immigration raids
immigration raids: Page 1
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):
WSJ and SEIU complain about immigration audits, show no concern for American workers (Miriam Jordan, Harvard Maintenance, Minnesota) - 03/15/11
As an alternative to the showy immigration raids conducted during the George W Bush administration, the Barack Obama administration has been conducting "paper raids" (see this for an example with the downsides noted; the guidelines were discussed here).
Needless to say, any form of immigration enforcement doesn't sit well with those who seek to profit or enable others to profit from cheap illegal labor. Thus, Miriam Jordan of the Wall Street Journal offers "Immigration Audit Takes Toll/Janitorial Firm Harvard Maintenance to Lose Over Half of Minnesota Work Force" (link). It features the WSJ...
Details on CIR ASAP amnesty: as bad as you'd expect, Part 1 - 12/15/09
This post has excerpts from the first part of the outline of the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009" (amnesty) that was unveiled today by Luis Gutierrez. The backstory and more details are here.
Naturalized American charged in Mumbai terrorist attack ran immigration agency - 12/07/09
Via this comes justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1304.html:
New federal charges filed today allege that a Chicago man, who was arrested in October for planning terrorist attacks against a Danish newspaper and two of its employees, also conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding the November 2008 terrorist attack on India’s largest city that killed approximately 170 people, including six Americans, and injured hundreds more.
The defendant, David Coleman Headley, a U.S. citizen, earlier this decade allegedly attended terrorism training camps in...
Toothless Obama admin immigration enforcement: 100s janitors fired, not deported (+how many SEIU members are illegal aliens?) - 11/09/09
In Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security sent no match letters or a variant to around 1200 janitors employed by the major corporation ABM informing those employees that there was a mismatch between their Social Security numbers and other information. They were required to provide documentation by October, and when all or almost all didn't, ABM fired them; presumably all or virtually all are illegal aliens (link). However, rather than trying to deport them, DHS simply concentrated on the company. Needless to say, that makes it easy for a fired illegal...
Yale Law students, Wishnie sue ICE over 2007 immigration raid (after Elm City card passed) - 10/28/09
Yale Law students - led by professor Michael Wishnie - are suing various current or former ICE (part of the Department of Homeland Security) officials and agents over a 2007 immigration raid in New Haven, Connecticut.
USA Today: "Immigration raids yield jobs for legal workers" (CIS study) - 09/15/09
Alan Gomez of USA Today discusses a Center for Immigration Studies report (link) discussing the aftermath of high-profile immigration raids. According to (Carol Swain of Vanderbilt University):
"Whenever there's an immigration raid, you find white, black and legal immigrant labor lining up to do those jobs that Americans will supposedly not do," said Swain, who teaches law and political science.
Exactly who is filling the jobs has varied, depending on the populations surrounding the plants:
• Out West, one of the Swift plants raided by ICE, had a workforce that was about 90% Hispanic — both...
Tim Belay/VOA News presents illegal immigration-supporting side of Postville story - 05/18/09
Tim Belay of the federally-funded Voice of America - offers "Postville Marks Immigration Raid Anniversary with Reflection, Optimism" (link).
Postville commemorates immigration raid one year later, pines for child labor violations, massive illegal activity - 05/12/09
The immigration raid at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa happened one year ago today, and far-left and just generally corrupt supporters of illegal immigration are commemorating the anniversary, with the media standing by to offer their lopsided take (link):
Church bells tolled for an hour here this morning to mark a year since federal agents launched one of the biggest immigration raids in U.S. history.
The bell at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church rang 389 times, once for each immigrant worker seized in the raid. The ringing started at 10 a.m., which was when the raid began last May 12. Bells...
Immigration strawman arguments about: civil rights abuses, 287g, family separation, "stateless" children, alternative detention, eVerify - 05/09/09
Rep. Lamar Smith offers "Amnesty Pushers Concoct Six Straw Men" (link), a collection of logical fallacies that illegal immigration supporters use. The points raised aren't of much use unless those supporters - such as nationally-known politicians - are confronted with them, and if you can do that on video that could have a serious impact on those supporters' careers.
It includes a section about family separation, specifically referencing Luis Gutierrez' "Family Unity Tour" and including this:
But he [the strawman] forgets that children can travel to their parents’ home countries with them....
Shepard Fairey creates posters for immigration "reform", to halt raids - 04/30/09
Shepard Fairey - creator of the iconic Obama posters - has thrown his full intellectual heft behind a new set of posters in support of comprehensive immigration reform.
New DHS immigration raid guidelines: focus on employers, not employees - 04/30/09
Ginger Thompson of the New York Times offers "Immigration Agents to Turn Focus to Employers" (link):
In an effort to crack down on illegal labor, the Department of Homeland Security intends to step up enforcement efforts against employers who knowingly hire such workers.
Under guidelines to be issued Thursday to Immigration and Customs Enforcement field offices, agents will be instructed to take aim at employers and supervisors for prosecution “through the use of carefully planned criminal investigations.”
...[Employers won't like it, but] advocates who have long considered raids at work...
Illegal aliens from ICE raid given work permits so they can sue ICE agents? (+more) - 04/13/09
Debbie Schlussel has a scoop here.
According to her sources, the reason why illegal aliens were given work authorization and then released after being caught in a raid in Bellingham, WA is so that those aliens can now... sue the ICE agents who arrested them.
Immigration enforcement, Janet Napolitano style: illegal aliens given work permits, released - 03/31/09
Welcome to the tough new immigration enforcement regime of Janet Napolitano (link):
Many if not all workers detained in the Feb. 24 immigration raid at Yamato Engine Specialists have been released from the federal detention center in Tacoma.
The unexpected move appears to be related to an ongoing federal investigation of Yamato.
"I can confirm that many of the individuals ... have indeed been released pending the further investigation of Yamato Engine," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lorie Dankers.
Besides their freedom, the workers also have permission to look for...
Andrew Rosenthal /NYT: no immigration raids during Census - 03/31/09
Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of the New York Times, offers "A Champion for the Census?" (link) about new Department of Commerce secretary Gary Locke. It contains this not very surprising suggestion:
For instance, in the run-up to other censuses, the federal government has eased up on immigration raids and other intimidating forms of immigration enforcement in an effort to cut down on the number of people who are afraid to be counted. The word must go out from the Obama administration that it expects the same cooperation as the 2010 count approaches.
Rep. William Lacy Clay: no immigration raids during Census (+Gary Locke) - 03/30/09
Hope Yen of the Associated Press says:
(Rep. William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri) said he planned to push the Obama administration to halt raids next year, noting that immigration officials did so during the 2000 census... "It think it should be repeated to tamp down on any fears the immigrant population might have on certain raids, whether they are here legally or not," said Clay, who chairs the House subcommittee overseeing the census.
Further:
Speaking at a Census Bureau training conference, (Department of Commerce secretary Gary Locke and Clay) tried to allay fears in Hispanic and...
DHS halting immigration raids pending policy change; may "go after employers" instead - 03/29/09
About a month ago, Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security - someone who was sold as tough on illegal immigration despite that not being true - went through the roof after an immigration raid was conducted that she hadn't been informed of. Now, there's partial confirmation that Napolitano has in fact ordered a halt to such workplace enforcement pending review. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post offers "DHS Signals Policy Changes Ahead for Immigration Raids" (link):
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other...
Hannah Dreier /MediaMatters misleads about Nancy Pelosi position on raids (Lou Dobbs) - 03/25/09
Hannah Dreier of Media Matters for America offers a misleading view of Nancy Pelosi's recent remarks in Dobbs falsely claimed Pelosi said "immigration law enforcement is, quote-unquote, 'un-American" (mediamatters.org/items/200903240035):
Summary: On his radio show, Lou Dobbs asked his guest for his "reaction" to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "saying last week that enforcement in the workplace, immigration law enforcement is, quote-unquote, 'un-American.' " In fact, Pelosi criticized as "un-American" immigration raids that separate undocumented parents from their documented children, not "...
America's Voice agrees with Pelosi "un-American" quote; starts letter campaign (Frank Sharry) - 03/20/09
America's Voice - run by Frank Sharry - has started a letter-writing campaign to "Thank Speaker Pelosi for Her Leadership". The "leadership" in question is her recent comments that family-separating immigration raids are "un-American", comments that she later reinforced by calling those raids "not the American way". Says they (americasvoiceonline.org/page/speakout/PelosiReforms):
She said that knocking down doors in the middle of the night to tear mothers and fathers from their children is un-American. We agree. Unsurprisingly, right-wing radio hosts and TV commentators have launched a full-...
Pelosi doubles down! Family separating raids are "not the American way"; illegal aliens make U.S. "more American" - 03/19/09
Earlier today, Nancy Pelosi spoke at the U.S.-Mexico Border Issues Conference and did not back down from her earlier comments in which she said that immigration raids that result in family separation are "un-American" (her press release here).
In effect, Pelosi seeks to replace our current immigration laws with a "Pelosi Rule": if you come here illegally and have a child, you get to stay. Needless to say, this would have the impact of greatly encouraging future illegal immigration. And, the comprehensive immigration reform she supports supposedly mandates increased enforcement; does anyone...
ACLU controlling Obama policy? ("Transition Recommendations" wants most immigration enforcement halted, + much more) - 03/17/09
In November, the American Civil Liberties Union released "Actions For Restoring America: Transition Recommendations for President‐Elect Barack Obama" (aclu.org/transition) listing things they wanted him to do the first day, within the first 100 days, and within the first year. Several of their proposals would halt immigration enforcement to a great extent, pending "review".
Nancy Pelosi: immigration enforcement separating families is "un-American" (Luis Gutierrez, Kelly Zito) - 03/08/09
Kelly Zito of the San Francisco Chronicle offers a heavily-biased, untrustworthy article ("Pelosi: End raids splitting immigrant families", link) about yesterday's "National Family Unity" event in San Francisco. That's part of a national tour designed to press for comprehensive immigration reform that's sponsored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and led by Luis Gutierrez.
Because Zito doesn't provide full quotes and because she doesn't even once use the word "illegal" or even "undocumented", it's not clear just how stupid the remarks from Nancy Pelosi were:
"Our future is about our...
Janet Napolitano orders review of first immigration raid under Obama; bye bye raids - 02/26/09
After barely doing any immigration raids for several years, the Bush administration began enforcing the laws at workplaces in an attempt to get comprehensive immigration reform.
Now, Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security is sending the message that the Barack Obama administration isn't even going to do show raids (link):
Immigration agents this week conducted their first work-site raid since President Barack Obama took office [at Yamato Engine Specialists in Bellingham, WA], but it was news to their boss, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who on Wednesday ordered...
DHS fugitive teams mostly picked up non-fugitives (why is Nina Bernstein telling us this? MPI, Wishnie) - 02/03/09
Nina Bernstein of the New York Times (a paper part-owned by a Mexican billionaire) offers "Despite Vow, Target of Immigrant Raids Shifted" (link).
In a way, it's a two part story.
In the first part, there's the story itself, with the not-so-news news is that the targets of fugitive raids by the Department of Homeland Security shifted from dangerous criminals into whatever illegal aliens they found, including those who had not been convicted of crimes.
In the second part, the question becomes, why are Bernstein and all the other not-so-fine people mentioned telling us this, and why does it...
Postville: Feds go after Rubashkin trademarks, other property - 12/11/08
Sad, sad news for those who want to profit from illegal activity:
Federal authorities have upped the ante for Agriprocessors and four former members of plant management. Not only will the parties face the penalties originally outlined in a Nov. 21 indictment, but they may have to forfeit a host of items that have been defined as proceeds of criminal activity.
The modified indictment, which was filed today in federal court in Cedar Rapids, specifies that the Agriprocessors, Inc. corporate name, trademarks and corporate stock are subject to forfeiture. The trademarks would include such well-...
Luis Gutierrez will push Obama to pass immigration "reform", calls for end to immigration raids (Joe Baca) - 12/05/08
From this:
Flanked by hundreds of immigrants and their family members, an Illinois congressman called for a halt Thursday to immigration raids and vowed to push for a comprehensive overhaul that President-elect Barack Obama can sign into law.
Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Chicago, the House sponsor of a 2007 bill that failed, told a crowd of more than 200 on Capitol Hill that he would work to ensure that Mr. Obama follows through on his campaign promise to sign an immigration overhaul in the first year of his presidency.
Presumably many or most of those "immigrants" were actually...
John McCain at National Council of La Raza convention (charter schools, immigration "reform") - 07/14/08
[UPDATE: Did McCain pledge to stop immigration raids?]
Yesterday, Barack Obama spoke at the National Council of La Raza convention. Today, it's John McCain's turn to pander to that far-left, extremist-funding, racist-awarding group, and his prepared remarks are here.
"La Raza runs one of the largest housing counseling programs in the country that has helped tens of thousands of Latinos become homeowners with secure mortgages."
Yes, indeed. And, they've made it quite clear that that or a similar program is racially-specific.
He then says that he's an "unapologetic supporter of NAFTA, the...
Senator Bob Menendez uses alleged ICE abuses to hamper immigration enforcement (SPLC, NYT) - 06/16/08
Senator Robert Menendez is a racial demagogue who supports massive Hispanic immigration (of any kind) in order to obtain political power. His latest trick to oppose immigration enforcement was a speech he gave on the Senate floor last week [1] in which he made several inflammatory statements about the government he supposedly works for and highlighted rare examples of abuses - some merely alleged - by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He also promised legislation concerning this issue. You can view the speech here and here.
From the inflammatory side of things, he refers to agents...
Fabian Nunez, Mexico-linked Peter Schey, American Apparel join to support illegal immigration - 04/29/08
Yesterday, California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez held a press conference at the headquarters of American Apparel to oppose workplace raids and thus support illegal immigration. Also on hand was AA's attorney Peter Schey, someone with at least a few links to the Mexican government. Nunez is also a co-chair of the Hillary Clinton campaign, so asking her about his activities is highly recommended. From the Tiffany Hsu report (link; like Anna Gorman she doesn't mention Schey's links):
"The last thing we need is to bring the type of disruption to our economy that could ultimately lead us into...
Hundreds arrested at Pilgrim's Pride plants (immigration raids, identity theft) - 04/16/08
Hundreds of illegal aliens and presumably others were arrested today at Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plants in Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, and West Virginia (link). The company participated in the E-Verify program and cooperated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The arrests were for identity theft and document fraud in addition to being illegal aliens and/or criminal aliens.
Swift meatpacking raid: manager pleads guilty, may testify against higher-ups - 03/26/08
In December, 2006, Swift & Co.'s meatpacking plants in various cities were raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in what was probably a show raid.
Now, one of their former managers has pleaded guilty (link):
Christopher Lamb is a human resources manager at Swift & Company. He was arrested last summer after authorities recorded him coaching an illegal immigrant on how to use fake documents to get hired... In his plea, Lamb also admitted hiding an illegal immigrant at the plant from June 3rd to June 25th.
The real story will hopefully be this:
He is now expected to give...
Mexico-linked Junta sues feds over New Haven immigration raids - 08/11/07
Junta for Progressive Action is a New Haven, Connecticut-based non-profit that is or was collaborating with the Mexican government. They were headed by someone named Kica Matos, who now works for the city and has other links to mayor John DeStefano.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz' monument to low wages, illegal activity - 08/08/07
From [1]:
On August 8, a first anniversary commemoration of the raid at Star Packaging will unveil a mock Wisconsin Historical Marker at the site and formally declare the factory's empty shell "a monument to the nation's broken immigration system".
Wednesday's 10am press conference, to be held outside the factory, will begin with the unveiling and be followed by brief addresses from speakers including Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Jorge Islas, Vice President of Sigma America, and workers affected by the raid.
[Newman-Ortiz says:] "One year later,...
WFMOJALI: New Haven's John DeStefano to file complaint over ICE raid - 06/12/07
The fourth edition of WFMOJALI ("Working for Mexico, or just acts like it?") features New Haven, Connecticut mayor John DeStefano, who's affiliated with the former leader of an organization that's collaborating with the Mexican government. ICE recently conducted raids in that city, and now DeStefano says he'll file a complaint with the DHS (Department of Homeland Security):
He said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents failed to notify local authorities of the operation and lacked search warrants. "They pushed into homes without warrants," DeStefano said. "This was just very aggressive...
ICE raids New Haven (John DeStefano + Mexico) - 06/06/07
Drudge is linking to the story about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arresting dozens of illegal aliens in New Haven, Connecticut earlier today. This is apparently part of their occasional sweeps of fugitives and criminal aliens.
Chertoff: won't do job; going after bloggers; will stage show raids to inflame left - 05/24/07
DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, in a meeting with the editorial board of USA Today, admitted that he's not going to do the job he's supposed to be doing, said that the White House will be creating a "rapid response" team to counter criticism from the MSM and from bloggers, and implied that those immigration raids that he'll be conducting in the future will be designed to inflame the left and other illegal immigration supporters.
Bottom line: Congress should try to get him fired. Since it's clear that he has not and will not do his job, that should be easy. Except, of course, most of them...
Halt immigration raids, say local leaders - 04/26/07
Washington Examiner/Scott McCabe/[[April 26, 2007]]/ link
Immigrants rally for rights, unity - 04/02/07
Dallas Morning News/Dianne Solis,Stella Chavez, Katherine Leal Unmuth (contributed)/[[April 2, 2007]]/ link
Commerce chief defends raids - 03/31/07
Dallas Morning News/Dianne Solis/[[March 22, 2007]]/ link
Subtitle: Drain on labor force illustrates need for legalized path, he says
Describes the same press conference as Secretary calls for reform
Looking back, moving ahead - 03/24/07
Los Angeles Times/Teresa Watanabe/[[March 24, 2007]]/ link
subtitle: Organizers of last year's huge immigrant rights rally in L.A. reflect on successes and goals as they ready for Sunday's anniversary events.
CNN Lou Dobbs transcript 032007 - 03/21/07
link
...A pro-amnesty group tonight is threatening to form a human chain around the federal building in Los Angeles. All of that to protest what it calls the Bush administration's terror campaign against illegal aliens.
...CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The groups behind last year's pro-illegal alien amnesty demonstrations are organizing new marches and boycotts to pressure federal authority to stop deporting illegal aliens.
JAVIER RODRIGUEZ, MARCH 25 COALITION: We need 1,000 people to encircle the immigration headquarters, ICE headquarters, the federal building, to send our...