Archiv: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) / US Department of Homeland Security


26.08.2022 - 09:55 [ theTexan.news ]

Uvalde Class Action Lawsuit to be Filed Against Law Enforcement Agencies, Gun Manufacturer

He then listed off Uvalde ISD, its police chief Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Police Department, the Uvalde County Sheriff, the Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety (DPS), and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol as the law enforcement subjects of the impending suit.

18.07.2022 - 17:45 [ New York Times ]

Report on Uvalde Shooting Finds ‘Systemic Failures’ in Police Response

After the report came out, the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, said the acting chief during the shooting, Lt. Mariano Pargas, had been placed on administrative leave and that the city had begun its own internal investigation. The city released body camera footage documenting the actions of the Uvalde officers at the scene.

The facts laid out in the report also made clear that neither existing gun laws, nor expanded background checks passed by Congress in response to the shooting, would have prevented the gunman, Salvador Ramos, from obtaining the weapon he used.

17.07.2022 - 12:30 [ San Antonio Express-News ]

In June 2 meeting, Uvalde officials painted police response to Robb Elementary shooting as heroic

“My recollection is that (Uvalde Mayor Donald McLaughlin Jr.) was upset with the way that DPS had conducted the press conferences, and they had prepared that narrative and they were going to release it,” Busbee said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News. “And then I objected to it because … the investigation had just begun so we did not know if that was a true assessment of what transpired. There was no way for us to tell or assess whether or not that narrative was accurate.”

Busbee’s office is investigating the school shooting and how officers on the scene responded.

13.07.2022 - 10:53 [ Newsweek ]

Uvalde Mayor Condemns ‚Chicken‘ Media for Releasing School Shooting Video

Mayor Don McLaughlin criticized The Austin American-Statesman and ABC affiliate KVUE at a meeting of the city council on Tuesday for releasing school surveillance video from the shooting.

McLaughlin told the meeting: „I want to go on the record. The way that video was released today was one of the most chicken things I‘ve ever seen.

Another member of the city council said that it was „chickensh*t.“

13.07.2022 - 10:42 [ Stateman.com ]

Exclusive: Watch Uvalde school shooting video obtained by Statesman showing police response

A 77-minute video recording captured from this vantage point, along with body camera footage from one of the responding officers, obtained by the American-Statesman and KVUE, shows in excruciating detail dozens of sworn officers, local, state and federal — heavily armed, clad in body armor, with helmets, some with protective shields — walking back and forth in the hallway, some leaving the camera frame and then reappearing, others training their weapons toward the classroom, talking, making cellphone calls, sending texts and looking at floor plans, but not entering or attempting to enter the classrooms.

13.07.2022 - 10:20 [ ORF.at ]

US-Schulmassaker: Neue Videoaufnahmen sorgen für Empörung

Gestern von der Zeitung „Austin American-Statesman“ und dem Lokalsender KVUE veröffentlichte Bilder einer Überwachungskamera zeigen unter anderem, dass Polizisten sich eine Stunde und 14 Minuten lang im Schulflur aufhielten, bevor sie den 18-jährigen Angreifer in einem Klassenzimmer erschossen.

10.06.2022 - 20:43 [ Reese Oxner, breaking news reporter @texastribune / Nitter.net ]

Breaking: DPS confirms to @TexasTribune that on day of the Uvalde school shooting, a teacher shut the door the gunman later entered from but its automatic lock malfunctioned. DPS is investigating why. This contradicts earlier DPS statements that the teacher left the door open.

(31.05.2022)

10.06.2022 - 19:40 [ Texas Tribune ]

Waiting for keys, unable to break down doors: Uvalde schools police chief defends delay in confronting gunman

Eventually, a janitor provided six keys. Arredondo tried each on a door adjacent to the room where the gunman was, but it didn’t open.

Later, another key ring with between 20 and 30 keys was brought to Arredondo.

“I was praying one of them was going to open up the door each time I tried a key,” Arredondo said in an interview.

None did.

Eventually, the officers on the north side of the hallway called Arredondo’s cellphone and told him they had gotten a key that could open the door.

The officers on the north side of the hallway formed a group of mixed law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Border Patrol, to enter the classroom and take down the shooter, Arredondo said.

10.06.2022 - 19:30 [ CNN ]

Uvalde school police chief says he didn‘t keep officers from breaching massacre scene and didn‘t consider himself the commander, report says

I didn‘t issue any orders,“ he told the Tribune, though the outlet reports the chief did instruct officers to start breaking the outside windows of other classrooms and begin evacuating students. „I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door“ of one of the classrooms where the shooting happened, he said.

Arredondo „assumed that some other officer or official had taken control of the larger response,“ the Tribune wrote.

09.06.2022 - 11:38 [ CNN ]

Uvalde mayor says he‘s frustrated by lack of transparency in school shooting investigation

„We‘ve asked for a briefing or something but we‘re not getting it. I‘ve been told they‘re law enforcement and we‘re not going to be entitled to it at this time,“ Mayor Don McLaughlin said at a city council meeting. „I‘ve asked everybody involved for a briefing at one point or another. It‘s frustrating, but again I‘ve been told I‘m not law enforcement, but it makes me feel real frustrated.“
He said he has asked other officials with insights on the investigation to hold a press conference, to no avail.

06.06.2022 - 18:05 [ WFAA / Youtube ]

Why the Texas school shooting records may not be released

As another Uvalde student is laid to rest, Texas officials are calling for the end of the „dead suspect loophole,“ which can stop records from being released.

06.06.2022 - 18:02 [ Fox News ]

Uvalde, Texas school shooting response hampered by poor police radio communications: official

Mr. Anderson, who was serving as homeland security director for nine counties in South Texas at the time the system was installed, said state investigators have tested the radio system inside the building in the last few days, but he didn’t know the outcome of that test. An official from the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is leading the state investigation, didn’t respond to a request for comment about the results of the test.

02.06.2022 - 15:21 [ TexasMonthly.com ]

Border Patrol Agents Killed the Uvalde School Shooter. But Why Were They on the Scene?

(May 26, 2022)

A CBP official told Texas Monthly that as emergency calls first came in, four agents with CBP’s Bortac SWAT team were investigating stash houses on the border to the west of Uvalde. The agents immediately responded, arriving at the school just before noon. Bortac (Border Patrol Tactical Unit) is CBP’s’s paramilitary force, an elite group of agents trained to exchange gunfire with cartels.

(…)

In all, as many as eighty CBP agents, including some who were off duty, rushed to the school during and after the shooting.

(…)

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did not respond to the shooting. ICE agents were on the scene during and after the shooting. The article has been updated.

21.07.2021 - 19:35 [ theCanary.co/uk/ ]

Coronavirus data contractors engaged in dirty tricks and disinformation campaigns

(10.05.2020)

Palantir was co-founded in 2004 by Paypal owner and billionaire Peter Thiel. What the blog doesn’t reveal is that Palantir’s client list has included amomgst others, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, the Centre for Disease Control, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, Special Operations Command, West Point and the IRS.

Furthermore, in 2016, it was revealed Palantir had a $34.6m contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and helped the Customs and Border Protection Agency create the Analytical Framework for Intelligence (AFI) system to track immigrants.

Nor does the blog mention that Palantir worked for UK intelligence and was awarded contracts to handle vast data sets on UK citizens for British spy agency GCHQ.

10.01.2021 - 14:23 [ theCanary.co ]

Coronavirus data contractors engaged in dirty tricks and disinformation campaigns

(10.05.2020)

Palantir was co-founded in 2004 by Paypal owner and billionaire Peter Thiel. What the blog doesn’t reveal is that Palantir’s client list has included amomgst others, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, the Centre for Disease Control, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, Special Operations Command, West Point and the IRS.

Furthermore, in 2016, it was revealed Palantir had a $34.6m contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and helped the Customs and Border Protection Agency create the Analytical Framework for Intelligence (AFI) system to track immigrants.

Nor does the blog mention that Palantir worked for UK intelligence and was awarded contracts to handle vast data sets on UK citizens for British spy agency GCHQ.

10.01.2021 - 13:13 [ Washington Post ]

Why are we trusting a company with ties to ICE and intelligence agencies to collect our health information?

(21.05.2020)

Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded the contract for this platform to Palantir Technologies, a secretive data-mining firm known for its work with the Pentagon, intelligence agencies and law enforcement during the so-called global war on terrorism. The HHS Protect Now platform will aggregate data from at least 187 different sources, including the federal government, state and local governments, hospitals, and the private sector.

23.07.2020 - 21:41 [ theHill.com ]

Portland City Council bans local police from working with federal law enforcement

The measure, which was passed on Wednesday, orders all members of the Portland Police Department to stop giving or receiving „operational support“ from officers representing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Marshal Service, Federal Protective Service and Customs and Border Protection, according to local news reports. Under the resolution, police are also banned from overseeing demonstrations alongside federal officers.

20.07.2020 - 12:43 [ theHill.com ]

House Democrats ask watchdogs to probe federal crackdown on protests

“The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appear to have increasingly abused emergency authorities to justify the use of force against Americans exercising their right to peaceful assembly,” wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).

23.02.2020 - 00:37 [ USA Today ]

Greyhound to stop allowing Border Patrol on buses for immigration checks

“We are pleased to see Greyhound clearly communicate that it does not consent to racial profiling and harassment on its buses,“ Andrea Flores, deputy director of policy for the ACLU‘s Equality Division, said in an email. “By protecting its customers and employees, Greyhound is sending a message that it prioritizes the communities it serves.”

10.08.2019 - 14:31 [ WSWS ]

The Mississippi raid: Trump’s attack on immigrants and his Democratic enablers

Photographs taken at a Mississippi gym on Wednesday night show children of immigrant detainees, some as young as four years old, huddled together, many of them crying or visibly traumatized by the arrest of their father, their mother, or both.

10.08.2019 - 14:05 [ Ayanna Pressley, Abgeordnete des US Repräsentantenhauses / Twitter ]

On the 1st day of school in Mississippi, kindergarteners were begging ICE agents to see their parents. This cruel raid had one purpose: to terrorize and torment. If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention #defundhate #defundICE #AbolishICE #FamiliesBelongTogether

10.08.2019 - 13:43 [ Tagesschau.de ]

Razzia in den USA: 680 Migranten bei der Arbeit festgenommen

Laut Staatsanwaltschaft wurden sie am Mittwoch in lebensmittelverarbeitenden Betrieben von der Einwanderungspolizei ICE in Gewahrsam genommen. Ein örtlicher Fernsehsender zeigte, wie die Kinder der festgenommenen Migranten weinten und nach ihren Eltern riefen.

10.08.2019 - 13:39 [ WJTV.com ]

Children of undocumented immigrants arrested in Mississippi rely on strangers for food and shelter

12 News reporter Alex Love was granted permission to talk to community leaders and the children.

Children relied on neighbors and strangers to pick them up outside their homes after school. They drove the children to a community center where people tried to keep them calm. But many kids could not stop crying for mom and dad.

10.08.2019 - 13:25 [ NPR.org ]

Mississippi Communities Still In Shock Following ICE Raids And Arrests

Communities are still in shock in Mississippi following the arrest of some 680 people this week for suspected immigration violations. Federal authorities made the arrests at food processing plants across the state. About 300 of the people who were picked up have been released and given orders to appear before an immigration judge. The rest are being held in detention facilities in Mississippi and Louisiana.

10.08.2019 - 13:22 [ ClarionLedger.com ]

‚Let them go!‘: Tears, shock over ICE raids at Mississippi food processing plants

(07.08.2019)

Workers filled three buses — two for men and one for women — at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in tiny Morton, 40 miles east of Jackson. They were taken to a military hangar to be processed for immigration violations. About 70 family, friends and residents waved goodbye and shouted, „Let them go! Let them go!“ Later, two more buses arrived. A tearful 13-year-old boy whose parents are from Guatemala waved goodbye to his mother, a Koch worker, as he stood beside his father. Some employees tried to flee on foot but were captured in the parking lot.

26.07.2019 - 17:28 [ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Abgeordnete des US Repräsentantenhauses / Twitter ]

The notion of dismantling ICE is nowhere near as radical as the destructive 2003 decision to establish ICE – an extrajudicial enforcement agency that controls a black-box network of for-profit detention centers accountable to no one, even when people die – in the first place.

23.07.2019 - 17:54 [ Maddow Blog ‏/ Twitter ]

One of the reasons they did that is because the children would cry, and the older kids figured out that when they cried the guards got angry. So the best thing they could do was to protect these children. It was protecting all of them.

23.07.2019 - 17:12 [ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Abgeodnete des US Repräsentantenhauses / Twitter ]

CBP is detaining American citizens. How would you feel trapped in a border camp, where guards wear face masks because the human odor is so strong? When we allow the rights of some to be violated, the rights of all are not far behind.

23.07.2019 - 16:59 [ TrishFraga ‏/ Twitter ]

Looks like all American born residents will have to carry passports and birth certificates well those of color. Shameful.

23.07.2019 - 16:49 [ Dallas News ]

A Dallas-born citizen picked up by the Border Patrol has been detained for three weeks

Francisco Galicia told his mother, who lives in Edinburg, that he was detained because he didn’t have his U.S. passport. But she said he did present CBP with his Texas ID.

Galicia wasn’t allowed to use the phone for the three weeks he was in CBP custody, Sanjuana said. But he has been able to make collect calls to his mother since since Saturday, when Galicia was transferred to ICE’s custody.

19.07.2019 - 13:53 [ New York Times ]

‘They Are Human Beings’: Homeland Security Faulted for Treatment of Migrant Children

The hearing came a week after the committee released findings of an analysis of the more than 2,600 migrant children separated from their parents last year under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which has since been suspended. Democrats grilled Mr. McAleenan over the rollout of the policy, as well as over the discovery of a secret Facebook group for Border Patrol agents that included offensive messages, including obscene images of members of Congress.

14.07.2019 - 18:56 [ Nancy Pelosi, Sprecherin des US Repräsentantenhauses / Twitter ]

It should be a sign to us that today’s Catholic Gospel reading is the Good Samaritan, where Jesus teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves and treat them with mercy. Trump’s ICE raids today tear families apart -the opposite of mercy. #FamiliesBelongTogether #KnowYourRights

14.07.2019 - 18:52 [ NPR.org ]

U.S. Cities Prepare For Planned ICE Raids

„It starts on Sunday, and they‘re going to take people out, and they‘re going to bring them back to their countries, or they‘re going to take criminals out — put them in prison or put them in prison in the countries they came from,“ Trump said outside the White House.

The operations, which would be along the same lines as the one canceled last month, are expected to take place in at least 10 cities across the U.S. and last for days.

13.07.2019 - 18:45 [ National Public Radio ]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the 2020 Presidential Race and Why We Should Break Up Homeland Security

It‘s hard to recall a newly elected freshman representative to Congress who has made a bigger impact than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her primary victory for New York‘s Fourteenth District seat—as a young woman of color beating out a long-established white male incumbent—was big news, and Ocasio-Cortez has been generating headlines almost daily ever since. Practically the day she took her seat in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez became the hero of the left wing of the Democrats and a favored villain of Fox News and the right.

13.07.2019 - 18:41 [ Washington Post ]

Ocasio-Cortez wants to ax Homeland Security. Some conservatives didn’t want it to begin with.

The usefulness of a Department of Homeland Security, however, wasn’t always taken for granted. President George W. Bush’s administration initially had “zero interest” in creating a new department to protect against terrorism, The Washington Post previously reported. Vice President Richard B. Cheney thought it would needlessly increase the size of government.

“Creating a Cabinet post doesn’t solve the problem,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in March 2002, according to The Post.

13.07.2019 - 18:36 [ Democracy Now ]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wants to Dismantle Department of Homeland Security

In an interview with “The New Yorker Radio Hour,” Ocasio-Cortez repeated her call for the abolition of ICE—Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Host David Remnick asked Ocasio-Cortez if she would get rid of the Department of Homeland Security, as well.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “I think so. I think so. I think we need to undo a lot of the egregious mistakes that the Bush administration did.

13.07.2019 - 18:19 [ C-SPAN / Youtube ]

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: „I believe these women.“ (C-SPAN)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: „When these women tell me that they were put into a cell and that their sink was not working, and we tested the sink ourselves and the sink was not working, and they were told to drink out of a toilet bowl I believe them. I believe these women.“

13.07.2019 - 18:17 [ NBC New York / Youtube ]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Testifies on Child Separation, Blasts Republicans | NBC New York

The hearing came as the number of families, children and other migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico has surged above 100,000 monthly since March, overwhelming federal agencies‘ ability to detain them in sanitary conditions and highlighting the issue as the 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns are in their early stages. „This is a manufactured crisis because the cruelty is manufactured. This is a manufactured crisis because there is no need for us to do this. There‘s no need for us to overcrowd and to detain and under-resource,“ said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., one of four high-profile Democratic freshmen who testified.

13.07.2019 - 17:58 [ CNN ]

With a new threat of immigration raids Sunday, undocumented immigrants are terrified — staying home from work, afraid to go outside and unsure of where to turn.

13.07.2019 - 17:55 [ NBC News ]

‚No shower, no shower!‘: Migrants shout as Pence visits Texas detention centers

Vice President Mike Pence saw firsthand the extreme overcrowding migrants are often forced to endure at federal detention centers when he visited two Friday in Texas.

Agents wore face masks, and video showed detainees packed into their holding areas surrounded by chain-link fence, the concrete floors littered with silver thermal blankets. Reporters accompanying Pence described the facility as smelling „horrendous.“

11.07.2019 - 19:28 [ diePresse.com ]

USA bereiten sich auf groß angelegte Abschiebungen vor

Ob die geplanten Razzien für die Regierung tatsächlich zu einem Erfolg werden, bezweifeln nun viele. Die Operation habe sich innerhalb den Communities herumgesprochen, außerdem kritisieren Beamte innerhalb des ICE, dass durch die Razzien Eltern und Kinder (die bisweilen amerikanische Staatsbürger sind) getrennt werden können. Das war denn offenbar auch der Hauptgrund, warum die Operation zu einem früheren Zeitpunkt nicht stattgefunden hat.

11.07.2019 - 19:14 [ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Abgeordnete des US Repräsententenhauses / Twitter ]

ICE will launch raids across 10 major cities this SUNDAY. Check your neighbors & know your rights. Remember: no one can enter your home without a *judicial warrant.* Sometimes ICE will try to show other papers to get in your house. Judicial warrants are from a court. /1

11.07.2019 - 19:10 [ Fox News ]

ICE deportation raids set to begin Sunday after Trump delay, report says

The ICE agents will target at least 2,000 immigrants whose deportations have already been ordered, a New York Times report said, citing one former and two current Department of Homeland Security officials.

Asked for comment, an ICE spokesman would not offer specific details, citing „law-enforcement sensitivities and the safety and security of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel.“

11.07.2019 - 18:25 [ Ilhan Omar, Abgeordnete des US Repräsentantenhauses / Twitter ]

It is clear that ICE isn’t being held accountable; the agency must be abolished. We cannot be complicit in the militarization of our southern border. People who come to our country in search of a better life should be treated with humanity and respect.

11.07.2019 - 18:16 [ Mother Jones ]

ICE Just Quietly Opened Three New Detention Centers, Flouting Congress’ Limits

The facilities are all run by private prison companies, and one experienced a violent riot.

09.07.2019 - 05:44 [ Washington Post ]

FBI, ICE find state driver’s license photos are a gold mine for facial-recognition searches

Thousands of facial-recognition requests, internal documents and emails over the past five years, obtained through public-records requests by researchers with Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology and provided to The Washington Post, reveal that federal investigators have turned state departments of motor vehicles databases into the bedrock of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure.

Police have long had access to fingerprints, DNA and other “biometric data” taken from criminal suspects. But the DMV records contain the photos of a vast majority of a state’s residents, most of whom have never been charged with a crime.

03.07.2019 - 12:45 [ Alyssa Rubin, just your average queer lefty Jewish rabble-rouser / Twitter ]

200 Jews are shutting down an ICE detention center because we when we say never again we ?? fucking ?? mean ?? it. #NeverAgainIsNow

(30.06.2019)