Thread: Immigration Agents Accused of Harrassment

During raids targeting illegal immigrants in southeastern Georgia, Immigration agents entered houses without warrants and terrified Hispanics, a rights group alleged in a lawsuit.

ATLANTA- A civil rights group sued the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency Wednesday, asserting its agents had harrased five U.S. citizens of Mexican descent during raids targeting illegal immigrants in southeast Georgia.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said the agents were engaging in "Gestapo-like" campaign to drive Hispanics out of the area. It asserted the agents entered houses without warrants, stopped cars on the street, terrified Hispanics and vandilized their property.
"They trampled on the constitutional rights of every person of Hispanic descent who was unfortunate to be in their way," said Mary Bauer, an attorney with the center who is representing the plaintiffs. "You can't stop all who look brown."
The center, based in Montgomery, Ala, wants an injunction preventing the agency from conducting simialr raids, as well as unspecified compensation for the plaintiffs.
ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi called the accusations "potentially false." He said agents were looking only for immigrants who used fraudulent documents to work at a local poultry plant.
The complaint, filed in federal court, concerns a sweep in which more than 120 illegal immigrants were rounded up around Stillmore in rural southeastern Georgia.
The arrests started at the Crider Inc. poultry plant Sept. 1. Over the Labor day weekend, agents converged on workers' homes after getting the addresses of suspected illegal immigrants from Crider's files.
Agents raided the Reidsville house where 14-year-old Marie Justeen Mancha was alone getting ready for school, the Texas-born teenager said. She said she had unlocked the door thinking her mother ws returning home and found instead several agents in her house, one of whom had his hand on a holstered gun.
Mancha said the agents asked her if she or her mother, who worked at the Crider poultry plant, were here illegally, then left after about 5 minutes. Her mother, Maria Christina Martinez said she was born in Florida and was the only adult living in the house.
Another plaintiff alleges that agents stopped her as she was driving home, repeatedly called her a Mexican and pulled her out of her car. After she insisted she was born in Texas and had a valid Georgia driver's license, agents let her go, according to the lawsuit.
The agency, its heads, and the 30 agents involved in the raid are listed as defendants.
Raimondi declined to coment on the specifics of the accusations, but said race and ethnicity play no role in the agency's work.
The center is seeking classaction status for the Hispanic origin or appearance who lives within the area covered by immigration agents headquartered in Atlanta.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ne ... 906525.htm


This really angers me. I have a question for that lawyer regarding the comment of using skin color to stop people. My question is: then if ICE is looking for illegal Haitians in Miami, they can't stop only those who look African American?
This lawyer should go back to law school as far as I am concerned. According to INS vs. Lopez-Mendoza (1984). Improperly obtained evidence can be used at deportation hearings. That includes evidence obtained without a warrant. As for pulling cars over they had records of employees and from the poultry plant which included illegal employees. This gave ICE enough suspicion to pull cars over as per U.S. vs Cortes, 449 U.S. (1981).
As for an ICE agent keeping his hand on his gun, that is for safety reasons. He does not know for sure that there is no other person in a house. They can never be too cautious. Even police officers that respond to a burglar alarm going off and find a open or unlocked door, draw their gun.

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