S3594 - Controlling ICE when it Raids

S3594 was introduced several weeks ago.  I guess the AP just realized this had happened.  Or, it didn't seem important to them until today. 
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/10/AR2008101000309.html

Senators Push for Immigration Guidelines

By SAMANTHA HENRY
The Associated Press
Friday, October 10, 2008; 3:58 AM

NEWARK, N.J. -- With federal authorities stepping up immigration enforcement raids across the country, Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Robert Menendez of New Jersey are sponsoring a bill to protect the rights of U.S. citizens and legal residents who get caught up in them.

The Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Raids and Detention Act was introduced on Sept. 25 to push for more stringent legal procedures to be followed by authorities executing immigration-related searches and warrants.

Immigration officials have conducted a series of high-profile workplace raids across the country in recent months, including one earlier this week at a poultry processing plant in Greenville, S.C.

The two Democratic lawmakers argue that the raids are often conducted in a sweeping fashion that nets lawful residents and American citizens who happen to be working alongside undocumented immigrants. Those who can't produce papers such as a birth certificate or passport proving U.S. citizenship or legal residency are often detained.

The legislation would require immigration agents to advise people being detained of their rights, including the option of remaining silent or seeking legal counsel, similar to what police officers must do in arresting criminal suspects.

Although the bill may not have much shelf life with the present Congress soon to adjourn, Menendez said he plans to continue pushing the issue.

"We cannot allow the fervor to deport undocumented workers to take away the constitutional rights that belong to each and every U.S. citizen and legal resident," said Menendez, who is the son of Cuban immigrants. "This is the United States of America, where we protect our citizens and treat our fellow humans with respect."
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Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokesman Harold Ort said the agency could not comment specifically on pending legislation, but said ICE conducts targeted law enforcement operations based on intelligence gathering and standard investigative procedures.

"ICE fugitive operations officers follow applicable federal laws and ICE policies during all of our operations, which are conducted to minimize the risk to officers, those we arrest, and others we encounter during an operation," Ort said.

Joanne Lin, a legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped draft the Menendez-Kennedy bill, said U.S. citizens are frequently detained in raids. She said several U.S. citizens were among those caught up in the Greenville raid, in which 330 people were detained.

"If ICE had conducted much more targeted enforcement actions that were against individuals named in warrants, this bill wouldn't be necessary," she said. "Instead, we're seeing raids in homes and work sites everywhere in the country, because there's no guidelines governing the conduct of these immigration raids. That's why national legislation is necessary."

ICE has arrested more than 2,000 people in New Jersey during raids in the past year, according to Seton Hall University Law School, which has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over the detention of U.S. citizens and legal residents during immigration raids.

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link to photo

On S 3594: from the ACLU

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ACLU Applauds Senators Menendez and Kennedy for Bill to Protect U.S. Citizens from Unlawful Detention and Deportation (9/26/2008)

Long-awaited legislation establishes due process standards for immigration detention, raids and deportation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (202) 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced legislation to protect U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents from being unlawfully detained and deported by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the wake of sweeping immigration raids that have devastated communities across the country, the ACLU welcomes this bill, S.3594, The Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Raids and Detention Act, as the first legislation to require DHS to follow due process standards in executing immigration raids.

“The Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Raids and Detention Act is long overdue,” said Joanne Lin, ACLU Legislative Counsel. In recent years, immigration detention and deportation rates have grown exponentially: last year over 300,000 people were deported and over 30,000 people held in immigration detention daily. DHS’s immigration enforcement actions have been so sweeping and untargeted that they have ensnared U.S. citizens. Hundreds of U.S. citizens have been unlawfully detained by DHS, and at least one U.S. citizen was illegally deported to Mexico, a country he had never lived in. According to Lin, “These gross due process violations have occurred because there are no controls or regulations governing DHS’s conduct. This bill is a necessary antidote to DHS’s unchecked and unconstitutional immigration enforcement powers.”

The ACLU has sued DHS for illegal detaining and deporting people including U.S. citizens. One ACLU client, Pedro Guzman, a U.S. citizen born in California, was deported to Mexico in 2007. After he was deported, Mr. Guzman was forced to live on the streets, to bathe in rivers and to eat out of trash bins for several months before he was allowed to reenter his home country, the U.S. The ACLU of Southern California and the law firm of Morrison & Foerster have brought a damages action against DHS on behalf of Mr. Guzman and his mother.

"Local jail officials and federal immigration officers deported the undeportable, a United States citizen, based on appearance, prejudice and reckless failure to apply fair legal procedures," said ACLU of Southern California Legal Director Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney for Pedro Guzman and his mother. “Local law enforcement officials should do the jobs they're trained for, not enforce complicated federal immigration laws. We don't use local officials to audit IRS returns or conduct foreign wars; that's why we have a federal government. The same applies to enforcement of immigration laws.”

In another lawsuit, the ACLU, National Immigration Law Center and the National Lawyers’ Guild sued DHS for systematically denying access to counsel to workers swept up in an immigration raid. In February 2008, ICE agents descended on the premises of a printer supply company in Van Nuys, California, temporarily shutting down operations. The ACLU and other lawyers offered to represent all the arrested workers, but ICE refused to let the workers consult with immigration attorneys, both at the worksite and later at the local ICE field office in the days following the raid. Some of the workers who tried to assert their right to counsel were intimidated by ICE agents into making incriminating statements.

The ACLU, NILC and NLG had no choice but to sue DHS for violating the workers’ right to consult with immigration counsel. In March 2008, DHS settled the case and allowed immigration attorneys to sit in on the workers’ interviews with ICE officers. The workers were represented by Ahilan Arulanantham, director of immigrants’ rights and national security at the ACLU of Southern California. According to Mr. Arulanantham, “ICE enforcement actions repeatedly violated the Constitution and federal law in this case. U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and others living in this country are entitled to a federal government that follows the law and due process.”

These ACLU lawsuits highlight the urgent need for Congress to pass legislation that curbs ICE’s unconstitutional raids, detention and deportation practices. To this end, this legislation would do the following:

Create due process protections, such as notification of immigration charges and access to counsel and phones, during immigration enforcement efforts;
Require DHS to implement regulations to ensure that immigration detainees are treated humanely;
Promote “alternatives to detention” programs that are more humane and cost-effective than traditional penal-style detention;
Establish an ICE ombudsman to investigate complaints and to create DHS accountability; and
Provide labor protections to ensure that ICE worksite raids do not undermine labor or employment law investigations.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-s3594/show
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