Group Says Alabama Migrant Raids Illegal, Calls for Probe
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said Friday it has "learned of raids" which it says were carried out illegally by federal agents at Alabama apartments and mobile home parks and is calling for an investigation.
The SLPC said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are "terrorizing" north Alabama families. The SLPC said it had learned that the agents were interrogating children and illegally entering homes. It called for the Department of Homeland Security to end the raids.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the nonprofit civil rights organization said raids took place in Fort Payne and Collinsville. The SLPC says agents interrogated young children about their parents' whereabouts.
"Alabama's Latino community has already been devastated by HB 56, and many Latinos who have not left the state are living in terror," said SPLC Legal Director Mary Bauer. "These raids profoundly undermine the federal government's substantial efforts to reassure people that they still have civil rights and that the federal government is committed to protecting them. They are terrorizing a community already living in fear and chaos."
The SLPC wants Napolitano to initiate a probe into civil rights violations that may have taken place, and highlights Napolitano's recent statement that the Department of Homeland Security will not assist the state in enforcing HB 56, a strict new anti-immigrant law.
According to the SPLC, ICE agents threatened to arrest children who are U.S. citizens if they didn’t reveal their parents' whereabouts, and although it appeared they were looking for specific individuals, agents arrested many others who happened to be in the vicinity.
"These raids are a stark reminder that the failure of our nation to pass comprehensive immigration reform has devastating repercussions that rip apart communities and push immigrants deeper into the shadows," said Dan Werner, the SPLC's deputy legal director.