keep up the good work.

Originally Posted by Shad

Maybe Alipac members should make all the contacts and tell them how
Americans feel about the raids.

Keep the raids going...Many have left the country. Maybe now more will leave. ENFORCEMENT WORKS

OH DEFINITELY. MAKE ALL THE CONTACTS FOR SURE. THAT GOES WITHOUT SAYING. LETS GIVE THEM A TSUNAMI OF PATRIOTIC SENTIMENT.

AND YES KEEP THOSE RAIDS GOING....BACK TO BACK. DONT EVEN LET EM COME UP FOR AIR.

It is called invasion of America; dear government officials.

Put the military bases along the borders

Pass Anchor Baby Bill,

Landlords and Employers both have to do prison time and pay fines per illegal.

E-Verify has to be done by everyone - even government contractors.

Cut off funds to countries who are not reimbursing American citizens for these illegals.

Rule of Law, Not a Land of Illegal Immigrants

DEPORT THEM ALL

This is what I sent to the website of the of the traitors to America and also Nancy Pelosi another traitor,

Thank GOD for ICE. America wastes 328 Billion a year on illegals. They are destroying America. Get out of my country!!!!

Everyone please go to your reps website and thank them for the ICE raids and also go to the mira website and tell them how you feel, it only takes a couple minutes.

It is "Eye Candy"...
Mississippi??? Why not California? ICE could have a hay-day in that Third-World State. Or how about Texas? I forgot, that is where the Bush Family calls thiers. Iowa, Mississippi... Yes, its nice to see some chiseling on the Mountain, but 7 years after 9/11 our Borders are STILL wide open.
We need to ask WHY? WHY does our Goverment REFUSE to protect The United States of America?

The illegals and their supporters claim that ICE carries out "immigration" raids, when they are REALLY ILLEGAL alien raids!