After millions of immigrants stood united for their rights, the government had decided it was time to put an end to their protest by conducting raids throughout the country. Throughout this year, I have said it countless of times, as long as there is a “round them all up, ask questions later” policy – it is open season on all Hispanics.
Time and time again, having this view, I was told “oh, you’re being too paranoid.” Tell that to the US born Latinos who are suing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
Last month, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPL) filed a lawsuit against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), – La Migra – for one of their Gestapo-like raids gone wrong. The lawsuit accuses that the Migra illegally detained, searched and harassed her, her US-born mother and other Latinos solely because they looked “illegal” during one of Fatherland Homeland Security’s mass deportation campaign to rid this country from people with brown skin.
On September 1, La Migra went on a series of witch-hunts across several towns in at least three GA counties that lasted for several weeks, which the tiny town of Stillmore, GA has practically become a ghost town as a result of those raids. ICE officials are quick to claim that agents were only going after undocumented immigrants who worked at a poultry plant.
The police-state tactics used by ICE agents in Stillmore were so brutal, it even shocked the town’s mayor, Marilyn Slater who told reporters “This reminds me of what I read about Nazi Germany, the Gestapo coming in and yanking people up.” Associated Press wrote:
Trailer parks lie abandoned. … The poultry plant is scrambling to replace more than half its workforce. Business has dried up at stores where Mexican laborers once lined up to buy food, beer and cigarettes just weeks ago…More than 120 illegal immigrants have been loaded onto buses bound for immigration courts in Atlanta, 189 miles away. Hundreds more fled Emanuel County. Residents say many scattered into the woods, camping out for days. They worry some are still hiding without food.
Now people are seeking justice by taking ICE to court. The plaintiffs are five Xican@s (Mexican Americans) – Marie Justeen Mancha (girl in the photo), Maria Christina Martinez; Ranulfo Perez; Maria Margarita Morales; Gladis Alicia Espitia, and the landlord, David Robinson, who suffered damage to his rental properties when ICE agents broke into numerous trailers that were rented by Latinos. The defendants are the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement branch of the US Department of Homeland Security; Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; six administrators of ICE, Julie L. Myers, Marcy Forman, Kenneth A. Smith, Gregory Wiest, John P. Torres and John Mata; and up to 30, unnamed ICE agents who participated in the operation.
According to Atlanta’s local news station, WXIA, Justeen, a 15-year-old who was born in Texas and lives in Reidsville, GA, told reporters they enter her home which knocking while she was still her bedroom getting dressed for school. She also said there were five men, one with his hand on his gun holster in here living room. Moreover, her mother, Maria Christina Martinez, was not even at home at the time when two dozen agents surrounded the house that morning. She said that after eventually convinced Michael Chertoff’s goon squad that she is an US citizen; agents interrogated her about her mother “legal” status.
“And one was holding a gun,” Justeen said. “And that really scared me. And they were screaming, ‘Illegals,’ and ‘Mexicans,’ and stuff like that. And they asked me if I was illegal, and I said, ‘No.'”
According to the suit filed in federal court in Atlanta, agents stopped one plaintiff, Maria Margarita Morales, as she was driving home, repeatedly called her “Mexican,” grabbed her arm and ordered her to get out of her vehicle. Agents also surrounded another plaintiff, Ranulfo Perez, outside his home, the suit stated, grabbing him by the shirt, pressing a gun into his side and throwing him against his truck. Another plaintiff, Gladis Alicia Espitia, claims agents broke down her front door and threatened to throw gas into her home if her family did not come out of a bedroom.
The complaint also mentions how agents stopped pulling Maria Margarita Morales over as she was driving home, and at that time the migra repeatedly called her “Mexican,” grabbed her arm and ordered her to get out of her vehicle. It also describes how agents surrounded Ranulfo Perez outside his home and grabbed him by his shirt as they pressed a gun into his side and throwing him against his truck. Gladis Alicia Espitia reported that agents broke down her front door and threatened to throw gas into her home if her family did not come out of a bedroom.
Not surprisingly, ICE’s response to what occurred in Stillmore. Responding to ICE’s no-warrant invasion of Justeen’s home, spokesman for ICE, Marc Raimondi, has asserted that everything was done in accordance with the law and that the operation was “carefully planned,” and that the addresses they obtained was “based on specific information” that came from months of investigation and “extensive research.”
These are dark days for American democracy. These Gestapo-type raids are only meant to undermine the rights of all workers. If not, then how did this happen? There is only one simple answer, “NO MESIKANS ALLOWED!” While juxtaposition to Gestapo tactics may sound far fetched, it is hard to deny that the raids are unquestionably occurring in an atmosphere zealously charged with intense nationalism and violent xenophobia.
But XP, don’t you know we should keep our mouths shut and do our patriotic duty to ensure the safety of the homeland? It’s the least we can do after defying the will of Manifest Destiny.
Yeah, I know…but being in a Rage Against the Machine type mood today…fuck that shit…
It has to start somewhere It has to start sometime
What better place than here, what better time than now?
I think I will make that new tag line.
Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me.
This completely sucks. This IS the same shit we pulled during ww2 when we interned Japanese citizens and trampled all over their rights.
I was thinking about that one too, but I figure it wouldn’t go well with some folks, ya know.
Thanks buddy, for shining a light on this very important story.
From the news link:
Very caring and very compassionate aren’t they.
This is their true definition of compassionate conservative and their view of a family unit…well, what family unit.
“amily values” thing was a load of crap! But mostly they are posturing for each other and trying to put down anybody that might WANT to vote from the latino community.
I can’t believe we’re doing this again. Shame on us.
we gotta expose and close the doors on those who try
To strangle and mangle the truth
‘Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react
We gotta take the power back
If this doesn’t smack of Nazi Germany then I don’t know what does. Somewhere some young child is in hiding and ready to become the next Anne Frank.
When we did we become so fearful of the foreign countries from which we descended?
when the people in control decided to mass mind rape us into believing they are the enemies, when in reality they are our enemies.
Such dark,dark days in this country.
I am so sorry all of this is happening.
How I wish it could be stopped right now and never ever happen again.
My heart is with your hearts.
That is why now is time to put our fist in the air, in the land of hypocrisy.
Breaking down doors, corraling unarmed men, women and children with guns, dragging people out of cars… Those are the same techniques they’re using in Iraq to win hearts and minds…. Not working there either.
This is what we’ve become, here and over there. Utterly deplorable.
Another matter that needs serious Congressional investigation.
As long as this information stays in the back pages of every newspaper, nobody will wake up and demand justice. If not, when they do decide to go after them, nobody will be left to speak for them.
I was thinking along those same lines while reading your diary. This pops into my head a lot these dark days.
I fear for us all.
I am thoroughly appalled.
Isn’t it “interesting” that these raids are taking place in Georgia? A few months ago, I did a little perusal of the Census figures and updates from 2000 through 2005 (the American Community Survey that the census has been doing annually since 2000). The growth in population in the ‘burbs north of Atlanta has included a consistent rise in persons identifying themselves as Latino or Hispanic ( from less than 1% to a bit over 5% of the population in Northern suburban Atlanta counties.) This is a change for Georgia, making Georgia a natural for reporting of supposed “illegals” – in this case meaning people who are obviously not white or African-American. I’ve seen these stats referred to as documentation of the growth of illegal residents in the U.S.– no matter that the vast majority of people who will respond to the census surveyors are U.S. citizens.
At the same time, new business is booming in Georgia, and has attracted many persons from the southwestern states. A year ago when I was there for a conference, I overhead a couple of conversations in Spanish between workers, who were new to the area, talking to someone who had been there a while. At least two of the “new” people were obviously citizens, as they were discussing who to vote for in the upcoming election, asking the other person their opinion. The persons they were speaking to were obviously citizens also, who had been in Georgia for a while (e.g. lamenting state politics). Yet all would have been easy targets for the type of harassment that you report here, because they all were conspicuously Latino in appearance and language.
In Texas, a study was done by our Rethug (now Independent -Rethug) Comptroller and she found that the state would have lost revenue it there were no “illegals.” From Migra Matters
And this is Texas, with way more undocumented immigrants than GA. If our state is willing to concede that they are spending very less money than was being told by their propaganda machine, imagine the pennies that GA is spending on them.
oops here is the link