Rap on ICE Agents: A Bunch of Bullies
Representatives of the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency bullied immigrant workers and denied them access to legal representation in the wake of a raid on a business in the Van Nuys district of Los Angeles earlier this year, according to two women who were detained in the incident.
The women spoke at a June 24 public hearing of the National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights, held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angeles at Temple Street and Grand Avenue.
The women were identified only by their first names as they described a scene of 180 “heavily armed” law enforcement agents raiding Micro Solutions Enterprises, a manufacturing company in Van Nuys. The agents detained an estimated 130 suspected illegal immigrants, nearly half of the company’s workforce. Most were questioned and released with scheduled follow-up interviews, but others were kept longer.
“They put some of us in a room and an ICE agent was literally dancing and mocking us as they were pushing us,” said one of the women, who spoke in Spanish that was translated for the audience. The other witness said the detainees were not allowed to use the restroom or speak to attorneys.
ICE officials also spoke at the gathering, maintaining the legality of their actions, and expressing doubt about the credibility of testimony given at a series of hearings by the commission. ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said that the raid in Van Nuys followed federal law and ICE policies.
The National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights is a non-governmental effort with a 10-member board, including Los Angeles County AFL-CIO leader Maria Elena Durazo, along with a number of other prominent members of organized labor, academics, and former public officials from across the U.S.
The 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. A search, in legal terms, involves nearly any effort by law-enforcement authorities to enter and examine a private residence or workplace. A seizure generally involves a move by law-enforcement authorities to detain an individual or confiscate private property.
The National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights formed in 2007 in response to earlier raids on six meatpacking plants in the Midwest. More than 12,000 workers were allegedly rounded up at gunpoint, according to the commission.
Those raids and subsequent actions by ICE agents have raised alarms in Downtown and surrounding areas, where a lack of progress on immigration reform has left many companies counting on illegal immigrants for a significant portion of their workforces. Many employers have said that recent efforts to crackdown on illegal immigration have left them facing serious difficulties in finding sufficient numbers of workers to keep their operations going. Advocates for legal and illegal immigrants, meanwhile, have criticized ICE officials and their colleagues in other government agencies for carrying out raids in a manner that lacks compassion and fails to recognize the reality that millions of illegal immigrants have become part of the society and economy of the U.S. (see related Letter to the Editor, home page).
The June 24 gathering Downtown marked the fifth and final public hearing of the commission. Members of the panel said they plan to make a public report on its findings, and one offered a clear indication that it will contain some harsh criticism of ICE officials and policies.
“What we have uncovered is that ICE agents repeatedly trample on innocent workers’ constitutional rights,” said founding chairman, Joseph T. Hansen, who is also the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
“These are not isolated incidents, but systemic problems that are occurring in every region of the country. No government agency is above the law, and no worker should have to face the mistreatment and misconduct that we have [heard about] at each of our hearings.”
