Flagstaff ICE Agents Served With Deportation Notice

Creative activism from allies in Coconino County. Members of Flagstaff Immigrant Rights Enforcement (FIRE) served the following notice of deportation to ICE agents:

Notice served on this, the 4th day of December, 2008 by Flagstaff Immigrant Rights Enforcement (FIRE) for the immediate deportation from the Flagstaff area of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and officials.

FIRE charges ICE with the following activities deemed criminal and in violation of human rights. These activities include but are not limited to:

1. Terrorizing entire communities resulting in the destruction of over 34,000 families within the last year alone, including most recently, 16 persons within the immediate Flagstaff area.
2. Causing fear that has extended into the hearts of our community’s children, who, due to your presence, live in constant trauma of returning to an empty home.
3. Taking no meaningful measures to ensure the well-being of those impacted by family members’ deportation.
4. Perpetuating institutionalized racism and practicing racial profiling.
5. Aiding and abetting border militarization on both sides of the US- Mexico border.
6. Creating and upholding the myth of “illegal human beings”.
7. Enforcing and benefitting from a global economic system that criminalizes labor and creates deathly low wages.
8. Enforcing immigration policies on borders drawn on indigenous lands.
9. Misappropriation of taxpayer funds for aforementioned terrorist activity while education, health care, and housing services

Video:

via National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

 

More Than Soundbites on Immigration Reform

Over the past few years and beyond, political leaders of all levels – local, county, state and federal – licked their chops as they calculated which issues to focus on in order to win an election and gain power. Ideology and party registration often has little to do with their decisions, because if they or any of their advisors get a whiff that a certain topic would be political danger from them, the item either gets conveniently ignored, spin-dried and sanitized, or in the case of supposed allies, entire communities get stabbed in the back.

Regarding an overhaul of the immigration system in the United States, it’s been written many times here that it is not a latino/latina issue; yet it is an undeniable truth that our communities are feeling the brunt of hardliner policies. When you have pundits and legislators equating our diverse culture with a citizenship test, or interchanging the terms hispanic/latino/illegal/criminal/invader/terrorist/gang-banger/etc., you can bet that groups and leaders advocating for our equal place in society will be demanding an end to such institutionalized bigotry and fear-mongering.

With the 2008 Presidential Election in full swing, the Editorial Board of The Sanctuary developed and distributed a candidate questionnaire to the campaigns that would give us some substance on how a White House under their direction would overhaul the immigration system, handle border policies, and collaborate with other countries on trade and economics. It has been nearly three weeks since we made contact with the Barack Obama and John McCain camps, and we have yet to hear an answer to any of our queries. We’ve also reached out to third party candidates because the U.S. is a democracy and they will appear on many ballots, whether the two parties that have the most money like it or not.

To any campaign operatives reading here or at the various Sanctuarysphere sites that are sponsoring the questionnaire, know that we want more than just promises and soundbites from our next President on what they will do with respect to immigration reform. This questionnaire covers a wide range of topics related to it, and it would be to your advantage to educate your candidate and staff on the implications of many of these decisions and how they disproportionately affect latino/latina communities across the United States. I recommend a perusal of our blog archives if you need a crash course on what that has looked like in the past.

This is all the more pressing as both McCain and Obama take the time to speak to conventions such as the League of United Latin American Citizens, National Council de la Raza, and Unity ’08 where immigration will most certainly come up in their speeches and conversations this month. These groups and initiatives represent a part of “hispanic” and other POC communities that has suddenly become so sought after for votes, and we represent another. Your campaigns may not be getting millions of dollars from our sites, but many of us do march in the streets and cast our ballots in elections regularly.

Immigration reform is one of those topics that should be a human rights issue, but often gets treated like the next coming of Osama bin Laden. It conveniently fattens the military- and prison-industrial complexes and further racializes United States society. There are many of us who would like to know how you will be dealing with it all come January 20, 2009, after yet another string of failures by the Bush regime.

Gracias.

Más Información:

• SanctuarySphere Sites that developed the questionnaire and are promoting it:

• American Humanity
• CrossLeft
• Culture Kitchen
• Citizen Orange
• DREAM Act Texas
• Latina Lista
• Latino Político
• Migra Matters
• ¡Para Justicia y Libertad!
• Problem Chylde
• The Unapologetic Mexican
• Vivir Latino
• Zuky

• A small sample of the questions:

• 7. Do you support the “touchback” requirements of previous comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation that would require undocumented immigrants to return to their countries of origin in order to normalize their status?

• 17. Do you support the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act, the bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop procedures to ensure adequate medical care for all detainees held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)?

• 23. Would you support the incorporation of requirements that would tie
  both future economic aid and trade agreements to substantive benchmarks
  in sender nations that would alleviate some of the economic and
  humanitarian conditions that foster continued migration?

• 36. How do you address the overwhelming amount of money the U.S. federal
  government spends on defense and military expenditures, at home and
  abroad, and would you see to it that less money is spent on
  militarization and more money is spent on social programs?

• Link to full questionnaire

 

More U.S. Citizens Being Targeted by ICE

Just another reminder that we did not make this a racial issue – they did, and have for centuries.

Washington — Marie Justeen Mancha was home alone in Southeast Georgia when four federal agents stormed into her house, shouting “police! Illegals!”

“My heart just dropped,” she said. “When the tall man reached for his gun, I just stood there feeling so scared.”

Mancha, a Mexican-American U.S. citizen from Reidsville, told her story Wednesday to members of a House subcomittee as it looked into reports that U.S. citizens had been questioned, detained and in one case even deported in federal Immigrations and Custom Enforcement raids.

Mancha was a 15 -year-old high school honors student at the time of the September 2006 raid on her home, which occurred in conjunction with an ICE raid at a poultry plant in nearby Stillmore. She and her mother, also a U.S citizen, are among plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging that ICE targeted people based on their appearance.

linkage

 

Operation Tamale

This is so offensive and vile that I can’t even muster the words to convey an appropriate rant.

Apparently making tamales is a job that many Americans want. Monday in its continuing effort to insure that Americans can have Tamale making jobs ICE raided an American Tamale factory and deported twenty-one workers. To add insult to injury ICE agents named the raid “OPERATION TAMALE”.

More from Nuestra Voice

 

ICE Gestapo Strikes Long Island

Another workplace raid, another example in the endless list of examples of ICE agents shoving policies and procedures into the circular file.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. – Federal agents displayed a “cowboy” mentality while running roughshod over local police officers _ at times pointing their weapons at cops _ and ensnared more suspected illegal aliens than targeted gangsters in raids on Long Island last week, officials said Tuesday.

“There were clear dangers of friendly fire,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said. “We did have members that were actually drawn upon.”

linkage

Also, true to form, they racially profiled people as they cast their nets.

In one case, Mulvey said, “ICE sought a 28-year-old defendant using a photograph taken when he was a 7-year-old boy.”

Any guesses on how they kinda sorta perhaps i think so maybe indentified their target? If skin color didn’t have anything to do with it, then call me Pancho Clause and get me ready for La Navidad.

 

Another ICE raid in Cactus, TX

Here’s a clip from Amarillo.com (subscription required):

CACTUS – Most days during the week, the Cactus Branch Library has 30 to 40 children reading books or playing on the computer.

But Tuesday, only about four children were inside the now quiet library.

It’s usually not this quiet, said Lety Lara, the branch librarian.

This day, it was different.

Most people hid in their homes, keeping their children close to them, Lara said.

That’s because Immigration Customs and Enforcement officials came to town, she said.

Their return to town came almost seven months after a December raid that led to the arrests of 295 undocumented immigrants.

ICE officials entered the Swift plant in Cactus before 9 a.m. and arrested at least two people. Government and company officials said Tuesday’s raid was part of a continued investigation into illegal immigration and identity theft that spurred the Dec. 12 raid.

Lara, who was outside the plant early Tuesday, and other Cactus residents described seeing two white vans along with about 10 to 14 ICE officials at the plant. A plane circled overhead while agents were at the facility.

“Everybody is stopping everybody,” Lara said. “Everyone is making sure the word is out.”

Carl Rusnok, an ICE spokesman in Dallas, said Tuesday’s action was part of an ongoing look into undocumented immigrants at the plant.

Rusnok did not say how many employees were detained, and no specific details on what spurred Tuesday’s enforcement action were released. ICE officials said more details should be forthcoming today.

Sean McHugh, a spokesman for Swift, confirmed the two arrests but did not immediately know the employees’ names. He said that there were no disruptions to the operations at the facility Tuesday.

ICE officials also descended on Swift facilities in Greeley, Colo., Marshalltown, Iowa, and Worthington, Minn., McHugh said. At least one person was arrested at the Marshalltown pork facility, McHugh said.

[snip]

Lara said the streets of Cactus have been noticeably quiet since the raids and a devastating tornado in April that destroyed at least 70 homes in the town.

“This morning it has been quiet, even the streets are quiet,” said Lara, whose house and five cars were destroyed in the tornado.

“I am crying now that I know that they (the ICE officials) are gone. I hope they didn’t take anybody.”

At this point the story is still pretty fresh (I don’t recall news coverage from yesterday evening, but have noticed televised coverage as of this morning). Last time ICE was in town, not only was the Swift meatpacking facility raided, but anyone looking even remotely Hispanic was being stopped and hassled by authorities. If you read through the rest of the article, you’ll find that ICE officials are still using the same spin they used last time around.

As time permits I’ll try to update y’all with any news that might make its way to me. Obviously, if by chance a person from Cactus is reading this blog and would wish to contact me with an account of what went down I’d be more than willing to help spread the word.

Paz.

Originally posted at The Left End of the Dial v2.0.