Immigration raid almost destroys Postville, Iowa
stable
Goodwin
National Affairs Reporter
POSTVILLE, Iowa—A group of Jewish boys in
yarmulkes and winter coats walked past the “Taste of Mexico” restaurant on
Lawler Street last week on their way home from school. Minutes later, a Somali
man wearing a keffiyeh scarf around his neck passed by, perhaps on his way to
the town’s makeshift mosque on Main Street.
This improbably diverse rural town of about 2,000 people in northeastern Iowa
suffered a near-fatal shock more than three years ago when a federal immigration
raid scooped up 20 percent of its population in a single day. Read more
Report: Border Patrol Abuses on the Rise
Saturday 24 September 2011
Phoenix, Ariz. – The number of apprehensions of undocumented immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped, but reports of abuses against immigrants are on the rise.
Those are the findings of a new report released by the Arizona humanitarian aid organization No More Deaths.
The report, “A Culture of Cruelty,” documents 30,000 incidents of human rights abuses against undocumented immigrants in short-term detention Read more
Northern border staffing levels draw scrutiny
Ten years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the greatly stepped-up presence of Border Patrol agents on the nation’s northern border is raising questions — especially about Port Angeles, where the number of agents has increased tenfold and one agent has testified that there’s too little to do. Read more
Border Patrol arrest at farmers’ market stuns bystanders
Article published Sep 4, 2011 Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Bystanders said they were shocked by the arrest of a
vendor by the Border Patrol on Saturday.
Sequim resident and Korean national Hung Han was detained at about 2:30 p.m. while helping his parents pack up their Port Angeles Farmers Market produce stand at The Gateway transit center in downtown. Read more
Editorial(Port Townsend Leader): New look at Border Patrol
| 8/17/2011 6:00:00 AM |
| The U.S. Border Patrol has a little explaining to do to the communities of the North Olympic Peninsula. We’re glad to see its representatives making the rounds to Clallam County business groups and hope to see them here too.The subject: Why do we need such a dramatic expansion of the Border Patrol mission in this corner of Washington state? Read more |
U.S. Attorney Could Put a Stop to Border Patrol’s Expansionism
Bordering on paranoid: Inside the U.S/Canada divide near Victoria
The National Post (a Canadian national newspaper) interviewed Stop The Checkpoints folks Alex, Jim and Libby in Port Townsend; Stop The Checkpoints coordinator, Lois Danks in Port Angeles; and Forks Human Rights Group members for the following article:
Brian Hutchinson | Aug 12, 2011 9:33 PM ET
PORT ANGELES, Washington • Christian Sanchez thought he was one of the good guys, a
veteran U.S. border patrol agent stopping foreign criminals and terrorists from
sneaking onto American soil. Two years ago, he accepted a transfer from
southern California to this small blue-collar city. “The Port Angeles station
was described as one of the exciting new places to be,” he recalls.
Not so, he discovered. Port Angeles is no San Diego, his former bailiwick. Perched
on the edge of the remote Olympic Peninsula, on the cold Strait of Juan de
Fuca, its closest neighbour is Victoria, B.C., not widely known as a terrorism
launchpad. Marijuana smugglers occasionally drift across the strait, but the
U.S. Coast Guard takes care of them. Mr. Sanchez found himself with little to
do but drive up and down the peninsula in his border patrol vehicle, for 10
hours at a time, “wasting gasoline” and blowing taxpayers’ dollars. Read more
Border Patrol Finally Addresses Forks City Council
Portland, Oregon ICE detention jail stopped!
Secure Communities Agreements cancelled, participation still required
Updated: 8/5/11 04:25 PM ET Huffington Post
WASHINGTON –
Activists are outraged over a Friday announcement from the Department of
Homeland Security that it will move ahead with its controversial Secure
Communities immigration enforcement program, even if states do not agree to
participate. Read more