The government has failed to disclose the reasons for immigration
sweeps across Southern California this summer, a leading civil rights
group said in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. The American Civil
Liberties Union said the agency that oversees border security has
refused to provide records about the arresting and deportation of more
than 400 undocumented immigrants in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los
Angeles counties in June. A roving patrol group based in Temecula
arrested 79 people in Ontario and 75 in Corona. The group was also
accused of stopping and questioning legal residents and U.S. citizens
of Latino origin in the city of San Bernardino, including one school
principal. The ACLU wants U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide
details on how many people were questioned, arrested and deported,
their races and nationalities, the locations and whether a
collaboration occurred between local law enforcement agencies. "We
don't have enough information at this point to determine whether these
raids were legally authorized and whether they actually resulted in
some net benefit,' said Ranjana Natarajan, an ACLU attorney. "We know
they caused a lot of fear in the community. People felt there was
harassment. People were very scared to send their children to school
and to the doctor. The impact on the community was severe.' The ACLU
said it filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles because
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests under
the Freedom of Information Act in July. [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.