Abolish ICE Movement – immigrationcourtside.com

TAL @ SFCHRON: HOW LOW CAN THEY GO? – ICE Using Kids As “Bait” To Catch Non-Criminal Migrants, As “Kiddie Gulag” Reaches New Heights!

ICE arrested undocumented adults who sought to take in immigrant children

By Tal Kopan

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has arrested 170 undocumented immigrants who came forward to try to take migrant children out of government custody, including more than 100 with no criminal record, federal officials said Monday.

The new totals were released as the number of undocumented immigrant children in government custody has reached record highs, with no signs of slowing down.

According to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, the agency arrested 170 immigrants from July through November on the basis of information the government learned about them when they applied to take an immigrant child out of custody. Of that group, nearly two-thirds, or 109, had no criminal record.

ICE had confirmed 41 such arrests in September, prompting Democrats to propose legislation to block the practice. California Sen. Kamala Harris has joined onto a bill in the Senate, which has a bipartisan House counterpart, that would bar ICE from arresting an adult seeking to take in a child on the basis of information uncovered in a background check.

More: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/ICE-arrested-undocumented-adults-who-sought-to-13455142.php

********************************************

Golly gee, and some folks wonder why the “Abolish ICE” Movement continues to gather steam! Yes, ICE performs important law enforcement functions. But, lots of their “mission” isn’t really essential to good law enforcement, and some is actually quite counterproductive and wasteful.

Clearly, there is a case for Congress at least re-examining the amount of funding, priority, and effectiveness of some of which ICE is doing on the “civil side” these days. And, what would be the purpose of jamming more folks into a court system already crumbling under a largely artificially created 1.1 million case backlog? Not much that I can see, unless these folks being “lured” are really “bad actors,” which the majority of them don’t seem to be.

PWS

12-10-18

RACISM TRUMPS IDEOLOGY — AS PERSECUTION AND TORTURE BY NICARAGUA’S LEFTIST GOVERNMENT RAMPS UP, ICE WORKS WITH NICARAGUA TO INSURE RETURN OF REFUGEES TO PERIL! — “Tiny coffins: how Nicaragua’s spiraling violence ravaged a family. In one incident, a family of six was burned alive after allegedly refusing to let pro-government paramiliaries use their home as a sniper’s perch. Neighbours told the Guardian that police officers shot at anyone who attempted to help the family.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/03/us-nicaragua-partner-violence-ice-deportations?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Charles Davis reports for The Guardian:

The Trump administration is quietly partnering with a government it publicly accuses of killing its own people, in an effort to speed up the deportation of Nicaraguan citizens, the Guardian can reveal.

The partnership between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the government of Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, began a week before mass protests erupted in the Central American country, and it continues despite a war of words between Washington and Managua.

Nicaragua: what’s driving the uprising and what comes next?

This week, the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, declared the Ortega government responsible for “indiscriminate violence” that has left scores dead and thousands injured since protests began three months ago. “The United States stands with the people of Nicaragua,” she said.

AdvertisementHide

Ortega, meanwhile, has described the protesters as coup-plotters and terroristsinvolved in a US-backed conspiracy.

But when it comes to deporting Nicaraguans who live in the United States, the two governments are still working hand in hand.

Ice officials signed a memorandum of understanding with Managua in April to expedite the deportation of Nicaraguan citizens – shortly after Donald Trump revoked temporary protective status (TPS) for around 2,500 Nicaraguan immigrants.

“Enhancing cooperation with our foreign partners to streamline and improve the removal process is a key part of enforcing our immigration laws and protecting our homeland,” Ice’s assistant director Marlen Piñeiro said in a press releaseannouncing the deal.

Under the agreement, Ice provides training for “authorized foreign partners” on how to access the US’s electronic travel document system, a database of foreign nationals that includes biographic and biometric information that its partners can use to identify their citizens.

The system allows the Nicaraguan government to upload travel documents that Ice agents can then print out “at detention facilities or field offices”.

. . . .

Read the rest of the article at the link.

Ever wonder why the “Abolish ICE” movement is going more “mainstream” and picking up steam? ICE does perform valuable law enforcement functions. That’s exactly why a dissident group of ICE Agents engaged in real law enforcement are seeking a split.

However, too much of what ICE does today on the so-called “civil side” is anywhere from “misguided and wasteful” to “counterproductive and damaging to our country.”

Yes, somebody does need to perform ICE’s functions. But no, they don’t have to be performed the way ICE is performing them now.

Interestingly, under Trump we now support leftist governments in persecution just as long as the victims are Hispanic (or I assume Muslim, African, or any non-white or non-Christian population) and they get killed before they can get to the US to claim asylum. Or, they get killed after we deny them protection and return them to danger.

Either way, folks should take a close look of what America has come to represent under Trump, Sessions, and the White Nationalists.

History and our grandchildren will ultimately hold us accountable for Trump’s destruction of America and disrespect for human rights, even if it is improperly being “normalized” in today’s topsy turvy world.

PWS

08-04-17

THE HILL: NOLAN SAYS THERE IS A BETTER WAY TO ADDRESS PROBLEMS AT ICE

http://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/395646-theres-a-better-response-to-abuse-than-abolishing-ice

Nolan writes:

. . . .

ERO shouldn’t terrorize anyone, but it has to be able to arrest deportable aliens where they can be found.

The main reason for wanting to abolish ICE is likely to prevent undocumented aliens who are here for a better life from being deported.

But if ICE were to be abolished, its responsibilities would be assigned to another agency and Trump would require the new agency to implement the same policies.

Trump’s enforcement policies

President Barack Obama focused his immigration enforcement programprimarily on aliens who had been convicted of crimes in the United States, had been caught near the border after an illegal entry, or had returned unlawfully after being deported.

Once an undocumented alien had succeeded in crossing the border without being apprehended, he did not have to worry about being deported unless he was convicted of a serious crime. He was home free.

This created a “home free magnet” which encouraged more undocumented aliens to come and do whatever they had to do to cross the border.

Trump acknowledged this problem in his Executive Order, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States:

“We cannot faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States if we exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”

He directed DHS “to employ all lawful means to ensure the faithful execution of the immigration laws of the United States against all removable aliens.”

Nevertheless, he prioritized removing aliens who are inadmissibleon criminal and related grounds, on security and related grounds, and for misrepresentations, or who are deportable for criminal offenses or on security and related grounds, and removable aliens who:

Have been convicted of any criminal offense;

Have been charged with any criminal offense, where such charge has not been resolved;

Have committed acts that constitute a criminal offense;

Have engaged in fraud or willful misrepresentation in connection with any official matter or government application;

Have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits;

Are subject to a final order of removal but have not left the United States; or

In the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a risk to public safety or national security.

ERO officers are free to arrest aliens who are not in a prioritized category, but this wouldn’t be happening often if sanctuary policies had not required ERO officers to change their enforcement operations.

Sanctuary policies prevent local police departments from turning inmates over to ERO when they are released from custody, so ERO is spending more of its time looking for deportable aliens in communities. This resulted in arresting 40,000 noncriminal aliens in FY 2017.

But ERO should not be engaging in improper behavior to make these or any other arrests.

DHS has provided avenues for public feedback and complaints, and ICE has Community Relations Officers at every field office.

If you see an ICE officer doing something improper, report him. This is far more likely to improve the situation than calling for the abolishment of ICE.

*****************************************

Go on over to The Hill at the link for Nolan’s complete article.

I agree with Nolan that ICE isn’t going anywhere under Trump.
I also agree that the essential functions of ICE will still need to be performed, regardless of the ultimate fate of the organization.
I think it’s great that the “Abolish ICE Movement” has focused more attention on the cruel, unnecessary, and highly counterproductive enforcement and prosecutorial policies of ICE under Trump.
Indeed, the counterproductive nature of the Trump/Sessions immigration enforcement is a major reason why a group of Senior ICE Agents who actually perform real law enforcement functions — anti-smuggling, anti-human trafficking, immigration fraud, anti-terrorism — want to ditch the ICE label, because they know it’s inhibiting cooperation with other agencies and communities and thereby diminishing real law enforcement.
Most true law enforcement professionals that I have known don’t want to be associated with a group that glorifies cruelty and de-humanizes ordinary people. Having ICE on your resume today wouldn’t be a plus for most folks interested in a legitimate law enforcement career.
While the “essential functions” of ICE will continue, lots of today’s ICE enforcement has little to do with “essential enforcement.” The latter would be targeted at criminals, fraudsters, spouse abusers, traffickers, and recent arrivals who don’t have applications pending.
The lack of any semblance of common sense and responsibility in ICE’s abusive refusal to exercise prosecutorial discretion and actually putting properly closed cases back on the docket is a major contributor to the absolute mess in today’s Immigration Courts.
It’s also a reason why the Immigration Court mess is unlikely to be solved until Congress, the courts, and/or some future Executive force some fundamental changes in ICE enforcement and prosecutorial policies to reflect the same type of prudent, respectful, and realistic use of judicial time and prosecutorial discretion that is employed, to some extent, by every other major law enforcement agency in the U.S.
It never hurts to complain. I’m a big fan of making a “running record” of misconduct.
But, in the Trump Administration a record is about all you’ll get. Nothing is going to be done to correct misconduct because misconduct comes from the top.
My experience with ICE Chief Counsel’s Office in Arlington was highly positive. The attorneys were overwhelmingly fair, smart, responsive, respectful, and part of the “team” with the private, bar, the courts, and the interpreters that made the justice system work in Arlington in the past.
Indeed, working with the Arlington Chief Counsel’s Office made me proud to have led the major reorganization that established the forerunner to the “Modern Chief Counsel System” at the “Legacy INS” during the Carter and Reagan Administrations. The Arlington Chief Counsel’s Office was exactly what former General Counsels Dave Crosland, Mike Inman, Regional Counsel Bill Odencrantz, and I had envisioned when we planned and carried out the reorganization (over considerable internal opposition, I might add).
My overall experiences with the officers of ICE and it’s forerunner INS Investigations were positive. I found and worked with plenty of capable, dedicated, professional, and humane officers during my decades of dealing with immigration enforcement in some form or another.
All of that suggests that the major problems in ICE have arisen almost entirely under the Trump Administration. That’s because of truly horrible leadership from the top down.
ICE won’t improve until we get “regime change.” When that happens, ICE will have to be reorganized, reinvented, and “rebranded.” Professional management — one that pays particular attention to its relationship to local communities — must be reestablished. Sane enforcement and prosecutorial discretion policies will have to be reinstated.
My experiences with ICE suggest that the right people to lead an “ICE-type” agency in the future are likely already somewhere in ICE. They just aren’t in the right leadership and management positions. Maybe they will all quit before the end of the Trump Administration If not, they could serve as a “professional core” for rebuilding and reforming ICE.
I’m skeptical that so-called “Catch and Release” has a significant effect on what’s happening on the Southern Border.
In the first place, the current situation is “a self-created crisis” initiated by Trump & Sessions. Otherwise it’s pretty much normal migration.
Seeking asylum at the border isn’t “illegal migration” at all. It’s asserting an internationally recognized right. Detention and family separation are not appropriate responses to individuals seeking in good faith to exercise their rights.
In any event, the primary drivers of migration outside the visa system are: 1) unmet needs of the U.S. labor market, and 2) political, social, and economic conditions in foreign countries. So-called “Catch and Release” has no established effect on either of these “drivers.” See, e.g., https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/crisis-border-not-numbers.

PWS

07-08-18

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts: