Commission hears testimony on US immigration raids

By Maria Sacchetti, The Boston Globe Staff

Immigrants and their advocates testified before a union-led commission at the State House yesterday that federal agents violated illegal immigrants' constitutional rights and treated them inhumanely during recent raids, prompting swift denials from the federal government.

The commission held its second national meeting in Boston to hear testimony about the fallout from raids in New England, from little-noticed house raids in Springfield to a massive crackdown just over a year ago at a New Bedford leather goods factory that drew national attention for separating children from their parents.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union launched the commission - made up of civil rights workers, academics, and such leaders as former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack - in February to call attention to the alleged violations. The union has criticized the immigration raids and is suing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for raiding the Swift meatpacking plants in 2006. A report is expected by the end of the summer.

US Senator John F. Kerry and Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray also appeared before the commission yesterday to support its work.

"We all understand that ICE does important work," Kerry said during a noontime address to a crowd of more than 200 people. "But the way that they conduct workplace raids and detain people does not meet the standards of the United States of America."

ICE has refused to testify before the commission. In a telephone interview yesterday, agency spokesman Tim Counts said agents did not mistreat detainees and followed longstanding guidelines that provide for detainees' care. He said the commission is biased, pointing out that the panel's name is the National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of Fourth Amendment Rights.

"The title of the commission speaks for itself," said Counts, who is based in Minnesota. "The foregone conclusion of this group even before any testimony was heard is that misconduct occurred."

Advocates and city officials from New Haven, Chelsea, and other cities said the raids have hurt their communities.

Roy Avellaneda, a city councilor in Chelsea, testified that raids last summer so terrified residents that many refused to leave their homes.

In New Bedford, advocates said, children suffer nightmares and anxiety more than a year after federal agents raided the Michael Bianco leather goods factory on March 6, 2007, and detained 361 workers. Many parents were separated from their children for days after the raid.

Juana Garcia, a Guatemalan immigrant who was detained in the New Bedford factory raid, testified that she was taken to a Texas detention center, separating her from her 2-year-old son, who has asthma, for nine days. She said she was also shackled and denied access to food and the lavatory for hours.

Kerry has filed legislation mandating that detained immigrants have adequate medical care and legal counsel, as well as child care. After the Bianco raid, ICE issued new guidelines to ensure that federal agents quickly identify detainees who should be released because they are ill, pregnant, or need to care for their children.

After the hearing yesterday, Massachusetts Republican Party spokesman Barney Keller criticized Kerry for being out of touch with Massachusetts constituents who are concerned about losing their jobs to illegal immigrants.

"Middle-class Americans are consistently squeezed out of good-paying jobs by the type of policies that John Kerry advocates," Keller said. [MORE]