U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided an engine manufacturing plant in a town near Seattle yesterday. Today, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano asked for a review of why the raid happened.

 

When U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) asked Napolitano about the raid today during a hearing with the House Homeland Security Committee, the secretary said she had not known about the operation before hand. A rough transcript of her response, which begins at about 2:28:00 on the audio (an official transcript has not yet been released):

I was briefed early this morning about this and I didn’t know about it beforehand. So, I’ve asked a number of questions about what was the predicate for this? There are a lot of allegations going around- were there 70 were there 40 was it 30? What were they wearing? Early allegations that helicopters were used and they were not.  But I want to get to the bottom of this as well and I already issued those directives to get me some answers. Let me close with this: In my view, we have to do workplace enforcement and it needs to be focused on employers who intentionally and knowingly exploit the illegal labor market.  That impacts American workers, has an impact on wage levels and often has an impact on the workers themselves.  Our ICE efforts should be focused on those kinds of things. We should have thought through prosecutions that are going to result and deportations that result from any workplace action.  That is the direction we seek to move.  

The Seattle Times provided some information about the raid soon after it occurred yesterday.

 

Most of the workers were reportedly taken to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. In a report last year, the Seattle University School of Law reported a number of abuses that had occured at this detention facility.

 

Immigrant communities and advocates are already voicing outrage that this kind of raid was allowed to happen under the Obama administration. Numerous instances of human rights and due process violations have accompanied previous raids.

 

As the America's Voice blog points out: "While we came to expect these failed tactics from the Bush Administration, we do not expect an Administration that campaigned-and won the lion's share of the Latino vote-on a platform of Hope and Change to continue them."

 

At a time when immigrant communities and advocates anxiously await signals about how the new administration and Congress will address our country's broken immigration system and abusive detention system, yesterday's raid was particularly alarming.

 

 

National Immigration Forum has put out an action alert:

 

TAKE ACTION:

1.Call the White House  at 202-456-1414 and tell President Obama:  

• Business as usual at ICE is not change we can believe in.
• Now more than ever, a top to bottom review of ICE priorities and it enforcement operations is needed.
• At a minimum, until the new ICE Director (named Monday) and an oversight strategy is in place, please halt these types of enforcement actions.
• Just last week, you promised that you are committed to fixing the broken immigration system through comprehensive immigration reform.  The President can't say one thing and do another.  The community needs clarity.
• Latino and immigrant voters turned out in massive numbers to vote for change and we will be watching very closely how you handle this incident, these detainees and their legal rights, and the immigration issue in general.

2.    Issue a press release or statement expressing your concerns. Sample below.


Click the following links for: Talking Points on the Raid, Forum Press Statement, and sample press statement.