Posted on 06/08/2008 6:43:33 PM PDT by Coleus
An immigrant couple, here legally, and their U.S.-born son have joined a statewide lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security after their Paterson home was raided last month by federal agents looking for illegal immigrants. Walter Chavez and his wife, Ana Galindo, said Thursday that on April 2, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, forced their way into their home, pointing guns at Galindo and their child. "It was a nightmare for our family, and continues to be even today," said Galindo, 42. "The very worst part of it all was when an agent, who screamed at me the entire time, drew his gun when my son came out of his bedroom. I thought I would lose my son, my only son. I yelled to him, 'Come to me and stay still here.'"
The couple says the agents -- seven of whom entered their home while others stayed outside -- violated their constitutional rights and traumatized their son, 9-year-old Walter. The original lawsuit included 10 plaintiffs and was filed in April in U.S. District Court in Newark by the Seton Hall University Center for Social Justice and the Roseland law firm Lowenstein Sandler PC. The complaint -- one of a growing number of suits around the country challenging ICE raids at private residences -- maintains that immigration agents routinely force their way into homes using deception and intimidation. It says the agents often enter without judicial warrants or consent of the homeowners.
ICE spokesman Michael Gilhooly said the agency does not comment on pending litigation, and added: "The agency holds all officers and agents to the highest standards of law enforcement and ethics." Court papers say that ICE agents forced Chavez, 44, out of his car outside his Chamberlain Avenue home about 7:30 a.m. as he began to leave for work. The agents shoved him toward the door of the residence, demanding to see his wife, the complaint says. "We thought it was the Paterson police, and we couldn't understand why they were here," Galindo said. "We're hard-working, have our papers and are devoted to raising our son."
Once inside, the complaint says, agents yelled at Galindo, demanding to see evidence that she and her husband were in the United States legally. An agent drew his weapon when the couple's son emerged from his bedroom, then put it away, Galindo said, apparently after realizing that the target was a child. The couple said the agents never identified themselves, nor explained why they had singled them out. Galindo said she realized they were immigration officers after she saw "ICE" on the clothing of the agent who aimed the gun at her son. Galindo said that even after she showed the agents green cards for herself and her husband, and her son's U.S. passport, they continued to interrogate her, asking her where she was hiding illegal immigrants. "I told them the only people who live in this house are myself, my husband and my son," she said.
The agents, the suit says, at one point had a conversation that indicated they had targeted the wrong woman, yet remained there for about 45 minutes, asking the couple where they were employed and if they paid their income taxes. The agents threatened to take the boy away from them if they harbored illegal immigrants, Galindo said, and before leaving, warned: "We're going to come back. And next time it will be worse."
“”The agency holds all officers and agents to the highest standards of law enforcement and ethics.”’
Remember when Janet Reno and whats his name from the FBI said federal agents were above the law?
This reads between the lines like some disgruntled neighbor (employee, whoever) made a phone call, and ICE just took it and ran with it.
Guilty.
I can’t BELIEVE these ICE Agents! Who do they think they ARE....the BATF at Waco? LOL!
Guilty as in the legal immigrants hiding something.
this ain’t gonna play well on FR, factual or not.
“forced their way into their home”
When they do that, they’d better be ready for what’s
waiting for them on the other side of the door.
“this ain’t gonna play well on FR, factual or not.”
Why do Freepers have something against legal immigrants?
I’m not saying this is the case here (general incompetence is most likely), but this is EXACTLY the policy I would endorse (i.e. targeting innocent, legal immigrants) if I wanted to reduce public support for immigration enforcement.
They are lucky the Texas CPS didn't take their child away.
This is what it’s come to on this site? Has hostility toward Hispanics reached the point where federal government agents can act like jackbooted thugs and be praised for it as long as they target the “undesirable” ethnicities? Is this now a place where the Constitutional concept of innocent until proven guilty is spat upon? These are legal immigrants and they did not deserve to be harassed like this. The government agents were acting just like the ATF thugs who harass gun owners. Arrogant, rude, and threatening. And the accusations of guilt without evidence are just crap.
They do this to legal immigrants today - tomorrow they’ll be doing it to Hispanic U.S. citizens. And after that, they’ll be doing it to white U.S. citizens, too. On this site, we are constantly warned to be vigilant about the erosion of our civil liberties in the name of “fighting terrorism.” But no one ever warns about the erosion of our civil liberties in the name of “fighting illegal immigration.” Some idiots would probably support repealing the 2nd Amendment if it was packaged as part of an “anti-illegal” crusade.
Yes, I’m Hispanic. Yes, I support raids on illegal immigrants. But no legal immigrants deserve to be treated this way. Ever. People who can’t tell the difference shouldn’t be working for the government (and shouldn’t be voting, either). Just because I have slightly darker hair and eyes than the average American doesn’t mean I’m somehow softer on illegal immigration, or more liberal, or less patriotic.
UGH.
Some lack the intelligence to differentiate between legals and illegals, some are capable of telling the difference but too lazy to bother, and some are just plain racist.
I agree...but there are always going to be mistakes... even when there is the best intention....and sporadic abuses... (I got pulled over by local police and surrounded by six cars when I was in college and they ransacked my truck and then realized they had made a mistake and thought I had just robbed a local bank...and I'm a white guy...hey...s*** happens...) we can't let that make us condemn the whole program. The left uses stories like this to turn public opinion towards their agenda...
One mistake is not an excuse to stop enforcing immigration laws.
Well, to Democrats I guess it is...
That's exactly right...
This has been happening here for a long time, Jill...
The fallacy “Hispanic = illegal immigrant” is so pervasive here at FR that I’ve just simply given up trying to explain otherwise, and have cut posting and browsing drastically in this site.
Go to threads about other topics, subscribe to humor ping lists (I’m a faithful DUmmie FUnnies reader) or don’t log on to FR at all, but don’t let the hatred get to you.
Friendly advice from a fellow Hispanic.
I don't know anyone here who equates the two.... matter of fact most go to great lengths to make a distinction...pssssst!...your racism is showing....
Sooo ...should I sign all my posts as: "your fellow whitey"??
I know. I usually stick to TV threads, or gun threads. But I felt like I had to say something because of the civil liberties issue.
oops...that last one was for you...and hey....I DO like and agree with your tagline though...:o)
This is a complaint with legal action pending.
We are only hearing one side of the story and accepting it as factual.
It sounds obvious that there was a mistake here, but before everyone jumps on the complaint as being factual, it has not been proven. It might be, but it has not been proven in court, which is where it is going.
There is an entire spectrum of possibilities here, and one of them is as the complaint states. Another scenario along that spectrum is that the agents did nothing as rude and violent as portrayed in the complaint, but it is being exaggerated.
As I heard someone once say, no matter how thin I make my pancakes, they still have two sides to them.
He hasn’t said a thing that was racist.
that was for the other poster...sorry
I’m just sick of “news” stories by the MSM being twisted and spun to make ICE agents look like the bad guy all the time.
To say that people at FR equate Hispanic with illegal immigration is to be brain-dead or racist enough to be blind to the truth... I've been here a while and to say that, and sign your name as "a fellow Hispanic" is to use the race card....
My point exactly...thanks...:o)
You do hear here that most illegal immigrants are Hispanic, which is a fact, but to say that Hispanic=illegal immigrant in that context is like saying "this text is black...therefore everything black is text"....sheesh....
No, we do not.Anyone that goes through that nightmare that is called legal immigration has earned citizenship the hard way and is welcomed here.
A good friend and fellow Freeper is a legal immigrant from Mexico....but you’d never know she is Hispanic because she never brings it up...she just says she is a “fellow American”....;o)
Amen to that!
You’re a hypocrite. YOU declared the legal immigrants to be guilty of hiding illegals with NO evidence. I merely commented on the poor behavior of the federal agents, which falls well within the definition of “jackbooted thug.” Funny, people call agents from other federal agencies “jackbooted thugs” all the time, but you don’t seem to have a problem with that. I guess in your mind, immigration officials have special license to abuse people. Or do you think ATF agents should have the right to act like that too?
If you’re going to accuse me of hating all ICE agents, you have lost the right to whine when someone accuses you of hating all Hispanics. Your only arguments consist of making false accusations against me, and the legal immigrants in the article.
Heard word that the ICE lawyers are freaking out over this, Chavez and Galindo have had about every civil rights and ambulance chasing law firm in the area approach them to take the case pro-bono.
ICE is guilty as sin on this one, no question in anyone’s mind down in Paterson’s Hispanic community, and in Paterson City Hall... Very likely Paterson Police will take the stand against the ICE if it makes it to trial. Total FUBAR raid by ICE.
The ICE unit in north NJ is a seriously troubled office in need of some oversight and reform.
read the filings, background, FOIA releases, and amended complaints yourself:
http://law.shu.edu/csj/iceraids.html
And this is what, exactly???
Soooo... making a perfunctory, non-offensive mention of one’s own race/ethnicity is somehow inherently racist???
Then, by that logic, all comedians whose main subject is race relations should be dragged to court on hate crime charges.
With all due respect, the two of you are overreacting to one comment. No one here is doing what you're accusing of them. Only one person commented that ICE might have had the right house. So far, everyone here opposes kicking in doors to the wrong house.
Stories about the authorities raiding the wrong house are very common. And most of those stories have nothing to do with ICE. Typically, when "jackbooted thugs" kick in a door to the wrong house, they are looking for drugs. Both innocent inhabitants and officers have been shot to death in these mistaken raids. I remember the story of one innocent man dying of a heart attack when police raided his home accidentally.
ICE needs to be more careful. In the meantime, this family is very lucky no one was hurt. If the details in this story are accurate, they should sue, and they'll probably receive a large sum of money now. But they were luckier than many Americans have been.
Now, in posts 34-35, it seems that this story is not an exaggeration. It looks like the ICE really screwed up. I don't expect Mr. "I Was Sure They Were Guilty" to apologize to me, but he does owe an apology to the legal immigrants in the article.
And I'm aware of the abuses other federal agencies commit, including Drug War-related ones. In fact, I mentioned the abuses that the ATF commits because the ICE was acting just like them in this case. Read the comments on the thread and you'll see that most of them are defending or making excuses for the ICE. "Oh, everyone makes mistakes, let's just MoveOn.org." Do you honestly think people here would be making excuses for the ATF? I'm tired of immigration getting the green light to trample on civil liberties from the one-issuers here who care only about immigration and nothing else. I just want the ICE, when they screw up, to receive the same criticism that the ATF and DEA get when they screw up.
I’m sure there is more to the story than what we are being told. I’m in construction here in Los Angeles and almost all my jobs are for building rental units on single family dwellings.
I’ve got one going that is a 6 unit, 11 bedroom, 7 kitchen, with daycare, remodel being built here in Sylmar. The building inspector knows about it, the engineering was done after the place was built. These people know how to work the system, their gangbanger kid is driving around in a late model Cadillac, like all his friends.
My next door neighbor just put his house up for sale and is advertising his single family home as having two kitchens and ideal for a multi family purchase. If I find a pending sale on his house before I sell mine there will be a formal complaint.
Our mayor VivaLaMexico knows about all this and is promoting it.
It’s the Mexican way, If you own your own home, you rent out every room to a family. If you can, you rent out a place to sleep in your backyard. You can rent out a room to the single Moms for sex.
I asked a Mexican (maybe Hispanic American) last week how he was going to buy a house if he didn’t pay any taxes and therefore showed no income (I know his employer). CASH, and he almost has it.
Sounds like a justified lawsuit to me. But under existing immigration laws, ICE can stop anyone within 25 miles of the border OR an international airport and demand proof of citizenship or permission to be in the country legally or they can take you into detention in order to establish your right to be in the country. They don't face accountability and they need to be reigned in. Hopefully, this lawsuit will bring about some positive change.
Guilty until proven innocent? Sounds more like racism to me.
Guilty until proven innocent? Sounds more like racism to me.
People of all races have to learn to show RESPECT to authority figures if they don't want to have their little feeling hurt.
Don't give me that crap. What does respect have to do with it. THis family is going to be getting a tidy sum of our tax dollars because of what ICE did in this raid. Filing a lawsuit over abuse like this isn't showing a lack of respect. It's exercising one's legal rights. Or should LEGAL immigrants be denied legal protections? You must be one of those people who believes that if they had nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear from ICE. So since ICE busted down their door, they must be guilty of something. Then explain why ICE busted in their door and threatened to come back and take their kids away? Sounds like you want immigrants to live in a police state. Well, the same thing could happen to you. AMerican citizens harbor illegals, too.
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