First Legal Challenge to Bush-Obama Anti-Immigrant Program

Monday, July 09, 2012
A growing number of United States citizens have been wrongfully detained under a government program intended to detect undocumented immigrants who are arrested by local police–and now one of them is fighting back.
 
Chicago-area resident James Makowski, who was adopted from India as an infant and became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of 1, was arrested on July 7, 2010, and incarcerated at the maximum-security federal prison in Pontiac, Illinois, for two months before immigration officials acknowledged his citizenship and ordered him released. With the help of the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, Makowski, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, has filed sued against the government, alleging that the program violated the Privacy Act of 1974. He is seeking damages for wrongful imprisonment, lost wages, attorney fees and costs, and emotional pain and suffering.
 
At issue is the Secure Communities program, initiated by the George W. Bush administration in 2008 and expanded by President Barack Obama, which checks the fingerprints of every person booked at local jails against FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases for immigration problems. If a match results, federal agents can issue a detainer asking local authorities to hold a suspect up to 48 hours. Since 2008, the FBI has disclosed more than 16.2 million fingerprint records to DHS, which has identified more than 918,000 possible problem cases.
 
Makowski, who was incarcerated under a drug conviction when the fingerprint check erroneously identified him as undocumented, notes that the data also means that the FBI has shared more than 15 million fingerprint records of American citizens or legal permanent residents. Attorney Mark Fleming, who is representing Makowski, argues that “The FBI and DHS are consistently and systematically violating the Privacy Act,” which restricts how and when government agencies may share information about citizens.
 
Although supporters of Secure Communities have touted it as a neutral means of identifying and removing potentially dangerous undocumented immigrants that avoids the potential for racial profiling inherent in visually-based determinations, citizens wrongfully detained have tended to be brown. Makowski was born in Calcutta, India.
 
In a case reported by AllGov last year, Los Angeles resident Antonio Montejano, a U.S.-born citizen, was wrongly held for days because of bad information obtained via Secure Communities. Immigration officials refused to believe that he was a citizen, because, Montejano said, “I look Mexican 100 percent.”
-Matt Bewig
 
To Learn More:
Makowski v. Holder, et al. (Complaint) (pdf)
Increasing Cases of U.S. Citizens Detained as Illegal Immigrants (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
U.S.-Born Citizen Mistakenly Deported (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Comments

Dave Francis 12 years ago
two tea party laws that would provide jobs for americans e-verify ‘the legal workforce act’ (h.r. 2885) although just voluntary at this time, is an electronic program operated by the social security administration and customs and immigration enforcement. —the last entity i would listen too is the liberal press, who have transferred their loyalty to hard core radical people like socialist george soros? the mainstream media editorial reeks of deceit and rhetoric, when it comes to illegal immigration. the progressives in the news media are especially dangerous. the liberals will lie and cheat, no matter the consequences to america. so it is with e-verify, which they have demonized because, it actually flags illegal immigrants in the workplace and opens up jobs for u.s. citizens and residents. the liberals have been very predominant in using the influence of the press, to erect a barrier against mandatory e-verify, except they didn’t reckon on the growing masses of the tea party. unlike the two main political parties the tea party will enforce all laws and statutes pertaining to illegal immigration, whereas the dem’s and gop tend to intentionally overlook such state ordinances as sanctuary cities and states like california? i think democrats or republicans are under the impression that the tea party will have no real influence in the outcome of the presidential election? both parties will be proved wrong? remember the tea party will enforce ‘the people’s’ laws. there will be no pleadings for any criminal illegal alien, no obama backdoor amnesties, no dream acts, no sanctuary cities, no chain migration. e-verification would also be fully enforced with stringent punishment, for those who don’t comply? potential president mitt romney better stay aware of the ‘tea party’ empowerment, as if he thinks of playing along in the illegal immigration issue, he will be recognised as a flip-flopper. even the house speaker john boehner has refused to bring up compulsory e-verify for a house vote. obviously he and his entrenched colleagues will not allow it anywhere near the congress, as he and his fellow conspirators are subject to the corporate donations, to keep the old school corrupting our system of government. e-verify is just one bill that must be passed to save the jobs of millions of low income americans mainly. the independents, and uncountable numbers of delusional democrats, republicans are recognizing that the lib-democrats are out to win the grand price in november, but now millions of tea party people will not fall into their political trap. this is the same with photo id to vote, who have ruthless personages as u.s. attorney general eric holder and the kings court caterwauling ‘voter suppression’, when all the tea party requests is a fair and equitable election. surf the internet under ‘voter fraud’ and you will discover the hundreds of cases of this diabolical use of our most trusted right of american citizens, being compromised by non citizens, felons and illegal aliens. this began with inception of canvassing provided by acorn organization, which signed up just about anybody and were eventually caught and 11 states are resolving this criminal issue. another law that remains quietly concealed from the public is the rep. steve kings the birthright citizenship act (h.r.140). an astronomical amount of money is being extracted from every taxpaying american that supports the annual arrival of an estimated 400.000 smuggled babies into the united states. they are concealed in their mother’s womb and once here becomes the taxpayers charge. these females although illegal that once they set foot on american soil, their offspring receive a free delivery, free heath care and a free education, thanks to unfunded mandates handed down by the courts. the only salvation from this misjudged law is to amend the 14th amendment, which an only child with one citizen parent qualifies for instant citizenship. illegal alien parents are well aware that if they smuggle the unborn child through an international airport terminal or past the u.s. border patrol, they are free and clear as the misguided law stands today. in addition the secure communities (287g) should stay in place, not rescinded by the liberal amassing of voices in the department of justice. with only four months to go before d-day us the voter only has that one slender chance of changing the direction of our country. with the democrats cocooned with the liberals, the only promise is uncontrolled ‘tax and spend’ so elevating the 16 trillion dollar deficit we owe the rest of the worlds investors. then under the republicans, a lesser of the evils, but even so they must be controlled by the tea party leadership. anybody who contradicts the writings in the u.s. constitution, who is adverse to a real border fence, who is unconcerned about the 20 million plus illegal aliens already here or the harbinger of a further invasion from central and south america needs to be relieved of their seats in washington, not excluding the majority of legislators in congress, state governors as deval patrick of massachusetts, jerry brown of california, and mayors as rahm emanuel of chicago, antonio villaraigosa of los angeles—all must be replaced by tea party members. all the pro-illegal immigrant law makers are destroying this sovereign country, as they are well aware that illegal aliens vote. that is why americans, hispanic, latin, black, white asian and others should join one of the thousands of local chapters of the tea party. they should be ready to oversee the elections, including the rampant fraud in the absentee ballot. around the country the election rolls are crowded with the names of the deceased, others who have moved to a different state. there are many ways our most sacred of rights have been compromised and only the citizen voter can change it. remember under obama imperial court we will be paying not only for any person who illegally ventures here, but for millions of americans who have found it easy, to just live of the taxpayer. beneath our feet is abundance of wealth in oil, natural gas and coal for energy that president obama denies us. those trillions of dollars in excess gallons of crude oil could clearly go to replenish state treasuries and the remainder could be sold to our friends in other countries. under obama and decades of environmental zealots, we have not been cut off from our own resources, relying on governments abroad that hate us. even the abundance of oil from canada is better than dealing with foreign potentates. attention: investigation of president obama’s background history is due to be released by maricopa county sheriff joe arpaio on july 17, 2012 and could stun everybody. the upcoming press conference is set to be held at 2:30 p.m. local time at the maricopa county sheriff’s office in phoenix, arizona, with world net daily again providing live streaming video coverage.

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