It is well known that a culture of oppression can be created among
the
members of any policing organization by allowing excesses to go
unpunished. This is what may be happening to INS.....
NEWS
Published Saturday, May 13, 2000, in the Miami Herald
INS raids and complaints on rise, rights
groups say
Agency says actions are within law
PAUL BRINKLEY-ROGERS
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The April 22 photo of a commando-garbed Border
Patrol agent pointing a submachine gun in the direction
of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez in Little Havana shocked
and angered many.
But advocates for immigration rights say the scene
was rare only in that it involved Cubans, who are not
usually the target of enforcement actions by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. Elsewhere,
such tactics are increasingly common, the advocates
say, the result of a decade of congressional actions
that have turned the INS into the federal government's
largest law enforcement agency.
Boasting more armed agents with arrest powers --
16,552 -- than any other federal agency, the INS now surpasses the Bureau
of
Prisons (12,587 agents), the FBI (11,285) and U.S. Customs (10,359) for
firepower.
And that has meant more raids nationwide that have drawn complaints from
advocates. Two recent examples:
Izabel Solis, 21, was at night school when five INS agents with guns
drawn
entered her Encinitas, Calif., home in February looking for a man who did
not live
there. They questioned her frightened brothers and sisters -- ages 5, 7
and 11 --
then arrested her father, Felipe Solis, after they learned that he had
once served
time for attempted arson. The agents did not have a search warrant, but
they left
a business card.
``I went to Washington to try to do something for my dad,'' said Solis,
who said
she will have to drop out of the University of California to replace her
father as
head of the household because he is under a deportation order. ``They
[members
of Congress] said the law is the law. An alien is an alien. That's it.''
On Jan. 20, an armed INS team arrived at an air base in San Antonio,
Texas, and
ordered 40 computer programmers recruited from India to the floor. They
had been
working since 1996 on human resources systems serving 350,000 servicemen
worldwide. The reason for the raid: their visas only allowed them to work
in
Houston. The programmers claim some agents drew their guns, but the INS
denies that.
India's ambassador protested. But the INS concluded it had done nothing
improper. Said Russ Bergeron, an INS spokesman: ``They carry weapons to
protect themselves. It is a gross mischaracterization to claim [a gun] is
a weapon
of intimidation.''
DOCUMENTATION
Advocates for immigrants disagree. Dozens of groups, led by the National
Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which includes 70 member
organizations, are documenting cases. But despite clamor from the
nation's
largest Hispanic organization -- the National Council for La Raz --
lawyer groups
and several churches, Congress has not been persuaded.
During the call for hearings into the Elian Gonzalez raid, many of the
groups said
they would support such hearings -- if they were broadened to include
complaints
about INS tactics in general. But with polls continuing to show little
appetite for
hearings among the U.S. population at large, the hearings seem
increasingly
unlikely.
INS officials defend their actions, denying that agents are heavy-handed
or out of
control. ``We are doing things according to law,'' said INS spokeswoman
Maria
Cardona.
The problems go beyond excessive use of firearms, advocates claim. Group
after
group claims to have evidence of abusive tactics, including hitting,
kicking and
sexual assault.
``You would not believe what is going on,'' said Miami immigration lawyer
Tammy
Fox-Isicoff, a former INS trial attorney.
As an example, she recalls the case of a Haitian client who lives in Palm
Beach
County who was told to come to the INS offices to pick up residency
papers.
When he arrived, agents arrested him for being an illegal alien.
``We have reported that to the office of the inspector general,''
Fox-Isicoff said.
``Sometimes I think there is no supervision of what these agents do.
You've got a
bunch of renegades, running amok out there.''
POLICE FUNCTION
Grass-roots monitors have long lists of children left in the United
States because
parents have been deported. Wives are often unable to keep up the
mortgage
payments after their husbands have been taken away. Kids are forced to
leave
school. Jobs are lost.
Advocates claim the INS has lost sight of its service function -- issuing
visas to
foreigners -- and instead is focused on its police function.
Cardona disputes that. The agency has reduced its backlog of immigration
applications from 1.8 million to 1.3 million in the last year, she said.
Bergeron said use of force is governed by ``the same standards as those
used by
the Justice Department, which frequently mirror standards used throughout
the
United States by most law enforcement agencies.''
A raid team may go in with guns drawn if it is executing a ``criminal
search
warrant'' looking for an alien with a history of crimes, he said. A
search warrant is
not needed if the team is merely trying to apprehend someone without a
criminal
background, and its members usually holster their weapons.
Bergeron said that these arrest attempts rarely approach the paramilitary
intensity of the raid on the Gonzalez home in Little Havana where body
armor,
helmets and assault rifles were used.
`HIGH-RISK TEAM'
That raid, he said, was done by an elite ``high-risk entry team'' made up
of Border
Patrol agents based in El Paso, Texas. Most of the 20 Border Patrol
sectors --
but not Miami -- also have ``special teams.'' He said they are necessary
because
80 percent of the 18,000 aliens in INS custody are criminal suspects.
The INS, however, does not track the number of search warrants it obtains
or the
number of times its agents draw their weapons.
Matt Talmer, of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, blamed an
``internal cultural problem'' for an increase in tough tactics.
Legislation in 1996 ``criminalized'' immigration laws, he said,
``significantly
expanding the types of offenses people could be deported for.'' The laws
require
mandatory detention of people who have been convicted of those crimes and
allow
INS to resurrect old convictions, contributing to a mentality of ``we're
going to kick
out all those immigrant criminal so and sos.''
An INS internal audit for 1999 indicates that 442 of the 3,458 complaints
against
INS employees involved allegations of abuse of alien detainees, including
physical
abuse, illegal search and seizure, unlawful detention and sexual
misconduct. The
audit said less than 10 percent of the allegations resulted in criminal
investigation,
and only one resulted in a prosecution.
HISPANICS RESENTFUL
Cecilia Muoz, vice president for policy for the National Council for La
Raza, said
the increased use of arms by the INS is a source of resentment among
Hispanics.
``The consistent element seems to be the inappropriate and excessive use
of
force, and instilling fear,'' she said, ``instead of helping qualified
people become
U.S. citizens.''
The council, she said, became determined to effect reforms after INS
raids in
1997 on migrants living at a Crescent City, Fla., trailer park, and at a
Salt Lake
City tortilla factory. Tips that guns and drugs were present led to the
operations,
but no contraband was found, she said.
At Crescent City, agents did not display search warrants when they came
crashing through doors with their guns pointed at residents, she said. At
the
tortilla factory, ``75 armed local and federal officials threw people on
the floor. A
pregnant woman on the floor had a gun pointed at her head.'' No one was
arrested, ``but nobody apologized.''
Diana Navarro, who lives in Orange County, Calif., saw her husband,
Alberto, a
36-year-old truck driver born in Mexico, ordered deported on Jan. 6. She
has
since organized a support group of 110 women whose spouses have been
arrested by the INS.
Police found there was an outstanding felony warrant, 14 years old, when
her
husband was ticketed for a driving violation. Paperwork had been lost,
she said,
showing that her husband served in a work furlough program instead of
going to
jail.
That was sorted out, she said.
But soon after, INS sent a letter inviting her husband to visit to
discuss his
application for permanent residency. He was arrested.
``It was entrapment,'' Navarro said. ``But they say it is legal. . . .
And that comes
from people who drag men out of bed by the hair in front of their
wives,
who don't
knock first and kick in the door.''
--
Kathleen
The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning
of all freedom.
-- Supreme Court Justice William Orville Douglas
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