Mexico-linked Peter Schey sues over immigration raid; Anna Gorman/LAT fails to note his links

Immigration lawyer Peter Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law is suing the feds over a recent immigration raid in Van Nuys, California. He also has at least a few links to the Mexican government, yet Anna Gorman of the Los Angeles Times yet again fails to inform her readers of that fact in her report "L.A. civil rights attorney files claims over federal immigration raid" (link). Per her, he's just a "longtime Los Angeles civil rights attorney" who's "trying a new strategy to push federal immigration authorities to change the way they conduct workplace raids" when in fact there's probably a bit more that he wants.

He claims that constitutional rights were violated because ICE agents locked down the building and didn't allow people to leave until they showed that they were citizens or legal immigrants:

"That group detention is completely unconstitutional... They have no individual probable cause, yet they come in like the Gestapo."

The article quotes two other immigration lawyers on the case: Carl Shusterman says it's a long shot, but John Ayala of the American Immigration Lawyers Association disagrees. And:

[A citizen who was detained] said immigration authorities could have handled the arrests in a more diplomatic and less theatrical way.

Unfortunately, there's the possibility that "drama" might have been the point. Micheal Chertoff of the DHS has hinted at conducting raids in order to inflame the left, and the whole raid might have been designed to generate outrage and lawsuits from the usual suspects, such as those mentioned above. If that's the case, Chertoff's goal would be to generate a backlash in order to get what Bush wants: a massive amnesty and a "guest" worker program. Note that ICE called the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) - a group that's allegedly collaborated with the Mexican government - shortly before the raid.

Needless to say, Gorman doesn't look into that possibility.

Please write readers.rep *at* latimes.com with your thoughts.

Comments

Civil or Human Rights are a joke Inside this so called Nation of want-to-be third world rulers its about money and control over people. its really only about the ideals of some globalization BS With the end game being about One World and mass Replacement of billions of people, for the benefit of the few world Oligarch Families and the rest can live in total poverty just like Mexico.

If they're serving illegal aliens they should have their tax exempt status revoked. From the CA legal trust fund: "Nonprofit corporations that provide free civil legal services to low-income Californians as their principal purpose and function can qualify to receive grants through the Trust Fund Program as Legal Services Projects." "Low Income Californians" or "Californians" are "key" terms, they limit the scope of spending to CA citizens, NOT ANYBODY WHO HAPPENS TO BE IN CA. Defending illegal immigrants goes against public policy and is detrimental to the citizens of CA.

I didn't hang up on you; I had no idea what you were saying because of the type of telephone service you were using. The Speaker's general office email gets hundreds of emails each day, and it takes awhile to sort through them. That's the reason for the delay. We respond to each one from constituents in our district, but don't have the resources to answer each one from the entire state. As far as what the Speaker had to say about the economic impact of the ICE raids, thought you'd note this from the LA Times today. "At a May Day news conference, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President Gary Toebben said the government should concentrate its limited resources and enforcement efforts on those companies with a clear history of exploitation of workers. Toebben was joined by Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., which released a study showing that tens of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue could be lost if continued raids force businesses to flee the state. The study analyzed three industries thought to employ high numbers of immigrant workers -- fashion, food processing and furniture manufacturing -- and found that about 10,000 businesses created nearly 500,000 direct and indirect jobs and produced $18.3 billion in wages in 2006. If 15% of those firms left the region would lose nearly 75,000 jobs, the report found. "We can't afford any more of these raids," Kyser said, adding that recruiters from Washington state and elsewhere have begun aggressively courting businesses to relocate. ..."