Some time ago, a high court in another state ruled that local law enforcement agencies could not hold an immigrant in detainment based solely on a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. One man’s immigration detention made the news in Louisiana and throughout the nation at the time, which is what ultimately led to that ruling. The same man wound up being detained by ICE for several months as officials tried to secure his removal.
Their plan apparently did not pan out due a complication involving the man’s parents, both Cambodian refugees. Neither of their countries of origin would accept the man as a citizen. ICE was forced to release him back into society in the United States.
Before that incident occurred, the man had been jailed on suspicion of larceny; however, those charges were eventually dismissed, which is when ICE made its original request to jailers to keep holding the man behind bars. As it stands, after his recent release from ICE detainment, he and another person were arrested and charged with forceful but unarmed robbery. The two are said to have taken $2,000 from a 65-year-old wheelchair-bound woman.
The situation has tipped off contentious debates regarding U.S. immigration law and detention regulations in Louisiana and across the nation. Those who support targeting and other radical removal ideals say the man should have been kept in detainment since he had already been charged with a crime in the United States. Immigrant advocates say he, like all other immigrants, has rights, and it is unjust to hold a person in immigration detention based on his or her ethnicity, even after criminal charges have been dismissed. This man, like any other immigrant charged with a crime, will now have full due process of law, which includes an opportunity to secure defense assistance before facing charges in court.
Source: wbur.org, “Immigrant At Center Of Landmark SJC Ruling Is Arrested“, Shannon Dooling, Oct. 16, 2017
