Republicans like Jan Brewer Utilize Scare Tactics to Demonize Freed Latino Immigrants while Revealing True Reason for their Anger! Loss of Filled Private Prison Beds!!!

Jan Brewer unwittingly revealed the real reason right wing Republicans are ANGRY over the release of low-risk detainees. They are angry because of the loss of FILLED Private Prison beds! Brewer said, “The news is especially concerning when coupled with DHS' acknowledgment today that it may not be able to maintain operation of 34,000 immigration jail beds, as mandated by Congress.”

Her statement reveals the True Reason for all of this Republican angst. Their friends in the Private Prison business are losing their government funding with every unfilled bed. These Big Business Owners pay their Republican Political Puppets plenty of campaign dollars to keep their Prisons full! Over the last few years, Arizona's Department of Corrections awarded more contracts for expansions of private prisons ordered by state lawmakers and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer.

Brewer considers these Latino Border Crossers as “jail bed occupants.” The Private Prison Owners pay big $$ to the Political Action Committees of many Republican politicians, particularly in Southern Border States like Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Atlanta and North Carolina – the states with Republican Governors and loaded with Private Prisons and their Lobbyists.

Now that sequester is underway and many government departments are forced to slash their costs, it is not surprising that the Department of Homeland Security has released two thousand detainees with plans to release 5,000 more by March 31, bringing the number down to 25,748 (as reported by AP). The detainees who are released are still expected to appear in Immigration Court when scheduled and potentially may be deported.

The Department of Homeland Security currently has 30,733 Immigrants in Detention Centers. The cost to house these detainees is $164 a day for each detainee. This equals a savings of approximately $60,000 for each detainee and approximately $2 Billion a year for the detainee population.

Though it is the Republican Party that is demanding the sequester budget cuts, they are talking out of both sides of their mouths! They are vocally opposing these releases even though these actions will save the country billions. Republicans Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Mike McCaul of the Homeland Security Committee, as well as Sen. Dan Coats of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary committee are all attacking Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security for these releases. They are claiming these uncharged, primarily Latino Immigrants, who have no criminal records, will terrorize the streets upon their release. This is a Lie and a Scare Tactic, painting these Latino Immigrants as the Boogey Man. Those that are being released are NOT felonious criminals. They are students, passengers in cars, workers, many of them caught up in “Suppression Sweeps” in Latino neighborhoods – as often occurs in sleepy Arizona towns.

These Republican zealots are spouting the Tea Party rhetoric. They are spewing the views of the ANTI-Latino Hate Groups including F.A.I.R, NumbersUSA and Alipac who have pushed these scare attacks against Latinos for years. Republican Politicians are Lying to the American Public about SCARY LATINOS ROAMING THE STREETS AND TERRORIZING TOWNS. 

What is mind boggling is that Republicans claim they are the party that wants to cut costs, yet they are willing to waste $2 Billion Dollars a year to detain Latino Students and Workers. Their antics make you shake your head and wonder why. These Republicans are alienating Latino Voters now and in the future.

Due to Sequestration, ICE Frees Hundreds of Non-Felonious Detainees in a Budget-Saving Move!

We can thank Republicans for the Sequester on Friday. This started in 2011 when they refused to raise the debt ceiling. Even though raising the debt ceiling "for funds we already spent" was never held hostage before, Republicans insisted on a guarantee of payment – this resulted in the Sequester recommendation. Now that the Sequester is here, some Republicans are attempting to blame the President for this recommendation. They must think that WE THE PEOPLE have short memories.  The President and Senate Democrats have proposed a balanced approach to resolving this crisis, but once again, Republicans REFUSE to even consider it.
The debt ceiling arguments in mid-2011 caused a HUGE DROP in the stock market. We can expect the same with Sequestration on Friday.

While some Republicans bellyache about cuts to the over-bloated Military Budget, Sequestration will have a particularly harmful effect on Minorities, the Elderly, Children and the Middle to Lower Income Americans.

The first to be impacted will be:

1.       The Unemployed: Those who have been on unemployment benefits for over six months may lose some or all of their continuing benefits. Additionally, Workforce Development programs will be reduced or cut.  Jobs Creation and Infrastructure Rebuilding Programs: Funds may be cut. Programs stopped.

2.       The Poor: Housing Programs: Section 8 programs cut. Home Energy Assistance, including winter heat bills programs cut. Cuts to WIC, Food Stamps, Nutrition Programs for Children Cut.

3.      Middle to Lower Income Employees: Federal, State, City Jobs -- Expect Teachers, Firefighters, Policemen and Border Security layoffs.

4.       Education: Student Loans programs cut. Financial Aid programs cut. School Programs from Head Start to College Mentoring programs cut.

In addition to these cuts, in preparation of the impending Sequestration, starting last Thursday, Federal Immigration officials have released hundreds of non-felonious criminal detainees from immigration detention centers around the country. The move has been put in place to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington. (One positive  aspect to the Sequestration that Republicans will surely hate!)

Federal Judge Upholds Immigrants' Right to Remain Silent on Status

BREAKING NEWS:
U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren granted the government's motion to dismiss charges against Ortiz-Del Rio with prejudice, meaning the same charges cannot be filed again. Ortiz-Del Rio had been charged with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship. Ortiz-Del Rio happened to be in an apartment where another man was being arrested. The police took one look at Ortiz-Del Rio and, with no warrant or cause, arrested him, assuming he was "illegal." Another judge ruled in April that armed federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement lacked reasonable suspicion when they detained Ortiz-Del Rio in what amounted to custodial questioning after happening to find him in the apartment.

Immigration agents often arrest people other than those they target when they come across them, especially during raids on private residences. Once called by immigration officials "collateral," ICE officials often defended the controversial practice by saying that they were obligated to take action when they come across people -- other than their original "target" -- who could be in the country illegally.

That has prompted immigration advocacy groups across the country to advise immigrants to remain silent and not open their doors when immigration officials come knocking. The groups say that when ICE rounds up others in the course of pursuing their "targets," it is violating Fourth and Fifth amendment rights. Many groups have set up hotlines that they tell immigrants to call if ICE agents knock on their door.

Melgren noted that Ortiz-Del Rio was ordered out of a bedroom, asked to sit on the floor and repeatedly questioned about where he was born. Any responses Ortiz-Del Rio gave at the time -- in the absence of the Miranda warning about self-incrimination -- must be suppressed, Melgren ruled. He also said any subsequent statements the suspect made when taken to the ICE station for processing must also be suppressed as "fruit of the poisonous tree."

Racial Profiling Sheriff Arpaio Says: ICE "Just Don't Want Me Anymore!"

Preliminary reports indicate Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have chosen not to renew their federal immigration arrest authority agreement (287(g) with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpiao indicated he will no longer be able to complete his "suppression sweeps" however he continues to maintain his authority over the jails. Apraio said of the changes, "this (ICE agreement) just includes the jail, and deep down, I feel that I ought to take it and rip it all up," Arpaio said. Federal officials also refused to comment further.

Under the new agreement deputies and detention officers could continue screening individuals once they are booked into the Maricopa County jail, but federal authorities had not offered to allow Arpaio's street-level "suppression sweeps" to continue. The Racial Profiling Sheriff said in a radio interview last night: "They (ICE) just don't want me, I'm the poster boy," snarled Arpaio. "I say, `they,' that's the Obama administration, the White House, certain members of congress, certain politicians here, [DHS honcho Janet] Napolitano, don't want me enforcing the 287 federal immigration laws on the streets. So they came down here last week. I shocked them by signing both parts of that agreement, on the streets and in the jails. They sent their top guy down the next day -- he took away my street operations and stuck us with the jails."

Without an agreement that authorizes immigration "suppression sweeps" screenings on the street, deputies will need probable cause to detain a suspected illegal immigrant until federal agents can determine the suspect's immigration status.

"He's not going to be able to arrest people for those kind of routine civil-immigration violations," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Arizona. The news was met with cautious optimism at the ACLU, which is working with plaintiffs in two lawsuits that accuse Arpaio's deputies of racial profiling in the normal course of their duties and in the "crime-suppression operations" the Sheriff's Office has conducted during the past 18 months.

A Republic analysis of arrest records from 10 of the sheriff's crime-suppression operations showed that MORE THAN HALF of the illegal immigrants arrested during the sweeps were held on federal immigration violations and hadn't committed another crime. During a crime-suppression operation in Chandler this summer, ICE agents told sheriff's deputies that they could not arrest suspected illegal immigrants who met that criteria and instead had to free them after giving them a "notice to appear" at ICE for processing.
References:
Sheriff Arpaio may lose some immigration authority
arpaio defiant on 287(g)

Reverse Border Security: Napolitano Does It Right!

Janet Napolitano, President Obama's head of Homeland Security, has made a shift in Immigration policy. While Border Patrol Agents are still assigned to stopping drugs and illegal immigrants from entering the United States, hundreds of additional agents are being redeployed to stop the weapons and cash that flow into Mexico.

In a speech before the newest agents arriving in Laredo, TX, Napolitano said, “You know, early this week I met with President Obama, and this morning I met with President Calderón of Mexico, and you guys are at the cutting edge of something new we’re trying to do to make the border safer.”

Ms. Napolitano’s initiative to send an additional 360 agents to the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, announced two weeks ago, is intended not only to respond to growing concerns about national security, she said, but also to change the way Americans view the threat.
“We understand that this port needs to move, that time is money, especially when it comes to trade,” said Ms. Napolitano, standing in the shadow of a line of tractor-trailers that extended as far as the eye could see. “But from now on, when trucks come into this port, they are going to see something they haven’t seen before, and that’s southbound inspections.”

Ms. Napolitano rarely uses the word terrorism, and she has said she does not intend to practice the “politics of fear.” She has said her agency will devote as much attention to preparing for natural disasters as for “man-caused disasters,” her euphemistic term for terrorism. She made public her disapproval of an immigration raid of a mechanics shop in Washington State, freed the immigrants who had been detained, and gave them work permits. Her actions sent a signal that future enforcement would focus on employers who rely on illegal immigrants, rather than on the workers.
While on the border, Ms. Napolitano has essentially turned previous policies upside-down, warning Americans that what leaves the country is as much a risk to their security as what comes in.
Ms. Napolitano has begun making changes at Homeland Security and revealed how some of her own views have shifted since she took her new job. Ms. Napolitano was once a leading opponent of the Bush administration’s decision to build some 600 miles of fencing along the border. In an interview, she said she had come to see that the fence has “helped us get operational control of some areas.” As governor, she was among the first to call for the deployment of the National Guard to help stop smuggling. Now, she said, “minds were open” to a request for troops from Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, a Republican. But she said she wanted Mr. Perry to explain how the troops would be used.

During her visit in Laredo, Ms. Napolitano learned that the heightened border security southbound into Mexico might already be yielding results. A few hours before her arrival, the authorities conducting southbound inspections stopped an American couple and a 5-year-old child in a car carrying 10 grenades, nearly $122,000 in cash, a barrel for a sniper rifle and a cache of high-caliber ammunition, officials said.
The man told the authorities that he was a former Marine and that he had obtained the weapons from a military friend linked to drug smugglers in Michigan, officials said. Climbing aboard her airplane to return to Washington, Ms. Napolitano boasted, “We said we were going to do this, and we’re doing it.”
References:
A Shift to Make the Border Safe, From the Inside Out

Border Patrol Officer Sues Homeland Security for an Unlawful Search of His Home!

How Ironic! ICE invaded a Border Patrol agent's home by mistake and he sues ICE because they refuse to explain or apologize! Now he knows how countless Latinos in the area feel when they are racially profiled and their cars and/or homes are unlawfully searched with NO Apology!

kswt.com reports:

CBP Officer Sues Homeland Security for Violating Rights

A Customs and Border Protection officer says the Department of Homeland Security violated his constitutional rights. Jim Slaughter and his wife Sheila were doing laundry last July when a group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up on their doorstep looking for a fugitive.
"My wife said is this candid camera and that kind of ticked him off a little bit and he says no mam you need to step back," says Jim. The couple claims they were ordered to stand in the middle of their living room as agents were about to search their home.
"I said do you realize I'm a U.S. Customs K-9 officer at San Luis, Arizona and they all just froze. The lead agent, his eyes got real big, and he's like what? You are?" In fact Jim has worked for CBP for seven years. He says the agents immediately retreated.
In March, Jim's attorney filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security citing a violation of the fourth ammendment for protection against unreasonable searches. "You must have probable cause or a warrant to enter a home in America," explains attorney Robert Cook. "He had five armed cops and he understood and respected the firepower that was in his living room." The Slaughters are seeking $500,000 from each defendant. The couple also claims the incident aggravated Sheila's hypertension. "Here they invaded my home, think of this, my children weren't home. What if my husband hadn't of been home? What would they have done to me?" says Sheila. Jim says he filed the suit because ICE officials have refused to explain or apologize for the mix-up.

Associated Press Study Proves ICE Detention Centers Inhumane, Violate their own Standards and Cost Taxpayers Billions!

AP/USA Today reports: (summary)
An Associated Press computer analysis conducted in Jan. 2009 indicates the total detainee population of 32,000, most in crony-owned private prisons. Since 2003, the incarceration expenses for these detainees have nearly doubled to an annual amount of $1.7 billion as furor over "criminal aliens" intertwined with post-9/11 fears and anti-immigrant political rhetoric. The data show nearly 60% (18,690) of the detainees have no criminal conviction, including none for illegal entry or low-level crimes like trespassing. More than 400 of those with no criminal record had been incarcerated for at least a year. A dozen had been held for three years or more; one man from China had been locked up for more than five years. Nearly 10,000 had been in custody longer than 31 days -- the average detention stay that ICE cites as evidence of its effective detention management. Especially tough bail conditions are exacerbated by disregard or bending of the rules regarding how long immigrants can be detained. Based on a 2001 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, ICE has about six months to deport or release immigrants after their case is decided, however that deadline is routinely missed. In the system snapshot provided to the AP, 950 people were in that category.
Most detainees have not had their day in court, are not provided a lawyer, are not classified as prisoners, nor are they allowed to post bond, even those with no criminal record. U.S. taxpayers pay about $141 a night for each detainees to these crony owned private prisons. The use of detention to ensure immigrants show up for immigration court comes at a high cost compared to alternatives like electronic ankle monitoring, which can track people for an average daily cost of $13 per day and, per ICE stats, has an almost perfect compliance rate. Taxpayers are grossly overpaying political cronies for inhumane, understaffed and vermin/disease infested private prisons.
Examples of Detainees: an honors student who was raised in Orlando, Fla.; a convenience store clerk who begged to go back to Canada; and a Pentecostal minister who was forcibly drugged by ICE agents after he asked to contact his wife, according to court records.
Many Detainees are Asylum Seekers vs Illegal Immigrants:
Immigration lawyers note that substantial numbers of detainees, from 177 countries in the data provided, are not illegal immigrants at all. Many of the longest-term non-criminal detainees are asylum seekers fighting to stay here because they fear being killed in their home country. Others are longtime residents who may be eligible to stay under other criteria, or whose applications for permanent residency were lost or mishandled, the lawyers say.
Still other long-term detainees include people who can't be deported because their home country won't accept them or people who seemingly have been forgotten in the behemoth system, where 58 percent have no lawyers or anyone else advocating on their behalf.
-----------------
Longer Detention Means More Taxpayer Money for Cronies:
But even giving up, or winning a claim, doesn't always spell freedom for detainees because ICE acts as police officer, arraignment judge, jailer and prosecutor. It has sole jurisdiction over when a detained immigrant is sent back after a deportation order is issued, and can continue to hold immigrants while it appeals a decision that didn't go its way. In 2007, an immigration judge ruled that Samuel Kambo, a former energy minister of Sierra Leone who had a master's degree and no criminal history, should be granted permanent residency after being detained for eight months. But ICE continued to hold him for four more months while it appealed. Kambo was released only after his lawyer went to federal court and made a successful constitutional challenge.
In another telling case, Ahmad Al-Shrmany, a 34-year-old Iraqi with no appeal pending, begged for a year to be deported and yet remained in detention. He wanted to be allowed to go to his native Iraq or his adopted Canada, where he had been granted asylum a decade ago. A lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition in December that went unanswered. "Just deport me. That's your job," he said in a late January interview with the AP that ICE officials tried to block minutes before it was scheduled at a Houston lockup. Less than a week after the interview, Al-Shrmany was deported to Canada, said his lawyer, Afreen Ahmed. ICE said later the timing of the deportation was "completely coincidental."

Eric Holder Has it Right! Focus on Drug Cartels and Felonious Criminals!

Eric Holder has it right. ICE should focus their energies on Drug Cartels and felonious criminals! All sides agree!

CNN Reports:

Arrests 'crushing blow' to Mexican drug cartel, U.S. officials say

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. investigators have wrapped up a major 21-month drug-enforcement operation aimed at crippling a powerful and violent Mexican cartel operating in the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday. "Enormous amounts of narcotics" have been confiscated in the operation, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Investigators made 52 arrests in overnight raids in California, Minnesota and Maryland, increasing to more than 750 the number of suspects detained in the coast-to-coast operation to disrupt the Sinaloa cartel, Holder said. Drug Enforcement Administration agents said $59 million has been seized in what was dubbed Operation Xcellerator. Holder heralded the operation and vowed to vigorously help the Mexican government battle the powerful cartels. "International drug trafficking organizations pose a sustained, serious threat to the safety and security of our communities," Holder told reporters.

DEA acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, who joined Holder at the Justice Department for the announcement, said the operation dealt "a crushing blow" to the Sinaloa cartel. "We successfully concluded the largest and hardest-hitting operation to ever target the very violent and dangerously powerful Sinaloa drug cartel," she said. Large amounts of illicit drugs, including 12,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine and 1.3 million ecstasy pills, were confiscated in the United States during the operation, Holder said. "These are enormous amounts of narcotics -- drugs otherwise destined for the streets of the United States," Holder said.
In two years, cocaine prices more than doubled, while purity dropped by a third, indicating enforcement efforts are having an impact, Leonhart said. "The result of law enforcement pressure is less cocaine on the streets of the United States. That's why the price has been affected. That's why the purity has been affected," she said.
Holder praised Mexican President Felipe Calderon as "courageous" for his willingness to fight the drug cartels, and noted the estimated 5,000 deaths that resulted from drug battles in that country last year. DEA agents said fierce fighting between the two most powerful Mexican cartels -- the Sinaloa cartel, known as "the Federation," and the Gulf Cartel -- was largely about control of transportation routes for illegal drug trafficking.
Wednesday's announcement comes as increased violence along the Mexican border is prompting concern among state and federal officials in the United States. In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry called on the Department of Homeland Security to send "1,000 more troops" to the border in his state. "I don't care whether they are military troops, or National Guard troops or whether they are customs agents," he said.
Meanwhile in Washington, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee urged Democrats to call a hearing on border violence to highlight the threat. "The recent surge in drug-related violence on the Southwest border has turned some American communities and neighborhoods into the "Wild West," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas.

BREAKING NEWS: Napolitano Said She Didn't Know About The Raid & Orders Investigation!

Late Breaking News: During Congressional Testimony today, Janet Napolitano was asked by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) about the ICE raid in Washington. Napolitano said she had not heard about the raid in advance and was surprised to find out about it this morning. She asked ICE to send her details about it today so she could review why it was carried out. In her testimony, she said enforcement should target employers and felonious criminals versus targetting workers.

The Associated Press reports:

Napolitano orders review of raid at Wash. plant

By MANUEL VALDES – 1 hour ago
SEATTLE (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a review of a raid at a Washington manufacturing plant that ended with the arrests of 28 illegal immigrants. Homeland Security spokesman Sean Smith says Napolitano wants to know why Tuesday's raid occurred and what led up to it.
President Barack Obama, who appointed Napolitano, has signaled for a shift in immigration policy that would rely less on work site enforcement, focusing instead on employers who hire illegal immigrants and overall immigration reform.

Smith says the raid at the Yamato Engine Specialists in Bellingham was the first work site action that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken since Obama took office.
ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers in Seattle declined comment.

Collateral Damage: ICE's Failure to Focus on Felonious Criminals!

A new report from the Migration Policy Institute details the FAILURE of the National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP), led by ICE, to remove fugitive aliens. Even though the NFOP budget has soared from $9M to $218M since 2003, the results have been a reduction of convictions of criminal aliens from 39% to a mere 9%. As I have been reporting for some time, ICE has taken the EASY WAY OUT. They boosted the rate of ICE Raids to meet their NFOP targets. The findings of this report details that ICE has resorted to targetting non-criminals, including seamstresses, meat-packers and technical workers, just to meet their arrest quotas.

The Migration Policy Institute Reports:

Since 2003, no immigration enforcement program has experienced a more dramatic increase in funding, nor expanded its staffing and operations more rapidly, than the National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP). This initiative, led by US Immigration and Customer Enforcement (ICE), a componenet of the US Department of Homeland Secuirty (DHS), is intended to improve national security by locating and removing dangerous fugitive aliens. ICE defines "fugitive" as a person who has been ordered deported, excluded, or removed by an immigration judge, but has not left the country; or one who has failed to report to DHS as required. ICE further distinguishes between those fugitives who have a criminal history or are otherwise dangerous, and those who have no criminal history whatsoever. NFOP dipatches Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs) across the country to arrest fugitives. While NFOP is focuses specifically on residential operations targeted towards fugitives, it is only one of the federal initiatives that result in the apprehension and removal of departable noncitizens, including those with criminal convictions.

The NFOP budget has soared over 23-fold in recent years, from $9 million in fiscal year 2003, its first year of operation, to more than $218 million in FY 2008. Moreover, the program has experienced a 1,300 percent growth in personnel since its inception. ICE estimates that the program has apprehended more than 96,000 persons through FY 2008. At the same time, NFOP has been at the center of many of the country's most controverisal immigration enforcement operations in the past several years...

The report concludes that NFOP has FAILED to focus its resources on the priorities Congress intended when it authorized the program. In effect, NFOP has succeeded in appreheding the EASIEST targets, NOT THE MOST DANGEROUS FUGITIVES. Furthermore, the program's structure and design appear to encourage officers to jeopardize their own safetye alienate communities, and misdirect expensive personnel resources.

ICE needs to more rigorously and comprehensively manage and evaluate the program to ensure that there is appropriate oversight of operations and guidance for FOT officers.

MESSAGE TO JANET NAPOLITANO -- Please read this report and be guided by the report's recommendations!

Breaking News: Dr. Miguel A. Contreras, Former ICE Agent & Founder of Hispanic Law Enforcement Assoc. has Announced Head of I.C.E. Candidacy

Dr. Miguel Angel Contreras has announced he is a candidate for the position of Assistant Secretary, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the position formerly held by Julie Myers. If appointed by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Contreras will report to Secretary Janet Napolitano and Lead the ICE Agency.

Miguel Angel Contreras is the Founder and President of CONTRERAS ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL, LCC and the Founder and Chairmen Emeritus of the Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association. He served with distinction as a Supervisory Criminal Investigator and as a journeyman criminal investigator with Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Customs Service's Offices of Investigations and Internal Affairs (ICE), US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF), US Immigration & Naturalization Service (ICD), and US Defense Investigative Service. He served with the Lansing Police Department as a police officer and corrections officer with the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department, Michigan, in the late 1970s. Dr. Contreras honorably retired from federal law enforcement service on October 4, 2006.

Miguel Angel Contreras was born near Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico and immigrated to the USA in 1968 as a Lawful Alien Permanent Resident (I-151). He worked as a migrant field laborer as a teenager to support his single mother and two brothers.

Dr. Contreras received his Associate Applied of Science degree and Associate in Business at Arizona Western College and Lansing Community College. His Bachelor’s of Art degree in Criminal Justice Administration at Michigan State University and a Master in Theology and Apologetics, and a Doctor of Theology degree at Calvin School of Apologetics & Theology. A Master of Theology in Christian Counseling, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Theology, and a Doctor in Theology in Pastoral Counseling at Northwestern Theological Seminary. He also conducted advanced graduate studies in security management at the University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. In January 2005, he received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Northwestern Theological Seminary.

Reference:

Federal Hispanic Law Enforcement Officers Association

Dr. Miguel A. Contreras Announcement

Mexican Emigration Down 42%

Mexican emigration has dropped 42% and we are at the lowest level in decades. It is time all of the Racial Profiling, heinous Detention Centers and Suppression Sweeps STOPPED!

MSNBC Reports:

Fewer Mexicans leaving homeland
Emigration down sharply; ailing U.S. economy, tighter border cited

MEXICO CITY - Mexican emigration has dropped 42 percent over the last two years, a government study released Thursday showed, confirming that America has become less appealing amid an economic downturn and stepped-up raids against illegal migrants. About eight of every 1,000 Mexicans emigrated between February and May of this year, according to the survey conducted by the National Statistics and Geography Institute. That's a 42 percent drop from the same period in 2006. In all of 2007, an estimated 814,000 Mexicans emigrated, compared to 1.2 million in 2006. The figure — which was reached through household surveys — includes all Mexicans who left the country, and did not break down legal and illegal migration. A summary of the investigation did not delve into the reasons for the drop. But experts say America's economic troubles and tighter border security have deterred many Mexicans from risking the journey to the United States, a trip that often means long desert treks, dodging bandits and bribing corrupt police. The vast majority of Mexican migrants go to the United States.
'No longer an American dream'

The study did not offer statistics past May 2008. But experts expect the trend to continue amid the financial crisis that rattled markets worldwide in September. "There is no longer an American dream, at least for the moment with the economic situation," said Victor Clark, the director of the Tijuana-based Binational Center for Human Rights, which works with illegal migrants. "News of mass raids snowball through towns that send a lot of migrants. In small northern towns, the news is that there is no work for Mexicans in the United States." There have long been indications that Mexican emigration has been falling dramatically. The U.S. Border Patrol has reported a 39 percent drop since 2005 in the capture of migrants trying to cross the frontier illegally. And Mexicans are sending less money home, hurting Mexico's second-largest source of foreign income behind oil exports. Remittances fell 12 percent to $1.9 billion in August, the biggest drop since record-keeping began 12 years ago, according to Mexico's central bank. The statistics are part of the broader 2006-2008 National Survey of Occupation and Employment, which studied 120,000 households.

Going back home

The study found no significant change in the number of Mexicans coming home. But the drop in emigration was so large that by the end of 2007, more Mexicans were returning home than leaving the country, the study said. Some authorities believe Mexican will see a surge of returning migrants as the economy worsens in the United States. Mexico City's municipal government has predicted that up to 30,000 more immigrants than usual will return from the U.S. over the next few months. Other towns across Mexico are also preparing for an influx of returning migrants.

The Day ICE Forgot the Rule of Law! Now, Obama to Review EVERY AGENCY!!

Halloween is a notable day for Julie Myers.
On Halloween, 2008, the AP reported a “federal law enforcement official” said Barack Obama’s aunt was living in the United States illegally. Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone questioned whether ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers may have been the source of the unauthorized leak. On November 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama won the Presidential election, Ms. Myers announced her resignation.
Obama’s “Auntie Zeituni” came to the U.S. legally on a temporary visa in 2000 to join a son who had been accepted at a college in Boston. She applied for political asylum from war torn Kenya. She stayed in legal pending status until a judge turned down her application for asylum in 2004. Auntie Zeituni is working with an Immigration lawyer and continues to fight her deportation order (a civil violation). She resides in a Federally funded apartment leased by a relative living here legally.
When the news of Aunti Zeituni´s immigration status was leaked, ICE acknowledged the leak came from one of their officials and their officials are “prohibited from commenting on any individual’s status or the status of any case.”
The official who leaked this information purposely broke this Federal law in order to influence and corrupt the National Election. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has written to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff requesting an immediate investigation of the leak, which he deemed "deplorable" and said "was not the first leak of law enforcement information apparently designed to influence the Presidential Election."
Myers has been a controversial figure since the day that President Bush nominated her. She was widely criticized as being a CRONY hire, being the daughter of former Air Force Gen. Richard Myers and the wife of Chertoff´s chief of staff and possessing next to no immigration or customs experience.
According to the Washington Post:
More recently, Myers was accused by Democrats of misleading Congress after photographs emerged of Myers at a 2007 Halloween office party honoring a white employee dressed as an escaped prisoner with dreadlocks and makeup that made him look African American or Hispanic. ICE runs the nation's 33,000-bed immigration detention system. Myers subsequently apologized for leaving "a negative impression" of ICE's respect for the people it detains.
Myers has presided over a dramatic increase in enforcement activities (ICE Raids, including Postville, Laurel) and spending at the $5 billion agency, setting records for three fiscal years in arrests of illegal immigrants with criminal records and those violating administrative deportation orders. Actual deportations also soared to record levels during her tenure.
ICE helped drive the political debate over immigration. However, its heavily publicized raids also drew condemnations from civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups, which say ICE violated humanitarian standards and trampled on due process rights by using criminal-style tactics and charges in massive roundups of workers. Myers also oversaw a burgeoning detention system whose growth has led to noncriminal immigrant detainees often being medically neglected.

In light of Myers being unqualified for the job, poor performance and breaking the law, it is good Conyers is pursuing the investigation. Additionally, it is also good the Obama administration will be reviewing the performance of every agency.

As CNN.com reports:

The head of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team said Sunday that the incoming administration is conducting an extensive review of President Bush's executive orders.."I would say that as a candidate, Sen. Obama said that he wanted all the Bush executive orders reviewed and decide which ones should be kept and which ones should be repealed and which ones should be amended, and that process is going on. It's been undertaken," ..he pointed out that there is a lot the president can do without waiting for Congress, and voters can expect to see Obama do so to try and restore "a sense that the country is working on behalf of the common good." "I think that we're looking at -- again, in virtually every agency -- to see where we can move forward..

I hope they further investigate ICE and check into the Crony Owned private prisons for abuses in no bid contracts and the poor treatment of detainees, particularly ICE awarding no bid contracts to the GEO Group: The GEO Group is an international corporation that operates prisons around the country and is frequently in the news for its abuse of prisoners in its care resulting in many preventable deaths. Its operations in Texas have been sharply criticized over poor conditions and the treatment of some of its prisoners.

The GEO Group owns and operates the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA, under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest and primary investigative wing of the United States Department of Homeland Security.

GEO Group is a Major Contributor to the RNC, Bush and McCain campaigns.

The Cronyism and Abuses MUST END!!

Postville: Angry At ICE and Realing from the Devastation the ICE Raid Caused! Part 2: Postville: Nobody Can Tell Me to Shut Up!!

ICE Raids, the Band-Aids meant to soothe the anger of the ANTI Immigration Reform zealots and to fill the crony owned Detention Centers. Supporters of the ICE raids believe these raids help create jobs for American Citizens. They believe the small towns will return to their visions of Mayberry, a lily-white fairy tale that was not real to begin with. Instead, these raids create devastation for the workers and for the towns. A primary example: The Town of Postville, Iowa:

The citizens of Postville are angry at ICE and the mess they made when ICE raided their town in May, 2008. According to Mayor Bob Penrod, the town has been turned "topsy turvy" since hundreds of heavily armed federal immigration agents storm-swooped in a few months ago and raided its main employer, Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant. "It makes a person feel kind of angry," Penrod says. "It's been nothing but a freaky nightmare since May."

At the time, the Postville raid was the largest workforce raid in U.S. history -- the start of a series of large raids across the country. Helicopters buzzed the town, an airplane circled it and agents canvassed the area. Another 300 undocumented workers who weren't at the plant at the time of the raid soon split town with their spouses and children, officials say. In essence, the town lost nearly a third of its residents in a matter of days. "When you have a raid like that, it's just beyond your recognition," Penrod says. "It was nothing like you ever dream of. Believe me. To me, they took a problem that needed a 22-caliber bullet and they dropped a nuclear bomb on us," says Aaron Goldsmith, a Hasidic Jew and former Postville city councilman. "They made a poster child out of Postville." Goldsmith says he believes immigration policy should be dealt with. But if federal officials wanted to correct the immigration situation in Postville, he says, they should've done it step-by-step, not with brute force. "They turned people into cattle," he says. "If they wanted to stop this problem, if they wanted to scare everybody away, all they had to do is go into Los Angeles, California and they could've taken out 1 million people in a day. But they don't because there's too much political clout. "So they go to a place where there's no political backbone. They go to a place where the government's willing to throw us to the dogs."
Down a picturesque tree-lined street off Lawler Street sits St. Bridget's Catholic Church whose pastor, Father Lloyd Paul Ouderkirk, is both soft-spoken and outspoken. It is his church that became a refuge for the town's immigrants the day of the raid and the weeks afterward. "They had attacked this town with a military-style raid -- brought in 900 immigration police to arrest 389 people. I mean, what is that other than a military raid on this town?" he says. Ouderkirk scans his church now, the sun beaming through stained-glass windows. "Can you just imagine all these pews here full of people, sleeping 300-400 people a night?"

Postville residents who spoke say those at Agriprocessors need to be punished if the allegations they face are true. But residents also say the debate over illegal immigration is far more complex than the rhetoric often heard over AM radio or cable TV. They say the Latino residents were productive members of the community who paid taxes, even if under false pretenses, and had been here for years, and that Agriprocessors is key to the survival of the town and region.

"If I had to say anything to anybody about the whole deal: Don't let it go so long that it becomes a huge problem," says Brian Gravel, the principal of Postville High School. But he adds, "Picking on a town of 2,500 people in northeast Iowa is not my idea of a naturalization or immigration policy. You can corner this one plant with federal agents and deport people. That's one way to do it, but that's a good way to ruin towns -- ruin a small northeast Iowa place."
Since that day in May, the Latino population has dwindled, replaced with the homeless, legal immigrants, refugees and legal visitors from countries including Somalia, the Pacific Islands, Russia, and many middle Eastern, non-Christian countries.
The vice president of Palau has journeyed thousands of miles to Postville and offered about 160 of his countrymen for the open jobs at Agriprocessors. Residents of the island nation can legally live and work indefinitely in the United States under a special arrangement with the U.S. government. Some from the Pacific island, where the average temperature year-round is 82 degrees, have already begun arriving. The rest will be coming soon, just in time for the frigid Iowa winter where temperatures dip below zero. Another 125 Somali Muslims, legally classified as refugees, have already moved in. Many have come via the Minneapolis area, as well as Illinois and Texas.
"All of the Somalis came here to work at the plant," says Abdi Hasan, who came to the United States from Somalia five months ago. "I came to look for a job here." He says they've been welcomed by the locals -- "no problems, no mistreatment, no nothing." Hasan gets paid $10 an hour at the "kill house" at Agriprocessors, he says. His only complaint: Not being allowed to say Muslim prayers while at work. "They don't allow it," he says. "That's a problem at times."
Mayor Penrod stands on the sidewalk outside his office. He looks out over Lawler Street, where big rigs rumble and cars freely move about. "What do I love about my city? I love the progress we've made," he says. But now, he says, "Everything is tension based. You can just sense the friction," he says. "I hope I'm wrong."

PART 2: "NOBODY CAN TELL ME TO SHUT UP!

"Nobody can tell me to shut up," says Rev. Lloyd Paul Ouderkirk, the pastor of St. Bridget's Catholic Church in the tiny town of Postville, Iowa. Ouderkirk is outraged at the way federal agents swooped into town and rounded up nearly 400 illegal immigrants on May 12 in a raid on the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors. He's angry at the bosses of the plant who are accused of mistreating workers, including children, and using a workforce that the government contends was 75 percent illegal immigrants. And he's upset that Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and other top state officials haven't set foot in Postville since the raid left the town of 2,400 "bleeding to death." "I think every elected politician -- no exceptions -- should bow their heads in shame," Ouderkirk says. "Upset?! Yeah, I'm upset. I mean give me a break ... If the elected politicians couldn't do any better than this to come up with a good, just immigration law, they should hang their heads in shame."

Ouderkirk isn't the only one complaining. Mayor Bob Penrod said his town has been turned "topsy turvy" since the raid. He too wondered why he hasn't heard from the governor. "Basically all we wanted was some advice on how to deal with some of the situations that keep arising," Penrod says.

"This is no way as a democracy to treat people. I don't care if they are legal or illegal. You don't tear families apart like this," Ouderkirk says. "The women and children we're taking care of right now are no more criminal than people driving down the street breaking the speed limit"...Ouderkirk says he'll keep speaking his mind. He invites vocal opponents of illegal immigration to come to his church and "walk in the shoes" of the immigrants he's helping. He says he's "gotten hate letters like you wouldn't believe. If people have a right to spout off like that, then I have a right to speak in defense of these poor people," he says. "This is a free country. I have a right to speak what I believe in, and I have a right to speak up for poor people whose voice is being denied."

Reference:

CNN.com Mayor: Feds turned my town 'topsy turvy'

CNN.com "Nobody can tell me to shut up!"

ICE Pilot Program: Operation Scheduled Departure August 5 - 22 in Five Cities!

ICE has announced a new Pilot Program titled "Operation Scheduled Departure." This pilot program runs from Aug 5 - Aug 22 in five cities: Santa Ana and San Diego, CA, Phoenix, Chicago and Charlotte, NC. Only illegal immigrants who have been ordered to leave by an immigration judge are eligible to work with ICE officials to ease their deportation. The program will give people up to 90 days to make arrangements to leave the country. "It's a program designed to invite any immigration fugitive with a final deportation order and no criminal record to come into our office and work with us," said Lauren Mack, ICE Spokesman. This is a Pilot Program. If it is successful, ICE will expand it across the country.

New ICE program gives non-criminal fugitive aliens opportunity to avoid arrest and detention

WASHINGTON - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the launch of a pilot program, Scheduled Departure, which will begin in five cities. The program allows fugitive aliens who have no criminal history and pose no threat to the community an opportunity to remain out of custody while they coordinate their removal with ICE..."This program addresses concerns raised by aliens, community groups, and immigration attorneys who say ICE unnecessarily disrupts families while enforcing the law," said Julie L. Myers, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE. "By participating in the Scheduled Departure Program, those who have had their day in court and have been ordered to leave the country have an opportunity to comply with the law and gain control of how their families are affected by their removal."
Initially, the Scheduled Departure Program will run from Aug. 5 to Aug. 22 and may be expanded as ICE continues to evaluate the pilot. Participation in the program ends the risk of sudden arrest and detention for certain non-criminal fugitives. Those with families can particularly benefit from this program. It allows qualifying aliens to make removal arrangements without being held in custody, which will ease their transition and minimize the impact of their removal on their loved ones. In addition, ICE will allow eligible participants to arrange for their families to depart together, should they so desire. Non-criminal fugitive aliens who live in or around Santa Ana, Calif., San Diego, Phoenix, Chicago and Charlotte can visit their local ICE Offices of Detention and Removal Operations to discuss their departure plans. Prior to the launch of this pilot program, most fugitive aliens would have been considered to be a flight risk and so would have remained in custody until their removal. By coming forward and participating in the program, ICE will no longer consider the alien to be a flight risk. There are approximately 572,000 ICE fugitives in the United States, including 457,000 who do not have criminal histories. An ICE fugitive is defined as an alien who has failed to depart the United States based upon a final order of removal, deportation, or exclusion from a U.S. immigration judge, or who has failed to report to ICE after receiving notice to do so. Only non-criminal fugitive aliens are eligible for the program and will be screened by an ICE officer when reporting to verify status. ICE officers will update immigration databases, and explain supervision requirements to eligible aliens. Aliens who qualify would be allowed to remain in the community with a reporting requirement or an electronic monitoring device. Since all situations are unique, an ICE officer will notify the alien of the next steps to take for removal. Aliens who are able to provide for their own removal would have the flexibility to make their own travel arrangements within a 90-day time period. ICE will work with eligible aliens who are not able to provide for their travel; however, ICE will maintain control and schedule the travel arrangements in these specific cases. ICE will allow eligible participants to arrange for their families to depart together. U.S. citizens or aliens with a legal immigration status cannot be removed by ICE from the United States; however the relatives of the non-criminal fugitive alien being removed are welcome to make their own travel arrangements to depart at or around the same time, if they choose to join their relative. These are personal decisions made by each individual family. The agency recognizes there are those less inclined to accept the intentions of such a compassionately conceived enforcement initiative, but remains committed to providing sensible alternatives that balance the welfare of the individuals and families in question with its clear obligation to uphold the law. The Scheduled Departure Program will not alter a participant's immigration status or provide any immigration benefit. The program is not a form of voluntary departure or voluntary return. Participants will continue to have a final order of removal, deportation or exclusion.
Aliens who have not previously been encountered by immigration officials or who have criminal records, or are determined to be a danger to the community are not eligible for this program and may be arrested and taken into custody if they report to ICE.
Next week, a series of print and radio ads in several languages will highlight the program in the pilot locations. Additional information will be also available on www.ice.gov and via a hotline staffed by ICE personnel. Aliens are also encouraged to speak with their consular officials, community groups, or attorneys if they have other questions.

Postville Update: Agriprocessors Free to Stir Up More Trouble in Postville!

Postville was left "absolutely shattered" after last month´s heavily armed worker raids. The workers received swift, cattle barn justice. The employers, however, were left free to continue their abuses, despite hiring a GOP crony-pal "compliance" officer.

The Star Tribune Reports:

"There´s Something Bad In This Town"

Why the raid occurred - from warrant (pg 3):

The federal raid this spring came about based on information from an informant inside the plant who reported witnessing plant managers hire and help workers with fake identity papers. Up to 76 percent of workers did not have correct Social Security numbers, according to the search warrant. The informant also reported seeing managers abuse workers, including hitting one with a meat hook. One manager also ran a scam in which illegal workers were coerced into buying cars from him, the warrant said. Some female employees also have alleged they were sexually coerced by managers, according to St. Bridget's Sister Mary McCauley.

Abuses Continue (page 2, 5):

. New replacement worker Josephina Ortiz, near tears, telling strangers that she came from California based on promises by Agriprocessors of free rent, food and a good job. Instead, she claims, she found a filthy, expensive apartment and mandatory 14-hour days. "Please God, somebody help us," said Ortiz, who is in the United States legally. "There's something bad in this town. I don't know how this can happen in the United States of America."

. Agriprocessors' new hires, whites and African-Americans, who arrived on the bus. They said they'd been promised a $100 advance, but few of them got it. So their first stop was the food shelf (free food bank).

. Diane Morris, who was living in a Texas homeless shelter, said the company promised a free furnished apartment for a month. Instead, she was put in a four-bedroom house with 10 men, she said. "Everywhere I've been I've been sexually approached," she said. She claims she was fired after two days when she went to the company clinic for medications for a mental illness.

. Some new hires have already caused enough trouble at bars that city officials and police have met with the company to demand better screening.

Why protesters are angry (page 3, 4):

"Workers openly say they were advised by the plant on how to get false documents," he said. "Now if the government does not take action on that and charge the owners, then this was strictly a raid to threaten and terrorize people. The situation at Agriprocessors reveals "a lack of respect of human dignity of people other than you," Ouderkirk said. "Politicians who should have been leading the way did nothing."

After the Raids, Only Positive (page 5):

"I'd say the relationship between Hispanics and people who grew up around here has gotten stronger because of this," he said. "The people who have grown up around here suddenly realized [the workers] were real people, too." The town even put up red ribbons on lampposts in support of plant workers. While he abhors the tactics of immigration officials, Ouderkirk says some good may come of their raid. "They brought out the cracks in the dam and the folly of our immigration policy," he said.

Breaking News! Agriprocessors - Exploitation Central - Hires Texas Latino Homeless to Backfill Postfill Jobs!!!

Agriprocessors, the most exploitive employer in American History, has gone beyond the pale! They are invading the Texas streets and collecting the Latino homeless to fill the Postville Agriprocessors jobs. Are these jobs truly work Americans won´t do or is Agriprocessors out to continue to exploit another minority group? (Citizen Latino Homeless)

The Jewish Journal Reports:

NEW YORK (JTA)—In an effort to restore lagging production at its plant in Postville, Iowa, the country’s largest kosher meat producer has been hiring workers from homeless shelters in Texas to replace employees detained in a massive federal immigration raid last month. According to a spokesman for the meat producer Agriprocessors, workers are recruited by a firm in Amarillo, Texas, and sent to Postville. Once there, they are processed by Jacobson Staffing, a Des Moines-based company that screens them for drugs and alcohol and ensures they are legally permitted to work in the United States.
Several officials in Postville say the new arrivals have created problems for the town. Postville Police Chief Michael Halse told JTA that his officers had arrested four plant workers for disorderly conduct this week.
Father Paul Ouderkirk, leader of the local Catholic church, which has played a lead role in helping former workers and their families after last month’s raid, said a mentally challenged woman from Texas had come to his church looking for help with prescription medications. And in an interview Friday with Postville’s local radio station, Diana Morris said she spent three days on a bus from Amarillo only to discover she was expected to live with 10 men in a four-bedroom house that had no electricity or hot water. “Amarillo’s homeless problem has become Postville’s homeless problem,” Jeff Abbas, who runs the KPVL radio station, told JTA.

In a statement Friday to JTA, Jim Martin, Agriprocessors’ newly hired compliance officer, said any allegations that contractors had misled new recruits would be investigated. “We would note that we do not believe that homeless people should be prohibited from applying for employment from Agriprocessors,” Martin added. “In fact, for the appropriate individuals, we welcome the opportunity to offer them the chance to better their lives.” Agriprocessors has been struggling to restore production since authorities conducted the largest immigration raid in U.S. history May 12 at the Postville plant. Nearly half the workforce was rounded up and some 300 workers are now facing deportation, having pleaded guilty to various forms of identity theft and fraud. The company has had trouble getting its production levels back to speed, sparking concerns of a kosher meat shortage around the country.
Within weeks of the raid, a Waterloo staffing company withdrew an estimated 150 replacement workers from the plant, citing safety concerns. A group of Native Americans brought in from a smaller Agriprocessors plant in Gordon, Neb., left within days, saying working conditions were worse than expected and the company hadn’t made good on its promises. Those reports have helped prompt several Jewish organizations to call for boycotts of the company. But Rabbi Seth Mandel, rabbinic coordinator for the Orthodox Union, one of two agencies certifying the plant as kosher, says Agriprocessors merely is responding to the dictates of the market. “Most consumers will not pay a premium for free-range, natural or organic beef, no matter how much lip service they pay to the idea,” Mandel wrote in an e-mail obtained by JTA. “The same thing holds true regarding employees and their working conditions. Meat packers would [have] no problem with paying higher wages and make working conditions better—IF the consumers would pay the premium price thereby entailed.”
In her interview with Abbas, Morris described how she was recruited from Amarillo with about 15 others and given a Greyhound bus ticket and $15 dollars to pay for food during the 1,000-mile journey. She said she was promised 30 days of free housing as well as a $100 bonus upon arrival. What made the offfer so attractive, Morris said, was the $10 per hour that Agriprocessors is now offering. “Everything down there is about $6 an hour being paid, and that’s the minimum wage,” she said of Texas. Juda Engelmayer, a company spokesman, said that Jacobson determined who was fit to work in the plant and that resources were provided to transport workers back to their homes if they weren’t offered jobs. “They are given the opportunity and the means to go back where they came from,” Engelmayer said. “I don’t know if everyone takes it. Free citizens are free to move around as they wish.”

GOP Pal Employer Going Scot Free as Largest Ever ICE Raid Nets over 390 Illegal Immigrants and Sweeps them to Detention!

On the surface the News reports read like any other Immigration Raid. As Drudge reported:
"Federal officials say a raid at a northeastern Iowa meat processing plant this week was the largest in US History. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say 390 people have been arrested on immigration charges after Monday's raid at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville. The facility is the world's largest kosher meatpacking plant. The raid was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and people who are in the country illegally. Fifty-six of those arrested have been released on humanitarian grounds; many of them have to take care of children. Others arrested in the raid at are being held in county jails and at a converted fairgrounds."
But peel back the onion and a tale of one of the most heinous employers in US History is revealed. Yet, of all the arrests, no arrests were conducted in the Employer ranks. Let´s investigate:
. In 1987, Rabbi Aaron Rubashkin purchased an unused meat-rendering plant in Postville and turned it into a state-of-the-art facility for producing Glatt kosher meat. Today, AgriProcessors provides 60 percent of the kosher retail meat and 40 percent of the kosher poultry nationally, and most retail chains depend on it for supply. The company was also the sole American packing plant whose products are accepted in Israel.
. Rubashkin Family Members are Large Republican Campaign Contributors.
. The Rubashkins belong to a Hasidic Jewish community called the Lubavitchers, who scrupulously follow the Torah. When the plant initially opened, a few hundred Hasim moved to Postville to help manage and operate the facility. Meanwhile, Postville´s population of 1,300 Lutherans had a mixed relationship with the Hasidim. In 2000, author Bloom detailed the struggles between the Lutherans and the Hassidic Jewish population in a book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America." Throughout the book, Bloom describes the power struggles between the two groups and how both groups remained separate.
. Since 2004, the company has twice been sanctioned by PETA for animal abuses.
According to the Des Moines Register:
. Hiring of Illegal Immigrants: 700 complaints of illegal immigration violations
. ICE agents interviewed a former plant supervisor – identified as “Source 1” – in November 2007, who told them that the plant employed foreign nationals from Mexico, Guatemala and Eastern Europe. Roughly 80 percent of those workers were living illegally in the U.S., the supervisor said.
. A plant employee identified as “Source 11” told authorities that he/she was hired without presenting employment documents or filling out any forms. The worker’s first paycheck had a different person’s name on it, which was then cashed at another part of the plant.
. An Iowa Department of Transportation investigator learned from talking with Des Moines County Treasurer's Office personnel that Source #14 was involved in making applications to title and register cars on behalf of people living in Postville. The source said that, more than 200 times, he or she received application information and money and had the registrations and titles sent to various Burlington/West Burlington addresses. Source #14 then arranged to pick up the documents and sent them to the vehicle owners in Postville.
. The supervisors also described an encounter with the plant’s human resources manager about three separate Social Security cards from different employees with the same number. The human resources manager "laughed when this matter was brought to her attention," the supervisor told federal agents.
. Agriprocessors was notified of more than 1,000 discrepancies between names and Social Security numbers on workers' W-2 forms sent to the IRS between 2002 and 2005.
. “Source 1” told federal agents that some employees were running a methamphetamine lab in the plant, and were bringing weapons to work. The supervisor confronted a higher-level manager about the drugs, and shortly after was fired.
. three-fourths of the company's workers at the end of last year were using fraudulent Social Security numbers.
. Employee Abuse: a supervisor covered the eyes of an employee with duct tape and struck him with a meat hook.
. undocumented workers were paid $5 an hour for their first few months before receiving a pay increase to $6 per hour. The minimum wage in Iowa is $7.25 an hour.
--
ICE RAID: Monday, May 12, 2008
Officials say 314 men and 76 women were initially taken into custody by ICE agents. Of that number, 56 have been released on humanitarian grounds, typically because their arrest would leave a child with no custodian. Those arrested are being held in county jails and at a fairgrounds.
--
So now we get to WHY the Raids:
. RUBASHKIN TARGET OF ONGOING STATE & FEDERAL LABOR PROBE – Rubashkin Alleged to Employ Underage Illegal Workers Paid Under the Table, Fake OSHA Report
. The Des Moines Register is reporting United Food and Commercial Workers Union leadership asked ICE not to raid Agriprocessors.
Why?
Because there is an ongoing Iowa and federal labor law violations investigation of Agriprocessors and the union fears Rubashkin will use the raid to intimidate workers and throw the next unionization vote.
Mark Lauritsen, International Vice President of the United Food and Commercial Workers, wrote a May 2 letter to ICE: ICE action could result in employees leaving the plant, interfering with a government investigation that would “ultimately uncover unscrupulous employer acts,” he said.
IN OTHER WORDS, THE ICE RAID IS PROTECTING THE EMPLOYER FROM FURTHER LEGAL ACTIONS AGAINST THEM!

Update: Tuesday, May 13, 2008
RUBASHKIN OPEN FOR BUSINESS AS USUAL
The slaughter line is operating this morning at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. The I.C.E. raid, carried out yesterday in conjunction with 14 other federal and state agencies, only stopped production yesterday.