ICE capades: the roundup
PWS weekly on the ghoulish acts, dastardly deeds, and unseemly actions of the country's now-biggest LEO
I’m recently returned from a week trip into the Colombian-Panamanian borderlands! There will be a lot of stories on that soon, but there isn’t internet in the jungle, or on speedboats in the Pacific Ocean. So we missed last week’s ICE round-up, but we’re back now, and ready to fight the good fight!
ICE has detained at least 170 US citizens (and shot at least one)
DHS has attacked respected journalism organization Pro Publica for their report on ICE detentions of US citizens, which also documents assaults, beatings at protests, and those arrested during migration raids or for “impeding” police operations.
Since the US does not keep centralized official records, Pro Publica dug through police reports, conducted interviews with those affected and documented media reports in a months-long investigation
Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.
-Pro Publica report
DHS, in comments on social media, criticized the organization for “disgusting smears against our brave ICE law enforcement [officers], as they are facing more than a 1000% increase in assaults against them.”
But ‘smears’ they were not. Pro Publica provides extensive documentation of their claims, which also revealed at least 20 arrests of children US citizens by ICE or DHS personnel.
Arrests by ICE or Border Patrol at protests have also proved to be largely meritless. The vast majority of charges have been dropped by grand jury proceedings, and never made it to court. As we’ve reported before, this is highly unusual as proceedings tend to favor prosecutor’s in obtaining indictments.
Pro Publica reports that their statistics are likely drastically under-reporting the true number of detentions and assaults against civil society as they included only the cases for which they found direct proof.
Record numbers of deaths in ICE custody
Record numbers of detainees have died ICE custody, exceeding even statistics during the COVID pandemic during the first administration Donald Trump. The deaths are partly a result of an expanded sample size: nearly 60,000 people are currently in DHS custody. But they are also a result of overcrowding, medical neglect, and even physical abuse, according to a recent report by the American Immigration Council.
One ICE field office in Massachusetts used a windowless room as a holding area packed with “35 to 40 men” who had to share one toilet without privacy and sleep “head-by-toe” on the concrete floors.
Many detainees report being denied medical treatment or medication, and receiving only “a cup of rice and a glass of water a day.”
ICE has provided rotten food at other facilities.
Some detainees have also reported forced labor conditions as part of detention.
Pennsylvania man wrongfully imprisoned for more than 40 years: now ICE is deporting him
Subramanyam Vedam, 64, spent four decades in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. He was recently exonerated by a criminal judge, and now ICE plans to deport him to India.
Vedam was a legal US resident when he was arrested. He arrived to the US with his parents when he was 9 months old. His passport and green card were revoked when he was falsely accused of murder.
Immediately after the hearing where courts ruled he was imprisoned under false charges he was taken into ICE custody.
The roundup
ICE officers shot Marimar Martinez, a volunteer observer of ICE actions in Chicago. They claimed that Martinez rammed an ICE vehicle. Body camera footage taken by Chicago police contradicts government claims, however. ICE is lying. And water is wet.
Migrants are again being sent to Guantanamo Bay
A 13-year old boy was arrested by ICE after being detained by local police in Everett, Massachusetts. The case is notable because someone in the police office seems to have informed ICE about his migration status. When he mother showed up at the local department to pick him, he had already been snatched by the gestapo.
Chicago residents are resisting ICE operations in Chicago and organizing communities to resist military occupation. Legal observers, much as in California, follow ICE operations announcing their presence. Multiple residents and communities have directly confronted ICE officers in recent weeks.
ICE Chilling Photo of the Week:
Jess, a U.S. citizen and member of a neighborhood patrol team that documents and shares ICE activity across Chicago, was filming when a federal agent pointed a weapon and threatened her.
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Hasta pronto, piratas