This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
ICE's 2006 Policy Changes
Three new memoranda issued dramatic enforcement changes that led to and facilitated nationwide home raids. Fugitive Operation Team (FOT) annual quotas were raised eight-fold (from 125 to 1000 arrests) and didn't have to include "criminal aliens."
Another change permitted "collateral" arrests of suspected civil immigration status violators. These actions "incentivized the pattern of unlawful behavior" and put tremendous pressure on ICE agents to deliver. As a result, home raids increased sharply and illegally. Wrongful arrests became common. Easy targets were chosen, including women and children, often at the expense of real criminals remaining at large.
Immigrants are some of "the most vulnerable of populations in this nation's legal system." Most are poor, are unfamiliar with the law, and many speak imperfect or limited English. Often those seized have no lawyers, are kept in detention, and are then deported summarily with no ability to pursue justice. In addition, "traditional civil remedies are (often) ineffective deterrents to unlawful ICE home raids."
IJC Policy Recommendations
Major constitutional issues are at stake making everyone potentially as vulnerable as immigrants. If authorities can get away with constitutional violations against some, they can do it against anyone. That said, IJC recommends the following:
-- home raids should only be for criminal arrests or civil ones in cases posing real risks to national security or for persons with violent criminal records;
-- judicial warrants should be required, not administrative ones;
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
