Coralreef Lover

LANGLEY PARK, Md. – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 24 Hispanics at a convenience store in Baltimore two years ago after their supervisor told them to "bring more bodies" because they were behind their annual quota of 1,000 arrests per team, according to an ICE report released Wednesday.

The immigration rights group CASA de Maryland, which has accused ICE of racial profiling in the 2007 raid, released the agency's internal investigation report and said it shows that the agents acted improperly.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090219/...e_us/ice_raids

Global_Hi_Flyer

I'm about as surprised at that as I would be to hear that TSA has quotas on searching people or finding contraband. That is to say, I'm not surprised at all.

Trollkiller

What race is Hispanic?

On countless forms I have had to list myself as a non Hispanic White. The logic behind that designation is the fact that Hispanics can be White, Black, Brown or other.

According to the agent's report they were surrounded by day laborers seeking work. When asked if they were in the country illegally they admitted to that fact. (Later the agent's recanted and said the men muttered or said nothing)

We have beat the law to death on the inland border checkpoint thread and the law says that the agent can ask ANYONE that they think is an alien. (note: that is different than asking everyone if they are an alien without regard to suspicion )

If a person answers “yes” to the question "are you illegal?" or mutters or keeps silent, the agent has enough legal grounds at that point to investigate further. If the clothes, accent and skin color also point to that person being an alien then so be it.

I think what bothers me the most about this is not that 23 of the 24 people arrested were illegal, or even that one was not (did not see if he was a citizen or legal alien) is the fact that the agents felt the need to lie on their report.

For the lying they should be stripped of any law enforcement credentials and fired.

BubbaLoop

According to a form I filled in which included definitions, "Hispanic" means persons born and raised in South and Central America regardless of race of language. In other words, it includes British citizens from the Falkland Islands, and a very large number of Brazilians, who most definitely do not speak Spanish. I hate the term, and its attempt at political correctness (and I am, technically, "hispanic").

Trollkiller

I think what ticks me off is a person can be a Hispanic White if they want to but I am not a NON anything White. If I must be designated I am simply White.

Most of the time I just mark the "Other" box as my race or your race is irrelevant in any transaction.

Speaking of the Falkland Islands, never tell an Argentine that you think the Brits were right in taking back that island, especially if it is your girlfriend that you are talking to. Won't make that mistake again... geesh.

We Will Never Forget

Once again, the media doesn't let facts get in the way of a good story.

The ICE agents involved in the raid are part of the agency's fugitive operations program, which tracks down violent criminals living in the country illegally. Agency records from the program show that beginning in 2004, the teams were assigned to arrest at least 125 fugitive immigrants. In 2006, each team's quota was increased to 1,000 fugitive arrests.

According to the article, none of the aliens were fugitives, so how could the arrests be statistically motivated?

"Our current enforcement of the immigration policy based on quotas lead to the separation of families and civil rights violations," said Gustavo Torres, CASA's executive director. "The evidence speaks for itself."

Quotas have nothing to do with the number of outstanding warrants, it's an imaginary productivity goal. They're not like traffic tickets, the orders were issued previously by another party. As for the separation of families; they are still families in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, etc. Nice sympathy ploy, anyway.

The debate over the raid centers on whether the agents had probably cause to detain the men or whether agents targeted them simply because they were Hispanic.

In sworn declarations, some officers said they stopped at the 7-Eleven to take a break after several hours of arresting fugitive immigrants in neighboring counties. When the agents arrived, they said Hispanic day laborers surrounded their vehicles asking for work and, when questioned, admitted they were in the country unlawfully.

However, in the report, some officers later told ICE investigators that the men mumbled or said nothing when asked about their status. Some also said that their supervisor had instructed them to beef up their arrests, the report said.

I've said it before on this board, immigration officers are the ONLY law enforcement officers a person can be compelled to communicate with. The scope is limited to alienage and removability. Based on articulable facts, this looks pretty clean to me. I would've questioned EVERYBODY in the area involved in similar activity just to avoid the appearance of bias, though.

MarcPHL

I haven't read enough nor had enough exposure, in general, to the immigration issues to have a well formulated opinion on the subject. However on this small point, I posit that if one casts a large enough net, one will catch something.

BubbaLoop

I am very sorry for your lack of "classifyability". Maybe you could be satisfied by self-classification as a "European-American"? I always mark "oriental", just to see what happens. People give me stares, but never say a thing.

Having grown up to cheers of "Las Malvinas son Argentinas", here is my analysis of the whole mess: The war cost 2 billion dollars, plus 900 lives. The islands had a population of less than 2000 persons (plus more than half a million sheep). A far better choice would be to offer a million per person to leave those very cold and windy islands. I am sure the vast majority of the persons there would take that offer, and the sheep would not mind a change of nationality.

(In case you did not notice, I am not naturally inclined to understand the intricacies of war. I always think it must be a guy thing...)

ralfp

Since when is refusal to answer a LEOs question sufficient grounds for suspicion? How could they investigate further without detaining the person?

They should be jailed for perjury and/or making false statements. If a civilian made similar lies it would be a crime.

Payments like that would not have accomplished the Argentine leadership's goal, namely distracting the populace from their general ineptitude.

Superguy

I'd be curious as well, considering a couple weeks ago I sat in a court room where the judge explained that the defendant had the right to remain silent for any questions he had. Also, that he could not be consider silence to be associated with guilt in anyway during his decision making.

All this was done to ensure the defendant was aware of his constitutional rights. What a concept!

Richelieu

So basically, both contestants for the US White House in the last election were from a minority? John McCain being an Hispanic by this... interesting definition, which excludes people from Spain from being Hispanic.

BTW, are you required to enter something in official forms regarding race? Because even checking "other" imply that you're OK with that.

Trollkiller

The agents had the legal authority to interrogate and arrest the suspected aliens. While you can not be compelled to testify or offer evidence against yourself, the absence of an answer to an agent that believes you are an alien is enough to allow arrest.

Note all the agent has to do is suspect that the person is an alien, the agent does not need to suspect that the person is an illegal alien, to question that individual.

ralfp

It says he has the right to interrogate someone he believes to be an alien (but not to expect any answers), but only "to arrest any alien who in his presence...". It does not say he has the power "to arrest any person he suspects of being an alien who in his presence".

We Will Never Forget

(1) to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States;

ralfp

Sure, the right to ask. But if the person declines to answer, is that cause for arrest? The statute you quoted only allows arrest of an alien (not suspected alien) if that alien is suspected of being here illegally. If no answer is forthcoming, the agent may believe the person is an alien, but has no proof, just suspicion. A foreign accent is in no way probable cause for such a determination, as plenty of US citizens, especially in areas with many illegal immigrants, have foreign accents.

For example, if I (US citizen) declined to answer, how could that statute be used to arrest me? The agent may suspect me of being an alien, but I clearly am not, so any authority "to arrest any alien" would not apply. The same goes for an alien, whether here legally or illegally, as the agent has no evidence of citizenship either way.

So what am I missing here (besides the obvious act of declaring my citizenship)? What is the meaning of "interrogate"? Does it include detention and arrest, or just asking questions?