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After a legal battle to request information, a new report shows that in desperation to meet monthly quota, ICE agents arrested 24 Latinos at a 7-11 based solely on racial profiling
WHAT: Press Conference releasing new damning report from ICE accounting the Baltimore 7-Eleven raid
WHEN: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 11 a.m.
WHERE: CASA de Maryland – Prince George’s Workers’ Center
7978-B New Hampshire Ave, Langley Park, MD 20783
WHO: CASA de Maryland
Silver Spring, MD –ICE agents acknowledge open air raids in busy city centers were done to meet quota in an internal investigation released after a lawsuit was filed by CASA de Maryland. Further information from the report, which will be available at Wednesday’s press conference, shows contradictory information from the sworn declarations of the agents involved in the 2007 raid in Baltimore. This release comes mere weeks after the release of explosive video footage of the same raid showing ICE agents gathering together Latino shoppers, day laborers, and pedestrians, while Caucasians and African-Americans are ignored.
“This is the federal government, and these are agents who took an oath to uphold the Constitution,” said Gustavo Torres, Executive Director of CASA de Maryland, the state largest advocacy group for immigrants’ rights. “Is this the America contemplated by our founders?” said Torres.
Immediately after the raid, Senator Barbara Mikulski began an inquiry at federal level for an in depth investigation. After a Freedom of Information Act request was insufficiently responded to, CASA de Maryland filed litigation against the department and only recently received the report created in response to Senator Mikulski’s request. That report also reveals that information provided to Senator Ben Cardin’s office by ICE immediately after the raid was false.
"Street raids to meet quotas are absolutely unbelievable. It will take time to reverse the Bush years and the abridgement of our constitutional rights, but I look forward to standing with CASA de Maryland, and my Latino and immigrant brothers and sisters to get it done" said June White-Dillard, NAACP Prince George’s County Branch President.
Wednesday’s conference will feature civil rights leaders, copies of documents including the 29-page report with quotes, and tapes of the raid.
