Quote:
Originally posted by dhamsaic
tw -
not to challenge, but i'm curious where you got the 5,000 number from. i've been reading closer to 1,100-1,200 detained/arrested, but all who have broken federal laws
|
I miswrote the sentence. It should have said that 5,000 were being detained for questioning but many had been held for up to two months. The 1,000 number is a generally accepted but is only an estimate since most have not been arraigned (as best we know) and many cannot even get hold of a lawyer. Many have been moved repeatedly so that we don't know where they are being held. We do know that one man died in prison after being held for over 1 month without ever seeing a lawyer and without ever having been arraigned - according to, if I remember, NPR. The only reason he was discovered in prison was because he died.
I can appreciate why this is being done, but also understand that the 'powers that be' - Ashcroft - have no appreciation just of the damage that is being created. Ahh but this right wing extremist religious conservative knows these people can't and won't vote against him.
This is a classic case of government denying rights to a minority - nothing new about that. But a public who knows it is happening and says nothing. It is the silence I find disturbing.
BTW, since I first posted this, I understand many in Congress also started asking these same questions that most Americans are not (but that the press is asking). If these 1000 are guilty of crimes, then why are they not at least arraigned of those crimes. I can't remember the exact law, but I though it was illegal to be held more than 48 hours without a court hearing. What happened to that law?
As for immigration violations - the Immigration procedure should be put on trial. I once reviewed forms required to renew a Visa. The nouns throughout a single page of instructions changed so often that those instructions were unreadable. Immigrants pay lawyers $hundreds just to fill out basic application forms because those forms are so confusing.
Imagine having to renew a Visa, but the application asked for your formal name, proper name, name on a proof of purchase, and your ordinary name - all meant to ask for the same name on the passport. And if your application has just one error, then it will be held separate until someone has time to let you know that it has a problem. Where is this processed? In some office way up in upper NY state near the VT border. In the meantime, you have now overstayed your Visa and are subject to arrest. If you don't have big bucks for a lawyer to fill out an application form, then you become a criminal.
I tried to get further information on the form from the web site, but they say to read the paper instructiions that come with the form. Ironic since most other forms are on the internet with additional information. Why is this form so complicated? These people don't vote - but the immigration lawyers do.