ICE Raids on WinCO Grocery Stores, Magic Valley Idaho (green card, drivers, English)

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

You're just an identity theft waiting to happen. You carry around social security cards? I certainly hope that they are stapled to your body. I keep my SS card, my birth certificate, and my license (since I am out of state and don't drive a car) in a lockbox and only take them out when I know I'll need them. I know too many common sense challenged people who have had their numbers stolen due to lost or stolen wallets- even in small towns.

As I said in another thread, I've been in an ICE raid with a boyfriend who was Hispanic. He was not carrying his ID as he was just across the street from his apartment accompanying me while I bought something. I am a non-Hispanic American who was on the ground and almost cuffed before they let me show my student ID (which normally isn't a valid ID but I guess since I didn't speak with an accent it was ok ). I look very much like the American stereotypical view of a Latina and speak Spanish near fluently and speak it often in public... after that day, it's been a constant fear that something like that will happen again. And it's incredibly frightening.

ICE raids are some of the most ridiculous things ever. They are very traumatic- especially to children. Working in an immigrant advocacy group, we dealt with several LEGAL IMMIGRANTS who had their doors knocked in at 4AM with ICE officers storming in and grabbing them and their children out of bed. Then- whoops, sorry, didn't realize you were legal. You'd think they'd get their research straight- especially when dealing with people who were already TRAUMATIZED by similar events in Central America during the Civil Wars there (or people who lived through the "Dirty Wars" in Argentina).

There has got to be a better way than raids that cast a wide net and let the trauma rain where it falls. If you were in an ICE raid being 100% legal or, in mine and my boyfriend's case, not really immigrants at all, you wouldn't be too supportive of them either.

Seems like a pretty traumatic process for folks who are innocent. Perhaps they could reevalutate some of their techniques and procedures, and see if they can minimimize the impact on those folks.

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

What a burden, imagine having to carry identification! Everyone, please leave your purses and wallets at home, chuck those cards!

Legal permanent residents in the United States are required by law to carry their green card on them at all times and produce it on demand to any law enforcement official. I still have my ex's green card and all accompanying documentation from the USCIS...I read it all.

Those illegals can go pound sand, and I'm tearing up that race card they dealt and throwing it back in their faces.

[Miborn]

I am glad that Greyhound called about the multiple ticket buying! No matter where they were picked up!

[Bummer]

Originally Posted by nativeDallasite

Legal permanent residents in the United States are required by law to carry their green card on them at all times and produce it on demand to any law enforcement official. I still have my ex's green card and all accompanying documentation from the USCIS...I read it all.

Those illegals can go pound sand, and I'm tearing up that race card they dealt and throwing it back in their faces.

Great point, nativeDallasite

Anyone in this country LEGALLY with nothing to hide should have absolutely no issues with verification of any type in any situation! It is simple and painless!

Now if anyone is in this country ILLEGALLY or they are hiding something . . .

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by Bummer

Great point, nativeDallasite

Anyone in this country LEGALLY with nothing to hide should have absolutely no issues with verification of any type in any situation! It is simple and painless!

Now if anyone is in this country ILLEGALLY or they are hiding something . . .

I have no problem with carrying ID on me, what I have a problem with is having a 4am Home Raid or being Raided in a Grocery store and being singled out because of a race, humiliated because of my appearance.

I am just waiting for ICE to accidentally grab an Armenian or Native Indian because they look hispanic...

Disclaimer: I am not calling you racists.

I will say that it must be nice to be a legal citizen and not have to worry about getting raided because of your skin tone. To those this does not impact it is simply collateral damage as being Hispanic and part of the problem.

I think you need a little more probable cause than just skin tone. Raids on employers or a day labor location even, is a better solution than a grocery store or someone's home.

[crittersitter]

I think the pro-illegals try to make it sound worse than it is. If they get enough sympathy they can hope that the raids stop altogether and the illegal invasion can continue without resistance. We have more human rights advocates than you can shake a fist at in this country. I'm sure they will be on the bandwagon if any raids are over the top. In fact, they'll be on the bandwagon regardless.

[Lakewooder]

I have a friend who sent her kids to a school where there were a lot of hispanic gangs before she got wise and moved them to my alma mater, which is also majority hispanic. She claimed the gang members kept pressuring her daughters to join a gang and couldn't tell that they were part Vietnamese and part Anglo. They thought they were hispanic!

Seems improbable to me, but she also seemed very convincing..so were her girls racially profiled by the hispanic gang members?

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

I have a friend who sent her kids to a school where there were a lot of hispanic gangs before she got wise and moved them to my alma mater, which is also majority hispanic. She claimed the gang members kept pressuring her daughters to join a gang and couldn't tell that they were part Vietnamese and part Anglo. They thought they were hispanic!

Seems improbable to me, but she also seemed very convincing..so were her girls racially profiled by the hispanic gang members?

I believe her; I have cousins who are half-Korean and they can pass for Hispanic.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by crittersitter

I think the pro-illegals try to make it sound worse than it is. If they get enough sympathy they can hope that the raids stop altogether and the illegal invasion can continue without resistance. We have more human rights advocates than you can shake a fist at in this country. I'm sure they will be on the bandwagon if any raids are over the top. In fact, they'll be on the bandwagon regardless.

Have you been in a raid to know how it feels? I'm certainly not exaggerating. I'm 19 years old and I still get nightmares of men with guns rushing into a teeny tiny corner grocery store ordering people onto the ground. Not something you expect when you're just running across the street for some soda.

Being that I have many Hispanic friends (all legal.. most 3rd or 4th generation Americans at least) who live in a mostly Hispanic part of town, most of them have also been in a raid at least once. Imagine being back from your 2nd tour as a Marine in Iraq and going to the grocery store like any normal citizen and really hero should be able to do only to have men with guns run in and surround you? Doesn't matter if they're there for you or not, it's terrifying. My Marine friend has PTSD like so many veterans do and ended up laying on the floor bawling his eyes out (which certainly looks like a guilty thing to an ICE officer) because it gave him a flashback.

I'm not saying that raids do not get illegals. They do. But should all people who LOOK Hispanic have to worry every time they go into a Hispanic part of town? I'm an Eastern European Jew and look Latina enough to have people ALWAYS speak to me in Spanish before English. Legal immigrants and Hispanics who aren't even immigrants at all shouldn't have to fear something like that happening. And that's all it is- fear. Raids don't pick up all that many people, but the fear of raids is 100 times more powerful.

And again, with the ID, many college students do not carry around ID. Would you like to be 1000 miles away from home and have your only legal form of ID stolen? I think not. None of my friends carry any ID besides our school ID because getting a license stolen shortly before making the trip home (which is almost exclusively by plane) can be an absolute horror. Even at home, it's not as if I take my ID everywhere if I'm not driving. I don't always take my wallet. It IS NOT ILLEGAL not to carry your ID and as such, I'd rather keep it at home where I know it is safe so when I need to travel, I'm not SOL.

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

Have you been in a raid to know how it feels? I'm certainly not exaggerating. I'm 19 years old and I still get nightmares of men with guns rushing into a teeny tiny corner grocery store ordering people onto the ground. Not something you expect when you're just running across the street for some soda.

Being that I have many Hispanic friends (all legal.. most 3rd or 4th generation Americans at least) who live in a mostly Hispanic part of town, most of them have also been in a raid at least once. Imagine being back from your 2nd tour as a Marine in Iraq and going to the grocery store like any normal citizen and really hero should be able to do only to have men with guns run in and surround you? Doesn't matter if they're there for you or not, it's terrifying. My Marine friend has PTSD like so many veterans do and ended up laying on the floor bawling his eyes out (which certainly looks like a guilty thing to an ICE officer) because it gave him a flashback.

I'm not saying that raids do not get illegals. They do. But should all people who LOOK Hispanic have to worry every time they go into a Hispanic part of town? I'm an Eastern European Jew and look Latina enough to have people ALWAYS speak to me in Spanish before English. Legal immigrants and Hispanics who aren't even immigrants at all shouldn't have to fear something like that happening. And that's all it is- fear. Raids don't pick up all that many people, but the fear of raids is 100 times more powerful.

And again, with the ID, many college students do not carry around ID. Would you like to be 1000 miles away from home and have your only legal form of ID stolen? I think not. None of my friends carry any ID besides our school ID because getting a license stolen shortly before making the trip home (which is almost exclusively by plane) can be an absolute horror. Even at home, it's not as if I take my ID everywhere if I'm not driving. I don't always take my wallet. It IS NOT ILLEGAL not to carry your ID and as such, I'd rather keep it at home where I know it is safe so when I need to travel, I'm not SOL.

I'm not accusing you of exaggerating, but I know plenty of Hispanics so I checked with them and asked them how many times they'd been hassled by immigration officials or had been involved in, witnessed, or knew anyone who had been in/witnessed a raid. Answers: zero, never, no.

I also fail to see how most people could possibly confuse an ashkenazi Jew with a Latina. I just don't see it. I grew up in a heavily Jewish part of Dallas and I can sure as hell tell the difference.