Feds Criminalize Aiding Protests Against ICE

Speaking on Fox News last week a top official from U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement mentioned the agency was expanding its dragnet for arrests I think we all know that criminals tend to hang out with criminals ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan revealed And so when we start to build a matter we re going to be going after everyone that s around them Because these criminals tend to hang out with like-minded people who also happen to be criminals The pledge to broaden arrests came as an immigration sweep that sowed fear across the Los Angeles area has been met by a growing protest movement to stop the raids and arrests This appears to be a targeted political attack on resistance to a military incursion on our communities In addition to arresting hundreds of immigrants across Southern California the ruling body is targeting a mounting number of people who are responding to the raids or helping protests Certain of those targeted have provided supplies to protesters or tried to identify ICE agents conducting raids in masks and plain clothes Related Documenting ICE Agents Brutal Use of Force in LA Immigration Raids The remarks from Sheahan the ICE official came three days after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop indiscriminate ICE raids in LA In the order Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong condemned the administration s use of a person s characteristics like their appearance accent or occupation as a basis for arrest Roving patrols operating without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers violated the Fourth and the Fifth Amendments the judge wrote What the federal regime would have this Court believe in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this situation is that none of this is really happening Now those accused of helping the anti-ICE movement are facing prosecution or analysis Earlier this month a federal grand jury indicted a man after he handed out face shields to people protesting ICE in Los Angeles two days after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard Alejandro Orellana pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to aid and abet civil disorders According to a grand jury indictment the face shields were advertised as designed to protect from chemical splashes and flying debris Alejandro Orellana s arrest for distributing supplies is an outrageous violation of civil rights and should be a wakeup call to people everywhere stated California attorney Thomas Harvey This appears to be a targeted political attack on resistance to a military incursion on our communities Harvey mentioned Distributing supplies to protesters is not a crime It s a critical role to help keep people safe especially in the face of various of the majority violent police repression I ve seen since the Ferguson uprising In Orellana s scenario an agent from the FBI made a claim similar to the one the ICE deputy would later make to Fox News that it was assigning criminality to people based on assumptions not on evidence The agent claimed in an affidavit that wearing such gear like the face shields designed to protect against law enforcement using pepper spray or tear gas is not common amongst non-violent peaceful protesters Instead he argued the face shield was the kind of item used by violent agitators to enable them to resist law enforcement and to engage in violence and or vandalism during a civil disorder Read our complete coverage Chilling Dissent Identifying Masked ICE Agents As part of expanding its definitions of criminal activity to include forms of protest responding to ICE the establishment ramped up its efforts to investigate people suspected of providing identifying information about ICE agents On July Homeland Assurance Secretary Kristi Noem circulated a announcement condemning anarchists and rioters in Portland who posted flyers with identifying information about ICE agents and disclosed the department would prosecute those who dox ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law Last month Sen Marsha Blackburn R-Tenn introduced a bill that would make identifying ICE officers a federal crime In another event in May ICE agents raided the home of a family in Irvine California on a criminal search warrant They were reviewing the source of flyers that had been posted around LA earlier this year with identifying information about ICE officers The ruling body suspected the family s son was responsible Rep Dave Min D-Calif issued a message after the May raid saying he was deeply concerned with news of the raid and had inquired federal law enforcement for more information Min s office did not respond to questions about whether they had yet received any such information Several of the efforts to further criminalize protest flyers or mutual aid have also been used against pro-Palestine attendee protesters Cop City activists in Georgia and people providing water to movers Police charged protesters opposing the construction of the so-called Cop City police training facility with felonies for posting flyers in The Intercept disclosed The activists had posted flyers in a neighborhood where a police officer lived naming him and alleging that he was connected to the killing earlier that year of Manuel Tortuguita Ter n Police shot Tortuguita times killing the activist during a multiagency raid on the Atlanta Forest protest encampment Related Atlanta Cop City Protesters Charged With Domestic Terror for Having Mud on Their Shoes In prosecutors brought charges under Georgia s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law against activists for their participation in organizing bail funds for Cop City protesters Prosecutors dropped charges against three of the activists last year and others are still awaiting trial In a slew of other high-profile cases elected leaders have been arrested for aiding asylum seekers being pursued for arrest by ICE agents Earlier this year the FBI arrested a judge accused of helping a man use an alternate exit from a courtroom when ICE agents were waiting outside the main door It should be terrifying to every person that the U S In Arizona in prosecutors famously slapped humanitarian supporters offering food shelter and water to asylum seekers in the desert with federal criminal charges Margin Patrol targeted their faith-based group as a criminal organization In activists with the same group faced criminal charges for transporting expatriates to receive therapeutic care the charges were later dismissed It should be terrifying to every person that the U S which has long held political prisoners is ramping up its oppressive tactics revealed Harvey the California attorney And now with the new funding ICE will have more money than any policing force in U S history to build a gulag system filled with localized versions of Alligator Alcatrazes to cage immigrants and political dissidents The post Feds Criminalize Aiding Protests Against ICE appeared first on The Intercept