Comments

2
Better pay?
3
Better grammar?
4
They want to fly biz class back to Guadalajara?
5
Think of of the plus side, when minimum wage goes to $15/hr, who's gonna hire an illegal when you can get a sexy MFA student to cut your grass and clean your gutters at that price.
6
Enter the country illegally. Break the law. Get arrested. Go to jail. Get released. Get sent to immigration jail. Demand a softer pillow.
8
So the majority of detainees are protesting and the leaders behind the protest are getting their basic privileges (blankets, pillows, and clothes) taken away? Explain how this is a violation of their rights?

10
Do they have a choice in whether or not they work for 1$ a day?
11
@10

Yep. Just as they had a choice to enter the country illegally and then break a law and get arrested.

One thing my parents told me when traveling abroad was NEVER BREAK THE LAW.
12
@11 yes my parents parents parents parents parents parents parents etc. said that too then broke the law coming to America and killing natives and removing them to Oklahoma. another set of m parent's relatives then took over part of mexico and annexed it to America, breaking the law. another part of my parent's relatives then got put into America illegally when the usa government took the Louisiana territory -- and didn't ask a single person living in it, white black or native, if they wanted to become part of America. this broke American law, too. thereafter many of my parent's relatives broke natural law keeping blacks down and handing out benefits only to white -- like free land in the Midwest that only my parent's relatives who were WHITE could get. after that they formed companies many of which were guilty of fraud and tax exasion like oh, wall street etc. but we never call those folks ILLEGALS and we forget they BREAK THE LAW. and in fact last year I was speeding a few times BREAKING THE LAW and I smoked pot BREAKING THE LAW yet somehow I am not called illegal.

that terms is only applied to people of color. and btw often detainees aren't guilty of anything they haven't had their hearing yet. you'd know that if you knew what the law actually was. but in fact you don't. have some compassion for people trying to work and better their lives why don't you -- and stop being so mean.I recall being in france once and OMG!!!! I broke the law by smoking hash! my pal broke the law bringing it in from morocco! Obama BROKE THE LAW taking drugs, so did GEORGE BUSH BROKE THE LAW taking coke and driving drunk, but somehow you don't call them ILLEGALS.
13
@7, yeah, just give up your rights and everything will be hunky dory.

The US routinely "deports" US citizens to countries they've never been in because of screwed-up or missing paperwork. Sometimes those people are mentally ill or don't speak English or have documents. If I stole your wallet and left you in the gutter, could you prove you were a US citizen? Not a problem -- you're white.
14
Google "Mark Lyttle".

And even people being lawfully deported deserve to be treated better than animals. Horses shipped to Mexico for slaughter are treated better than humans in ICE facilities.
16
I don't want to engage the trolls. I hope Slog's reasonable majority are reading too. This issue is my job and very close to my heart.

This is an important story, and an issue where the factual details get completely obscured by willful ignorance fueled by blind hate. Entering unlawfully and most other immigration violations are just that under the law--violations. This means the police can't arrest you (just as they can't for speeding), the DA can't prosecute you (ditto), and that you are not, technically, a criminal. Difficult for a hater to understand -- immigrants are not criminals just by being immigrants.

This is why there is a unique court and enforcement system for dealing with these infractions. Sadly, under this system (and because they are not 'criminals'), immigrants facing deportation, who all have the right to fight the case in immigration court, are not entitled to an appointed lawyer the way, say, any violent criminal is entitled to a public defender.

Everyone at the NW Detention center is detained for immigration reasons only. There are no sentences in immigration, so the decision to keep a detainee or release the on their own recognizance while they stay under vigilance of ICE and the courts is completely discretionary. A number of those detainees may have permission to work in the U.S. legally. Many more may have green cards. Hundreds have meaningful ties in the U.S. that could qualify them to benefit from Prosecutorial Discretion, which ICE rarely exercises though it is in its power. Hundreds more qualify for some type of immigration relief--status--which would close their deportation proceedings but because they can't access or afford a lawyer they may never know.

The same conditions apply for unaccompanied children detained by immigration. They are in shelters run by a different government department but they similarly face deportation with no right to an appointed counsel. There is no lower age limit to who can be put in deportation proceedings. Babies can be and are deported. There are about 10 facilities for detained unaccompanied children in Washington and Oregon alone.

Immigration is not a criminal issue. It is a humanitarian one.

17
@11,

Most undocumented immigrants came to the U.S. on a visa and overstayed their welcome. They didn't "enter the country illegally", dumbass.
18
@12 my parents moved here in the 50s. Lots of Russians being held in Tacoma.

I actually don't have a problem with illegals. For the most part they work hard and contribute to this country. You don't see American bums sitting outside Home Depot on a rainy day looking for work. But if you break the law and go to jail? Tough shit. You're out of here. No country has this open borders bullshit, why should we?
20
Immigration activists would make you think these jails are filled with 'innocent' immigrants held purely for their immigration status. Oh the sob story. No mention that the vaste majority committed serious felonies and were jailed under the regular court system before being placed in immigration detention for deportation. The fact that they chose to fight their deportation is why they are held there.

Now, I'll give some leeway to folks who came to the US legally and stayed legally (green cards, refugees) if arrested for non-violent crimes, but if you entered the country illegally, or illegally overstayed a visa and then commit a crime?

Bye bye.
21
Facts, facts, facts....

2013:

ICE conducted a total of 368,644 removals.

ICE conducted 133,551 removals of individuals apprehended in the interior of the U.S.

82 percent of all interior removals had been previously convicted of a crime.

ICE conducted 235,093 removals of individuals apprehended along our borders while attempting to unlawfully enter the U.S.

59 percent of all ICE removals, a total of 216,810, had been previously convicted of a crime.

Of the 151,834 removals of individuals without a criminal conviction, 84 percent, or 128,398, were apprehended at the border while attempting to unlawfully enter the U.S. and 95 percent fell within one of ICE's stated immigration enforcement priorities.

No country in the world lets folks who have committed crimes, living illegally in the nation, to stay. Why should we?
22

Overimmigration to an already overpopulated and expensive place, like Seattle, does not do anyone any good.

These countries need to solve their own problems first. By extraordinary means if needed. And control their birthrate.

Letting the US be an overflow valve without correcting the flood at source doesn't help anyone.
23
@19 No. Immigrants are often relatives of U.S. citizens in any case, so the distinction is moot. And I see no way in which the one precludes the other. I know that you do, and I will preemptively refute the common argument that immigrants don't pay taxes. Those who work here receive paychecks with the same withholding as the rest of us, or else they're independent contractors held accountable for self-employment taxes. I speak from working knowledge, which can always be refined. The willful ignorance of us vs. them really can't.
24
@22 JBITDMFOTP
26
right, so it's okay when white Europeans illegally enter native American lands, when they illegally take part of mexico, and when they illegally get part of spain to revert to france to be sold to the usa without asking a single person living there, and it's okay if the usa illegally forces cuba and Nicaragua and Puerto rico and DR and Guatemala and iran and other nations to have change in govt., and it's okay if our wall street companies comit crimes. see? that's "us" doing it, and we're WHITE. but when it's "them" they're illegals. but we're not illegals cause.....oh well just ignore the question since it has no answer. it's so stupid all the murkans blasting away at immigrants and most of them had folks who came HERE illegally. or forced others here. or took part of HERE from somewhere else, illegally. white makes right is the principle here.
27
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to make ignorant comments on blogs. (Channeling George Santayana)
28

@24

New Snowden Doc Reveals How GCHQ/NSA Use The Internet To 'Manipulate, Deceive And Destroy Reputations'

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2014022…

29
@16, wait what, why are people with green cards being locked up. Can't they just show their green card and get released?
30
This is NOT the first collectibe action. Maybe the first in recent memory. In August of 2009 GEO used dogs, pepper spray, and rubber bullets, along with other impact objects to subdue at least 100 people, on a hunger strike, within the facility.
31
You want illegal immigrants and high wages?

Sorry, you only get one pick.
32
what's it called when some rogue state is kicking 400k members of an ethnic minority each year?

this is wild
33
Solidarity from the bottom of our hearts... Smash the fucking borders!
34
@33 Oh cute, 18 year old freshman from Evergreen! Smash the borders! No police!, Property is theft! Pay my rent dad!

I say, toss a few hot tamales in their cells. They'll be eating in no time.
35
@22 - Yeah, other country's problems have nothing whatsoever to do with anything that the US government or US corporations have done. It's just some thing happening over there (and should stop!). Talk about an ignorant view of how the world works.

Ever heard of NAFTA? The IMF? Why do you think that immigrants are coming from other countries in the first place? Do you honestly believe that conditions elsewhere are completely disconnected from the interests of first world multinational corporations?

Please wait...

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