Immigration raids deemed abusive by panel

The San Francisco Chronicle today reported that a national commission has blasted the federal government for its tactics in a series of workplace immigration raids. The commission was set up by the United Food and Commercial Workers, and the panel included Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Dennis Hayashi, UC Davis Law Professor Bill Ong Hing and others.

The commission found that US immigration agents had "violated workers' rights and traumatized communities." The article explains that

The report described the 2006 Swift raids in which thousands of workers - most of them U.S. citizens or legal immigrants - were held by heavily armed ICE agents for up to eight hours without food, water or the opportunity to use a bathroom or a telephone.

Testimony alleged racial profiling and violations of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and detention without due process. Out of an entire Swift workforce of 12,000, ICE had warrants identifying 133 suspects of identity theft, the report said.

[emphasis added]

The comments on the newspaper's website show the level of hatred against undocumented workers. Most commentators ignore the fact that most of the people rounded up were lawful, even US citizens in some cases.