Nightmares with ICE Raids

*By: JR
May 1st actions in Houston





I am not sure if it is affecting me as much as i think or if these ICE Raids are having unconscious effects on my mind.

I really don't talk about these ICE Raids to a lot of people, but i think about it a lot... maybe too much that i even have dreams about it- well, more like nightmares really.

Perhaps ever since I read Dr. Camayd-Freixas' article on the Raid in Postville, Iowa i became so much more aware of how real these attacks against our families have become. I have realized in the vulnerable position we are in.

Last Friday i had a nightmare where i was trying to protect and hide my family from being arrested and taken by ICE (interestingly, ICE officials later became part of the military). In this nightmare i could see families being taken by vans as if they were cattle- i could see their faces that projected sadness and fear. My brothers were taken and i was not able to see them again. At the end of the dream all my family had been taken away and i was the only one trying to seek refuge among families that would agree to hide me.

I woke up and i called my parents to see that they were okay-they were, but i didn't want to tell my mom about what i had dreamed... i didn't want to scare her. Monday came and the Mississippi raid came.

I can't begin to imagine what it would be like if my family was taken away, if my dad or brother were to be taken away. I honestly hope that these attacks against our families come to an end soon. It often happens where things get worse before they can get any better, i just wonder how much worse this situation will get.

Mississippi ICE Raid: "no company executives detained"

People clapped when those arrested were taken away.  WHAT IS THAT?  At the least it shows how much hatred and resentment is around.

And again, as always, the company executives were not arrested.  As far as I know the only time there have been arrests is if the company administrators were foreigners.  

Does this mean that ICE only wants the low wage workers who are "breaking the law."  What about the high paid bosses who are also "breaking the law" by hiring undocumented people?  Are they immune?  It appears this is so.

All this betrays reason... but then, our present administration (Bush & Co.) has never shown the ability to reason as their strong point.

An added note.  Now that the Democrats are all together, the "party of the people" could use this opportunity to make a strong statement against raids.  I am not holding my breath. 

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Sun Herald -Biloxi/Gulport
Posted on Wed, Aug. 27, 2008
Fear grips immigrants after Miss. plant raid
By HOLBROOK MOHR

...Nearly 600 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally were detained, creating panic among dozens of families in this small southern Mississippi town.

...The superintendent of the county school district said about half of approximately 160 Hispanic students were absent Tuesday.

Roberto Velez, pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Peniel, where an estimated 30 to 40 percent of the 200 parishioners were caught up in the raid, said parents were afraid immigration officials would take them.

"They didn't send their kids to school today," he said. "How scared is that?"

One worker caught in Monday's sweep at the plant said fellow workers applauded as immigrants were taken into custody. Federal officials said a tip from a union member prompted them to start investigating several years ago.

Fabiola Pena, 21, cradled her 2-year-old daughter as she described a chaotic scene at the plant as the raid began, followed by clapping.

"I was crying the whole time. I didn't know what to do," Pena said. "We didn't know what was happening because everyone started running. Some people thought it was a bomb but then we figured out it was immigration."

...John Foxworth, an attorney representing some of the immigrants, said..."There was no communication, an immediate loss of any kind of news and a lack of understanding of what's happening to their loved ones," ...

..."We have kids without dads and pregnant mothers who got their husbands taken away," said Velez's son, Robert, youth pastor at the church. "It was like a horror story. They got handled like they were criminals."

...[Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE spokeswoman]...said agents had executed search warrants at both the plant and the company headquarters in nearby Ellisville. She said no company executives had been detained, but this was an "ongoing investigation and yesterday's action was just the first part..."

Associated Press Writers Shelia Byrd in Hattiesburg, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson and Eileen Sullivan in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

for link to complete Sun Herald article click here

link to top photo
link to bottom photo

NYT on the Laurel, Mississippi ICE Raid

detail of photo from NYT

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August 26, 2008
Hundreds of Workers Held in Immigration Raid

By ADAM NOSSITER

New York Times

LAUREL, Miss. — In another large-scale workplace immigration crackdown, federal officials raided a factory here on Monday, detaining at least 350 workers they said were in the country illegally.

Numerous agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended on a factory belonging to Howard Industries Inc., which manufactures electrical transformers, among other products.

As of late Monday afternoon, no criminal charges had been filed, said Barbara Gonzalez, an agency spokeswoman, but she said that dozens of workers had been “identified, fingerprinted, interviewed, photographed and processed for removal from the U.S.”

The raid follows a similar large-scale immigration operation at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, in May when nearly 400 workers were detained. That raid was a significant escalation of the Bush administration’s enforcement practices because those detained were not simply deported, as in previous raids, but were imprisoned for months on criminal charges of using false documents.

The mass rapid-fire hearings after the Postville raid took place in a temporary court facility on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa. An interpreter was later sharply critical of the proceedings, saying the immigrants did not understand the charges against them.

An immigrant rights group in Jackson, Miss., the state capital, was critical of Monday’s raid, saying families with children were involved.

“It’s horrific what ICE is doing to these families and these communities,” said Shuya Ohno, a spokesman for the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance. “It’s just hard to imagine that this is the United States of America.”

In Laurel on Monday afternoon, several dozen family members of immigrants waited for news of their relatives at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. There were several small children. A priest at the church who identified himself only as Father Sergio refused to allow interviews with the families or answer any questions, saying only: “People are afraid. We need to calm them. There are mothers and children involved.”

Entrances to the sprawling plant, in an industrial section south of town, had been blocked off by ICE. A nearby fast-food restaurant was full of the blue-shirted agents, one of whom would say only that a “little inspection” was under way at the facility.

A woman entering the church grounds with four small children said several of the youngsters’ parents had been detained. The woman, Mary Troyer, said she was a translator for many of the families.

“I don’t like this at all,” Ms. Troyer said. “I don’t understand it. They have come here to work. It’s very sad.”

The ICE spokeswoman, Ms. Gonzalez, said the workers would be taken to an ICE detention center to “await the outcome of their cases.” She said 50 would be “released into the community” instead of being sent to the center, for “humanitarian reasons,” including medical difficulties or the need to take care of children.

She said no lawyers were present while the workers were being interrogated. “Everyone will have due process under law,” Ms. Gonzalez said.

Late Monday afternoon, the grim-faced workers, some of them handcuffed, were lined up near white and silver buses as the rain poured down.

In a statement issued after the raid, Howard Industries, one of the largest employers in the region, acknowledged that it was “visited” by immigration agents trying to determine if its employees were citizens or otherwise legally authorized to work in the country.

“Howard Industries runs every check allowed to ascertain the immigration status of all applicants for jobs,” the statement said. “It is company policy that it hires only U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.”

Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, called the Laurel raid a violation of human rights.

“We’re very disturbed at what’s happened,” Mr. Chandler said. “It’s a real contradiction between our proclaimed values of hard work and family in Mississippi and the actions of local law enforcement, and ICE. I think it’s a real affront to our values. They’re creating their own terrorism by going after workers.”

After the Iowa raid, the federal interpreter said many of the immigrants did not understand the charges to which they pleaded guilty. But federal officials said the judges in the cases believed that the guilty pleas had been made freely and voluntarily.


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

for link to NYT article click here

The ICE Raids in Mississipi

ICE continues its raids. Now it is Mississipi.

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Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald
Posted on Mon, Aug. 25, 2008
ICE raids Miss. plant
seeking illegal workers
By HOLBROOK MOHR

Federal immigration agents arrested some 350 suspected undocumented
workers in a raid on a Mississippi electrical equipment plant Monday,
authorities announced, hours after sealing all entrances amid reports their
sweep had idled normal operations.
Barbara Gonzalez, a U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, confirmed the arrests in the raid that she said
targeted Howard Industries Inc. of Laurel. Authorities said more people could be
arrested.

The company produces dozens of products ranging from
electrical transformers to medical supplies, according to the company's Web
site.

"This is a targeted enforcement operation that is part of an
ongoing ICE investigation that has revealed that illegal aliens are employed at
Howard Industries," Gonzalez said, adding late Monday that agents were still
interviewing plant workers.

She declined to say how many federal agents
were involved in the raid, but said they acted on a tip provided by a union
worker.

Another agency spokesman, Brandon Montgomery, told The
Associated Press outside the plant Monday afternoon that agents were talking
with everyone who worked at the sprawling plant to determine their residency
status.

He said that 50 of those suspected of being illegal workers were
eligible for some form of "alternative to detention" - a concession that could
allow them to be placed on a monitoring device while awaiting a caseworker for
"humanitarian reasons" such as children in their care.

All plant
entrances were blocked, with tents set up at some ICE checkpoints to keep agents
out of a steady rain. Motorists traveling on roads behind the plant were stopped
by officers in unmarked vehicles and told to leave.

People leaving the
plant told The Hattiesburg American newspaper that so many illegal immigrants
were arrested that operations were shut down. It wasn't clear how many workers
the plant employed.

A recording at Howard Industries plant on Monday
said the telephone switchboard was closed.

Billy Howard, the company's
chief executive officer, did not immediately respond to a message left by The
AP. A man who answered a phone call at the company's security station said
reporters would have to call back Tuesday.

Howard Industries was founded
in the 1960s. In 2002, state lawmakers approved a $31.5 million, taxpayer-backed
incentive plan aimed at helping to expand its operations.

The raid is
one of several nationwide in recent years.

On May 12, federal
immigration officials swept into Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher
meatpacking plant, in Iowa. Nearly 400 workers were detained and dozens of
fraudulent permanent resident alien cards were seized from the plant's human
resources department, court records showed.

for link to Sun Herald article click here

WARNING: Imminent ICE RAID in Hattiesburg, Mississippi

From the Mississippi Immigration Rights Alliance:

"Physical indications show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are imminent in Central and Southern Mississippi in the coming days, mainly targeting residences and poultry plants. If you have any questions or observe any activity bearing out the effects of this operation, please contact our Central office at (601)968-5182."

TalkLeft the Politics of Crime

August 23, 2008 Saturday 12:06 AM EST

ICE Raid Appears Imminent in Mississippi

by Jeralyn

A workplace raid a la Postville, Iowa appears imminent in Mississippi. From the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance:

A series of preparations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the Gulf Coast has local advocates on edge about the possibility of yet another worksite raid, and yet another devastating blow to businesses, families and communities in the name of immigration enforcement.

"The preparations we are seeing ICE make are alarmingly similar to what occurred immediately prior to the raid on the Agriprocessors, Inc. Kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, a few months ago, " said Patricia Ice, an immigration attorney and spokesperson for MIRA. ICE has reportedly booked dozens of rooms in hotels on the Gulf Coast. They may be checking in as early as tonight.

More....


Perhaps even more worrisome are the reports that the federal court in Hattiesburg is being readied for a response similar to the response to the raid in Postville, when nearly 400 plant workers were arrested on trumped up identity theft charges, and slammed through criminal prosecution and judicial removal (being forced to waive all their criminal defense and immigration claims) within just days of the raid.

"What happened in Postville was an absolute travesty of justice that must never happen again," said Ms. Ice. "ICE must assure that any future enforcement actions are conducted in a humane manner and that detainees are permitted their constitutional rights to due process and to legal counsel."

FROM LEXIS NEXIS:


Aug. 23, 2008 ( delivered by Newstex) -- A workplace raid a la , Iowa appears imminent in Mississippi.

From the : A series of preparations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the Gulf Coast has local advocates on edge about the possibility of yet another worksite raid, and yet another devastating blow to businesses, families and communities in the name of immigration enforcement. "The preparations we are seeing ICE make are alarmingly similar to what occurred immediately prior to the raid on the Agriprocessors, Inc. Kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, a few months ago, " said Patricia Ice, an immigration attorney and spokesperson for MIRA. ICE has reportedly booked dozens of rooms in hotels on the Gulf Coast. They may be checking in as early as tonight.

 More.... Perhaps even more worrisome are the reports that the federal court in Hattiesburg is being readied for a response similar to the response to the raid in Postville, when nearly 400 plant workers were arrested on trumped up identity theft charges, and slammed through criminal prosecution and judicial removal (being forced to waive all their criminal defense and immigration claims) within just days of the raid. "What happened in Postville was an absolute travesty of justice that must never happen again," said Ms. Ice. "ICE must assure that any future enforcement actions are conducted in a humane manner and that detainees are permitted their constitutional rights to due process and to legal counsel." ... Newstex ID: TALK-0001-27611238