Deportations of illegal immigrants have reached new heights for two years running under President Obama, statistics show, but Republicans say they’ll use their new majority in the House to press for more aggressive enforcement without any path to legal status. Read more
Bellingham reporter shares concern about secrecy of detentions.
I share your concern. The idea that the government protects “privacy” by
allowing people to be arrested and detained in secret is bizarre.
But the fact is that the policy here is the same. Detention of people on
immigration violations is cloaked in secrecy. When ICE raided a local
laundry years ago, we tried to use FOIA to get their names to no avail.
Read more
Ellensburg, WA residents respond to immigration raids
7:59 PM, Jan. 21, 2011 | SHANNON DININNY Associated Press
ELLENSBURG, Wash. — More than 200 people turned out to a church in a central Washington college town Friday to discuss a series of immigration raids that resulted in more than two dozen arrests and left relatives scrambling to care for the children left behind.
Those attending the meeting at First United Methodist Church in Ellensburg, a city of 17,000 about 90 miles east of Seattle, included faculty members and students from the hometown Central Washington University.
“I have children. How would I feel if it happened to me and they snatched me and sent me somewhere and left my kids behind?” said attendee Raymond Hall, CWU professor of African-American folklore. Read more
Immigration Raid Has Ripple Effect on Ellensburg Economy
By Keegan Hamilton, Mon., Jan. 24 2011 @ 1:01PM
The residents of a mobile home park on the outskirts of Ellensburg received a rude awakening early last Thursday morning. A police helicopter hovered above their homes, shining a searchlight through their windows. Squad cars blocked the entrance and exit to the community, which is home to a large percentage of the city’s Hispanic population, and dozens of agents from local law-enforcement agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement eventually rounded up 30 people. Now, four days later, Ellensburg residents say that not only did the arrests cause widespread panic and outrage Read more
Republicans push for more raids
By Brian Bennett, Washington Bureau - January 27, 2011
Ellensburg, WA armed federal raids detain 30.
Federal raid leads to 30 being taken into custody
Federal raid leads to 30 being taken into custody By DAILY RECORD STAFF Daily Record | 15 comments
Federal agents early Thursday morning arrested 14 Ellensburg area residents related to criminal charges of manufacture and purchase of counterfeit identity and employment documents, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Another 16 were taken into custody on administrative immigration violations, and three of those were later released Read more
Government Documents Reveal Pattern of Dishonesty by I.C.E.
The “Secure Communities” program automatically runs fingerprints through immigration databases for all people arrested and targets them for detention and deportation even if their criminal charges are minor, eventually dismissed, or the result of an unlawful arrest…. Read more
Anti-Immigrant Zealot Becomes GOP’s Colorado Senate Nominee
Ari Berman | August 11, 2010 | The Nation
At dawn on December 12, 2006, the holiday of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, a heavily armed fleet of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers stormed the JBS Swift Greeley Beef Plant, the largest employer in the sleepy city of Greeley, Colorado. They arrived in riot gear, arresting 265 Hispanic workers and deporting dozens in a coordinated seven-city raid known as Operation Wagon Train, a key front in the Bush Administration’s “war against illegal immigration.” The largest ICE raid in US history ruptured the city, split apart families, drew national headlines, and sparked a heated debate inside the city, as Republican Mayor Tom Selders denounced the government’s heavy-handed tactics. One Hispanic activist told The Nation’s Marc Cooper, “This has been our Katrina [1].”
The raid was masterminded by Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck [2], Colorado’s new GOP nominee for the US Senate. Buck defeated former lieutenant governor Jane Norton in a hard-fought primary [3] last night—and his hard-line stance on immigration was a big reason why. Read more