Jackson Free Press

Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance officials said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were entering homes without search warrants and arresting undocumented immigrants during a four-day crackdown in and around the city of Jackson this past weekend.

ICE announced the arrest of 57 men and one woman, ranging in ages from 17 to 71, over the course of the weekend. Forty are from Mexico, nine are from Guatemala, and four are from Honduras. Others come from Panama, Peru, Costa Rica and El Salvador. ICE reports that authorities had previously deported seven of those arrested.

"We are hoping to possibly take legal action, and we haven't determined right now whether we're going to do that, but we plan today to go to the Capitol and talk with legislators," MIRA attorney Patricia Ice said during a press conference yesterday. "We're also going to talk to legislators about what is happening in the community, about the terror felt by these people."

Authorities arrested Colonial Terrace Apartments resident Juan Espanoza over the weekend. His wife, Angella Rector, said she is a U.S. resident and depends on her husband's construction job kept her and their three children, ages 1, 3 and 5, financially stable. Without him, she said she will likely have to seek public assistance.

"They're saying those Mexicans are coming over here taking public assistance, but when they're taking daddies away that leaves the momma to take government assistance," Rector said. "How am I supposed to pay a baby-sitter to take care of my three kids, and pay my bills, my rent?"

Ice said ICE officials produced some arrest warrants before taking individuals into custody, but immigrants reported that ICE offered no search warrants before entering apartments, mobile homes and other domiciles.

ICE Public Service Officer Temple Black told the Jackson Free Press yesterday that ICE does not require a search warrant if individuals open the door voluntarily.

"Immigration law is administrative law. It's not like criminal law where you need a warrant to go into a home," Black said. "The way it works with administrative law, even if agents go to the home and knock on the door, if people don't open the door, the agent can't go in. But if you get invited in, you go in and look around and look at people. You check their status, and if you run across people who are there illegally, you can't turn a blind eye to that."

Southern Echo Senior Organizer and Training Coordinator Mike Sayer, who spoke at the MIRA press conference yesterday, said ICE officials followed a "pattern" in last weekend's raids: "They're taking one or two arrest warrants, which may be legitimate, and ignoring the obligation to have valid search warrants in other situations," Sayer said. "They use the arrest warrants to leverage their search by taking individuals and intimidating them into a kind of Hobson's choice of 'either you open up, or there will be dire consequences for everyone.'"

Sayer added that just because residents open up their homes because they feel threatened does not mean they should waive their Fourth Amendment right to insist on a search warrant.

CLARIFICATION: The suggestion under the original caption and near the bottom of the story overstates what Mike Sayer said. He did not say that ICE officials commonly eschew the use of search warrants in their arrests. He actually said ICE followed a "pattern" during last weekend's raids and was not referring, one way or another, to how ICE generally operates. The Jackson Free Press apologizes for the error, and the copy above has been corrected.

Previous Comments

ID

162258

Comment

I'm adding the following clarification to Adam's story above, and correcting the copy in the caption and in a paragraph need the bottom that incorrectly paraphrased Mike Sayer immediately before his direct quote, which was accurate: The suggestion under the original caption and near the bottom of the story overstates what Mike Sayer said. He did not say that ICE officials commonly eschew the use of search warrants in their arrests. He actually said ICE followed a "pattern" during last weekend's raids and was not referring, one way or another, to how ICE generally operates. The Jackson Free Press apologizes for the error.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2011-02-24T15:44:19-06:00