Thursday, February 26, 2009
Napolitano Orders Review of Washington ICE Raid
Yesterday, we reported on the raid that took place at a worksite in Washington State. Apparently, the ICE raid on Tuesday was news to DHS Secretary Napolitano.
Manuel Valdes reports for the Associated Press:
Immigration agents this week conducted their first work-site raid since President Barack Obama took office, but it was news to their boss, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who on Wednesday ordered a review of the action.
Workplace raids involving the arrests of hundreds of illegal immigrants at a time became almost routine in the last years of the Bush administration, but Napolitano's response to Tuesday's raid at a Bellingham, Wash., manufacturing plant highlighted the Obama administration's much different approach to a hot-button issue.
Napolitano told lawmakers during a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that she did not know about the raid before it happened and was briefed on it early Wednesday morning. She has asked U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which arrested 28 illegal immigrants in the raid, for answers.
"I want to get to the bottom of this as well," she said. She said work-site enforcement needs to be focused on the employers.
The raid at the Yamato Engine Specialists was the first work-site action ICE has taken since Obama took office, said Sean Smith, a spokesman at Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. Click here for the rest of the story.
bh
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2009/02/napolitano-orde.html