And Justice for All?
The charges against ICE keep coming:
“illegal searches and seizures” … “warrantless entry” … “Violations of Fourth Amendment Rights”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — a division of the Dept. of Homeland Security and United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS; formerly INS) — has not only been accumulating a horrible human-rights record, it has been and continues to violate the U.S. Constitution.
Labor Panel Says US Immigration Raids Violating Constitutional Rights of Workers: ”The UFCW [United Food and Commercial Workers, the 2nd largest Union in the U.S.] hearings are a response to ongoing ICE actions initiated under Operation Return to Sender, a controversial program to find and deport illegal immigrants, and are not the first allegations of Fourth Amendment violations by ICE. In November 2007, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] against ICE on behalf of several families who said that ICE agents violently raided their homes without first obtaining court warrants. ”
Example of warrantless entry by ICE into home of elderly couple
ICE’s Human Rights violations:
- Death by Detention
- Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in Custody
- Family Struggled in Vain to Help Suffering Detainee
- Letter to ICE Urging Investigation on Death in Immigration Detention
- Judge blasts ICE over detainee death
- ICE-berg Ahead: What Lies Beneath The Surface of Immigration Raids?
- Legal system only hears some babies’ cries
The details of the “Legal system only hears some babies’ cries” story are especially shocking:
On Oct. 26, [Sayda Umanzor, an illegal immigrant living in Conneaut, Ohio with her husband and three children] was nursing her 9-month-old daughter, Brittney, when federal agents knocked on the door of her home on Maple Street and tore her away from her screaming baby.
Brittney had never had formula, and refused to eat for the three days she was in county custody. Umanzor’s sister finally weaned her to a bottle on the fourth day.
During her 11 days of incarceration, Umanzor was sick with worry over what had happened to her children. She was also in physical pain because her breasts had become engorged.
Lucia Stone, a breast-feeding advocate who speaks Spanish, brought a breast pump to the Bedford Heights jail after Kate Masley, an assistant health professor at Cleveland State University, called for her help. Stone was not allowed to examine Umanzor, and had to explain how to use the pump by phone, through a visitor’s window.
Umanzor was clearly in pain, Stone said.
She told me, My breasts are very hard and a little hot.’ She also said her heart hurt, her back hurt a lot, and that she was very cold, which I worried meant that she was developing a fever. Story continues here…
What U.S. citizens are saying…
None of us should be surprised at the growing number of world citizens who have come to view the US not as a land of opportunity but as a land of danger and suspicion for anyone who dares to come here. Unfortunately, this administration still has 8 months left to do more damage. [Susan Loeb, Brooklyn, NY; from NY Times 6-May-2008]
What people around the world are saying…
The US government has now become synonomous with injustice, criminal activity, war mongering, illegally detaining people against their human rights, breaking international human rights laws, pollution and the list goes on…basically a disgrace to the Huaman Race and fast becoming like a cancer on this beautiful planet we all call Home. [Craig Cumming, United Kingdom; Source: thepetitionsite.com]