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
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
Private Prison Profits behind Arizona’s SB1070
October 28, 2010
Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.
Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.
“The gentleman that’s the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger,” Nichols said. “He’s a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman.”
What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants. Read more
Immigrant vets face deportation despite service
By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO – When Rohan Coombs joined the U.S. Marine Corps, he never thought one day he would be locked up in an immigration detention center and facing deportation from the country he had vowed to defend.
Coombs, 43, born in Jamaica, immigrated to the United States legally as a child with his family. He signed up to serve Read more
Border Patrol has made a 2nd offer for the Eagles lodge building in Port Angeles
Eagles considering latest Border Patrol offer
By Paul Gottlieb, Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Eagles club members are expected to meet by Wednesday to consider the Border Patrol’s second offer to buy the club’s lodge building for a new North Olympic Peninsula headquarters. Read more
PORT ANGELES — Eagles club members are expected to meet by Wednesday to consider the Border Patrol’s second offer to buy the club’s lodge building for a new North Olympic Peninsula headquarters. Read more
How Wall Street Profits from the Criminalization of Immigrants
…and Lobbies for More To Be Locked Up
Two Wall Street-backed powerhouses are making fat profits off of the private immigration detention system, and they’re flexing their muscles in Congress. This article contains background info, facts, and figures!
October 9, 2010 | by
Over the past four years roughly a million immigrants have been incarcerated in dangerous detention facilities in our taxpayer-financed private prison system. Read more
Tell ICE to Stop Secretive Local Police Collaboration
Tell ICE to Stop Secretive Local Police Collaboration
Recently, an immigrant living in California called the police during a domestic violence incident. Instead of receiving the help she needed, she was arrested, fingerprinted and transferred into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody—even though no charges were filed against her.
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