Latina Lista: News from the Latinx perspective > Life Issues > Children > Why do we watch and say nothing while ICE traumatizes the children of the undocumented?

Why do we watch and say nothing while ICE traumatizes the children of the undocumented?

LatinaLista — Earlier this week, a congressional hearing was held in Washington, DC to discuss the impacts of immigration raids, conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, on children and families.
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ICE representatives, community leaders from across the nation and national organization leaders presented testimony.
One of those who testified about the academic impacts of those raids on the children was San Rafael, California Principal Kathryn Gibney.
Gibney testified that as a result of raids conducted within her community over a year ago, “she is still seeing rising absenteeism and falling test scores.”
And it’s not going to end anytime soon.
Yesterday, coincidentally, ICE went back to the same area and conducted another raid. Obviously, concerns and recommendations made in Washington on how to minimize the trauma of the event on the children fell on deaf ears.
Reports are coming in that children were not only traumatized by the events but were put right in the middle of them.


According to reports:

Bahia Vista Principal Juan Rodriguez saw ICE rounding up people on the children’s route to walk to school.
Youth from Canal Alliance’s afterschool programs who were waiting for an early morning school bus called Director JuanCarlos Arauz to report seeing a “command post” at Mi Tierra Market and ICE vehicles driving up and down neighborhood streets. Youth text messaged friends and families to spread the news while others ran home.

Today, the schools are reporting multiple absences:

Seventy nine children at Bahia Vista Elementary, sixty five at San Pedro Elementary, and fifty three at Davidson Middle School stayed home today.

You don’t have to be Dr. Phil to know that these raids are traumatizing children and yet the stories barely make Page 1 of the newspapers.
Why?
Is it because they are the children of undocumented parents?
It shouldn’t make a difference. Children are children the world over and they deserve to be safeguarded by the government of the country they live in.
It’s a demand that we make of every country on the planet and condemn those who don’t adhere to this universal law.
To conduct raids or establish an intimidating presence where children are known to be with their undocumented parents doesn’t justify the fear and terror that will stay with these children for a very long time, if not the rest of their lives.
ICE’s actions may satisfy a short-term goal but it creates far-reaching consequences:
Children will learn to fear and mistrust government authorities. It may not matter now but as they grow up they will have little use to cooperate with laws and authorities.
The psychological impact of seeing parents rounded up, strangers waiting outside their schools and homes, strange cars and vans cruising neighborhood streets and angry-sounding men and women pounding on doors of homes and demanding to be let in, have to have an effect on these impressionable children who don’t understand why this is happening in their communities.
It’s an impact that will need to be treated through counseling or more, and paid for by the state or federal government.
In yesterday’s raid in Marin County, with all the terror that was inflicted, only 17 people were arrested.
That number doesn’t even come close to the number of children who are suffering as a result of those 17 arrests and who don’t deserve to be subjected to this treatment by a country that touts itself for its humanitarian good deeds.
Where is our humanity now?

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Comment(34)

  • Frank
    May 23, 2008 at 5:30 pm

    All the bleeding heart stories in the world doesn’t change the fact it is the parents who did this to their children. Where is their accountability in all of this? If we had a policy that all illegal aliens had to do was bring a child with them to our country or have a child on our soil and they would be home free, imagine the abuse of our immigration laws that would occur then.
    These children will learn from this experience that breaking laws is not acceptable and teach them a lesson in morality and respect, not the other way around.

  • Horace
    May 23, 2008 at 8:00 pm

    ICE is not terrorising anyone. Simply put, people who’ve assumed a right to be present in this country illegally are now suffering the tragic consequences of their actions. There is no easy way to deport people who’ve established or brought families to this country illicitly. Few Americans will ever side with these people because they understand this. I find it appalling that illegal aliens will exploit this unfortunate side of illegl immigration. If they anticipate their eventual deportation and pre-empt them by going home, these forced removals would never take place. Marisa, you’re too close to this to understand this. I find the photo depected in ths posting exploitively offensive.

  • Grandma
    May 23, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    ICe is merely doing what it’s supposed to do, enforce the law. I blame the parents of these children. They either brought them here when they snuck in illegally or they had them while being here illegally. Surely they knew that one day they’d be caught. What about the illegals who have warrants and deportation orders? ICE is supposed to look the other way because they have children? Where is your outrage for the children of American citizens who commit crimes, are arrested, sometimes in raids, and more than likely go to prison. Where is your compassion and outrage for those children? Again, it’s the parent’s fault these children are, unfortunately, put in the middle. As for the raids, it’s about time.

  • Evelyn
    May 24, 2008 at 12:06 am

    If I ever need a master manipulator to put a spin on some sordid bit of history I want changed or forgotten. I am going to keep the racists on this forum in mind. They have a proven track record and I know they will do an excellent job.

  • Frank
    May 24, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    Typical, can’t address the points made or debate them as an adult so resort to the same old name calling of “racist”. How stinking childish and immature.

  • Horace
    May 24, 2008 at 10:34 pm


    If I ever need a master manipulator to put a spin on some sordid bit of history I want changed or forgotten. I am going to keep the racists on this forum in mind. They have a proven track record and I know they will do an excellent job.”
    Since we’re all basically anonymous, that’ll be a good trick, Evelyn Patrick.

  • Evelyn
    May 25, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    Is that suppose to be a threat. Letting a name out that I used to sign a petition with. Very Irish huh. You like? You have to know by now I would never use my real name. I am smarter than that. Too many KKKrazy racists out there. Might get ideas in their head. ROTFLMHO!!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! The FBI can get your name and address in a nanosecond, that’s how all the racists busted for making threats on line have been caught Sparky.

  • Evelyn
    May 25, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    Stop donning the white sheets and the pointed dunce cap. That way you can put a stop to being called racist. Also stop using rule of law only when it’s convenient for your racist agenda. Till then suck it up and quit getting your sheets in a twist for being called racist.

  • Frank
    May 25, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    Still childish and immature and can’t debate like an adult. Just like a five year old calling names in a schoolyard.
    There are plenty of “brown sheet” racists out there with a racist agenda to fill this country up with as many as their own ethnic kind as possible and they don’t care if they have to do it by breaking our laws. They need to be tried for treason.

  • Horace
    May 25, 2008 at 8:12 pm

    “I am smarter than that.”
    Really? I could never tell by the your posts. It doesn’t take much courage to put a fake name and address to a petition. but I suspect you hide behind a mask wherever you go. To tell the truth, it’s really a bit cowardly. Do you truly believe that CNN would never take the liberty of checking names and addresses of the persons who signed that pathetic petition to censor Lou Dobbs? Put enough fake signatures to it and CNN won’t give the petitioners the time of day, never mind doing their bidding. You don’t do your friend at Boycottloudobbs.com any favors by using pseudonyms. The fact that you even put your name to something as anti-1st Amendment shows how unprincipled you are.
    By the way, your petition appears to be an utter failure, as few people have signed it.

  • Evelyn
    May 26, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    STILL ROTFLMAO!!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! Like I give a sh1t about debating any of the issues with you members of the KKK. Your racists views are ground in stone.
    The FBI has already checked my family out. I have a sister that works for DEA. Another sister is a parole officer. Her husband is a border patrol officer. When they were being considered for these jobs all the family was checked out because some of these jobs require that the applicants be screened and bondable.
    By the way the petition you saw against Lou lies is only one of many. The only people who cant seem to see through Lou lies racist views are the racists who lap the lies up.

  • Horace
    May 26, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    “By the way the petition you saw against Lou lies is only one of
    So you’ll probably admit to assuming false identities for the purpose of signing several others. So brave. If you had the courage of your convictions you wouldn’t have to hide.
    ———————————–
    “The FBI has already checked my family out. I have a sister that works for DEA. Another sister is a parole officer. Her husband is a border patrol officer. When they were being considered for these jobs all the family was checked out because some of these jobs require that the applicants be screened and bondable.”
    And they hired them despite your anti-American proclivities. Do they agrees with you on the issue of illegal immigration. I suspect not. Judging by your manic behavior, you would never receive a security clearance.

  • Horace
    May 26, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    Evelyn, few people would consider what you do as debating. Yours is a litany of rants with little more than abusive vocabulary which invariably includes the words “racist”, and KKK.
    Anyway, glad to see that you made it back through the lawless Mexican border towns full of corrupt police, coyotes, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, and drug dealers.

  • Frank
    May 27, 2008 at 7:40 am

    There is no one who posts in this blog who is a member of the KKK. More lies by the illegal alien sympathizers.

  • Evelyn
    May 27, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Town full of corrupt police, coyotes, thieves, murders, prostitutes, and drug addicts, drug dealers, and RACISTS. No No, I didnt go through Arizona. I was in Mexico and it’s nothing like where you are at on the Arizona border chasing and terrorizing Mexican nannies and dish washers.

  • Frank
    May 27, 2008 at 9:10 pm

    I don’t live on the Arizona border and am not a MM since you don’t even address the person you are attacking.
    The MM do not terrorize or chase illegal aliens. They spot them with binoculars and call the Border Patrol. That is all that they do.

  • Horace
    May 27, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    Really? You’re either stupid, blind or both. The news is full of Mexico’s disorder. Read these articles:
    Join us or else: drug cartels advertise for recruits
    Manuel Roig-Franzia in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
    May 9, 2008
    Advertisement
    THE job offer was tempting. It was printed on a five-metre-wide banner and strung above a busy road in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, and called out to any “soldier or ex-soldier”.
    “We’re offering you a good salary, food and medical care for your families,” it said.
    But there was a catch: the employer was Los Zetas, a notorious Gulf of Mexico cartel hit squad formed by elite Mexican Army deserters. The group even included a phone number for job seekers linked to a voice mailbox.
    Outrageous as they seem, such drug cartel messages are becoming increasingly common along the violence-savaged US-Mexican border and in other parts of the region. As soldiers wage a huge campaign against drug trafficking across Mexico, they are encountering an information war managed by criminal networks operating with near impunity.
    The cartels’ appeals, which authorities generally believe to be authentic recruitment efforts, seem designed in part to taunt the military, from which at least 100,000 men and women have deserted in the past eight years.
    The cartels are known for the bravado and a dash of humour they use to gain supporters.
    “The cartels are very good at this: they’ve had songs written about them, they put up these signs, they make themselves out to be Robin Hoods,” said Carlos Martinez, a Nuevo Laredo school principal and community activist.
    The banners appeal to many poor Mexicans who respect the brashness of the cartels, which provide food, clothing and toys to win loyalty.
    Marcelino, a 74-year-old pensioner, said he had been wronged many times by police but drug traffickers had given him a sturdy mountain bike.
    “I trust the Zetas more than the thieving police and soldiers,” he said. “The police are rats.”
    Cartels have long been known for showy displays, though their public campaigns have become more audacious.
    Last week, clowns entertained 500 children and handed out presents at a party in Acuna. A banner said the party was sponsored by Osiel Cardenas Guillen, a cartel kingpin in jail on drug trafficking charges in the US.
    But there are darker messages, including threats carved into the bodies of victims. In January, drug cartels are suspected of having left a banner with the names of 17 “executable” police officials on a monument to fallen officers in Ciudad Juarez. At least nine of the men have since been assassinated.
    Nearly all these messages get big play in local media. Journalists say local drug chieftains often demand that photographs of cartel banners and victims be displayed prominently. The threats carry weight: Mexico trails only Iraq in journalist deaths.
    Some military officials fear they are losing the information war, that the cartels are getting the public on their side and recruiting soldiers.
    A former general, Jose Francisco Gallardo, said some soldiers did not intend to join criminal groups after deserting, but had found it almost impossible to gain legitimate employment.
    The Washington Post
    ——————————–
    Shootout in western Mexico kills 7 federal police, suspected hit man
    Save a link to this article and return to it at http://www.savethis.comSave a link to this article and return to it at http://www.savethis.com Email a link to this articleEmail a link to this article Printer-friendly version of this articlePrinter-friendly version of this article View a list of the most popular articles on our siteView a list of the most popular articles on our site
    By E. Eduardo Castillo
    ASSOCIATED PRESS
    1:32 p.m. May 27, 2008
    MEXICO CITY – Seven federal police and a suspected hit man were killed in a shootout Tuesday as authorities surrounded a suspected drug safe house in Culiacan, home to the Sinaloa drug cartel.
    Four other federal police were hospitalized with wounds, and police took two suspected cartel members into custody, according to a federal police statement.
    Advertisement
    Mexican President Felipe Calderón sent nearly 3,000 federal police and soldiers into Sinaloa state two weeks ago as part of his campaign to take back parts of Mexico controlled by drug lords. In all, Calderón has sent more than 20,000 security forces to confront the drug trade, and the cartels have responded by targeting police and other security officials.
    At least three banners threatening 21 local police officers by name were hung in the violent northern city of Chihuahua over the weekend.
    “The officers are uneasy,” Chihuahua state prosecutor’s spokesman Eduardo Esparza said Tuesday. “They have been instructed to be in direct contact with the police station and to be extremely careful.”
    In the nearby border city of Juarez, a death list of 22 officers was left at a monument to fallen police four months ago, addressed to “those who still don’t believe” in the power of the cartels.
    Of the 22, seven have been killed and three wounded in assassination attempts. All but one of the others have quit.
    —————————————
    There are so many hits on every Mexican border town that one would have to be willfully ignorant to miss them.

  • Evelyn
    May 28, 2008 at 3:24 pm

    One cannot address certain racists on this forum by name because they cry and whine. I will say if someone responds to what I post, the shoe must have fit? It really doesent matter, every racist is a puppet of Tanton’s. He pulls the strings, all of you dance.
    The stupid, blind one is you. Mexico news has always been full of news about killings over drugs sence the day the people in the U.S. starting buying these drugs. I am not a drug dealer or a cop, so I am not involved.
    Not one hair on the head of one innocent by-stander was harmed in any of your articles.

  • Frank
    May 28, 2008 at 8:28 pm

    So defending oneself from false accusations, name calling and lying is called crying and whining?
    Sorry, but we anti’s are quite capable of thinking for ourselves. We need no Tanton, Dobbs or anyone else to tell us that it is immoral to break our immigration laws. We also know the negative affects of illegal immigration on any country by using common sense, logic and research.

  • Evelyn
    May 29, 2008 at 10:14 am

    The Puppeteer
    Before he even said a word, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) got a standing ovation from the 27 anti-immigration activists who gathered at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on the morning of Feb. 13 to kick off a two-day lobbying effort on Capitol Hill.
    Tancredo, chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, proceeded to regale his audience with ominous warnings of a global plot to destroy the United States.
    Many countries are pushing immigration in order to erode American sovereignty, Tancredo warned: “China is trying to export people. It’s a policy for them, a way of extending their hegemony. It’s a government-sponsored thing.”
    After Tancredo’s 10-minute pep talk, Brian Bilbray, a former Republican congressman from San Diego, Calif., weighed in with horror stories about an impending social catastrophe due to immigration.
    “We are creating a slave class that criminal elements breed in,” said Bilbray, who complained bitterly — and improbably — that he lost his 2000 re-election bid because “illegal aliens” had voted against him.
    But all was not doom and gloom, according to Bilbray.
    Praising the post-9/11 sweeps of Arab communities by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that resulted in the indefinite detention of more than a thousand people, Bilbray called for the INS to carry out an enlarged dragnet. “We could have a terrorist coming in on a Latin name,” he said.
    The meeting with Tancredo and Bilbray — and the entire lobbying operation in mid-February — was masterminded by NumbersUSA, an anti-immigration group that had recently opened a “government relations office” in a three-story, red-brick Victorian near the Capitol.
    NumbersUSA hosted an afternoon open house at its plush new digs, where the lobbyists relaxed, nibbled on catered food, and conversed with the leaders and other officials of key anti-immigration organizations.
    Patrick McHugh of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which purports to be a squeaky clean think tank that rejects racism, was there pressing the flesh along with Barbara Coe, head of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, who repeatedly referred to Mexicans — as she has for years — as “savages.”
    The Citizens Informer, a white supremacist tabloid put out by the Council of Conservative Citizens hate group, was available.
    NumbersUSA executive director Roy Beck, a long-time friend of Coe’s, adopted a more moderate tone when he addressed his guests and told them what they should be doing to end the current immigration regime.
    It would be better, Beck counseled, if their attempts to lobby legislators that week did not appear to be orchestrated by NumbersUSA. For their campaign to be effective, he said, it “needs to look like a grassroots effort.”
    Grassroots — or AstroTurf?
    To be sure, this was no grassroots effort. Nor is NumbersUSA, in any sense of the word, a grassroots organization.
    Despite attempts to appear otherwise, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Inc., a sprawling, nonprofit funding conduit that has spawned three anti-immigration groups and underwrites several others, many of which were represented at the NumbersUSA conclave.
    What’s more, this interlocking network of supposedly independent organizations is almost entirely the handiwork of one man, a Michigan ophthalmologist named John H. Tanton.
    A four-month investigation by the Intelligence Report, conducted in the aftermath of the September terrorist attacks, found that the appearance of an array of groups with large membership bases is nothing more than a mirage.
    In fact, the vast majority of American anti-immigration groups — more than a dozen in all — were either formed, led, or in other ways made possible through Tanton’s efforts.
    The principal funding arm of the movement, U.S. Inc., is a Tanton creation, and millions of dollars in financing comes from just a few of his allies, far-right foundations like those controlled by the family of Richard Mellon Scaife.
    Moreover, tax returns suggest that claims of huge numbers of members — in the case of one group, more than 250,000 — are geometric exaggerations put forward to create a false picture of a “movement” that politicians should pay attention to.
    Finally, even as activists court increasing numbers of national politicians in the wake of Sept. 11, the Report’s investigation reveals that they are moving in large numbers into the arms of hate groups like the Council of Conservative Citizens — a 15,000-member organization whose website recently described blacks as “a retrograde species of humanity.”
    In fact, many anti-immigration groups have been growing harder- and harder-line since 1998, when they first began working together with open white supremacists. Today, many of their leading officials have joined racist organizations.
    There’s a word in Washington for outfits like these anti-immigration organizations — “astroturf,” meaning that they lack any genuine grassroots base.
    That such groups, with their increasingly direct links to racist organizations, should have real power in the nation’s capital may seem hard to believe.
    But Americans have grown increasingly xenophobic in the wake of the September terrorist attacks, and the rapid growth of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus that Tancredo heads reflects that — from just 10 legislators prior to the attacks to 59 by May.
    What kind of influence do extremists have in this congressional caucus?
    Although that is hard to measure, the caucus website now carries a prominent link to an outfit called American Patrol — a racist hate group run by Californian Glenn Spencer.
    With a tip of the hat to Tancredo and the other legislators who have helped to provide him legitimacy, Spencer recently deleted from his website the image of a cartoon figure urinating on a Latino Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.
    From Environment to Race
    It is not often that a single individual is largely responsible for creating an entire political movement. But John Tanton can claim without exaggeration that he is the founding father of America’s modern anti-immigration movement.
    In addition to directly controlling four prominent immigration restriction groups, Tanton has been critical in establishing or helping fund several other anti-immigration groups.
    He serves on the board of the group with the largest membership, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which he founded 23 years ago.
    It was an odd turn of events for an erstwhile liberal activist who loved beekeeping and the rural life.
    Raising a family and practicing medicine in Petoskey, Mich., Tanton started out as a passionate environmentalist. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he was a leader in the National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and other mainstream environmental groups.
    But Tanton soon became fixated on population control, seeing environmental degradation as the inevitable result of overpopulation.
    When the indigenous birth rate fell below replacement level in the United States, his preoccupation turned to immigration. And this soon led him to race.
    Tanton had something akin to a conversion when he came across The Camp of the Saints, a lurid, racist novel written by Frenchman Jean Raspail that depicts an invasion of the white, Western world by a fleet of starving, dark-skinned refugees.
    Tanton helped get the novel published in English and soon was promoting what he considered the book’s prophetic argument.
    “Their [Third World] ‘huddled masses’ cast longing eyes on the apparent riches of the industrial west,” Tanton wrote in 1975. “The developed countries lie directly in the path of a great storm.”
    And so he began to develop a counter-force. After 1979, when he co-founded FAIR, Tanton launched “a whole array of organizations that serve the overall ideological and political battle plan to halt immigration — even if those groups have somewhat differing politics,” explained Rick Swartz, the pro-immigration activist who founded the National Immigration Forum in 1982.
    “Tanton is the puppeteer behind this entire movement,” Swartz said. “He is the organizer of a significant amount of its financing, and is both the major recruiter of key personnel and the intellectual leader of the whole network of groups.”
    Tanton declined to be interviewed for this story.
    Another reminder, how soon you forget. I guess it’s not in your best interest to remember your lie about thinking for yourselves even though it’s been debunked before. If you can think for yourselves, why do you copy thought for thought and word for word every one of Tantons organizations thoughts and words?

  • Frank
    May 29, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    I know of not one anti in here who copies word for word anything that Tanton or Dobbs, etc. says. Not one!
    When people have similar views they are going to make similar statements. Duh!
    Just like the same ole same ole tired and reguritated nonsense we hear from every pro-illegals. They all say the same things also including every one of them pulling the race card!
    Touche!

  • Horace
    May 29, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    “Not one hair on the head of one innocent by-stander was harmed in any of your articles.”
    Sure, Evelyn, all those cartel butchers are really saints at heart, lovers of children, never mind the hundreds of policemen they kill. Stalin killed millions of Russians yet acted kindly towards children. Of course an innocent bystander or two could NEVER wind up in the crossfire and fall victim to the drug wars. I was right about you, you are stupid. I’ll bet that you’re an outcast, a pariah, shunned by your family for your idiotic beliefs and lack of good judgment.

  • Evelyn
    May 30, 2008 at 12:19 am

    Still Dreaming Horace? “shunned by my family” Ha! Ha! Wake up Horace! Americans dont like racists, that means you. My family doesent like racists or the practice of racism. Look around you. Every day you are one day closer to the end of your popularity.

  • Frank
    May 30, 2008 at 9:44 am

    So let’s see. Every American opposed to illegal immigration and wants our immigration laws enforced is a racist? We are the most diverse nation on this planet and yet law abiding Americans are racists?
    Are all other countries racist in nature also then? Every country has immigration laws.

  • Patrice
    June 2, 2008 at 4:16 pm

    The children of ALL CRIMINALS are “terrorized” when the police come and get their parents for the crimes they have committed. Do we allow all criminals who have children to get away with their crimes to keep the children from being “terrorized”? Why is it when American citizens commit crimes and get caught no one here (or anywhere else) whines about the effects on the kids? Illegal aliens choose to come here, choose to have kids or bring them illegally and they are PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS AND CHOICES! Those poor kids have no one to blame but their parents! This is what happens when you have kids and you don’t consider the consequences of your actions!

  • Horace
    June 3, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    Excellent question Patrice, one which most citizens are asking more often every day. The answer is, that we have a minority of howling Hispanic illegal alien advocates who are motivated by race over fairness.

  • Evelyn
    June 4, 2008 at 3:42 am

    Patrice
    So let’s see, if you think it is OK to terrorize children for what their parents or other relatives do which according to YOU (not the law) are criminals.
    Is that why the U.S. was terrorized by what happened on nine eleven, for the atrocious crimes of your great great grand parents. You shouldent blame the terrorists. Your relatives are to blame. That really sounds stupid to me.

  • Frank
    June 4, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    “Terrorizing” children? So I guess that means when an American citizen breaks a law in this country that calls for their incarceration in prison or jail (of which is no fault of their citizen child) but necessary according to our laws we are “terrorizing” their children and therefore should not punish the criminal parent?

  • Evelyn
    June 5, 2008 at 12:27 am

    An administrative issue (crossing the border without documentation) is not a law. Their fore they are not criminals. This is a fact. OK now spin it.

  • Frank
    June 5, 2008 at 8:27 am

    We have immigration laws that say that no one can enter our country without permission. Those who do are subject to deportation. Those who do it more than once are felons. ICE is a government enitity to make sure that foreingers abide by those laws or pay the consequences.

  • Liquidmicro
    June 5, 2008 at 7:02 pm

    * United States Code
    o TITLE 8 – ALIENS AND NATIONALITY
    + CHAPTER 12 – IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY
    # SUBCHAPTER II – IMMIGRATION
    * PART VIII – GENERAL PENALTY PROVISIONS
    U.S. Code as of: 01/03/05
    Section 1325. Improper entry by alien
    (a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection;
    misrepresentation and concealment of facts
    Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States
    at any time or place other than as designated by immigration
    officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration
    officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United
    States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the
    willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first
    commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or
    imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent
    commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or
    imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
    (b) Improper time or place; civil penalties
    Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to
    enter) the United States at a time or place other than as
    designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil
    penalty of –
    (1) at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or
    attempted entry); or
    (2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of
    an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under
    this subsection.
    Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and not
    in lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may be
    imposed.
    Seems to me that it is a law that is punishable with up to 6 months in prison for a first offense and up to 2 years for a second offense.
    In addition to sneaking into the country in violation of the immigration law that requires that aliens be documented for legal entry (referred to as “entry without inspection — EWI”), others enter with legal documentation and then violate the terms on which they have been admitted by taking jobs that are not authorized or overstaying the authorized period of stay in the country. The INS estimated in 1996 that about 60 percent of the then estimated five million illegal immigrants were EWI and 40 percent were over stayers. Both types of illegal immigrants are deportable under Immigration and Nationality Act Section 237 (a)(1)(B) which says:
    “Any alien who is present in the United States in violation of this Act or any other law of the United States is deportable.”

  • Evelyn
    June 9, 2008 at 6:29 am

    Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to
    enter) the United States at a time or place other than as
    designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil
    penalty of –
    CIVIL PENALTY not criminal Thank You Liquid

  • Liquidmicro
    June 9, 2008 at 9:48 am

    Seems to me that it is a law that is punishable with up to 6 months in prison for a first offense and up to 2 years for a second offense.
    “Any alien who is present in the United States in violation of this Act or any other law of the United States is deportable.”
    They become felony criminals at the point when they purchase false/fake/forged/stolen identity and/or obtain work, vehicles, and/or home loans with these identities. This then increases not just the fines, but also the time in jail.
    As usual Evelyn, you only stop where the information is pertenant to you. You use half truths to try to quantify and substantiate your reasoning.

  • Evelyn
    June 13, 2008 at 3:18 am

    like I stated and will reiterate.
    Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to
    enter) the United States at a time or place other than as
    designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil
    penalty of –
    CIVIL PENALTY not criminal Thank You Liquid

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