I… I mean… So ICE can scoop up anyone, hold them for years, finally release them, and then… nothing happens?
What if they grab me, someone with all the necessary proof of citizenship, and keep me locked up until they finally get tired of looking at me? Is it just… over? Would a judge say I had no right to sue?
That is exactly what happened here. I’m not sure whats worse, ICE being a bunch of criminals or the judge who protected them from prosecution.
Improper entry into the United States is a crime, but even that usually isn’t treated as one since, again, more constitutional protections kick in (you get a lawyer, a speedy trial, can’t be detained indefinitely) and the burden of proof becomes beyond all reasonable doubt. Even if convicted, you’d most likely just have to pay a fine for a first offense.
But being an illegal immigrant in and of itself is not a crime and many immigrants didn’t break any laws to end up that way. In civil law, you can still be punished even if you didn’t do anything criminal.
“the statute of limitations actually expired while he was still in ICE custody without a lawyer”
For fuck’s sake. That’s really all I can say to this.
… Roughly whenabouts is this “old USA” of yours from?
or the current White House Alumni album.
When I accompanied a friend to her naturalization appointment at the old INS, they had posters up all over the building explaining at length that as a foreigner you have no rights whatsoever. In particular they wanted to be very clear that only citizens are people under the law.
I stood there going “What… The… Fuck…” pretty much the entire time.
The United States Government does not agree with your understanding of logic or the English language.
p.s. my friend got her citizenship, from the “Immigration and Naturalziation Service” according to the official document. SIC.
The police have arrested people for filming them. People are in debtors prisons. States insist that driving is a privilege and not a right. People have lost their life savings because some cop decided it was too much money to have. Miscarriage of justice is common enough to be sure.
INS may not have but agreed with the laws of our nation that doesn’t mean they were right. Since the beginning of this country, the courts have repeatedly made terrible decisions which have become precedent. Further problems have been introduced by beurocracy attempting to make their jobs easier by interpreting the law in a way that best suits their desires.
It’s only when we challenge these missteps in the courts that they are corrected.
I don’t understand how the crime of illegally detaining someone doesn’t stop only at the point when they are no longer being illegally detained? It’s like beating someone round the head for half an hour and getting away with it because you weren’t stopped from doing it in the first five minutes.
This has to be a horseshit appeal result that can’t stand.
Please. Wow.
How does the statue of limitations expire while the crime is ongoing? that makes zero fucking sense.
Look. I get it. It’s easy to lump all white people, especially all white males, into the same group as racist hindbound assholes that want to be served hand and foot by colored people, torturing people of non-hetero orientations, and that we like our women barefoot and pregnant… Can everyone stop with the ‘americans are stupid and unaware at the jail their country has become while the rest of the world turns its nose up at how stupid we are’? Can that stop? Like… just…
Shuffle it around so its some other ethnicity or country especially one like Venezuela that has an actual ‘teargas and jackbooted thugs in the streets’ situation going on and your words would come off far FAR less joking.
This meme of ‘Stupid americans peopled by hateful white male oppressors’ needs to die., or shall i start lumping every other nation in with their greatest stereotypes?
October 7, 1979, from 10:04 to 10:07 am, somewhere in Berkeley, California. I was in the bathroom at the time.
IIRC, when the Patriot Act was put in place to “protect” us by taking away our rights, shit like this started happening.
In 2003, INS became ICE. Things changed.
In that case, they should not be able to hold you for more than a few days. In the non-immigration related world where we still have a few constitutional protections, the government is supposed to charge you with a crime or release you. Those protections that apply only if you a charged with a crime are because they aren’t supposed to happen at all otherwise.
I know that you were being sarcastic, but:
Habeas Corpus!!!
If you’re trying to say the US has always been bad regarding race/human rights you’re correct but there were periods of time pre Reagan that cops didn’t have nearly the power they do now. Cops have always had a shit record on race relations but there were periods of time in the late 60’s that cops felt a little more constrained than they do now. I didn’t like what cops did then but now with the militarized mindset of cops and the rightwing mood of the country cops are much more “in your face” with violating rights.
