By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Saying they can no longer guarantee a temporary shelter for migrants in Arizona, a humanitarian group closed a medical aid camp for people who cross the border.

The decision comes after Border Patrol agents raided the camp and made arrests, NPR reports. 

“Our clinic space being compromised will directly lead to more suffering and more death in this desert,” said aid worker Geena Jackson.

The camp is about 15 miles of the Mexico border and includes water stations, medics and makeshift shelters. A handmade sign now warns migrants that the camp is closed.

Under previous presidents, migrant camps were rarely raided. But President Trump’s administration has done away with past practices in an aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration.

Border Patrol agent makes an arrest. Photo via Border Patrol.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Border Patrol agents have come under increasing attack this year, even though illegal immigration is down.

Reported assaults on agents rose to more than 550 from January to June 1 of this year, from 300 during the same period last year, Carla Provost, the acting chief of the Border Patrol, told Congress on Wednesday, the Washington Times reports. 

Provost declined to speculate on why assaults are surging, but the timing coincides with fierce immigration debates in the U.S.

The attacks underscore the dangers facing Border Patrol agents, she said.

Former AG Eric Holder

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Outraged by the actions of Donald Trump, former Attorney General Eric Holder is leading the legal fight against the president and is even considering running for president in 2020.

“Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes,” Holder told Yahoo News in an exclusive interview about his plans. “But that’s about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general. There’s a justified perception that I’m close to President Obama. So I want to use whatever skills I have, whatever notoriety I have, to be effective in opposing things that are, at the end of the day, just bad for the country. 

“Now is the time to be more visible,” Holder added. “Now is the time to be heard.”

Holder traveled to California to speak in favor of legislation SB 54, also known as the California Values Act, which is designed to intervene in the Trump administration’s effort to force cash-strapped local police departments to help federal authorities deport undocumented immigrants.

Holder, who was one of President Obama’s closest friends and appointees, has been serving as outside counsel to the California legislature.

Holder said he attended Monday’s press conference “to dramatize there issue, to raise the consciousness of people, to help the legislation along.”

ICE agents, via ICE.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

ICE arrested 114 Iraqi immigrants with criminal records in metro Detroit over the weekend, stoking concerns that the detainees will face hostility and even death by returning to their former country.

The mass detainment that targeted the U.S.’ largest population of Chaldeans, who are Iraqi Christians, contradicts President Trump’s previous pledge to protect Christians from hostility in the Middle East.

In March 2016, former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned that ISIS was committing “genocide” against Christians in Iraq.

But ICE defended the arrests of Iraqi immigrants, claiming they have criminal pasts and pose security threats.

“The operation in this region was specifically conducted to address the very real public safety threat represented by the criminal aliens arrested,” Rebecca Adducci, field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Detroit, said in a statement. “The vast majority of those arrested in the Detroit metropolitan area have very serious felony convictions, multiple felony convictions in many cases. I applaud the efforts of the law enforcement personnel who, day in and day out, put their lives on the line to protect this community.”

ICE also arrested 85 other Iraqi nationals outside of Michigan, according to the immigration enforcement agency.

In all, 1,444 Iraqi nationals have received final orders for removal.

The “overwhelming majority” of the 1999 Iraqi immigrants recently detained nationwide “had criminal convictions for crimes including homicide, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, drug trafficking, robbery, sex assault, weapons violations and other offenses,” ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls told the Detroit Free Press. 

Attorneys are scrambling to fight for the immigrants to prevent their removal.

ICE insisted the detainees “pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security.”

“These arrests are consistent with the routine, targeted enforcement action carried out by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations on a daily basis. All enforcement activities are conducted with the same level of professionalism and respect that ICE officers exhibit every day.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

ICE agents arrested dozens of Chaldeans in metro Detroit on Sunday, leading to a standoff with protesters.

Witnesses and immigration advocates said roughly 40 Chaldeans Christians, most of whom have a criminal record, were detained.

If they are sent back to Iraq, it “is like a death sentence,” Martin Manna, an Iraqi-American Christian advocate who is president of the Chaldean Community Foundation based in Sterling Heights, told the Detroit Free Press.  

On Sunday night, dozens of protesters briefly blocked the bus where the detainees were placed.

At the ICE Headquarters in Detroit following massive raids this morning. pic.twitter.com/fHIa7Uh5tt

— Solidarity & Defense (@SolidarityDef) June 12, 2017

Metro Detroit is home to the second largest Chaldean population in the U.S.

ICE declined to comment on specifics of the arrests.

“ICE regularly conducts targeted enforcement operations during which additional resources and personnel are dedicated to apprehending removable aliens,” spokesman Khaalid Walls said in a statement Sunday evening.

“The focus of these targeted enforcement operations is consistent with the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams on a daily basis.”

Courtesy of ICE

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A 46-year-old immigrant died while in federal custody in North Hollywood, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.

City News Service reports that the man died last week after collapsing while playing soccer at the Adelanto Detention Facility. 

Vicente Caceres-Maradiaga, a Honduran national, was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead after 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Caceres-Maradiaga was arrested on May 22.

“His removal case was pending before the immigration courts at the time of his death,” according to an ICE statement. “Records indicate that Mr. Caceres, who was never lawfully admitted to the U.S., has had two prior criminal convictions since 2011, one for DUI and one for fraud.”

Authorities said the preliminary cause of death was acute coronary syndrome.

Caceres-Maradiaga became the ninth ICE detainee to die in the agency’s custody during the 2016-17 fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1.

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• Honor Guard Presents Ceremonial Funeral for Fallen Border Patrol Agent

By Editorial Board
Sacramento Bee

If there’s one constant in the chaotic administration of Donald Trump, it’s that there’s always a reason to doubt what the president and his surrogates say about immigration policy.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement proved that just last week, when it released data showing that arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal records were up a whopping 156 percent from last year. That’s 10,845 people whose immigration violations were the only marks on their record.

And that’s what happened after ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan promised, even during a visit to Sacramento, that his agency would focus on immigrants with criminal records.

It’s no wonder then that Sacramento, San Francisco and so many other cities in California have declared themselves so-called sanctuary cities, refusing to cooperate with federal authorities as the feds expedite deportations of people who haven’t committed serious crimes.

California isn’t a sanctuary state yet. But with its hateful rhetoric, confusing policies, secretive raids and deliberate deceptions, the Trump administration is giving the Legislature every reason to take that step.

The trickery from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week certainly didn’t help. On Monday, he issued a policy memo to clarify parts of an executive order that would punish sanctuary cities by denying them millions of dollars in federal funding.

Now, only jurisdictions that “willfully refuse to comply” with immigration authorities will be considered sanctuary cities. The penalty would be that the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security would deny them grants. Still, it’s questionable whether any of that will come to pass for Sacramento or any other sanctuary city.

To read more click here. 

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Border Patrol agents have seen enough bodies of immigrants who died while attempting to cross the border illegally.

In the Tucson Sector alone, 84 bodies were found last year.

Every year, the Tucson Sector hosts “Border Patrol Initiative” to teach agents, nonprofits and the media about the dangers of the rough terrain and heat, KGUN9-TV reports. 

The session over the weekend included a 3-mile hike through the desert.

“I want you guys to experience the heat, the dryness, the thirst that’s going to take over,” Acting Special Operations Supervisor Steven Passement said at the beginning of the session. “You’re kind of putting yourself in the feet, or the shoes — if you will — of a migrant.”

Deaths appear to be increasing, Passement said, because criminal smuggling groups don’t show compassion for migrants who struggle with the terrain or weather.

“Unfortunately, you’re looking at a criminal organization that has no loyalty,” he said. “They don’t have the migrants interests at heart. They look at them as cattle. If one falls behind, they’ll leave them.”