ICE arresting Latinos without cause to meet quotas

[babylonsister]

:grr:

Conflicting Accounts of an ICE Raid in Md.
Officers Portray Detention of 24 Latinos Differently in Internal Probe and in Court

Video @ link~

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 18, 2009; Page A01


The boss was not happy. His elite team of immigration officers had been raiding targets across Prince George's and Montgomery counties all night long in search of fugitive and criminal immigrants but had netted only a handful.

As the unit regrouped in its Baltimore office that frigid January morning two years ago, the supervisor warned members that they were well behind a Washington-mandated annual quota of 1,000 arrests per team and ordered them back out to boost their tally.

"I don't care where you get more arrests, we need more numbers," he said, according to one account in a summary of an internal investigation. The boss then added that the agents could go to any street corner and find a group of illegal immigrants, according to the summary, not previously made public.

About an hour later, the nine-person team went to a nearby 7-Eleven and arrested 24 Latino men. But most of the detainees were hardly the threats to the United States that the team was designed to focus on.

The officers were part of a special unit that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt suspected terrorists or dangerous criminals who are "fugitive aliens," meaning they have evaded a deportation order. And although many of the 24 Latinos detained at the 7-Eleven were found to have been in the country illegally, 14 were not fugitive immigrants. One, Ernesto Guillen, was merely stopping for coffee on his way to join his wife at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where their 4-year-old son was undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021703451.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. NIce. Nativists meet domestic terrorists. With predictable result.

[Lost in CT]

2. I'm a little confused. What is wrong with ICE arresting undocumented workers.

Why is the threshold "threats to the United States"

Shouldn't the threshold simply be being here illegally???

[babylonsister]

3. Did you read it? They're arresting innocent people because of the

way they look. They're profiling and making uninformed decisions. "I" have a problem with that. And to arrest people solely to fill a quota? It's bullshit.

[Lost in CT]

4. The article is a touch unclear.

"And although many of the 24 Latinos detained at the 7-Eleven were found to have been in the country illegally, 14 were not fugitive immigrants. One, Ernesto Guillen, was merely stopping for coffee on his way to join his wife at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where their 4-year-old son was undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia."

From what I read at least one was an American citizen. That is unfortunate.

But this has happened to me as well.

I was driving a car that matched the suspects description. And despite the lack of ski masks and bags of bank loot in the vehicle I was detained for six hours. (And had to pay to get my car out of impound)

So yes that part of the story sucks.

I have no problem arresting people to make a quota. (The local speed trap cops and drunk driving trap cops around here do that every month)

[BlooInBloo]

5. "That is unfortunate." - Quote of the day.

BWAAHAHAAHAHAHAAA!!!

[babylonsister]

7. Then we have vast differences, because I do have a problem

with this. And there's a huge difference between getting a ticket in a speed trap vs. being arrested for minding your own business, just because of the color of your skin, even if you're a citizen.

[arcadian]

6. ICE is a Gestapo organization.

Look out for them when the shit hits the fan, they will be doing the round ups if it comes to that.