Immigration Raid Challenged

What part of ILLEGAL alien is so hard to understand?

The Korean national overstayed her tourist visa and became a UCSB student. Thousands of foreign citizens do that nationwide, but that is no excuse, is it? This one got caught for being in our country illegally. Would this be more socially acceptable if the law were enforced at a more convenient time of day?

The attorney for this foreign national present here without a valid visa had nothing to say to the Independent because the case against his client is so clear.

What is funny is how our immigration laws are so capriciously applied. I wonder why our government, which tacitly allows hundreds of thousands to come into the country in violation of the law, (whether or not one agrees with those laws notwithstanding) makes such a big deal about this student overstaying her visa?

This tragedy is an example of what ICE calls "collateral arrests". When agents serve a deportation order, they don't just go after the person listed on the warrant, but interrogate anyone else that happens to be in the residence or general vicinity.

As many as two-thirds of the 20,000 deportations that have been carried out since the beginning of Operation Return to Sender have been the result of collateral arrests. (see http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/sali... and and http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro...).

It is important for immigrants, regardless of their status, to know their rights. They have a right not to incriminate themselves and to due process, i.e. having their case heard before an immigration judge. Unless ICE agents have a warrant, they do not even have to open the door. The migra has been known to use tricks such as taking advantage of peoples' ignorance of their rights.

These tactics have been used with increasing frequency despite the congressional debate over a "comprehensive immigration reform." Could it be that the executive branch, in an effort to placate its conservative base just prior to an election year, is using the enforcement agencies at its disposal to quelch last year's mass movement against HR 4437, now demanding legalization, through psychological warfare?

If ICE can come in to university housing and detain a member of our community that they weren't even looking for, what can stop them from doing the same to other UCSB students who are foreign-born, have non-Anglo last names, or just "look" foreign? We are living in a dangerous time, when abuse of power is rampant. We must ask all the entities that have powers to protect us: the university, the city councils, and the board of supervisors, to join with local churches in the New Sanctuary Movement that offers refuge to immigrants who are threatened with separation from their families and lives.

The hypocritical policies that court a low-wage immigrant labor force only to seek its deportation once it begins demand its rights have gone on long enough. We need economic justice on a global scale and empowerment for those marginalized communities that have already risked their lives to come here.

It could also be that ICE figures it will carry out raids that are ridiculous in hopes that maybe the American public will turn the other way. (Toward open borders)

Our whole immigration system is a joke--on all levels. If it did it's job in the first place, these raids, the Sanctuary movement, and the Minuteman phenomena would not be happening. Furthermore, by conducting these raids, it gives the Feds yet one more excuse to haul people off to jail.

Anyone with a modicum of knowledge per what's going on in our country can see what a joke our federal government is on many levels and how it compensates for its own uselessness by conducting these raids when it fails to enforce its borders, and to digress, passing laws such as the Patriot Act because it fails to secure its airports.

It's all about justifying abuse.

If the entry into the apartment of the Iranian and Korean nationals was illegal without a warrant etc., would not the attorney of the Korean citizen illegally overstaying her visa be mouthing off about that already in a frothy protest, with plenty of commentary to the Independent?

Rockero here is like the unfortunate jerk-knee-first-then-think-later crowd. First, answer the basic question of whether a foreign national can be a public university student with no valid visa to legally allow her to be present in the nation.

Conspiracy theorists never address the most basic question of whether USA has basic legal authority to enforce its own immigration laws.

However, billclausen there is correct about the highly capricious nature of the selective enforcement of immigration laws. ICE went after the Iranian first, no doubt as part of a Bushian political effort to harass any and all Iranians, consistent with the bluster in Iraq and Persian Gulf recently.

The collateral arrest of the Korean national was just part of a broader policy that ICE really, really would look bad ignoring other illegal aliens there in the same room or dwelling when ICE goes after a specific target, such as the Iranian in this example, or a few weeks ago in Goleta the Mexican felons who were years overdue to report for deportation for a parole violation or worse.

Everyone who violates immigration laws, including overstaying a visa or having no visa, is subject to lawfully Constitutional enforcement of the law, anytime, anywhere.

Everyone who also hires or otherwise accommodates illegal aliens also subject to enforcement of the existing laws, but this demand-side law enforcement seldom if ever is practices. THAT would be truly Comprehensive Immigration Reform!

As for "New Sanctuaries" movement, no one is threatened with separation of their families. The American dependents of illegal aliens are totally free to go with their non-American parents back to the home country of the deported parent. The open-border advocates continually ignore that basic fact. The ones being deported are the ones choosing to break up their families.

Simply producing an Anchor Baby within American territory does not grant permanent and legal residency to the parent. And pointing out that fact does not make me a racist, but I am sure that others with no more facts to argue will still want to call me that as a means to deflect the reality of the immigration crisis in America. Facts remain stubborn things.

First District Streefighter writes: "As for 'New Sanctuaries' movement, no one is threatened with separation of their families. The American dependents of illegal aliens are totally free to go with their non-American parents back to the home country of the deported parent. The open-border advocates continually ignore that basic fact. The ones being deported are the ones choosing to break up their families."

So true. And all I can add to that is that the New Sanctuary movement (Marty Blum is a Sanctuary supporter) doesn't take into account that their open border approach simply enables Mexico's government to continue ignoring the plight of their people. I know I'm not saying anything new by bringing that point up, but the Sanctuary supporters, who are in my opinion well-intentioned, simply do not zoom out and see the big picture.

I know I appear to be digressing, but having thought this thing through for many years and seeing both sides of this argument, the evidence suggests strongly that the open border policy of the U.S. is not benifiting anyone in the long term except the elite both inside and outside the U.S.