Greg Siskind on Immigration Law and Policy

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE?

ICE now is telling immigrants they won't conduct enforcement operations during evacuations. Shouldn't they have announced this two or three days ago when people still had a chance to flee?

WILL ILLEGALLY PRESENT IMMIGRANTS EVACUATE NEW ORLEANS?

There will be no shelters in New Orleans this time. Mayor Nagin has ordered the city completely evacuated as Hurricane Gustav approaches. The AP is reporting disturbing news that many immigrants are avoiding evacuation buses because of a fear of being arrested by ICE officers.

Advocates have criticized the decision not to establish a shelter, warning that day laborers and the poorest residents will still fall through the cracks. As lines at bus stations kept building, about two dozen Hispanic men talked under oak trees near Claiborne Avenue, where on better days they would be waiting to be picked up for day labor.

They'd been listening to Spanish radio and television but none of them knew what to do and were waiting for someone to come by and tell them, said Pictor Soto, 44, of Peru. Told they could take a bus at Union Passenger Terminal, they all shook their heads, fearful that immigration agents would be looking for them. "The problem is, there will be immigration people there and we're all undocumented," Soto said.

And there is good reason to worry if you are illegally present.

PREGNANT DETAINEES WILL NO LONGER BE SHACKLED IN NASHVILLE

I blogged on this subject earlier this summer and am pleased my friend Elliot Ozment has made some good progress on this issue.

GUSTAV AND IMMIGRATION

USCIS has issued its standard closure notices regarding locations in areas withing the projected path of the storm.

DHS is not saying anything, of course, about the 600 immigrants just arrested last week in Laurel, Mississippi who are now being detained in Gena, Louisiana and how the storm will affect their proceedings and detention.

ACLU INVESTIGATING ICE CONDUCT IN MISSISSIPPI RAID

The nation's major civil liberty protection organization has announced it is conducting an investigation into allegations of discrimination, blocking access to legal counsel and other serious accusations. Here is the press release:

ACLU Investigating Largest Immigration Raid In The Country

Reports Of Government Discrimination And Secrecy Trigger Scrutiny

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2008

CONTACT: Rachel Myers, (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org 

LAUREL, MS - In the wake of the largest workplace immigration raid in the country that involved the arrest of at least 600 workers and reports that raise grave concerns about the actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Mississippi officials, the American Civil Liberties Union began an investigation of ICE's conduct and called on the Bush administration to ensure that constitutional rights are scrupulously respected going forward. Staff from the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project arrived in Mississippi today to assess the situation firsthand.

"We are deeply concerned by reports that workers at the factory where the raid occurred were segregated by race or ethnicity and interrogated, the factory was locked down for several hours, workers were denied access to counsel, and ICE failed to inform family members and lawyers following the raid where the workers were being jailed," said Mónica Ramírez, a staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project who has traveled to Mississippi to meet with family members and lawyers about the government's actions.

On Monday, ICE agents raided a factory located in Laurel, Mississippi owned by Howard Industries Inc., detained at least 600 workers and transported the arrested workers to a federal immigration detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, nearly 200 miles from their homes and family. Some of the workers who are parents of small children were released with an electronic monitoring device and ordered to report back to an ICE office. A few of the arrested workers have been charged under the same criminal statutes used by the government in the recent Postville, Iowa raids that were heavily criticized for the mass prosecutions and assembly-line guilty pleas that the government employed.

The ACLU of Mississippi and the national ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project are also working closely with organizations and advocates in Laurel, Hattiesburg and Jena to monitor the government's actions, assess the conduct of the raid and ensure compliance with the constitutional requirements of due process and non-discrimination.

IT'S NOW 595

Holy smokes! The ICE raid in Mississippi yesterday now counts as the largest work site raid in American history. Unlike Postville, the previous record holder, so far only eight criminal cases are being tracked for criminal prosecution. According to ICE, Howard Industries was searched yesterday for evidence of aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and other crimes. The charges against the eight individuals being prosecuted related to identity theft.

ICE has put the total number of arrested at 595 with 106 released based on humanitarian reasons (though they are still being placed in deportation proceedings). Most of the rest have been transported to Jena, Louisiana.

Here is the press release.

ICE PRESS RELEASE ON HOWARD INDUSTRIES RAID - Free Legal Forms

CANADA UPS THE ANTE ON COMPETITION FOR BRIGHTEST STUDENTS

Following Europe's lead, Canada is instituting a fast track policy to make it easier and faster for foreign students to get permanent status. Congress, are you awake?

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: MAYA SOETORO-NG - SPEAKER AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

Indonesian-born Maya Soetoro-Ng may not have a familiar name. But you may have heard of her half-brother Barack Obama. Last night Ms. Soetoro-Ng introduced herself to a national television audience at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and talked about growing up with her older brother. Maya and Barack have the same mother. She was born in Indonesia, but at age two, her mother left her father and moved Barack and Maya back to Hawaii.

Maya went on to graduate from the University of Hawaii and is now a high school teacher in Honolulu as well as an instructor at the University of Hawaii. She took the summer off to campaign for her older brother, the culmination of which was her address to the DNC last night.

By the way, before I get a barrage of emails from people saying that Ms. Soetoro-Ng is not technically an immigrant, I understand that she is presumably a citizen at birth (just like Panama Canal Zone-born John McCain). because of her mother's citizenship status. Nevertheless, Ms. Soetora-Ng went through a migration experience that is worth noting. And she is married to Konrad Ng, a Chinese Canadian who also teaches at the University of Hawaii so she is part of an immigrant family.  Here's Ms. Soetoro-Ng describing her famous brother.

CONGRATS TO IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY MEDALISTS

Congrats to the many athletes and their coaches for a sensational Olympics. In particular, I wanted to note the following previously named Immigrants of the Day:

Hugh McCutcheon - Coach of gold medal US men's volleyball team
Nastia Liukin - Winner of all around gold medal in women's gymnastics
Kirsty Coventry - Gold medal winner and new world record holder in 100m backstroke
Alexander Artemev - Bronze medal in men's gymnastics
Tony Azevedo - Member of silver medal winning men's water polo team
Anna Tunnicliffe - Gold medal in sailing
Susan Francia - Gold medal in rowing
Phil Dalhausser - Winner of gold in beach volleyball
Liang Chow - Coach of gold medalist Shawn Johnson
Martha Karolyi - Coach of silver medalist US women's gymnastics team

Well done!

350

That's how many people were arrested in Laurel, Mississippi at one of the largest worksite raids in American history today. The question now is whether ICE and the Justice Department will blow it and do a re-run of Postville, Iowa or they will provide due process, humane treatment, and, most importantly since the workers are likely to be charged criminally, adequate access to attorneys.