Octopus Overlords

A teenager has been detained by border officials for nearly a month despite being a US citizen, his lawyer says.

Francisco Erwin Galicia, who was born in Dallas, was detained at a checkpoint while travelling to a football scouting event in Texas, his family says.

Lawyer Claudia Galan said officials have refused to release the 18-year-old, who is Hispanic, even though he has documents proving citizenship.

The BBC has contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for comment.

Mr Galicia's mother, Sanjuana Galicia, told the Dallas Morning News that her son had been travelling with his brother and friends from their home in Edinburg, in the south of Texas, to a college west of Dallas on 27 June.

She said the group was stopped at a checkpoint soon into their journey.

Mr Galicia's 17-year-old brother, Marlon, was born in Mexico and does not have US citizenship.

Marlon was detained - but so was Francisco, who was carrying a Texas ID which can only be obtained with a social security number, the family said.

Marlon agreed to be deported to Mexico within a couple of days, and is now living with his grandmother.

Meanwhile, Francisco spent three weeks in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), where his mother says he was unable to make phone calls. In recent days, he has moved to ICE custody and has been able to call his mother.

Mrs Galan said she had presented Francisco's birth certificate and other documents to prove he is a US citizen, but has been unable to get him released.

An 18-year-old U.S. citizen who was detained in federal immigration custody for nearly a month has been released, his mother confirmed to The Washington Post Tuesday night.
...
The reason it appears to have taken CBP and ICE so long to determine Galicia’s citizenship is because his mother, who is not a citizen, took out a U.S. tourist visa in his name while he was still a minor, falsely saying he was born in Mexico, Galan said. His mother, Sanjuana, told The Washington Post that CBP discovered the visa after fingerprinting her son. The conflicting documents only fueled the agency’s suspicion that Galicia’s U.S. documents were fake, [his attorney, Claudia] Galan said.

Sanjuana said she took out the tourist visa for her son because she saw it as the only way he could travel back and forth across the border to visit family. The undocumented mother was unable to get him a U.S. passport because when Galicia was born, Galan said, she gave a different name for herself on his birth certificate. (The birth certificate and other identifying documents were reviewed by The Post.)

A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Friday threw out a Trump administration policy barring migrants who illegally crossed the border from seeking asylum, finding that it violated the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The administration's policy, signed last November, aimed to temporarily bar migrants who illegally cross into the US through the southern border from seeking asylum outside of official ports of entry.

"[A]liens have a statutory right to seek asylum regardless of whether they enter the United States at a designated port of entry, and defendants may not extinguish that statutory right by regulation or proclamation," wrote District Judge Randolph Moss, an Obama appointee.

Late last year, a federal judge in California blocked Trump's asylum ban and the Supreme Court later upheld the judge's order.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 24, 2019 1:50 am Funny how knowing the whole story works.

US immigration officials have arrested almost 700 people after a series of raids in the state of Mississippi.

The co-ordinated operations targeted workers at seven agricultural processing plants who allegedly did not have proper documentation.

Videos and photos showed agents arriving in buses to question and arrest the people.

Some children were taken to a local gym after they came home to find their parents gone.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said "approximately 680 removable aliens" had been detained.

US President Donald Trump announced an immigration crackdown in June, saying "millions of illegal aliens who [had] found their way into the US" would be removed.

The raids took place just hours before Mr Trump arrived in the majority Latino city of El Paso to mark a mass shooting which left 22 people dead.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:14 am ICE arrests nearly 700 people in Mississippi raids

About 600 ICE agents arrived at the chicken processing plants, owned by five different companies, in the towns of Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol.

Isgrimnur wrote:

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:14 am ICE arrests nearly 700 people in Mississippi raids

About 600 ICE agents arrived at the chicken processing plants, owned by five different companies, in the towns of Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol.

So what actions are being taken against the plant owners and management that hired and continued to employ undocumented immigrants?

Peco Food, Tyson, Koch Foods, M P Food.

malchior wrote:This is fucking evil at work. The man had problems but they sent a diabetic man to a land where he didn't speak the language and he died. This is blood on their hands. If we make it through this period and return to decency we need to confront our demons and the monsters that live among us.

Mike Hurst, United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, said at a press conference today that 650 Homeland Security Investigations special agents executed unspecified administrative and criminal search warrants at seven sites in Morton, Carthage, Canton, Pelahatchie, Walnut Grove and Bay Springs in Mississippi, resulting in the detention of approximately 680 illegal aliens.
...
"For those who take advantage of illegal aliens, to those who use illegal aliens for competitive advantage or to make a quick buck, we have something to say to you. If we find that you have violated federal criminal law, we're coming after you," Hurst said.
...
"HSI's worksite enforcement efforts are equally focused on aliens who unlawfully seek work in the U.S. as well as the employers who knowingly hire them," HSI New Orleans Special Agent Charge Miles said in a statement Hurst's office sent out today.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:55 am

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:14 am ICE arrests nearly 700 people in Mississippi raids

About 600 ICE agents arrived at the chicken processing plants, owned by five different companies, in the towns of Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol.

So what actions are being taken against the plant owners and management that hired and continued to employ undocumented immigrants?

Peco Food, Tyson, Koch Foods, M P Food.

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:37 amThey are going to lose production until they can hire 600 more people? Good luck finding citizens who'll do those jobs at slave wages.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:55 am

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:14 am ICE arrests nearly 700 people in Mississippi raids

About 600 ICE agents arrived at the chicken processing plants, owned by five different companies, in the towns of Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol.

So what actions are being taken against the plant owners and management that hired and continued to employ undocumented immigrants?

Peco Food, Tyson, Koch Foods, M P Food.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:55 am

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:14 am ICE arrests nearly 700 people in Mississippi raids

About 600 ICE agents arrived at the chicken processing plants, owned by five different companies, in the towns of Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol.

So what actions are being taken against the plant owners and management that hired and continued to employ undocumented immigrants?

Peco Food, Tyson, Koch Foods, M P Food.

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:49 am

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:37 amThey are going to lose production until they can hire 600 more people? Good luck finding citizens who'll do those jobs at slave wages.

It isn't even slave wages. My wife runs QC at a production facility for a medium sized personal products company (think deodorants and shampoos). They are making $15 an hour and a decent amount of overtime.

Aldaoud’s family belongs to the Chaldean Catholic Church, one of the most ancient branches of Christianity. More than 1 million Chaldeans lived in Iraq before the 2003 U.S. invasion, but only a fraction remain today after years of emigration and violence at the hands of militants and the Islamic State.

Aldaoud was born in Greece after his family fled Iraq. Unlike the United States, Greece doesn’t recognize birthright citizenship, so Aldaoud was still considered an Iraqi citizen, even though he had never been there. The family moved to the United States before he turned 1, Bajoka said, settling in Michigan, where a sizable Chaldean community lives.

Aldaoud faced serious health problems, Bajoka said. In addition to diabetes, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and struggled to live a normal life. His run-ins with the law were primarily due to his mental illness, said Bajoka, who never represented Aldaoud in court. The most serious came in 2012 when Aldaoud, described as homeless in local media reports, broke into a garage and stole power tools. He served 17 months on that home invasion conviction, Politico reported, and had a separate conviction for disorderly conduct.

He wasn’t a U.S. citizen, so those criminal convictions made him eligible to be deported. For decades, Iraq had refused to accept deportations from the United States — but that all changed in June 2017. As part of a deal to escape President Trump’s travel ban against a host of majority-Muslim nations, Reuters reported, Iraq agreed to accept deportees. More than 100 Iraqis with criminal records were arrested that month by ICE, mostly in Detroit.

Aldaoud was among those picked up and eventually taken to a federal detention center in Youngstown, Ohio, according to federal court records.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:23 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:55 am

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:14 am ICE arrests nearly 700 people in Mississippi raids

About 600 ICE agents arrived at the chicken processing plants, owned by five different companies, in the towns of Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol.

So what actions are being taken against the plant owners and management that hired and continued to employ undocumented immigrants?

Peco Food, Tyson, Koch Foods, M P Food.

10,000 times this. 700 arrests, none of them the people who did the hiring or those supposably accountable for the company's adherence to the law.

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:43 pm

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:49 am

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 11:37 amThey are going to lose production until they can hire 600 more people? Good luck finding citizens who'll do those jobs at slave wages.

It isn't even slave wages. My wife runs QC at a production facility for a medium sized personal products company (think deodorants and shampoos). They are making $15 an hour and a decent amount of overtime.

I would like to believe that chicken pluckers are making $15. Is there any evidence that's so?

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:46 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:23 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:55 am

Max Peck wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:14 am ICE arrests nearly 700 people in Mississippi raids

About 600 ICE agents arrived at the chicken processing plants, owned by five different companies, in the towns of Bay Springs, Canton, Carthage, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastopol.

So what actions are being taken against the plant owners and management that hired and continued to employ undocumented immigrants?

Peco Food, Tyson, Koch Foods, M P Food.

10,000 times this. 700 arrests, none of them the people who did the hiring or those supposably accountable for the company's adherence to the law.

I implied it above. If only any of this was about compliance to the law. The company will require paperwork and a lot of it will be fraudulent. To be fairrrr...they have no way to validate documents. The Trumpsters will say that makes the workers all criminals. The realistic know that the system winked at it for decades. So ICE just makes sure the employer's have their paperwork in order and then places the blame squarely on the individual. It is a bullshit scheme.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:57 pm So one day they asked ICE how they could verify employees so the raids would be less impactful, if not less frequent. They were told there is no way to do so. It's almost like they don't want it to stop under any terms but their own.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:57 pmI have a friend who runs an steel parts company. At their foundry they'd have periodic raids. So one day they asked ICE how they could verify employees so the raids would be less impactful, if not less frequent. They were told there is no way to do so. It's almost like they don't want it to stop under any terms but their own.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 3:00 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:57 pm So one day they asked ICE how they could verify employees so the raids would be less impactful, if not less frequent. They were told there is no way to do so. It's almost like they don't want it to stop under any terms but their own.

Then how do ICE decide who to arrest?

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 3:00 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:57 pm So one day they asked ICE how they could verify employees so the raids would be less impactful, if not less frequent. They were told there is no way to do so. It's almost like they don't want it to stop under any terms but their own.

Then how do ICE decide who to arrest?

E-Verify is a United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees, both U.S. or foreign citizens, to work in the United States.
...
Research shows that E-Verify harms the labor market outcomes of illegal immigrants and improves the labor market outcomes of Mexican legal immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics, but has no impact on labor market outcomes for non-Hispanic white Americans. A 2016 study suggests that E-Verify reduces the number of illegal immigrants in states that have mandated use of E-Verify for all employers, and further notes that the program may deter illegal immigration to the US in general.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:07 pm E-Verify

E-Verify is a United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees, both U.S. or foreign citizens, to work in the United States.
...
Research shows that E-Verify harms the labor market outcomes of illegal immigrants and improves the labor market outcomes of Mexican legal immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics, but has no impact on labor market outcomes for non-Hispanic white Americans. A 2016 study suggests that E-Verify reduces the number of illegal immigrants in states that have mandated use of E-Verify for all employers, and further notes that the program may deter illegal immigration to the US in general.

A 2019 analysis by the Cato Institute found that while E-Verify used to be effective at spotting illegal immigrants, it was no longer so. The analysis estimated that the system only spotted the hiring of 16.1 percent of illegal immigrant workers in the fiscal year of 2018.

President Trump made waves last week by saying that he didn’t want to mandate E-Verify because the system—which intends to stop illegal workers by checking their information against government databases—is too “tough.” He claimed that when he built the Trump Hotel in D.C., the system rejected nearly 30 people for each person it accepted. But Trump is wrong: E-Verify catches fewer than one in six illegal workers. It’s been more than a decade since E-Verify reliably stopped illegal hires.
...
E-Verify can also erroneously deem legal workers “unauthorized,” which means that the number of denials is higher than the number of denials just for illegal immigrants. Legal workers can challenge an initial denial known as a “Tentative Non-Confirmation” (TNC) and try to prove their innocence, but only if their employers inform them of the error and don’t fire them or dump their application. If they don’t challenge or are unable to prove their identity if they do, the system still returns a “Final Non-Confirmation” (FNC), requiring the employer to fire them.
...

hepcat wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 12:49 pm Watching the video of the kids crying because they have nowhere to go is heartbreaking.

A panel of judges on Thursday dismissed an appeal by the U.S. government that contended detained immigrant children might not require soap during shorter stints in custody under a longstanding settlement agreement.

A three-judge panel for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a challenge to a lower court decision that authorities had failed to provide safe and sanitary conditions for the children under the 1997 settlement.

The U.S. government had argued that authorities weren't required to provide specific accommodations, such as soap, under the agreement's requirement that facilities be "safe and sanitary" and asked the panel to weigh in. The appellate judges disagreed and dismissed the government's case.

"Assuring that children eat enough edible food, drink clean water, are housed in hygienic facilities with sanitary bathrooms, have soap and toothpaste, and are not sleep-deprived are without doubt essential to the children's safety," the panel wrote.

The ruling followed a June hearing where a U.S. government lawyer said the agreement was vague and didn't necessarily require that a toothbrush and soap be provided to children during brief stays in custody.

UsulofDoom wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:54 pm They should have soap dispensers in the bathrooms and showers.

As the protest died down, about 30 demonstrators linked arms and sat in the facility’s parking lot entrances to block staff from leaving or entering, Anthony said. The group was peacefully protesting when seemingly out of nowhere a man in a pick-up truck drove towards them, slowing down just before hitting the crowd, footage of the incident shows. The video then shows the driver continuing to drive through the crowd, as protesters scream and try to get away from the car.

Anthony described the interaction that took place just before 10 p.m. on Wednesday as “terrifying,” saying the “brazen act" shows the driver of truck believed he is "beyond reproach.” She said several people suffered non-life threatening injuries from the incident, and some were brought to a local hospital, including an elderly protester whose leg was fractured during the incident. She also added a father was in the crowd with his three children.

The Trump administration is reportedly set to announce a rule change which would allow the government to hold migrant families in detention camps indefinitely.

Currently, children crossing illegally into the US from Mexico can generally be held for a maximum of 20 days, a limit Donald Trump has blamed for encouraging undocumented families to arrive at the border.

Under the new rule, which would likely require court approval, the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) could hold children in detention for the entirety of their immigration proceedings, which can take months or even years.

The move could be made public on Wednesday, according to ABC News, which spoke to government officials on condition of anonymity.
...
NBC News reported Trump administration officials expect to be sued in court imminently by opponents to the plan. [Surprised Pikachu -Isg.]

The possible holding of children indefinitely comes following an announcement by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that it will not vaccinate migrant families in detention ahead of this year’s flu season.

A Rhode Island correctional officer has resigned on Friday after a truck he was allegedly driving rammed into peaceful protesters on Wednesday night outside the Wyatt Detention Center, a Rhode Island prison that contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He had been placed on leave by facility administrators a day earlier.
...
Five people had been taken to the hospital, according to Matt Harvey, Never Again Action spokesperson and organizer, who says he “was about 30 feet to the right of the truck” when it drove into civilians: “Far enough away to not have to scatter but close enough to be startled.”

Two of the five injured people sustained injuries related to the collision, Harvey says. One man in his sixties was left with a broken leg. He says another three, including one woman in her seventies, were admitted to the hospital for injuries related to pepper spray.
...
[Aaron Regunberg, an organizer with Never Again Action and a former Rhode Island state representative,] alleges local police refused to take witness statements on the scene, despite protesters “clamoring, asking, demanding,” to give them. The Central Falls Police Department did not immediately respond to a phone call for comment, but a spokesman with the Rhode Island State Police, which has now taken over the investigation, says he was “not aware” of any officers not taking statements.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:55 am Independent

The Trump administration is reportedly set to announce a rule change which would allow the government to hold migrant families in detention camps indefinitely.

Currently, children crossing illegally into the US from Mexico can generally be held for a maximum of 20 days, a limit Donald Trump has blamed for encouraging undocumented families to arrive at the border.

Under the new rule, which would likely require court approval, the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) could hold children in detention for the entirety of their immigration proceedings, which can take months or even years.

The move could be made public on Wednesday, according to ABC News, which spoke to government officials on condition of anonymity.
...
NBC News reported Trump administration officials expect to be sued in court imminently by opponents to the plan. [Surprised Pikachu -Isg.]

The possible holding of children indefinitely comes following an announcement by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that it will not vaccinate migrant families in detention ahead of this year’s flu season.