One goal of this report is to hold INS agents accountable for their behavior, and to demand that agents conduct their operations humanely and with respect for civil and human rights. However, even when immigration agents comply with every law and regulation, a raids-based enforcement strategy is inhumane, ineffective and abusive, ignoring the underlying social, political, and economic factors driving immigration, and relying on racial and ethnic targeting. This report illustrates how the problems created by immigration raids are not only deep and pervasive, but also irremediable. The United States has been embroiled in an intense public debate over immigration that has pervaded Congress and state Legislatures, town halls, media, and community institutions over the past five years. As Congress and the American public prepare to review the INS interior enforcement strategy, this report aims to illustrate how raids injure communities, and to urge an end to these abusive tactics.
Raids lead to civil and human rights violations.
Raids divide families. Most undocumented immigrants have family members in the United States, many of whom have legal status and who have petitions for legal status in process for their undocumented family members. As a result of new restrictions barring admission to the United States for three years, ten years, or life for those who have been undocumented in the United States for a certain length of time, family separation resulting from immigration raids can be long-term or even permanent. Numerous immigration raids have left children with no one to care for them, have denied families of their sole income earners, or have disrupted pending applications for legal status. Raids threaten community health and economic viability.