Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

A national commission issued a report Thursday that calls Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids under the Bush administration "a regretful chapter in our American experience," that exacted a human toll through "an enforcement-only policy."

The National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights was founded by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union "to ensure historical account of the Bush administration's actions, so that the government cannot whitewash history," said Joseph T. Hansen, the commission's founding chair during a telephone conference Thursday.

The commission conducted hearings in six cities - including Boston - with workers, community leaders, school officials, religious and elected leaders, as well as psychologists, students and legal immigration experts.

The Boston hearings focused on the 2007 raid at the Michael Bianco, Inc. factory in New Bedford, where more than 350 workers were detained. Company owner Francesco Insolia this year was ordered to serve one year and a day in federal prison and pay a $30,000 fine for harboring illegal workers at his plant.

Mary Bauer, director of the Immigrant Justice Program of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said testimony collected at the hearings underscored "profoundly unconstitutional" actions during many of the raids, including massive worksite raids in 2006 at six Swift & Company meatpacking plants.

Hansen said the Obama administration "represents a new opportunity" for pursuing comprehensive immigration reform, and that the commission expects to work with Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed and other Congressional leaders in those efforts.

 Tags  ICE illegal immigration Jack Reed

Comments

JD said:

Wow...a meatworkers union condems the raids. Shouldn't the union be more concerned with the illegals who will come in and due the work for less then half of union rates? I applaud the raids and hope that Obama is smart enough to continue them. We will not improve unemployment until jobs are made available to people legally eligible to work them.

Link | June 18, 2009 3:39 PM
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Henry said:

"Regretful chapter in our American experience"???
That raid and others like it were long overdue. When is the public going to stop pandering to the illegals who are ruining our country?! Smarten up people. These illegals are costing you big dollars and the buffoons in congress and the state legislatures are kissing the rear ends of their legal relatives for their votes. The unions are now getting in the act of pandering to them. The more this goes on the more the country sinks into the quagmire we are now in.

Link | June 18, 2009 5:13 PM
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