Borders Spell Trouble for Arab-American

April 29, 2007

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

Abe Dabdoub calls the day he was sworn in as an American citizen last year the proudest moment of his life, little suspecting that his new identity would set off a bureaucratic nightmare at the hands of the Department of Homeland Security.

Most of his family members live in Canada, and on each of Mr. Dabdoub’s 14 trips to visit them since last August, on his way back across the Ambassador Bridge into Michigan, the Customs and Border Patrol agents have sent him through a security gantlet, he says.

He has been fingerprinted 14 times, his body searched 9 times, been handcuffed 4 times and isolated in a separate detention room 13 times. On the fourth trip, the border patrol agents started subjecting his wife to similar scrutiny.

--MORE--

Robert Fisk: Caught in the deadly web of the internet

"US and Canadian officials now appear to be detaining the innocent on the grounds of hate postings on the internet."
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Robert Fisk

Any political filth or personal libel can be hurled at the innocent

Published: 21 April 2007

Could it possibly be that the security men who guard the frontiers of North America are supporting Holocaust denial? Alas, it's true. Here's the story.

Taner Akcam is the distinguished Turkish scholar at the University of Minnesota who, with immense courage, proved the facts of the Armenian genocide - the deliberate mass murder of up to a million and a half Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish authorities in 1915 - from Turkish documents and archives. His book A Shameful Act was published to great critical acclaim in Britain and the United States.

He is now, needless to say, being threatened with legal action in Turkey under the infamous Law 301 - which makes a crime of insulting "Turkishness" - but it's probably par for the course for a man who was granted political asylum in Germany after receiving an eight-year prison sentence in his own country for articles he had written in a student journal; Amnesty International had already named him a prisoner of conscience.

But Mr Akcam has now become a different kind of prisoner: an inmate of the internet hate machine, the circle of hell in which any political filth or personal libel can be hurled at the innocent without any recourse to the law, to libel lawyers or to common decency. The Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was misquoted on the internet for allegedly claiming that Turkish blood was "poisonous"; this total lie - Dink never said such a thing - prompted a young man to murder him in an Istanbul street.

But Taner Akcam's experience is potentially far more serious for all of us. As he wrote in a letter to me this month, "Additional to the criminal investigation (law 301) in Turkey, there is a hate campaign going on here in the USA, as a result of which I cannot travel internationally any more... My recent detention at the Montreal airport - apparently on the basis of anonymous insertions in my Wikipedia biography - signals a disturbing new phase in a Turkish campaign of intimidation that has intensified since the November 2006 publication of my book."

Akcam was travelling to lecture in Montreal and took the Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis on 16 February this year. The Canadian immigration officer, Akcam says, was "courteous" - but promptly detained him at Montreal's Trudeau airport. Even odder, the Canadian immigration officer asked him why he needed to be detained. Akcam tells me he gave the man a brief history of the genocide and of the campaign of hatred against him in the US by Turkish groups "controlled by ... Turkish diplomats" who "spread propaganda stating that I am a member of a terrorist organisation".

All this went on for four hours while the immigration officer took notes and made phone calls to his bosses. Akcam was given a one-week visa and the Canadian officer showed him - at Akcam's insistence - a piece of paper which was the obvious reason for his temporary detention.

"I recognised the page at once," Akcam says. "The photo was a still from a 2005 documentary on the Armenian genocide... The still photo and the text beneath it comprised my biography in the English language edition of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia which anyone in the world can modify at any time. For the last year ... my Wikipedia biography has been persistently vandalised by anonymous 'contributors' intent on labelling me as a terrorist. The same allegations has been repeatedly scrawled, like gangland graffiti, as 'customer reviews' of my books at Amazon."

Akcam was released, but his reflections on this very disturbing incident are worth recording. "It was unlikely, to say the least, that a Canadian immigration officer found out that I was coming to Montreal, took the sole initiative to research my identity on the internet, discovered the archived version of my Wikipedia biography, printed it out on 16 February, and showed it to me - voilà! - as a result."

But this was not the end. Prior to his Canadian visit, two Turkish-American websites had been hinting that Akcam's "terrorist activities" should be of interest to American immigration authorities. And sure enough, Akcam was detained yet again - for another hour - by US Homeland Security officers at Montreal airport before boarding his flight at Montreal for Minnesota two days later.

On this occasion, he says that the American officer - US Homeland Security operates at the Canadian airport - gave him a warning: "Mr Akcam, if you don't retain an attorney and correct this issue, every entry and exit from the country is going to be problematic. We recommend that you do not travel in the meantime and that you try to get this information removed from your customs dossier."

So let's get this clear. US and Canadian officials now appear to be detaining the innocent on the grounds of hate postings on the internet. And it is the innocent - guilty until proved otherwise, I suppose - who must now pay lawyers to protect them from Homeland Security and the internet. But as Akcam says, there is nothing he can do.

"Allegations against me, posted by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, Turkish Forum and 'Tall Armenia Tale' (a Holocaust denial website) have been copy-pasted and recycled through innumerable websites and e-groups ever since I arrived in America. By now, my name in close proximity to the English word 'terrorist' turns up in well over 10,000 web pages."

I'm not surprised. There is no end to the internet's circle of hate. What does shock me, however, is that the men and women chosen to guard their nations against Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida are reading this dirt and are prepared to detain an honourable scholar such as Taner Akcam on the basis of it.

I don't think the immigration lads are to blame. I once remember listening to a Canadian official at Toronto airport carefully explaining to a Palestinian visitor that he was not required to tell any police officer about his religion or personal beliefs, that he should feel safe in Canada.

No, it's their bosses in Ottawa and Washington I wonder about. Put very simply, how much smut are the US and Canadian immigration authorities taking off the internet? And how much of it is now going to be flung at us when we queue at airports to go about our lawful business?

Homeland 'Security' Back in the 'Vast Privacy Violations' Business

Homeland Security revives supersnoop
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published March 8, 2007

Homeland Security officials are testing a supersnoop computer system that sifts through personal information on U.S. citizens to detect possible terrorist attacks, prompting concerns from lawmakers who have called for investigations.

The system uses the same data-mining process that was developed by the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIA) project that was banned by Congress in 2003 because of vast privacy violations.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation of the project called ADVISE -- Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement -- was requested by Rep. David R. Obey, Wisconsin Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

The investigation focuses on whether the program violates privacy laws, and the findings will be released after completion of the Iraq war supplemental spending bill, possibly as early as this week, a panel aide said.

The ADVISE and TIA data-mining projects rely on personal data to track individual behavior and consumer transactions to develop computer algorithms that create a pattern that some behavioral scientists say can predict terrorist behavior.

Data can include credit-card purchases, telephone or Internet details, medical records, travel and banking information.

Privacy concerns prompted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to introduce legislation in January to require that government agencies disclose data-mining practices in regular reports to Congress.

"A serious discussion on the implications of data-mining programs is long overdue," Sen. Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat and a sponsor of the bill, said yesterday. Sen. John E. Sununu, New Hampshire Republican, is also a bill sponsor.

"Many Americans are understandably concerned about the idea of secret government programs analyzing their personal information. Congress needs to know more about the operational aspects and privacy implications of data-mining programs before these programs are allowed to go forward," Mr. Feingold said.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security did not return a call for comment.

Congress also tucked language inside Homeland Security's spending bill in September requiring an investigation by the agency's inspector general, but allowed $40 million in funding to go forward in this year's budget.

"The ADVISE program is designed to extract relationships and correlations from large amounts of data to produce actionable intelligence on terrorists," the spending bill said. "A prototype is currently available to analysts in Intelligence and Analysis using departmental and other data, including some on U.S. citizens."

According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report in March 2003, TIA planned "to use data mining technologies to sift through personal transactions in electronic data to find patterns and associations connected to terrorist threats and activities."

"Recent increased awareness about the existence of the TIA project provoked expressions of concern about the potential for the invasion of privacy of law-abiding citizens by the government, and about the direction of the project by John Poindexter, a central figure in the Iran-Contra affair," the CRS report said.

"While the law enforcement and intelligence communities argue that more sophisticated information gathering techniques are essential to combat today's sophisticated terrorists, civil libertarians worry that the government's increased capability to assemble information will result in increased and unchecked government power, and the erosion of individual privacy," the report said.

ADVISE was initiated in 2003 following the demise of the TIA project.

The new system includes data-mining tools to digest "massive quantities of information from many different sources" to find "hidden relationships in the data," according to a 2004 report by Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on a Homeland Security workshop that outlined this and other technology under development.

The technology is expected to analyze more than 3 million "relationships" or connections per hour, says the report, which included an example of how friends, family members, locations and workplaces can be linked by pinging the data.

Cheney’s Son-In-Law Blamed for Delaying Investigations of Homeland Security Department

The Department of Homeland Security refuses to cooperate on oversight activities, according to testimony offered today by GAO Comptroller General David Walker and Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner. The investigators highlighted the role of Philip Perry — Chief Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security and Vice President Cheney’s son-in-law — as the major stumbling block in their investigations.

Walker said the DHS strategy in dealing with investigations is to “delay, delay, delay.” CongressDaily reports:

“[Homeland Security] has been one of our persistent access challenges,” GAO Comptroller General David Walker told the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. Walker said the problem is “systemic” and not the fault of any single individual. But he complained that GAO has had to go through the office of Chief Counsel Philip Perry. Perry is married to Elizabeth Cheney, a former State Department official who is one of the vice president’s two daughters. Walker said it is his understanding that Perry’s office has to review documents GAO seeks before they are released and that Perry selectively sits in on interviews with department employees.

The GAO’s Skinner “said his investigations have also been hindered”:

“We’re experiencing the same problem,” said Skinner, who added his office is “oftentimes” told who they can interview and that it sometimes takes weeks to get documents. Skinner said he prepared a document last summer to inform all department employees of the IG’s responsibilities and authorities and encouraging them to cooperate with investigations. “That letter has been sitting up in counsel’s office at DHS since I believe June or July of ‘06,” Skinner said.

The news is another in a series of black eyes for the agency. In a recent federal survey, DHS employees “scored last or almost last in job satisfaction, leadership and workplace performance.” The latest semiannual report from Inspector General Skinner highlighted “a litany of staff misconduct: immigration officials demanding sex in exchange for visas, airport screeners stealing money from tourists’ luggage, federal air marshals smuggling drugs, and employees from various DHS agencies committing sex crimes.”

Filed under: Homeland Security

Posted by Payson February 6, 2007 4:18 pm

Permalink | Comment (81)

Tiny terrors in the name of homeland security

January 24, 2007

BY JENNIFER HUNTER

My friend phoned me long distance sounding really ticked off. "They took away my Lancome Bienfait Multi-Vital moisturizer," she said with a disgusted clip in her voice.

I began to visualize the wrinkles already popping out on her skin, the age spots browning her cheeks, the crows' feet deepening around her eyes. The horror.

The shakedown artists who grabbed my friend's moisturizer were none other than the Homeland Security agents at the X-ray machine in O'Hare Airport. They have been instructed by their august superiors in Washington to nab all suspicious-looking liquid or gel items, including, apparently, Bienfait Multi-Vital moisturizer, a cream generally used by women of a certain age. These were their orders after men were arrested in London trying to carry liquid explosives aboard a plane last summer.

Darn thing is my friend had the moisturizer in her carry-on when she came to visit me, and the guards at Toronto International Airport, where she boarded, kept their paws off her moisturizer.

"What was the difference," she asked impatiently. "They told me at O'Hare that if I'd had the moisturizer in a Ziploc bag that would have been fine. But what difference does it make if it's in my cosmetic case or a see-through bag? Can't they zip open my cosmetics case and look through everything?"

She tried making that argument to the guards, but logic has never been their strong suit. They have a job to do. They have power over you. They can humiliate you if you don't obey.

Recently I was going to Pittsburgh, flying from O'Hare. I stepped up to the X-ray machine, dutifully took off my shoes, coat, hat and scarf and loaded them into the requisite plastic containers. I had made sure I wasn't wearing any chunky metal jewelry or belts to set off the alarm.

"Take off your coat," a woman security official demanded. "I have taken it off," I replied, pointing to a gray lump on the X-ray conveyer belt. "Take off your coat," she repeated, more assertively. By then I realized she really meant my suit jacket, and as I began to doff it, she commanded me to go to the side where she could frisk me and go through my luggage. I lost half a tube of toothpaste that morning, but they left my wrinkle cream. Crow's feet trump bad breath.

Former NBC war correspondent Ashleigh Banfield recently talked to the New York Times about traveling with her infant son from New York City to Fort Myers, Fla. She was loaded down with baby paraphernalia, including a stroller, a diaper bag and a car seat, and the security agent asked her to dismantle the stroller. She asked the agent to hold her son.

"I can't break the stroller down without your help," she explained. He said he couldn't help her, and she replied, "It's either that or we put my son through the X-ray machine." After a moment's hesitation, he took her son.

There is no doubt that we need strong security measures at our airports, but some of the rules are making the war on terrorism seem more like the theater of the absurd. Look at the results: Women are aging more rapidly, babies are being handed to total strangers and toothpaste is being confiscated.

It certainly doesn't do much to make me feel safer. It only makes my skin dry.

• • •

DEAR READERS: This is my final Scribble column. I have enjoyed writing about life's foibles, my daughter's tight blue jeans and other parental worries over the past couple of years. I am starting a new assignment at the Sun-Times so my byline won't disappear, and I look forward to still receiving your letters.

All my best,

Jennifer

Immigrants Mistreated, Report Says

Immigrants Mistreated, Report Says

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 17, 2007; A08

U.S. authorities mistreated suspected illegal immigrants at five prisons and jails nationwide, violating federal standards meant to ensure safe and humane custody, according to a government report released yesterday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and contractors denied timely medical treatment to some of the immigrants, failed to disclose and justify disciplinary actions against them, and improperly limited access to relatives, lawyers and immigration authorities, according to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.

Detention officers failed to establish a system to report abuse and violated health and safety rules by neglecting to monitor prisoners on hunger strikes or suicide watches and by serving undercooked food, the report said.

The report comes amid a sharp increase in illegal immigrants in U.S. detention as Congress and the Bush administration debate an overhaul of immigration laws and promise tougher enforcement of existing laws. Civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups are stepping up scrutiny of conditions. Jorge Bustamante, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights of immigrants, has asked to visit U.S. detention centers next month.

Critics of the agency called the report disappointing, contending that it watered down recommendations and ignored the most serious allegations of abuse collected since June 2004, which they said included physical beatings, medical neglect, food shortages and mixing of illegal immigrants in administrative custody with criminals.

"It took two years for them to come out with this? It's incredibly disappointing," said Judy Rabinovitz, a lawyer with the ACLU immigrants rights project.

Eric Lerner, a spokesman for the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee, called the report a "whitewash" that was delayed to suppress controversy. Bryan Lonegan, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society in New York City, said that DHS has not designated 38 detention standards implemented since 2000 as federal regulations, making them unenforceable.

A spokeswoman for Richard L. Skinner, the DHS inspector general, said the report was delayed because its scope was reduced.

In a written response to the report, DHS Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers concurred at least partly with nine of 13 findings and promised changes. But she said they "do not indicate any systemic failure" at nearly 400 facilities where ICE is authorized to house as many as 27,500 people a night, because they were based on individual allegations at a small sample of sites.

ICE operations are "generally in compliance with its National Detention Standards," Myers said.

The audit examined the U.S.-owned and operated Krome Service Processing Center in Miami, a contract Corrections Corporation of American facility in San Diego, and local jails and prisons in Berks County, Pa., and Hudson and Passaic counties, N.J.

In December 2005, ICE ordered all suspected illegal immigrants removed from the Passaic jail in Paterson, N.J., after a string of critical news accounts, including the disclosure that guards used police dogs against prisoners. DHS has since barred that practice.

Although illegal immigrants are held on administrative grounds and are supposed to be segregated by high, medium and low risk, authorities often house them together with criminals, the report said.

Many contract and state and local correction officers were unaware of separate U.S. standards for detained immigrants, the 54-page report noted. ICE itself overlooks violations in annual inspections, the report said. "A final rating of Acceptable was given to all five detention facilities," the report said. "However, our review of the five facilities identified instances of non-compliance . . . that were not identified during the ICE annual inspection."

Muslim couple's trip to California, Nevada turns into nightmare

Today: January 03, 2007 at 7:12:11 PST

Muslim couple's trip to California, Nevada turns into nightmare

Undefined security precautions send husband home via NLV jail

By Timothy Pratt
Las Vegas Sun

German national Majed Shehadeh and his wife, Joanne Mulligan, decided that when they visited their daughter in California for the holidays, they would fly through McCarran International Airport.

The Muslim couple wanted to avoid Los Angeles International Airport because two years ago, federal authorities detained them for 4 1/2 hours.

Mulligan arrived from Germany first, on Dec. 17, and the U.S.-born traveler cleared customs swiftly. She went on to her daughter's Bakersfield, Calif., home, then returned to Henderson to visit her aunt, Louise Langlois, before heading to the airport to pick up Shehadeh last Thursday .

The Lufthansa charter aircraft her husband was flying on landed shortly after 2 p.m. But her husband of 30 years wasn't to be found.

She waited and waited. She asked an official with Condor, the charter company. Eventually, the official told her Shehadeh, who is of Syrian descent, had been detained.

She said that as she waited for her husband she flashed on events of two years earlier, when the two had flown over together for daughter Majida Shehadeh's wedding. Now the occasion was her anniversary, and her admission to the California State Bar.

Mulligan tried to calm herself, thinking that Shehadeh, 62, would be with her again after a few hours, by 6 p.m. or so, a little inconvenienced, but none the worse for the wear.

But 6 p.m. came and went. At 8:45, she said, "I was really concerned for his health." Since a 2004 heart attack, he had to take medicine every four hours. It had been nearly 24 hours since he left Germany.

"I thought, 'Did he eat? Did he take his medicine?' "

She approached an official who identified himself as a senior agent with the federal U.S. Customs and Border Protection and asked if she could talk to her husband. Told no, she asked about the medicine and why her husband was detained.

She said the agent told her, "I'm not here to answer your questions about every procedure."

Roxanne Hercules, a spokeswoman for the Customs and Border Protection, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Shehadeh was denied entry, but would not discuss specifics. She said Shehadeh's visa waiver normally offered to Germans could have been denied because "he could have a criminal record, or it could be a terrorism issue."

Sometime after 9 p.m., the official told Mulligan that her husband was being taken to the North Las Vegas Detention Center.

"In his whole life, he hasn't gotten a parking ticket," Mulligan said. She called the detention center to leave her aunt's phone number, but employees refused to take the message.

Luckily, Shehadeh had memorized his daughter's phone number and through her, was able to obtain Mulligan's aunt's number. Late that night, he called his wife.

"We talked two minutes and the phone went dead," she said. "That was the last time we talked."

Her husband tried to call again, but could not get through.

Mulligan said she grew more concerned about the heart medicine. Days later, she would find out that he went nearly 36 hours before receiving medication, although he was denied his own prescription. His nose bled and his heart had palpitations as he sat in a cell with 25 other men, she said.

Mulligan looked up an immigration attorney and placed dozens of calls, including to the offices of Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley, Nevada Democrats, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

"You don't know me - my husband's in jail," she said. "I don't want to lose him."

The three-day holiday weekend worked against her. She went to the detention center but was told she couldn't visit her husband for eight to 10 days. At that, she broke down and cried. "I was standing a few feet away from him," she said.

About 4 p.m. Sunday, Shehadeh called his daughter to tell her that federal officials were about to put him on a plane back to Germany.

Twenty-four hours later, Mulligan spoke again to her husband, who was indeed back in Germany. She said he was worried about her worrying about him.

Shehadeh told AP in a phone interview from his home in Alzenau, a small Bavarian village, that he had given an official at McCarran his German passport "and he looked to see which countries I visited. He found I had stamps that looked like Arabic and asked if they were fake."

"Nobody ever informed me why I was being questioned," he said. "All that was ever told to me was this had to do with Washington."

An aide to Feinstein later told the family that Shehadeh was on a "look-out list," Mulligan told AP.

Mulligan, born in Massachusetts, retired as a math teacher for the U.S. military. She has lived in Germany since marrying, and the couple has visited the United States many times over the years. In 1996 she founded a nonprofit organization called People in Motion to help people in need, including children in Afghanistan and women in Bosnia.

Her husband's detention "has to do with that we're Muslim, that's all," she said.

Daughter Majida Shehadeh said, "When you're a Muslim, you expect you're going to get this in airports - a little more runaround. But being detained like this - it's unbelievable. It's unacceptable."

Mulligan waited Tuesday for a family reunion of a different sort - on the phone, with her husband and daughter, to decide what to do about "the injustice of it all."

The case has come to the attention of the Council on Islamic-American Relations, a national group.

Affad Shaikh, civil rights coordinator for the Los Angeles chapter, said his group will be filing a formal complaint to the Homeland Security Department.

"We want to know why was he banned? What happened?" Shaikh said.

Peter Ashman, the attorney called by Mulligan, called the case "a little bit scary."

Such detentions, he said, don't even make sense from a national security standpoint.

"If he was a bad guy, why did they let him go? And if he was a good guy, why didn't they let him join his family?"

Timothy Pratt can be reached at 259-8828 or at timothy@lasvegassun.com

S-ICE: Another Assault On Freedom of Speech and Poaching in FBI Territory

Posted on Fri Dec 22nd, 2006 at 10:08:24 AM EST

“Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” - Thomas Jefferson

After reviewing the story written by Hector Carreon of La Voz de Aztlan about his encounter with DHS special agents on December 23, 2005 at his residence, in the Los Angeles, CA area I concluded that we had two issues with the Hector Carreon’s case: DHS’ attempt to intimidate a journalist and news reporter for exercising his First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and secondly, DHS investigating a suspected terrorist organization, which it is not an enforcement action within the DHS jurisdiction. This is FBI's territory. Although Mr. Carreon did not identify the DHS special agents by name or the agency, I assume the agents were from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Los Angeles ICE District Office. It is possible the agents asked Mr. Carreon not to publish their name or the agency they worked for “under the name of national security.”

Mr. Hector Carreon did not have to give up his Constitutional Rights that easy. What he did in essence was giving our U.S. government consent to search his house and allow DHS to obtain copies of all of La Voz de Aztlan subscribers’ personal data.

If I were the FBI-SAC Los Angeles after reading Mr. Carreon’s narrative, I would pick-up the phone and make some calls not only to his/her Los Angeles ICE counterpart but to the FBI Director. In summary, DHS and assuming ICE was involved, they were basically poaching into FBI exclusive territory: investigations of terrorist organizations within the USA.

Now, if there is such alleged coordination between DHS-ICE and the FBI’s Joint Terrorist Task Force, why was not an FBI agent present during Mr. Carreon’s consented search of his residence? One more thing, let’s assume that the FBI was already conducting an investigation on Mr. Carreon and his La Voz de Aztlan for possible terrorist activities, what DHS did in essence was to obstruct and sabotage an FBI investigation. This of course does not imply by any means that Mr. Carreon and his organization is connected with any terrorist group.

I don’t know if the above case had something to do with the sudden retirement of the Los Angeles ICE SAC Loraine Brown.

The Hector Carreon case is similar to my co-publisher Bill Conroy’s case, but the government’s intention and motives were not the same. In the Conroy’s case the DHS-OPR goons only wanted to intimidate him and to tell his bosses about his Narco News stories. On the other hand, the Carreon case was a pure “terrorist related investigation,” and of course to intimidate him and give him a "warning" about his stories exposing government corruption in the USA and abroad.

The Hector Carreon Story

DHS: "La Voz de Aztlan has raised eyebrows in Washington" by Hector Carreon - La Voz de Aztlan - Los Angeles, Alta California, January 12, 2006 - (ACN)

On the morning of December 22, 2005, I noticed a business card that was left at the door of my home. The card was from the US Department of Homeland Security and had a handwritten note that said "Please call". That afternoon I called Los Angeles and spoke with the special agent whose name was on the card. The DHS agent said they wanted to speak to me about "The Aztlan Movement" and my organization. I answered, "Do you mean La Voz de Aztlan?" I added, "La Voz de Aztlan is a news and information service." The special agent wanted to come to my home to speak to me personally on the following day. We made a 8:30 a.m. appointment.

The knock on my door came at precisely 8:30 a.m. on December 23, 2005 as my family was making final preparations for Christmas Day. On the other side of my glass door were two gentlemen dressed in professional business suits. I opened the door and we introduced each other. I escorted them to my living room and introduced the two special agents to two of my family members that were present. We all sat down and the lead government agent began the conversation.

Among the first statements said by the special agent in charge was, "La Voz de Aztlan has raised eyebrows in Washington". He proceeded to ask numerous questions about Aztlan. He said that he was not from the area and wanted to know as much as possible about the "Aztlan Movement" and my organization. I reiterated that "La Voz de Aztlan" is not an organization per se but merely an Internet news service for Mexican and Mexican-Americans in the US Southwest and in Mexico. I added that La Voz de Aztlan, however, had attracted readership and subscriber from around the globe.

He asked what Aztlan meant to me. I answered that Aztlan has many levels of meaning. I said that "Aztlan" in the name of our news publication is mostly symbolic. I gave both special agents the historic and cultural basis for "Aztlan" . I mentioned that there exists historical Mexica documents and old Spanish maps that point to an actual region called "Aztlan" that existed in pre-Columbian times near the "four corners" area of the US Southwest. I mentioned that according to ancient Mexica (Aztec) lore, they were to migrate south to establish the great city of Tenochtitlan (present day Mexico City) at a place where they were to see a "sign". The sign would be "An eagle on top of a cactus with a serpent in its beak". One of the special agents immediately recognized this "sign" as being part of the Mexican flag.

At this point the conversation turned into "Aztlan" being a separatist organization and whether I believed that the Southwest should separate from Washington and become part of Mexico. I said that there are many youths of Mexican descent that believe in such a possibility but that my personal beliefs are more in line with those of Professor Armando Navarro of the University of California and of Professor Charles Truxillo of the University of New Mexico. The special agent asked me whether I believed in the armed and violent overthrow of the US government. I answered "no" and that I believed in making social and political changes through the "ballot box".

The lead special agent also asked questions concerning a news report we had on a legendary Iraqi sniper that our troops have nicknamed "Juba". The report included a link to a video on the server of "The Internet Archive" at www.archive.org. "The Internet Archive" is funded by the US Library of Congress but the video appears to have been produced by Al-Queda. We have now removed two reports on "Juba" because of the concerns communicated to us by the DHS.

There were numerous other questions concerning my education, employment and military record with the US Army 2nd Armored Division. They asked what kind of weapons I own and where in the house I kept them. They asked whether I had friends and who were my associates. They asked about Ernesto Cienfuegos, Roberto Cruz and my association with Dr. Armando Navarro. They also asked how I got along with my neighbors.

At about this point, the second special agent got up and approached me with a clip board and a document. He requested that I print my name on a line at the top and sign at the bottom. I ask what it was for and he answered that it was permission for them to examine my computer. All this time the special agent in charge was in constant radio communication with someone at a remote location. I had to decide on the spot whether to grant permission or insist on a court warrant. I decided that it would be the best course to continue to fully cooperate with the federal agents and I sign the document. Right after I signed, the lead agent radioed someone and within five minutes two more special agents arrived to my home with suitcases of electronic equipment. The lead agent asked me to escort them to my computer room where they spent two hours copying the hard disk of my computer. I do not know what else they did down there because I was kept busy by the other two agents upstairs answering additional questions.

It was clear to me that the Department of Homeland Security had conducted previous surveillance and investigations because they already had much information on myself and our news publication "La Voz de Aztlan". The special agent in charge gave me the distinct impression that they were acting on high level orders from Washington. We suspect Congressman Tom Tancredo, the AIPAC or both. We are presently preparing a "congressional inquiry" in an attempt to find out who was behind this frightening invasion of privacy and government action that has "chilled" our constitutional freedom of speech and of the press.
http://www.aztlan.net/homeland_security_incident.h tm

REFERENCES

DHS eyes House members Agent who spoke with rep suspended - Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer - San Bernardino County Sun Article - 09/27/2006

Congressmen who visit the U.S.-Mexico border unannounced are being monitored by the Department of Homeland Security, and at least one U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent has been suspended for speaking to a congressman without first getting supervisory clearance, according to documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin.

Congressional members interviewed by the newspaper said they were unaware until recently that Border Patrol agents were required to file Significant Incident Reports - normally used for shootings and other serious border incidents - when congressional members made unannounced visits in the summer along the U.S.-Mexico border.

A second document obtained by the paper reveals that one agent was suspended for 10 days without pay for speaking with Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who made an unannounced visit to the border in May.

"Preventing Congress from speaking freely to federal employees violates at least two federal statutes, and agents are fearful of telling the truth," said King, who recounted several visits to the Mexican border when Border Patrol agents would not speak with him for fear of reprisal.
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_4401381

The National Alliance for Human Rights

The Dr. Armando Navarro mentioned in the Hector Carreon's search incident is coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights, a network of leaders, activists, scholars and organizations committed to the promotion of human rights, social justice and political empowerment of the Latino community in the United States. Since its formation in the year 2000, the National Alliance for Human Rights has been at the forefront of issues affecting Latinos. Armando Navarro, Coordinator, (951) 333-6819
http://www.nationalallianceforhumanrights.org/

homeland security going after journalist Greg Palast reposter Greg Palast is facing a criminal complaint from the Department of Homeland Security stemming from his filming the Hurricane Katrina investigation for Link TV and Democracy Now.

Palast, Pascarella Face Homeland Security Charges Published by Greg Palast September 7th, 2006 in Articles by Zach Roberts

Yes, the rumor's true. Greg Palast is facing a criminal complaint from the Department of Homeland Security stemming from his filming the Hurricane Katrina investigation for Link TV and Democracy Now. The film's producer, Matt Pascarella, is also facing the legal wrath of Big Brother.

It appears the complaint is about filming a sensitive national security site owned by Exxon petroleum. It seems that photographing major Bush donors is now a federal offense.

Reached at an undisclosed location, Palast says, "Let's not get over-excited. They haven't measured us for our orange suits yet."

During questioning by Homeland Security, Palast asked, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be looking for Osama? Or for guys with exploding shoes? ... We're journalists." At Palast's request, Homeland Security confirmed that Louisiana is, indeed, still part of the USA but did not respond when asked if the First Amendment applies there.

Watch part one and part two of Palast and Pascarella's film. (In association with BigNoise Films) BigNoise Videographer Jaqui Soohen has not been charged http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/09/345676.sh tml

Free Political Expression Is Protected by the First Amendment

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, however, protects the right of political expression of citizens and citizen groups. The First Amendment provides that:

"Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech." This Amendment was incorporated in our Constitution, at the urging of James Madison, to protect "indispensable democratic freedoms."

Freedom of speech and association were viewed by the Framers of the Constitution as essential to democracy. As the courts have explained:

(i)f popular elections form the essence of republican government, free discourse and political activity formed the prerequisite for popular elections.

Thus, "freedom of speech plays a fundamental role in a democracy. . . [I]t 'is the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other freedom.'"

The Supreme Court has held, therefore, that political expression is "at the core of our electoral process and of First Amendment freedoms."

[T]he First Amendment right to 'speak one's mind . . . on all public institutions' includes the right to engage in "'vigorous advocacy' no less than 'abstract discussion.'" Advocacy of the election or defeat of candidates for federal office is no less entitled to protection under the First Amendment than the discussion of political policy generally or advocacy of the passage or defeat of legislation.

Thus, the Court has concluded that "it can hardly be doubted that the constitutional guarantee [of the First Amendment] has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office."

To date, the federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, have vigorously protected the First Amendment right of citizens and citizens' groups to free political expression. The seminal case is Buckley v. Valeo, decided in 1976, which struck down, on First Amendment grounds, many of the speech limiting provisions of the post-Watergate amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act.

Other important decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court protecting free political expression and association are NCPAC v. Federal Election Commission, Federal Election Commission v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life, McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, and Federal Election Commission v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee.
http://www.jamesmadisoncenter.org/missionstatement .html

By Miguel Contreras,

THE STATUE OF LIBERTY STANDS FOR BULLS***

What ever happened to "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..."

They came here for several centuries for the same reasons – freedom and hope -- and then a Frenchman created a statue that embodied their hopes and dreams. And it embodied America's promise as well. "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..."
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
---

U.S. terror policy shuts out refugees
Dec. 22, 2006 at 9:47AM

Refugee advocates have criticized the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for refugee policies that some claim are too stringent.

Critics said the department's enforcement of laws barring admission to anyone who has provided "material support" have been expanded to include people who pose no threat to the United States, including Liberian women who were forced to cook and clean for rebels after they were raped and their family members were killed and Colombians who paid ransom demands to free kidnapped relatives, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The Times said U.S. allies who worked alongside or on behalf of U.S. forces are being affected as well. Montagnards and Hmong who assisted U.S. troops in Vietnam are being denied entry into the country, as are Cubans who participated in the Bay of Pigs uprising to attempt to overthrow dictator Fidel Castro.

Terrorist organizations are defined by the United States as any group that uses a device or weapon to cause injury to person or property, regardless of organization, motive and frame of mind. Anyone who assists in such an act, regardless of whether they were forced, is considered to have provided material support to terrorism.

Concentration Camps: First they came for the immigrants...

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Privatized Immigrant Detention Facilities for Families Revealed to be Modern-Day Concentration Camps

One of the more disturbing stories that surfaced after the Swift meat plant raids was how too many children were left without a parent and/or farmed out to friends and families with no immediate word on how they will be reconnected with their mami and papi.

But if news filtering out of one of the newly designated immigrant detention centers for families is any indication, no undocumented parent is going to open their mouth and claim their children if the whole family is going to be subjected to what is becoming known as the first known concentration camp on American soil in the 21st Century.

The T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas (on the outskirts of Austin, Texas) is a private detention facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America. It and a smaller center in Pennsylvania are the only two facilities in the country that are authorized to hold non-Mexican immigrant families and children on noncriminal charges.

What does this mean?

It means that at the Taylor facility of the 400 people "held" there, 200 are children. And all are families that can be held there for whatever length of time without due process conducted in a timely manner.

To top it off, as long as the men, women and children are held there, the facility's operator draws a daily profit - per person.

The children range in age from infants on up.

According to the lawyers who have visited their clients in the facility, the children receive one hour of education, English instruction, a day and one half hour of indoor recreation.

Jeans and t-shirts have been replaced with jail uniforms; children are issued uniforms as soon as they can fit into them — and everyone must wear name tags, even the babies.

Lawyers are reporting that thefamiliess are receiving substandard medical care and becoming ill from the food being served them. Children are losing weight and people are complaining of migraine-type headaches.

Those clients who are asylum seekers, say the lawyers, are continually suffering trauma on top of the trauma they've already undergone in their home countries - all without receiving any kind of pyschological treatment.

Originally, the detention facilities were touted by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as a way to keep families together while waiting for their cases to come up for court review.

Well, they are accomplishing that goal - to the exclusion of being allowed any outside contact with the rest of the world, aside from those who have lawyers.

The plight of these families caught in a government-sanctioned Hell is slowly spreading (Texas Civil Rights Review, Austin's American Statesman Editorial,American Statesman article) but with Christmas less than a week away these families truly need a miracle to let them know that the outside world knows that they are there not to mention, the children who need to know that Santa or Los Tres Reyes, or the other Holiday entities observed by those who are not Mexican or Latin American, will know where to find them.

The detention for a prolonged period of any child, regardless of whether or not they are with family members, is beneath what the United States used to stand for.

As of late, the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the direction of Homeland Security, has had too many people - on both sides of the immigration debate - shaking their heads as to what our government is capable of subjecting the children of these immigrants to.

We have felt helpless and too many times my Inbox is filled with emails of "What can I do?" or "Where do we go from here?"

There are few issues that demand immediate action, and when children are concerned, it most always warrants as one of those issues.

For children to be held longer than three days, receive but one hour of instruction and only a half hour of recreational play, to be made to feel like criminals by wearing jail jumpsuits and name tags and not have any contact with anyone outside of the facility is a serious violation of the public trust we have in our government, and how we value children in this country.

What can be done?

As cliche as it sounds, it's time to contact our government officials:

Homeland Security

The White House

Members of Congress

Corrections Corporation of America

Yet, the secret of doing something, that the blogosphere discovered long ago, is that you don't stop with one email, one posting or one phone call.

The issue must be talked about and circulated until there is action, positive change and the day when all these families can see that they are not alone.

DHS is a run by pieces of shit. You know it. I know it.

Today’s Rationale?

Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 7:49 am

Nine days until Christmas…and Mommy just got dragged away in handcuffs for a bunch of show arrests. Nice.

The shifting rationale for the ICE raids on the Swift Meatpacking plants is making me very peeved. What began as a "raid on illegal immigrants" has morphed into an "identity theft ring" justification in the last 24 hours. Except, the numbers as released thus far, do not hold up for that justification: (H/T to TPMMuck)

Announcing the success of its massive "Operation Wagon Train" yesterday, DHS officials insisted the raids that netted nearly 1,300 arrests were about busting up an identity theft ring. The stats tell a different story.

According to DHS' own tally, only 65 of the 1,282 arrests were for criminal violations, including identity-theft related crimes. That means that over 1,200 of the people arrested had no connection to any identity theft rings, and were guilty only of run-of-the-mill immigration violations. That didn't temper the agency's rhetoric.

Of course the DHS didn't temper their rhetoric. Michael Chertoff is, and always has been, about the PR aspects of his job — the actual DOING of the job being the irritating side thing that he'll get to after the latest presser at some point.

Latina Lista has even more on this, including questions as to why, if identity theft is such a huge priority for the DHS, that college campuses across the nation haven't been raided as well for all those fake IDs.

The Denver Post speculates that these raids are an attempt by the Bush Administration to pressure the incoming Congress to deal with immigration issues early in the term — guess Bush is desperate to be able to sign something, anything, that gets the GOP back on track with latino voters. Maybe it's just me, but arresting parents and leaving their nursing babies behind is not exactly the way to build good will among any particular community, now is it?

Nice that these families lives get to be ripped apart right before Christmas so that Bushie can put on a good show, isn't it?

And what about those kids left behind when their parents are dragged off without access to counsel for…well, for more than 24 hours now in a number of cases? (Never mind that a lot of these folks likely have English issues and were pressured to sign off on documentation without the advice of legal counsel which will be difficult to revoke now.) Authorities in Texas, at least, appear to think it's not their responsibility to help out:

Late Tuesday in Dallas, agency spokesman Carl Rusnok, asked about delays in getting the workers access to lawyers, said agents at the scene "still have to process the people they have arrested."

The union also had located at least 35 children in the nearby communities of Dalhart and Stratford whose parents were in custody. Mr. Rodriguez did not know how many children were stranded in Cactus and Dumas, a city about 15 miles from the plant.

Any of the children born in the United States are U.S. citizens, regardless of their parents' immigration status.

In neighboring Randall County, Sheriff Joel Richardson said he was prepared to hold about 50 federal detainees for up to six months. "I just brought an extra person into booking," he said. "Otherwise, we were ready."

Under a contract, the U.S. government pays the county $47.73 daily for each federal inmate.

Federal agencies hadn't asked Texas officials for help with the workers' children, said Greg Cunningham, a spokesman for Texas Child Protective Services in Amarillo. "It's our understanding that there's a mechanism in place with the federal officials to take care of these types of situations," he said.

So, let's see what we have here: a meat-packing company with a history of skating immigration laws (and allegations of them having some sort of scheme to import illegal workers from Guatamala) skates out of this scot free thus far.

Meanwhile, a mere nine days away from Christmas, these kids get the present of their parents being seized and hauled away, unable to contact them to let them know they are okay — with no time to make arrangements for their children's care.

And, in one case, a mother who was nursing her child is dragged off and cannot be located, while the child is left to deal with the consequences of being weaned against it's will by governmental agents. Which, as someone who has breastfed a child, is not something that should be done aburptly — and can have serious health consequences for the child, considering those first few months of breastfeeding provide the best portion of immunity protection and DHA for the child's developing brain. It can be incredibly difficult to get a nursing child to switch to a bottle — which can result in very adverse health consequences for the baby at a time when nutrition is crucial. Plus, if the mother and child are not reunited, and soon, the mom's milk will dry up — not exactly an easy, pain-free process, let me tell you, when you have to deal with an abrupt change like this — and the potential for her being able to even nurse her child after a few days of this goes down substantially. Stress can also have substantial adverse consequences.

Family values party, my ass.

If they were truly concerned with these childrens' welfare, they would have coordinated with local authorities and social services supervisors so that mechanisms were in place for temporary foster care placements and other service implementation, including the mound of paperwork that will now need to be processed to get these kids medical cards, temporary food and clothing assistance and other help — because they are US citizens and CHILDREN, and ought not be simply left standing outside their homes with no one to care for them. That is unconscionable and yet another example of piss poor planning by the DHS. Heckuva job, Mikey!

Beyond that, though, background checks, priors checks and other considerations will need to be taken into account for adults who are, at least temporarily anyway, caring for these children who have been left behind. The last thing you want is for these kids to be taken in by some seemingly caring adult…who happens to have a long history of pedophelia or violent tendencies or what have you. (Yes, I have been down this road before in abuse and neglect cases…and you do not even want to know what can happen to children in a placement that turns out to be a nightmare.)

That authorities in Texas are saying "Not my problem. The Feds are going to have to deal with this." is frightening — because the Feds are likely passing the buck right back to the locals. Which means the kids have had to scramble to find an adult to care for them on their own…and that can often lead to the very thing that no child should ever — EVER — have to survive.

And that is just for starters. According to the Dallas article, Texas authorities have no idea how many children may actually be stranded and/or affected by this. Well, that's encouraging, isn't it?

I have very little patience for folks who violate the law — and that includes the meat packing plant which clearly has a "don't ask, just git to work" policy when it comes to its own hiring practices. But it is apparently too much to ask that the Federal authorities at the Department of Homeland Security stop and say to themselves, "Should we make an utter wreck of these children's lives a mere nine days before Christmas without making some provision for these families somehow — some show of decency and compassion to ease things a bit for all of these children?"

Apparently so.

The next person in the Bush Administration who parades around their compassionate conservative "Christian" values is in for a serious bout of shit from me. Ebenezer Scrooge had nothing on these people.

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By: Christy Hardin Smith

American felt like an ''illegal alien'' in her homeland

Federal raid puts families in limbo

Immigration agents looking for stolen IDs detain scores in Hyrum

By Jennifer Sanchez, Dawn House and Kristen Moulton The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:12/13/2006 12:44:14 AM MST

HYRUM - If only for a few minutes, Maria felt like an ''illegal alien'' in her homeland - the United States of America. She thought she was going on break from her job at the Swift & Co. meat processing plant here on Tuesday, but instead she and others were forced to stand in a line by U.S. immigration agents. Non-Latinos and people with lighter skin were plucked out of line and given blue bracelets. The rest, mostly Latinos with brown skin, waited until they were ''cleared'' or arrested by ''la migra,'' the popular name in Spanish for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), employees said. ''I was in the line because of the color of my skin,'' she said, her voice shaking. ''They're discriminating against me. I'm from the United States, and I didn't even get a blue bracelet.'' Maria was one of hundreds of plant employees targeted by federal agents. But she and her husband were the lucky ones - later Tuesday, they returned home to their three sons. The federal agents raided the Swift & Co. meat processing plant early Tuesday morning after arrest warrants had been issued for 60 workers, part of "Operation Wagon Train," a nationwide investigation involving undocumented immigrants using stolen Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens to gain employment. The northern Utah plant is among six Swift facilities that were raided by immigration agents in Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Neb.; Marshalltown, Iowa; Worthington, Minn.; and at the company headquarters in Greeley, Colo. In Utah, ''Operation Wagon Train'' started in August at the Swift plant, formerly owned by E.A. Miller, when the company complied with a subpoena asking for a list of about 1,200 employees, according to an arrest warrant filed in 1st District Court in Logan. Federal investigators compared the list with documents from Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, California and Puerto Rico. In October, agents snapped photographs of license plates of all vehicles parked at the plant and compared vehicle registrations with the suspect target list and documents. Swift has more than $9 billion in annual sales and is the world's second-largest processor of fresh beef and pork. Swift President and CEO Sam Rovit said operations at the six raided facilities have been suspended. He denied the company knowingly hired illegal workers. On Tuesday, as early as 8 a.m., agents began taking employees, many of them undocumented workers, away in white and black buses. Most were being held at a federal facility in Ogden. Federal officials declined to disclose the location of the facility or the number of actual detainees. In Cache County, minorities make up 12 percent - Latinos are 8 percent - of the population of 98,000 people. Women were crying as they were handcuffed with plastic ties and put on the buses. Some weren't allowed to get their belongings from their lockers. Maria, who declined to use her last name, argued with an agent because she was getting the coat for her 34-year-old niece, Blanca, who was arrested. ''She [the agent] told me, 'Do you think it's going to be cold in Mexico?' '' Maria said, holding back tears. ''I've never seen people get treated como animales.'' Maria was able to give Blanca a goodbye hug and promised to pack up her trailer. Gloria Alvanes looked for her husband at the plant. He called a relative before he was arrested and taken away. She said she is upset because she doesn't understand why the government is treating undocumented workers as criminals when most of them are just here to work. Alvanes has been married to her husband for five years, but he hasn't become a legal U.S. resident because the immigration process is taking longer than they expected. Now, she and her daughter, Marilyn Cornejo, a high school junior, are worried because they have a tight budget, it's 12 days before Christmas and there is no money for an immigration lawyer. "What do they want us to do?" Marilyn asked. "Do they want us to drop out of school and get jobs?" At five schools in Cache County, counselors comforted students who feared their parents had been taken into custody. Some school leaders explained to Latino students what was happening and made sure there was someone at home. Latino leader Rolando Murillo, who happened to be at Mountaincrest High School in Hyrum, talked with about 100 students, including children whose parents are in this country legally but who fear "la migra." "La migra is a nightmare for them," he said. Father Clarence Sandoval of Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church said church leaders called schools and had them give out the church's number if somebody needed help or child care for kids whose parents were arrested. As of Tuesday night, he hadn't received any calls. ''It takes away from being together for Christmas,'' he said of the raid. ''The problem with the raids is they don't [consider] the impact on the families, especially the children.'' After news of the ICE raid broke, U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman called for a meeting Tuesday afternoon with Latino leaders in Salt Lake City. The leaders asked Tolman to expedite the meat-packing plant workers' cases. For Maria, it's not about immigration status, it's about ''being brown.'' She said she hopes the authorities are not targeting Latinos. And she hopes no one ever has to live through an immigration raid, especially on the Day of the Virgin Mary celebrated by Catholics, which fell on Tuesday. ''My mom says, 'The raid was just a way of La Virgin de Guadalupe picking up all her people and taking them home to Mexico, where they'll be safe,' " she said. jsanchez@sltrib.com --- * Tribune reporters JUDY FAHYS and LISA ROSETTA contributed to this story. Where to call * Immigration officials have set up a toll-free telephone number, 866-341-3858, for families to contact for information on where their relatives are being detained. Operators speaking English and Spanish are available.

Federa stormtroopers with machine guns arrest legal workers: Children forceably abandoned

Union: DHS Raids Grabbed Legal Workers
By Justin Rood - December 13, 2006, 9:14 AM

Union officials are outraged over a massive immigration sweep yesterday, which sent 1,000 Homeland Security Department agents -- some in riot gear -- to meatpacking plants in six states to round up immigrant workers suspected of using fake identification, but may have picked up legal workers in the process.

"Stormtroopers came in with machine guns, rounded [the workers] into the cafeterias, separated identified citizens from non-citizens, and then they took away all green cards and put non-citizens onto buses," regardless of the immigrants' legal status, Jill Cashen of the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UCFW) told me this morning.

Cashen said that reports from all six states confirmed that legal immigrants were among those taken away, and have not been returned. "We're still trying to find out where the buses went," she said. "Children have been left at church day cares. Nobody knows where these people are."

Recently unsealed court documents show that DHS had identified 170 identity-fraud suspects it wished to apprehend, but that the agency wanted to round up as many as 5,000 other workers because it "further expect[ed] to apprehend persons who are engaged in large-scale identity theft[.]" Union officials say the total number of detained workers may be higher than 5,000. (Update: We've uploaded those court documents to our document collection here.)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not released official tallies from the raids, but have promised to do so at a 10 a.m. press conference in Washington. UFCW is holding a press conference at 9:30 to discuss what they believe to be heavy-handed tactics used by the federal government.

Permalink | TOPICS

Smuggling, Theft, Bribery at Homeland Security Agency

Homeland Security staff misconduct is outlined in a report, along with fraud by the public.

By Nicole Gaouette
Times Staff Writer

December 5, 2006

WASHINGTON — Aside from patrolling the nation's borders and guarding against terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security also is battling fraud, theft, bribery, smuggling and other crimes by American citizens — with some of the most disturbing examples coming from the sprawling agency's own employees.

A semiannual report filed to Congress by the department's inspector general showed a sharp jump in arrests in the six months ended Sept. 30, with many stemming from schemes by members of the public to bilk the agency of emergency relief funds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

But the report, released this week, also highlights a litany of staff misconduct: immigration officials demanding sex in exchange for visas, airport screeners stealing money from tourists' luggage, federal air marshals smuggling drugs, and employees from various DHS agencies committing sex crimes — including indecent exposure and distributing child pornography.

The array of staff transgressions tucked into the report reflects the continued growing pains of an agency that was formed only three years ago, and the pressures created as parts of the department have rapidly expanded, critics say.

Clark Kent Ervin, a former DHS inspector general, said the Transportation Security Administration rushed to hire screeners and air marshals in 2003 without running background checks on the applicants.

"Knowing DHS dysfunction and disingenuousness, it wouldn't surprise me if DHS doesn't fully vet employees for criminal backgrounds before hiring them or periodically recheck them," Ervin said.

Russ Knocke, press secretary for DHS, would not comment on the agency's policy on background checks but dismissed Ervin's criticism as "pure speculation" and "without merit."

Knocke said the problems were due mainly to a few individuals.

"No law enforcement agency of any government in the world is going to be immune to inappropriate behavior on the part of its employees, particularly one that is as large as we are," Knocke said. "… There's no tolerance for unethical behavior at this department and we use every authority to confront it."

Investigations by the inspector general's office triggered 321 arrests and 243 convictions in the six-month period. The report filed for the previous six months documented 200 arrests; six months earlier, there were 54.

The report did not provide a breakdown of how many cases involved DHS staff, but they came from all parts of the department.

Two TSA screeners were caught pilfering jewelry from luggage, while another was found smuggling more than $80,000 in an attempt to avoid reporting income brought into the country. Another team of four screeners targeted Japanese tourists until one was caught stealing up to $1,800 from checked luggage.

Many of the offenses involved getting contraband past barriers. Two federal air marshals were snared by a DHS and FBI investigation that found the marshals had sought and accepted a bribe to shepherd 15 kilograms of cocaine through airports. Two guards at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement prison sold alcohol and cigarettes to the illegal immigrants in their custody.

The agency's defenders said that in a department of more than 180,000 people, the number getting into trouble is relatively insignificant and that the arrests show the department's oversight is improving.

The inspector general's reports can be found online at http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/rpts/semiannl/editorial_0330.shtm .

*

---

nicole.gaouette@latimes.com

DHS Official Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Documents for Bribes

Immigration Official Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Documents

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 1, 2006; A16

A Department of Homeland Security supervisor pleaded guilty yesterday to pocketing more than $600,000 in bribes in exchange for falsifying immigration documents to help Asian immigrants obtain U.S. citizenship.

Prosecutors said Robert T. Schofield issued fake documentation for hundreds of immigrants during an eight-year scheme he ran out of his Fairfax County office. Schofield, 57, was a supervisor for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes immigration applications, until he resigned in the past two weeks .

Court documents said Schofield employed a network of brokers who brought him immigrants needing citizenship, a green card or entry into the United States. Earning up to $10,000 per immigrant, he used some of the money to buy his $387,000 Fairfax home and to pay down the mortgage, the documents said. When Schofield was arrested in June, federal agents found $3,900 cash in his jacket pocket in his office.

When he was arrested, Schofield supervised a staff of nine at the agency's Washington District Office. He had been the acting assistant director for examinations from 1998 to 2004, supervising 50 employees.

Schofield was not asked by the judge to explain his actions yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria when he pleaded guilty to bribery and unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization. His lawyers declined to comment. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 23.

"The breadth and scope of Mr. Schofield's fraud and corruption are truly stunning," said U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg. He said Schofield had "undermined our efforts to secure our borders."

Court documents indicate that accusations against the 30-year federal employee were not new. Over the past decade, federal officials investigated numerous bribery allegations involving Schofield and Asian immigration applicants when he worked at the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to court documents unsealed when Schofield was charged in June.

Schofield was demoted at one point for "conduct unbecoming a government employee," the documents say, and had an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman connected to an INS criminal probe. When confronted about that relationship by INS officials, Schofield fled to East Asia, where he made $36,000 worth of unauthorized purchases on his government-issued credit card, according to court documents.

It remains unclear when Schofield returned to the United States, how the previous investigations ended and how Schofield became a supervisor when the Department of Homeland Security took over INS's functions in 2003.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Walutes said that the evidence against Schofield in the current case was overwhelming and that the government "very strongly opposes" an effort by defense lawyers to get him released on bond before his sentencing. Court documents said the government has identified 184 illegal immigrants who falsely received U.S. citizenship from Schofield, but Walutes said the government believes the actual number is in the hundreds. "We have to go out and arrest these people," Walutes said. "It's a huge endeavor."

Defense lawyer Alan Yamamoto said that Schofield plans to help his old office examine files he handled to show how many false documents were issued and that it would be easier if he was free.

U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris disagreed and ordered Schofield back to jail after the hearing.

Report Finds DHS Lax on Contracting Procedures

By Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Scott Higham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 22, 2006; A01


Private consultants hired by the Department of Homeland Security have found widespread problems with its contracting operation, including nearly three dozen contract files that could not be located.

Files that could be found often lacked basic documentation required under federal rules, such as evidence that the department negotiated the best prices for taxpayers, according to a copy of the consultants' report obtained by The Washington Post.

"The inability to locate files and inconsistent file organization puts the government at risk in ensuring the contractor is fulfilling its contractual obligations and the government is meeting its contract administration responsibilities," the consultants wrote in their report.

The assessment underscores complaints by department auditors and outside experts that procurement officials persistently neglected contracting responsibilities as they spent billions of dollars after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- much of it on security systems that do not work as planned.

"This strongly suggests that we're buying the wrong stuff, the wrong way, possibly from the wrong contractors, and failing to check before, during or after," said Charles Tiefer, an expert on government contracting who teaches at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

The confidential report, delivered to department officials in March, focused on spending in fiscal 2005 by the Office of Procurement Operations. During that period, nearly $17.5 billion was spent department-wide on contracts for a variety of goods and services, including security at airports and borders, radiation-detection monitors, and information technology consultants.

Department spokesman Larry Orluskie said procurement officials are following several recommendations made in the report.

"We've acted upon each one of their findings," Orluskie said. "It was an internal look. We are going to bring them in again to make sure we are following up."

Last year, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Deputy Secretary Michael P. Jackson and others at the agency acknowledged having trouble with contracting and promised to do better. They said they had made progress by hiring scores of contracting officials and by tightening rules.

But the confidential report adds weight to critics' contentions that contracting problems persist. Last week, the agency's inspector general, Richard L. Skinner, told a House panel that "expediency, poorly defined requirements and inadequate oversight" are creating "a high risk of cost overruns, mismanagement or failure."

The firm hired to write the report, Acquisition Solutions, examined a sample of 72 contract files for DHS, which wanted to determine whether it was following federal contracting laws and internal policies.

At the outset, the team of acquisition specialists could not locate 33 of the 72 contract files it had selected for the review, so the consultants had to select 33 others.

"The files were extremely difficult to locate and were organized in an inconsistent manner," they wrote.

The consultants sharply criticized an array of contracting procedures. Of the 72 contract files reviewed, only 14 were deemed to be in "excellent" shape. Those files contained evidence that the contracts were awarded with adequate competition and represented the best deal for taxpayers.

Forty-seven files met only "minimum" standards and showed little evidence of fair and reasonable pricing or supervision by contracting officials.

Eleven files were deemed to be "seriously inadequate," with key documents missing or incomplete and little evidence that the contracts were competitively awarded or prices were justified.

The consultants said some information in the files "seems to be just enough to 'get by.' "

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who is in line to assume chairmanship of the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he intends to hold hearings on DHS contracting next year.

"I expect the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to conduct vigorous oversight of this issue in the 110th Congress," he said.

Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101314.html