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June 18, 2006

2,179 ARRESTED IN "FUGITIVE" SWEEP

from Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 9, No. 23

On June 14, Assistant Secretary for ICE Julie Myers announced that ICE agents had apprehended 2,179 immigrants in a nationwide sweep between May 26 and June 13. Virtually every ICE field office in the US took part in "Operation Return to Sender," in collaboration with state and local law enforcement agencies. About half of the arrested immigrants had prior criminal records, and 367 were described by ICE as "members or associates of violent street gangs" (presumably without criminal records). Another 640 of the arrested immigrants were "fugitives" who had ignored final orders of removal issued by an immigration judge. The remaining arrestees were immigration status violators picked up during the raids. Most were arrested on administrative immigration violations and were placed in removal proceedings; ICE said on June 14 that 829 of them had already been removed. ICE agents also arrested 121 people on federal criminal charges ranging from felony re-entry after deportation to "illegal alien in possession of a firearm." [ICE News Release 6/14/06]

"It looks like they [ICE officials] are just trying to get numbers for statistics to report back to Washington," said David Wenger, a Detroit immigration attorney, about the raids in the Detroit area. [Detroit Free Press 6/8/06]

Immigration News Briefs (INB), a weekly English-language summary of US immigration news, is forwarded out to the email list of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (CHRI). If you receive INB as a forwarded message, and you wish to subscribe directly to INB, or to the CHRI email list (which includes INB and local NYC area events, average 4-5 messages a week), write to nicajg*at*panix.com (indicate "CHRI list" or "INB only").

Immigration News Briefs (INB), un resumen semanal en ingles de noticias sobre inmigracion en los EE.UU., es enviado cada semana a la lista de correo electronico de la Coalicion para los Derechos Humanos de los Inmigrantes. Si el INB le llega como mensaje reenviado, y usted quiere subscribir directamente al INB, o a la lista de correo de CHRI (que incluye INB, mas anuncios de actividades en el area de NYC, promedio de 4-5 mensajes por semana), escriba al nicajg*at*panix.com (indique si quiere "lista de CHRI" o "solo INB").

Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)

Posted by Konrad at 06:07 PM |

JUDGE OKS PROFILING OF IMMIGRANTS

from Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 9, No. 23

On June 14, federal judge John Gleeson of US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn, handed down a 99- page ruling in Turkmen v. Ashcroft, a class-action lawsuit against US government officials, brought by Muslim immigrants detained after Sept. 11, 2001. Gleeson rejected the government's motion to dismiss claims concerning conditions of confinement, and agreed that the plaintiffs can sue over their abusive and unconstitutional treatment. That decision means top federal officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Robert S. Mueller III, will have to answer to those accusations under oath. Gleeson rejected the government's argument that the Sept. 11 terror attacks justified extraordinary measures to detain noncitizens who fell under suspicion, or that top officials needed special immunity to be able to combat future threats without fear of being sued.

However, Gleeson also ruled that the government has broad discretion to enforce immigration laws selectively, based on a person's religion, race or national origin, and to detain noncitizens indefinitely, for any reason, after an immigration judge has ordered them removed--as long as their removal is "reasonably forseeable." Gleeson admitted that if such profiling were "applied to citizens, our courts would be highly suspicious." The Center for Constitutional Rights represented the detainees and plans to appeal. [New York Times 6/15/06; CCR "Turkmen" Summary 6/16/06]

Immigration News Briefs (INB), a weekly English-language summary of US immigration news, is forwarded out to the email list of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (CHRI). If you receive INB as a forwarded message, and you wish to subscribe directly to INB, or to the CHRI email list (which includes INB and local NYC area events, average 4-5 messages a week), write to nicajg*at*panix.com (indicate "CHRI list" or "INB only").

Immigration News Briefs (INB), un resumen semanal en ingles de noticias sobre inmigracion en los EE.UU., es enviado cada semana a la lista de correo electronico de la Coalicion para los Derechos Humanos de los Inmigrantes. Si el INB le llega como mensaje reenviado, y usted quiere subscribir directamente al INB, o a la lista de correo de CHRI (que incluye INB, mas anuncios de actividades en el area de NYC, promedio de 4-5 mensajes por semana), escriba al nicajg*at*panix.com (indique si quiere "lista de CHRI" o "solo INB").

Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)

Posted by Konrad at 06:02 PM |