By
MARIELENA HINCAPIÉ, Director of Programs,
and KAREN TUMLIN, Staff Attorney
 

     Shortly after the second shift got under way at Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE), a manufacturer of toner cartridges and inkjets in Van Nuys, Calif., hundreds of workers’ lives suddenly were thrown into chaos.  That Thursday (Feb. 7, 2008), approximately 100 armed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stormed into the plant, whose exits they had first sealed off.  Agents ordered workers to stop what they were doing and to segregate themselves based on their immigration status:  U.S. citizens were to form one line, lawful permanent residents or those who were otherwise authorized to work were to form a different line, and those who were in the U.S. without papers were ordered into a separate line.  ICE agents handcuffed the men. They then herded all the workers into the cafeteria.  The agents would not release documented workers or U.S. citizens until they presented evidence of their lawful immigration status.  Workers were not free to leave and had no choice but to go into the holding area ICE had set up.  Workers, including pregnant women and parents of small children, were not allowed to use their cell phones or the bathroom.  Agents then individually questioned those who were in the line for undocumented people, to assess whether they should be released on humanitarian grounds.

     ICE had arrest warrants for eight MSE employees charged with criminal violations relating to alleged identity theft, but the agents did not limit their enforcement operation to those workers.  Instead, they detained approximately 150 workers.  About 50 of these workers, mostly women, were released that evening on humanitarian grounds.  The approximately 100 remaining workers were detained at the plant and then taken to ICE’s facility in downtown Los Angeles for processing (Van Nuys is a community within the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles).  ICE also simultaneously raided the homes of workers who had not shown up for work at MSE that day, including some who were no longer employed by MSE.  Finally, ICE detained other “collaterals” at the plant who had never worked at MSE.  For example, a woman who sold tamales outside MSE and had entered the plant to use the bathroom was caught up in the raid.  And, reportedly, ICE agents pulled a man out of his car and detained him after he drove into the MSE parking lot to make a U-turn.

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     Recent vigorous enforcement efforts by ICE — such as the Van Nuys raid — have ripped apart immigrant communities and families, separating children from their parents, in some cases leaving the children abandoned or in foster care while ICE detains their parents.  ICE has taken record numbers of workers into custody, disrupting businesses and devastating local economies as employers lose some of their most productive employees.  During their raids, ICE agents have indiscriminately targeted workers who fit certain racial/ethnic profiles and, as a result, ICE has wrongfully detained, and even deported, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.  Most recently, ICE has treated immigrant workers as criminals, requiring those whom the agency has detained and released pending further proceedings to wear electronic “ankle bracelet” monitors.

     That afternoon of Feb. 7, a “raids rapid response network” of organizers, attorneys, and other advocates began to coalesce even while the raid was in progress.  During the ICE action and in its aftermath, this network’s members learned valuable lessons that we hope will benefit efforts across the country to advocate for an end to these inhumane raids and for just immigration reform that brings families and workers out of the shadows and onto a clear path to legal status.  
 

     Initial rapid response by advocacy network.  Per DHS’s recently developed “Guidelines for Identifying Humanitarian Concerns among Administrative Arrestees When Conducting Worksite Enforcement Operations” (see box, this page), an unidentified Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) official left a telephone message at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) informing CHIRLA that the raid was in progress.  CHIRLA staff called the telephone number the DHS official had left and were able to confirm that a raid was taking place in Van Nuys, though DHS refused to provide details about the actual location.  The person who answered CHIRLA’s phone call said DHS was contacting nonprofits in the area so that the nonprofits could help assist families in locating their detained family members.[1]  CHIRLA then contacted the ACLU of Southern California, which in turn contacted key organizations such as the Central American Resource Center of Los Angeles (CARECEN), the local chapters of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), NILC, UNITE-HERE Local 11, and others that had already begun organizing to prepare for an immigration raid in the Los Angeles area.
 

     CHIRLA members in the San Fernando Valley confirmed that they had seen DHS buses near the MSE plant.  An organizer from CHIRLA and an attorney from ACLU went to the MSE plant immediately, while the raid was still in progress, but ICE agents would not let them into the plant parking lot, claiming that the employer was not consenting that they should enter.  At the same time, other members of the response network, including an attorney, arrived at the ICE processing center in downtown Los Angeles where the workers were being transported.  The attorney informed an ICE official that she represented the workers and asked to see them.  The ICE official refused to let the attorney speak with the detainees, citing “security concerns.”  Members of the response network also immediately organized two conference calls to divide up work.  Our immediate goal was to get as many workers released as possible, so they could obtain free legal consultation and we could gather facts from them about how the raid had been conducted in order to develop our organizing and legal strategies. 

     The next 24 hours were chaotic.  Friday morning, Feb. 8, many relatives of the detained arrived at ICE’s downtown facility, searching for their family members.  Although ICE had set up a toll-free information number and provided it to the media, the ICE representative who answered the resulting calls was unable to provide current information, leaving detainees’ relatives uncertain and distressed about where their loved ones might be.[2]

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