Report Finds Widespread Instances Of Federal Immigration Agents Breaking Into Homes Without Legal Authority

A new report came out last week confirming what FCNL has been saying for a long time: Sweeping ICE raids violate constitutional rights. Check out the press release below, or read the whole report HERE.

New York, NY -- July 22, 2009 -- Today the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University released the first public study of the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s home raid operations, finding that immigration agents have engaged in widespread constitutional violations during such operations. Constitution on ICE: A Report on Immigration Home Raid Operations documents the prevalence of these constitutional violations – violations involving immigration agents forcing their way into private residences during pre-dawn hours, without warrants or other legal authority, and seizing residents without legal basis, in a pattern suggestive of racial profiling.

In 2006, as previously uncovered by the Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic, ICE vastly expanded its use of home raids as a strategy purportedly aimed at arresting and deporting high priority targets who pose some threat to society. ICE’s home raids generally involve heavily armed seven-person teams of ICE agents making predawn tactical entries into private residences. The Report finds:

• Despite the purported focus of ICE home raid operations, the report concludes that the large majority (approximately two-thirds) of people arrested during home raids are not dangerous targets but rather are mere civil immigration violators who are in the wrong place at the wrong time -- people who have, for example, overstayed their visas.
• While ICE has publicly and repeatedly admitted that it does not obtain judicial warrants for its home raid operations, the report finds a pattern of ICE agents physically pushing and breaking their way into private homes in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.
• Once inside, the study finds a pattern of ICE agents abandoning their purported focus on high priority targets and instead illegally seizing residents without legal authority – in an apparent effort to meet inflated arrest expectations.
• Finally, the data reveals that Latino residents are disproportionately likely to be arrested without any articulated basis during ICE home raid operations. Indeed, approximately 90% of the collateral arrest records reviewed, where ICE officers did not note any basis for seizing and questioning the individual, were of Latino men and women – though Latinos represented only 66% of target arrests.

“This report reveals an alarming pattern of federal immigration officials breaking into people’s homes and bedrooms in the pre-dawn hours in flagrant violation of the Constitution. The government’s heavy handed tactics are a monumental waste of public resources resulting primarily in the arrest of hard working immigrants who pose no danger at all to society,” explained Peter L. Markowitz, Director of Cardozo’s Immigration Justice Clinic and co-author of the report.

Through two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, the authors of this report obtained significant samples of ICE arrest records from home raid operations in New York and New Jersey. The report relies on an analysis of these arrest records together with national data regarding immigration suppression motions and individual accounts of ICE home raids from across the country. In addition, the report relies upon the observations of political and law enforcement leaders who have a unique vantage point from which to view ICE misconduct during home raid operations in their local jurisdictions. Based on this evidence, the report concludes that “there is an established pattern of misconduct by ICE agents in the New York and New Jersey Field Offices” and “the evidence suggests that such pattern may be a widespread national phenomenon.”

This report was prepared under the guidance of an advisory panel, chaired by Nassau County, New York, Police Commissioner Lawrence W. Mulvey, and comprised of law enforcement leaders and scholars from across the United States. The advisory panel played a critical role in reviewing the report’s findings and in developing specific policy proposals to ensure that ICE officers comply with constitutional requirements when conducting home raids. “This report reflects precisely the types of misconduct we have seen during immigration home raid operations in Nassau County. If any local law enforcement agency in the nation were involved in these types of widespread constitutional violations it would prompt a federal investigation. Federal immigration agents simply need to play by the same rules as every other law enforcement officer in the United States,” says Commissioner Mulvey.

The report concludes that the pattern of misconduct during ICE home raid operations stems from a variety of factors including: a flawed 2006 performance policy; the inability of suppression motions or civil lawsuits to serve as a meaningful deterrent to ICE misconduct; and serious management and oversight failures by ICE supervisors. In order to correct course and to improve the ability of ICE to carry out its mission, the report proposes several policy recommendations aimed at:

• Setting appropriate limits on the use of home raids
• Revising ICE’s warrant & consent practices
• Improving supervision and training of ICE home raid teams
• Minimizing harm to local community policing efforts
• Minimizing the intrusion to non-targets encountered during ICE home raids
• Improving accountability for ICE agents and supervisors involved in illegal home raids.

“If the government were engaged in these types of systematic and widespread constitutional violations toward any other group in society, there would be a national outcry. Because these abuses have targeted the most vulnerable segments of our population they have gone largely unnoticed. Each and every one of us ought to be outraged and has an obligation to hold our government accountable. In light of the findings in this report, we call on the administration to bring an immediate end to its current home raid operations – an ineffective, wasteful and unjust response to immigration,” explained Cardozo Law Student Jaya Vasandani, a co-author of the report.

The full text of the report is available for download here.

The Immigration Justice Clinic is a new program of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. The clinic provides vital quality legal representation for indigent immigrants facing deportation and represents immigrant community-based organizations on litigation and advocacy projects while providing students with an invaluable hands-on lawyering experience.

Goodbye, FCNL! Reflections from our Junior Intern Alex Hull

For the last 6 weeks, Alex Hull from Kenyon College has been helping me here at the office. He has been amazing--making hundreds of calls, putting together packets, accompanying me on lobby visits, learning his way through my alphabet soup Washington-speak, and updating you all on a weekly basis through the blogroll. I asked him to reflect on his time at FCNL. This is what he said:

My time at FCNL is sadly at an end. I’ve finished my phone calls, sent out the last of the potluck packets, and coolly navigated my first solo lobby visit. As the dust settles on my six week jaunt on the hill, I thought I’d share a few of my reflections.

I’ve learned to speak rudimentary Washington-ese (HR2709, grasstops, ICE, E-verify), mastered both copy machines, and fostered an appetite for late night C-SPAN. I’ve learned the ins and outs of our immigration system, which, by the way, is unbelievably dysfunctional in every way, and I’ve gotten a taste of how and why this government serves its people. I’ve learned that the Metro system is never to be trusted and that Washington is literally the hottest place on the planet.

Time and time again, I’ve found myself marveling at the anxious scheduler who lurks behind every member of Congress, constantly whispering into his/her member’s ear about the latest political developments on the hill. They are the epitome of 21st century efficiency and accountability. At the same time, tangible political progress is achieved at a snail’s pace in Washington. The health care debate will rage on into the fall, and as a result, the immigration debate will surely be put on hold. Somewhat paradoxically, things move really slowly and really quickly here in Washington. It is a city both in and out of touch with the rest of America.

Into this paradoxical city I entered, determined to learn as much as possible and make a real difference. My assigned task at FCNL was to set up potluck dinners across the nation in support of immigration reform. First my supervisor Alex and I designed a packet of planning materials, complete with film screening options, ways to contact members of Congress, colorful flyers and letter-writing templates. It really is a veritable immigration activism super-packet, if I say so myself. Then I dedicated my last two weeks to the phones, calling people across this nation and begging them to look at my packet and plan a potluck of their own. I called people from Maine to Oregon, and ended up sending about 55 packets out to interested parties. I was honestly really surprised at the number of people who were willing to consider hosting a dinner. It’s a big undertaking—planning and executing a dinner, and for such a nebulous cause at that. But this cause is an important one—our actions are vital and our voices need to be heard. There is heartbreak and dehumanization in every town across this nation, and it’s because our immigration system is broken, but not beyond repair. We must hold ourselves to be responsible for the way our government treats the least of its people. It is our duty as people of faith who walk humbly with God to protect those who need protection, and call out for those who cannot call out for themselves.

We must be the text on that scheduler’s blackberry. We must be the whisper in that member’s ear. Only when we are everywhere, in everyone’s ear, will we be heard.

I want to extend my deepest thanks to all of those who worked with me at FCNL this summer. Each one of you welcomed me into your workplace with a daily smile and a wave. For a terrified intern, it made all the difference. A special thanks goes to my supervisor Alex Douglas who was helpful, kind, and patient, day in and day out.

Families of 9/11 Victims Would Get Permanent Status Under Bill

The House Committee on the Judiciary approved a piece of legislation today that would grant permanent status to the spouses and children of undocumented immigrants killed in the 9/11 Twin Tower attack.

Immigration Prosecutions Returning to Bush-era Standards Under Obama

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) has recently compiled some Department of Justice data that shows that immigration prosecutions for April 2009 have returned to Bush-era standards. The month of April saw 9,307 prosecutions, an 8.5% increase from March. Prosecutions are also up 146.7% from 2004 levels.

Prosecutions have risen every month since President Obama was inaugurated in Janurary of this year.

In Our Community: Immigration News

Immigration-related news from June 15 to June 20. Enjoy!

Some Senators used amendments to the Senate Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2010 to show just how strong they could be on immigration, in anticipation of this fall's upcoming immigration debate that is sure to polarize members into enforcement and path to legalization camps. Republican Senators Vitter, Sessions, Grassley and DeMint all introduced enforcement-heavy amendments to the bill.

Here's a great overview of what we expect to see when the immigration debate heats up this fall. Includes advantages and disadvantages of the E-verify system, and where the major players will line up when the debate hits the floors of Senate and House this fall. For info on the REAL ID debate, this article has it all. Here's another article with details on the employee identification debate.

Julia Harumi Mass from the Sacramento Bee writes an impassioned plea for comprehensive immigration reform here.

A new decision by the Obama Administration makes it easier for foreign women who are victims of domestic abuse to gain asylum in the United States. This comes after 8 years of stasis from the Bush Administration, where immigration courts were theatres of inaction on the subject of battered women seeking refugee status.

On a related note, Department of Homeland Security has moved to expand the 287(g) program, which enlists local law enforcement to root out undocumented immigrants in counties across the U.S. Although the program has re-prioritized by making criminals migrants their most important targets and by providing nationwide oversight rules, the program may be bad news for victims of domestic abuse, who will be more reticent to report their grievances for fear of being deported or detained. The New York Daily News' Albor Ruiz weighs in on the 287(g) debate here. The ACLU opines on the 287(g) program here.

ICE reports here that deportations in Washington, Oregon and Alaska have jumped 10% in the last year, partly due to the Obama Administration's focus on deporting those immigrants with criminal records. Same thing in Maryland. A more personal deportation hearing about a Jamaican immigrant who was finally granted a hearing after 5 and half years in detention.

In Dobbs Ferry, NY, The Children's Village provides a home for undocumented minors. Jose's story is particularly worth reading.

In other detention news, a swine flu outbreak has required 72 detainess to be quarantined, causing many to miss important hearings, even if they might not be officially confirmed to have the virus.

A troubling new decision from the Supreme Court came down June 15, when the court unanimously decided against Manoj Nijhawan, who had been convicted of money laundering over $10,000. The new decision makes it easier for immigration officials to deport individuals based on information based on information not specificially determined by a judge or jury as grounds for a criminal conviction, thereby reducing the objective and consistent standards by which immigrant criminals can be deported.

Caddo Mills, TX considers letting Emerald Correctional Facilities build a 500 to 1,000 bed correctional facility.

Last but not least, the Sheriff Joe Arpaio charade continues here.

That's all folks. Thanks for reading.