By Michael Wayland
MLive.com
September 22, 2011,
Federal agents are under fire again for the way they conducted an apparent raid in Detroit.
The July 25 raid reportedly involved several U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on the grounds of Ste. Anne Catholic Church, 1000 Ste. Anne.
Sept. 22, the Detroit Free Press: “Border agents handcuffed and detained a Latino man on the church grounds July 25, but he was later released because he was living in the U.S. legally, said Ryan Bates, director of the Michigan office of the Alliance for Immigrants Rights and Reform.”
According to the newspaper, border spokesman Heath Stephens said the agency is working on a response, but could not comment Wednesday.
Bates, along with other immigrant rights officials, previously condemned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Detroit for other raids, including one at a local school.
The accusations were brought to the department’s attention in April, following ICE agents being accused of following parents to Hope of Detroit Academy, a public charter school in Detroit, to carry out an operation in March.
“This is a pattern of abuse,” said Bates, during a media teleconference in April. “It’s systematic and we need action that changes what leadership is doing in the Detroit ICE office.”
While the agents in Detroit were cleared of any wrongdoings in the school case, along with a dozen of others, the department did draft a new policy “that more clearly defines enforcement activities at or near sensitive locations."
According to a recent report released by No More Deaths, an immigrant rights group in Arizona, there have been thousands of accusations against federal authorities in recent years.
The report – “A Culture of Cruelty" – reportedly documents more than 30,000 incidents over the past three years that it said involved abuse and mistreatment of people in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.
“No More Deaths has released a major new report, A Culture of Cruelty, which details rampant U.S. Border Patrol abuse of immigration detainees, deportees and migrants apprehended on the U.S.-Mexico Border,” reads the group’s website.
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