Deval Patrick knew about New Bedford immigration raid in February ("humanitarian crisis")

After the New Bedford immigration raid, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick ranted against the Feds, claiming that they had caused a "humanitarian crisis" due to the children of illegal aliens involved. In fact, this has become a stock talking point of the usual supporters of illegal immigration, with John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, William Delahunt, and Barney Frank supporting "grieving" illegal aliens.

Now, a different picture is emerging. Namely, the Patrick administration had months of foreknowledge of the raids and seemingly every chance in the world to try to prevent the "crisis". From this:
"We had an open and frequent exchange of information to make sure that (the state Department of Social Services) were getting information on child-care issues," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Marc Raimondi. "We're going above and beyond the role of a law-enforcement agency to address humanitarian concerns."

Mr. Raimondi said ICE met with state officials regarding the raid as early as August 2006, and met with Deval Patrick's administration in late December as well as Harry Spence, director of the DSS.

...He said ICE officials made every effort to determine if those illegal immigrants arrested were the sole caregivers for children. Of the 361 people arrested at the scene March 6, 60 were released within 24 hours, he said. Since then, at the urging of DSS, ICE has released 20 Salvadorean immigrants being held in Massachusetts jails and 10 people of various nationalities being held in Texas...

...Mr. Raimondi said some immigrants arrested at the factory were not telling the truth about their children, making it difficult to assess their situation after the raid...
This has caused even Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara to turn (via this) on Deval Patrick:
...Patrick himself was told in February [about] the raid...

...As late as yesterday afternoon Nancy Fernandez Mills, communications director for the Patrick administration, was insisting that "the governor was not told and did not know the raid was happening until it was going on" and that "DSS did not know about this raid until it was in progress."

Told that, in fact, members of Patrick's Cabinet had briefed him about the operation weeks ago and that Spence had participated in a conference call with ICE the day before the raid -- a fact the commissioner himself acknowledged in yesterday's newspapers -- she reconsidered: "I'd like to retract that statement until I talk to someone who actually knows something about this timeline."

It is going to be a long four years.
Their handling of this is strangely similar to Tom Vilsack possibly misleading about the Swift raid in Iowa. Wouldn't it just be easier on corrupt Democrats like Patrick and Vilsack if they decided to tell the truth and support our laws from the start?

Comments

It's perplexing why Vilsack and Patrick would pull such stunts. I can see making a huge stink in the media over raids for political benefit--but if you're lying about not knowing they were coming? ICE isn't going to cover for you when you're holding press conferences making them out to be the Gestapo. These guys end up being exposed as proven liars. But maybe even worse for them, they look like fools.

What this whole story highlights in neon is the degree to which illegal aliens feel secure in violating our laws. They have put their own minor children at risk because they were so certain that the US would do nothing in the way of cracking down on them. I am tired of them telling people in their native lands to come north - easy to get in, and once in, easy to find work etc. I want them to start telling their fellow countrymen to stay home because it isn't worth the pain if you get caugt.

Hilarious, maybe even predictable, but not "perplexing". Stuff like this is what happens when you put 'minorities' in charge, as they are more interested in avoiding being called 'Uncle Tom' than in showing common sense. Assuming they have any.