War on terror fosters US anti-immigrant hysteria [View All]

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http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=3604

A recent series of raids by the US Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service signals a new era of anti-immigrant hysteria in America.

In September in the New York City suburb of Nassau County, ICE undertook a massive raid to capture gang members. It declared the raids a success, claiming that of the 186 arrested, 157 were gang members or associates.

However, county executive Thomas Suozzi denounced the raid, insisting that only 'eight were active gang members and one is a gang associate'. He added, 'The result was that many wrong residential addresses were raided, and in one instance, ICE sought a 28-year-old defendant using a photograph taken when he was seven-year-old boy.'

Not only were American citizens and legal residents picked up, but in one case, a house was searched for a man who had moved out in 2003. The family living there were US citizens, except for a child who was a legal resident awaiting naturalisation. Suozzi, joined by county police commissioner Lawrence Mulvey, is calling for a federal investigation of the raid.