Report: ICE using unlisted detention centers for immigrant prisoners

By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 -- 8:30 pm
Share on Facebook Stumble This!

usmexicoborder Report: ICE using unlisted detention centers for immigrant prisonersU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding an untold number of people in secretively maintained detention facilities all over the United States, according to a report set to be published next year in The Nation.

Many of the sites are unmarked and unlisted, going unnoticed in office parks and commercial zones, according to reporter Jacqueline Stevens. The so-called ICE "subfield offices" are mainly used to house prisoners in transfer and are not subject to the basic standards applied to ICE and even military prisoners.

At a subfield office known as B-18, located near a Los Angeles federal building, ICE keeps immigrant prisoners in "a barely converted storage facility."

"You actually walk down the sidewalk and into an underground parking lot. Then you turn right, open a big door and voilà, you're in a detention center," explained Ahilan Arulanantham, an ACLU immigration attorney interviewed by The Nation. "Without knowing where you were going, he said, "it's not clear to me how anyone would find it. What this breeds, not surprisingly, is a whole host of problems concerning access to phones, relatives and counsel."

The report continued: "B-18, it turned out, was not a transfer area from point A to point B but rather an irrationally revolving stockroom that would shuttle the same people briefly to the local jails, sometimes from 1 to 5 am, and then bring them back, shackled to one another, stooped and crouching in overpacked vans. These transfers made it impossible for anyone to know their location, as there would be no notice to attorneys or relatives when people moved. At times the B-18 occupants were left overnight, the frigid onslaught of forced air and lack of mattresses or bedding defeating sleep. The hours of sitting in packed cells on benches or the concrete floor meant further physical and mental duress."

Story continues below...

One former prisoner who spoke with The Nation said that when she inquired how long she would be held, guards laughed at her. "I was thinking these people are going to put me and the other people in a grinder and make sausages and sell them in the local market," she reportedly said.

A list of the 186 facilities is available here [PDF format].

Read the full report here. The next edition of The Nation is due out Jan. 4, 2010.

Share this article:
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Story comments are below...

  • sobber
    they must have human meat so our overloads can eat them or experiment with them and southern states where our masters live under the ground are the areas where most people and children disappear
  • This is part of Operation Endgame, here: http://www.aclum.org/issues/ice_doc_gallery.php

    The new administration is the old administration. This time with a way hip intellect and smooth genuine speeches... And right now they are attempting to attract no visibility of their renewing efforts for the Patriot Act.

    NWO are criminals - period. Follow the money, to and from Sept 11th 2001 and support an international investigation into those 911 war crimes.

    Law and mil - remember the oath, is to defend the constitution, not illegal orders, thank you.
  • ACitizen
    Here's another article by Jacqueline Stevens about this very subject from
    June 2008. http://detentionwatchnetwork.org/node/1630

    Here's an article by Jacqueline Stevens from 2001: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011203/siegel

    Another article from 2002: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020603/bach
  • Guest
    Why?????
  • ACitizen
    I checked out the nation article and looked at the list of centers. I live in Berks County and the listed center in Berks is no secret. In fact the local paper had articles about the center when the report "Locking Up Family Values" came out about them. This article was from 2007: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=17175 In the follow up articles the responses from the public on the website primarily indicated rage over 'Them Getting A Free Ride" !!
  • theoracle
    "The so-called ICE "subfield offices" are mainly used to house prisoners in transfer and are not subject to the basic standards applied to ICE and even military prisoners."

    Sounds like overseas CIA/private contractor black sites, but located inside the United States.

    Remember when the Bush/Cheney administration got the Republicans in Congress to ram legislation through four or five years ago that allocated over $380 million to build these domestic detention centers?

    And I really doubt that a full list exists covering all these prisons. A friend of mind, who went to work for one of the for-profit subcontractors helping with the post-Katrina cleanup around New Orleans, told me in 2007 that she had heard about these secret detention centers and that I'd be shocked about what went on in them. She also said that the official number of secret detention sites being listed was far lower than the actual number of secret detention sites being used. Apparently, her working at this post-Katrina cleanup subcontractor gave her access to some highly classified information (probably because the subcontractor, or whoever was the primary contractor, let slip what else they were "contracted" to handle). She said it was very hush-hush, though, especially since Bush was still in office and Republicans (and Republican-owned contract and subcontract companies) were overseeing and operating these super-secret domestic detention centers...kind of like the Bush/Cheney administration trying to keep hidden all of their overseas super-secret CIA "black ops" detention sites.

    In other words, the domestic and overseas secret detention sites are cut from the same corrupt and criminal conservative cloth, with the goal being circumventing any judicial oversight and being able to hold (and interrogate) prisoners with impunity...and the U.S. Constitution and Geneva Conventions be damned.
  • You have been duped by the money changers.......All political parties besides third parties are run from the same corrupt, military industrial complex FEDERAL RESERVE INC.

    http://www.endthefed.us
  • Hate to be the bringer of bad news Patriot, but Obama's administration has the same exact disdain for the constitution. You have been duped by the two party duopoly.

    Obama himself is good, but his administration is more evil than the Bush administration times two and --- AND the chief executive office is run by a dual Israeli nationalist with more loyalty to the Federal Reserve than his own country!

    It's time to wake up from that ignorant kool-aid you were drinking, and wake up to the nightmare we ALL are being targeted as - just simply for putting God's wishes first!

    http://www.endthefed.us

    My misinformed patriot, the criminal syndicate does not rely on Democrats or Republicans to enforce its fascist arm.....it uses BOTH of them up like a wet paper bag!

    It sullies and spits on our constitution and reviles it, at the local Banking House, the AIPAC convention, and the board meetings of the Military Industrial Complex. It spites on you, me, and the everyman every day with true disdain.

    It is nothing more than the backbone of this country, not someone's worthless political party. It is the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM and that system, not the little peons; RUNS A FASCIST DICTATORSHIP

    Look up the enabling act of 1913. Open your eyes, you are able to have freedom if you awaken in time!
  • Top
    Doesn't bother me. These wetbacks might just be going through less hardship than they went through to get here but then I'm not against their public execution either.
  • but you bother me, pal. ashamed to share the same oxygen with the likes of you ...
  • Satan
    Oh, is Raw going after Alex Jones customers now?

    We'll see about that.
  • Brittanicus
    Either a House or Senate bill, that releases millions of foreign workers into our country, will devastate the public safety net. As it is now--California--a SANCTUARY STATE--is under constant bombardment to support uncounted numbers of foreign invaders on the health care, education and penal system. America's largest population of illegal immigrants, California bears a huge cost to provide basic human services for this fast growing, illegal low-income segment of its population. A new study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) examines the costs of education, health care and incarceration of illegal aliens, and concludes that the costs to Californians is $10.5 billion annually. California voters rebelled and overwhelmingly passed Proposition 187, which sought to limit liability for mass illegal immigration. Since then, state and local governments have blatantly ignored the wishes of the voters and continued to pay out publicly financed benefits on illegal families. Prop 187 was brought before Judge Mariana Pfaelzer, who in November 1997 found the law to be unconstitutional. Governor Wilson appealed the ruling, which brought the case to the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. (who are extremist Liberals) In 1999, newly elected Democratic Governor Gray Davis had the case brought before mediation, and then intentionally dropped the appeals process before the courts, effectively killing the law so it--NEVER--reached the Supreme Court. Dan Stein, President of FAIR stated, "California's addiction to 'cheap' illegal alien labor is bankrupting the state and posing enormous burdens on the state's SHRINKING MIDDLE CLASS TAX BASE," he added "Most Californians, who have seen their taxes increase while public services deteriorate, already know the impact that mass illegal immigration is having on their communities, but even they may be shocked when they learn just how much of a drain illegal immigration has become. After these fiscal numbers were released, there seem to be an intentional reluctance to offer costs for both legal and illegal immigrant cost to the US taxpayer. The latest news now is the border state of Arizona, is in dire straights financial and also heading towards bankruptcy.


    "This is owing to a Sacramento Liberal Assembly, which has edged the state to near bankruptcy. Only by the interruption of multi-millions of American citizens, legal residents and congregations of anti-illegal immigration groups will America prevail. Here is the Capitol switchboard number to call 202-224-3121 because your vote is needed to stop any AMNESTY. The last 1986 Immigration bill was never aggressively enforced, that is why millions of illegal immigrants roam freely throughout America? The blame can be placed upon previous administrations as they have always been in collusion with the business, including Wall Street that is the real mechanism that governs our country? That is--WHY--we are taxed to subsidize--CORPORATE WELFARE--with incredulous numbers of lowly paid illegal wages and no benefits. THIS IS ALL ABOUT CORPORATE GREED and the complete indifference to the AMERICAN WORKERS SURVIVAL AND AN OVERPOPULATION FUTURE.

    In a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, based on the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, analyzed the cost of immigrants based on their specific use of (means-tested) welfare entitlements (both direct and indirect), and revealed that the total immigrant receipt of benefits in--1996--came to $180 billion. THAT IS $ ONE HUNDRED & EIGHTY BILLION IN 1996? WHAT ARE THE EXPENDITURES NOW? Today's costs if audited would support some foreign governments treasuries. Obama and his army of pro-illegal worker lobbyist, faith groups, unions, anti-sovereignty Caucuses, to adjoin and undermine our voting system, by organizing huge numbers who will automatically vote in favor of the Democratic party.

    There are thousands of pro-sovereignty, anti-illegal immigration organizations that are fighting to halt another demented AMNESTY. So if what President Obama has stated that he will approve a so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, with the approval of the Democratic Party leadership will be a devastating Armageddon. Last Tuesday, December 15, Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez introduced this proposed law, called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP).More than ever before it would be to the advantage of all the Anti-AMNESTY groups to unify and mobilize every organizations such as NUMBERSUSA, FAIR, CAPSWEB, ALIPAC, AMERICAN PATROL, JUDICIAL WATCH and every opponent group to join a massive build-up against this dark foreboding issue. Most of the American population has absolutely no conception of the implication surrounding this outrageous bill. But any bill legalizing foreign nationals who have scorned our laws is unconstitutional, without THE PEOPLE'S absolute permission.

    The millions of illegal people here would pay small fine of $500.00 dollars, learn English and pass a criminal background check. The law suggested stripping police officers of their federally-sanctioned (287 g) powers that detains individuals for immigration and visa violations, according to The Chicago Tribune. Sen. Harry Reid, Pelosi, Napolitano, Schumer and others know that our only true deterrent E-Verify will be obsolete? This is just for those 20 to 30 million illegal aliens and families who live within this nation borders now. Even more millions will be waiting outside the borders, ready to make the rush for US soil, before the president signs the AMNESTY (CIR ASAP) document. THAT WILL BE THE HIGHEST PINNACLE OF MADNESS, FORCED UPON THE AMERICAN WORKER. THEY WILL HAVE TO COMPETE WITH THOSE ALREADY HERE AND THOSE WHO SUDDENLY SWARM INTO AMERICA. All these destitute, unskilled people will need food, housing and welfare support to exist in our society.
  • Of course it's true, everyone needs to recognize that.

    In 1600 they toppled the Central Bank for similar reasons. The government has been totally corrupted since 1913 using the outer half of the government that is totally insane, the shadow government run by fascist crusader Zionists of every stripe and nationality.

    http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm

    The Federal Reserve is the greatest fraud and delusion ever perpetrated on America. It is a FASCIST institution run by mad gruff dogs, who pay off the intentionally corrupt using fake, inflated, counterfeit money.

    We have what amounts to the largest counterfeit operation ever operating in these United States that once was home of the free. These prisons demonstrate the point.

    It's called the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM and its neither federal, nor is it reserves. It is a fascist corporation. All the money is printed on paper that is worth less than a parchment in 1782. And this is called your economy lads and lasses!

    THIS is the face of America as it exists now.......By all my strength, I will be here to see the corruption of the farce that is the Reserve crumble and with it may America be reborn. It will take more losses on both sides, for these immature and in my opinion downright evil LAW ENFORCERS of the Reserve extortion operation to give up.....

    A-men. And with it, may all the tyrants fall.
  • There's a man behind the curtain laughing at those who he's fooled
    http://www.endthefed.us
  • nfm2
    "This can only end in tears . . . "
    Why would people of conscience who live in and around that facility put up with this? It is illegal and a clear violation of constitutional and human rights. Its also a waste of tax dollars since its is obviously not clearing these people through the immigration system to set them free or send them home.
  • Guest
    Illegal immigrants have due process rights under the Constitution, which applies to "all persons" and not just to citizens. They should be treated humanely, afforded their due process rights, and deported. The endless flood of illegal immigrants is destroying the US working class and every gain it has fought for over the past 150 years.
  • Greg
    The whole "no bed and no bedding" is a bunch of bullcrap. My friend was put into jail and was put into a cold "holding" cell for 4 days with only a concrete floor to lay on. Disgusting.
  • stormy7
    I had heard of these secret prisons since 2004. These will hold people who are labeled enemy Combatants. That mean you, me or anyone.
    "They say they want a revolution" let's start with getting third party candidates elected.
  • matticusfinch
    for some reason this story reminded me of this song by immortal technique.

    "The voice of racism preaching the gospel is devilish
    A fake church called the prophet Muhammad a terrorist
    Forgetting God is not a religion, but a spiritual bond
    And Jesus is the most quoted prophet in the Qu'ran
    They bombed innocent people, tryin' to murder Saddam
    When you gave him those chemical weapons to go to war with Iran
    This is the information that they hold back from Peter Jennings
    Cause Condoleeza Rice is just a new age Sally Hemmings
    I break it down with critical language and spiritual anguish
    The Judas I hang with, the guilt of betraying Christ
    You murdered and stole his religion, and painting him white
    Translated in psychologically tainted philosophy
    Conservative political right wing, ideology
    Glued together sloppily, the blasphemy of a nation
    Got my back to the wall, cause I'm facin' assassination
    Guantanamo Bay, federal incarceration
    How could this be, the land of the free, home of the brave?
    Indigenous holocaust, and the home of the slaves
    Corporate America, dancin' offbeat to the rhythm
    You really think this country, never sponsored terrorism?
    Human rights violations, we continue the saga
    El Savador and the contras in Nicaragua
    And on top of that, you still wanna take me to prison
    Just cause I won't trade humanity for patriotism

    It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain
    Suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change
    They wanna rearrange the whole point of view of the ghetto
    The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
    A bandana full of glittering, generality
    Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
    Read about the history of the place that we live in
    And stop letting corporate news tell lies to your children

    Flow like the blood of Abraham through the Jews and the Arabs
    Broken apart like a woman's heart, abused in a marriage
    The brink of holy war, bottled up, like a miscarriage
    Embedded correspondents don't tell the source of the tension
    And they refuse to even mention, European intervention
    Or the massacres in Jenin, the innocent screams
    U.S. manufactured missles, and M-16's
    Weapon contracts and corrupted American dreams
    Media censorship, blocking out the video screens
    A continent of oil kingdoms, bought for a bargain
    Democracy is just a word, when the people are starvin'
    The average citizen, made to be, blind to the reason
    A desert full of genocide, where the bodies are freezin'
    And the world doesn't believe that you fightin' for freedom
    Cause you fucked the Middle East, and gave birth to a demon
    It's open season with the CIA, bugging my crib
    Trapped in a ghetto region like a Palestinian kid
    Where nobody gives a fuck whether you die or you live
    I'm tryin' to give the truth, and I know the price is my life
    But when I'm gone they'll sing a song about Immortal Technique
    Who beheaded the President, and the princes and sheiks
    You don't give a fuck about us, I can see through your facade
    Like a fallen angel standing in the presence of God
    Bitch niggaz scared of the truth, when it looks at you hard

    [Hook]
    It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain
    Suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change
    They wanna rearrange the whole point of view in the ghetto
    The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
    A bandana full of glittering, generality
    Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
    Martial law is coming soon to the hood, to kill you
    While you hanging your flag out your project window


    Yeah..
    The fourth branch of the government AKA the media
    Seems to now have a retirement plan for ex-military officials
    As if their opinion was at all unbiased
    A machine shouldn't speak for men
    So shut the fuck up you mindless drone!
    And you know it's serious
    When these same media outfits are spending millions of dollars on a PR campaign
    To try to convince you they're fair and balanced
    When they're some of the most ignorant, and racist people
    Giving that type of mentality a safe haven
    We act like we share in the spoils of war that they do
    We die in wars, we don't get the contracts to make money off 'em afterwards!
    We don't get weapons contracts!
    We don't get cheap labor for our companies!
    We are cheap labor!
    Turn off the news and read!
    Read... read... read..."

    true.
  • michaelmcleary
    After Reagan gave amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants here in the 1980s, 20 million more came.
  • michaelmcleary
    I don't understand why such long detentions,l immigrants cannot produce documentation to prove their legal residency, or citizenship within a week, deport them. That is what every other country does, like Spain, Canada, Germany, etc., we have put the priorities of immigrants first before American citizens for years, that is why there are so many immigrants here. Look at our taxpayer funded universities.... tens of thousands of foreign students are admitted every year, while American citizens are denied a college education, especially at California's UC colleges. In other countries illegal immigrants are put on a plane to their home country. There shouldn't be any long detention... if it is shown that they are here illegally they should be deported quickly.
  • WilyArmadilla
    The long detentions occur because we give the illegals the right to appeal their deportation, and experience has shown that these people seldom to show up for their appeal hearing when we allow bail or releasing them on recognizance.

    If they were honest and trustworthy, they wouldn't be incarcerated. But then again, if they were honest and trustworthy, they wouldn't be here illegally in the first place.
  • Atilla
    Sausages? That's a great idea!
  • Atilla
    Illegal Aliens have no rights, other than basic human rights. My solution is to house them on old barges, until the barge is full then tow it to Central America and cut it loose where the currents will take it into shore. This immigration problem will be solved overnight if we start replacing Congressmen Corporate Execs, and Banksters with illegal Beaners. I'm liberal, but I'll be damned if I'll turn this country over to a bunch of border hopping, baby shitting, brown trash. I'd be just as upset if they were Canuks, or Europeans. I'm not a racist...I hate them all equally for ruining my country.
  • proudforeigner
    You stupid dumbass hick mutant...you really have no clue do you?
  • thx1138
    A controlled populace is a safer populace. A surveilled country is a safer country. Detention camps have always been used, all throughout history -- with Injuns, Darkies, Jews, Japs, and Heebs -- as a prudent measure to ensure national security. And don't forget, National Security is what it's all about. Imprisoning those, who by their very existence, threaten great God-fearing nations. This protects both the nation as a whole AND the chosen few who have ascended to their proper place at the top of the civilized food chain via eco-socio-political Darwinism. You know, the rich and the powerful and members of the High Command. It's only natural selection working in perfect order with God's will. What else could it be? HIS will be done. As always. Now just move along. Resistance is futile. This won't hurt a bit.
  • doolindalton
    My ancestors were Choctaw and forced to walk the trail of tears, so believe me when I say.....it CAN happen to you.

    ENOUGH of the GOP WHITE MAN'S REIGN!!!

  • dickerson3870
    WIKIPEDIA: ...Tensions between Georgia and the Cherokee Nation were brought to a crisis by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1829, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush, the first gold rush in U.S. history. Hopeful gold speculators began trespassing on Cherokee lands, and pressure began to mount on the Georgia government...In the winter of 1838 the Cheroke began the thousand mile march with scant clothing and most on foot without shoes or moccasins.
    "...Build a fire under them. When it gets hot enough, they'll go." —- Andrew Jackson, 1832, The Trail of Tears Across Missouri.
    WIKIPEDIA SOURCE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
  • thelonegunman
    considering the US maintained secret detention centers (black sites) for 'turrurists' for the past decade, have illegally detained people without habeas corpus at guantanamo bay for the past decade, have tortured these prisoners for the past decade, have not brought them to trial as required by the 'constitution' the militarist politicos blather on about protecting...

    considering all this AND the tenor of comments directed at immigrants - this is not a surprise at all...

    what americans should remember is one basic fact:

    if they can do this to these people, (eventually, if not already) they'll do this to everyone...
  • Cassandra
    "First they came for the native Americans, but I said nothing.
    Second, they came for African Americans, but I said nothing.
    Yesterday, they came for the Japanese, but I said nothing.
    Today, they come for the immigrants, but I say nothing.
    Tomorrow, they will come for ...
  • Atilla
    " and then we shot them and hung the survivors."
  • Original Lefty
    B-18 is no secret. It is under the building at 300 North Los Angeles Street , It is B-18 as room 18 in the basement. It has been there well over thirty years and the release prisoners from county jail are brought there in the morning to be interviewed prior to deportation. This is no secret this story is bullshit, you write about it leave out facts and the spooky music starts what a bunch of shit.
  • reuterspiel
    Concentration camps is the correct term. Amazing how the worlds most powerfull country can't keep their borders closed to unarmed men, women and children...The immigration issue is nothing but a propaganda scam, a manufactured problem that's supposed to stir up nationalistic and patriotic feelings in the population, keeping it conveniently distracted, occupied and blind to the fact that freedom and democracy is a scam too. Americans may believe their free, but in reality their enslaved to their banker. They believe what the media brainwash tells them to believe. Get a grip and realise that the immigrants are here because the Government looks the other way when they're on their way in, only to turn on them when it suits their political agenda.
  • WilyArmadilla
    How 'secret' can these facilities be if we're talking about them on the WWW? I mean, sure...ICE may not have taken out a full page ad in a national newspaper saying "We're holding illegal aliens in this abandoned strip mall because there are so many of them they've over-whelmed conventional facilities" - but to say they're 'secret' when the reporter was actually given a list of locations?! And even SHE says (in the article) that "The 186 unlisted subfield offices tend to be where local police and sheriffs have formally or informally reached out to ICE."

    In other words, the LOCALS know where they are, it's just the national ethno-centric illegal alien advocacy groups that didn't get cc'd about every facility that's been opened to deal with overwhelming number of criminal aliens. And so they MUST be 'secret'.

    Because *they* weren't informed...
  • Original Lefty
    As I posted 300 North Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles California, Room B-18 is not a fucking Secret. Ask any alien who has been arrested in Los Angeles were it is and they can tell you. Follow the Immigration buses between county jail and 300 Los Angeles and you will know where it is. In fact the Federal detention center is in the same mass of buildings right of the ten freeway between Los Angeles and Alameda street. If you drive by you will recognize it one hell of a lot of movies are filmed there and close by there.
  • iconoclasm
    What don't people get about a country that calls itself the "Land of the Free" yet imprisons more people in more ways than any other country in the world?

    Do you get you're being LIED TO yet?
  • Atilla
    For Christ Sake! They're felons. In the land of the Sheep and th home of the Slave.
  • doolindalton
    "For Christ sake!" um...yep...pretty much.
  • WilyArmadilla
    while I agree that all people should be treated in a decent and humane manner, these criminals choose to be detained. They COULD be walking free within days of being caught. All they have to do is agree to go back where they snuck in from. Instead they and their (non)apologists insist that they have some sort of human right to be in the U.S.
  • doolindalton
    "Criminals" huh? Ask any Native American and I can guarantee they would say the same about you!
  • WilyArmadilla
    I'm assuming you're trying to establish the ol' strawman that "the pilgrims were illegal aliens too!"...a strawman so tattered and frail that a good sneeze could knock it down. (One assumes you're intelligent enough to know that nothing is illegal unless there is an actual LAW prohibiting it)

    But I'll play along and say "maybe they would, and if they could reference the appropriate laws that *I* have broken, I would take responsibility and apologize for my tresspass." and I'll add "unlike the illegal aliens that come a-cropper of the Immigration and Nationality Act: Section 237 (a)(1)(B) - and/or - INA: 274A(a)(1)(A) but refuse to admit their crimes."
  • JakeW83
    Just because something is illegal doesn't make it immoral or unethical. Fucktard.
  • WilyArmadilla
    yeah...and breaking into someone elses home, taking their stuff, stealing their kids birthright, and then when you get caught start whining about how UNFAIR it is that you get kicked off the property and don't get to continue profiting from the other guys' sweat, blood, and foresight...yeah...that's *really* 'moral and ethical'.

    Asshat.
  • doolindalton
    I'm also half Italian Wily whose ancestors 'legally' immigrated to America at the turn of the century so feel free to call me anything you like including "strawman", (whatever the hell that means). BUT then again....you're only "assuming" and you know what that does don't you? It makes an ass out of you and me...so go ahead and "play along" because in all actuality, the Immigration and Nationality Act that you speak of didn't even exist until 1952... so go ahead and continue your righteous and holier than thou bullshit because someday soon the white man will be the minority in this country and maybe...just maybe, this law you speak so high and mighty of will be ammended...AGAIN and "they" will be coming for you..."pilgrim".
  • WilyArmadilla
    I didn't call YOU anything. I called your ARGUMENT a strawman (FYI: strawman - a weak or sham argument set up to be easily refuted). And your posit that our founders were no different than criminal aliens is just that...easily refuted.

    And despite your attempt to conflate racism with opposition to illegal immigration, I don't care WHAT your ethnic or racial heritage is...if someone is here illegally, they are in violation of the law, i.e. they are a criminal.
  • doolindalton
    What LAW existed when the Pilgrims came over Wily????!!!! The Redman TRUSTED the Whiteman and we ALL know how that turned out, and that attitude exists to this day....so stick THAT in your smipe and POKE IT!
  • WilyArmadilla
    That's my point. Thanks for making it. There WAS no 'Native American' law (or international law for that matter) that prohibited migration. There ARE laws now. Therefore, founding fathers = not criminal, illegal aliens = criminal.

    Get it, dumass?
  • doolindalton
    There were no need for laws until the Whiteman came....Get it, Wily?
  • WilyArmadilla
    Actually...no. I don't 'get it'. Are you suggesting that we return to 'might makes right and winner takes the spoils'? To conquer or be conquered? The Divine Right of Kings?

    Well, I hate to break it to ya...ain't gonna happen. Times change, societies change, and the world changes. Whether the native Americans needed laws in the 1500's is immaterial to the world today. Whether the Immigration and Nationality Act wasn't passed until 1952 is immaterial to whether illegal aliens are in violation of laws today.

    The fact is that you, I, and every other denizen of the world now live within a framework of assorted laws. And in a nation where, supposedly, all people are equal under the law...only one group keeps screaming that THEY shouldn't be held accountable for their crimes. And that group is illegal immigrants and their (non)apologists.
  • doolindalton
    *Sigh*...of course you don't "get it" Wily....you don't have a fucking clue what I'm talking about, and you never will, that is, until the next ruling class which would be the mega rich, top 1% of society, aka "The Divine Right of Kings" suddenly decide to make their own 'laws' and turn on YOU...oops....be careful what you wish for!
  • panamarick
    No shit.
  • Elim
    "Immigrant" detention centers? C'mon, RS! They're illegal aliens, and that's why they're IN detention centers!
  • goodgawd
    Exactly, but the black heli folks here are sure everyone's going to be rounded up and put in concentration camps. To the fainting couches, because a writer used a term like "secretively maintained" to describe temporary facilities that, in the next sentence, are admittedly for "prisoners in transit."

    Uh, these 'secret prisons' are called temporary holding facilities, just like the 'drunk tanks' the police and sheriff's have in many small towns without county or state prisons. And the only reason so many illegal aliens are being held in temporary facilities like this is that there are such huge numbers of illegals, and it's politically incorrect to build any actual facility. Really people. Go to any Border Patrol station in S. AZ. It's a far cry from 'fema camp' psychosis.
  • lorn
    Actually Goober, you almost had it. Let me clue you in on the bits that you have missed.

    The only reason so many illegals are being held in................OK you ready?
    The only reason so many illegals are here is that rich evil Republican swine want cheap labor. They don't like to pay Goober and his toothless trailer park cousins $8 per hour to shovel shit when they can lure a bunch of desperate decent Mexicans here to work twice as hard for half the pay.
    The infamous depression era Okies heading west to California was the same deal. (Try reading The Grapes of Wrath this holiday season) Attract too many workers to depress wages, hire the desperate ones and work them into the ground. Have law enforcement round up and abuse the excess and undesirables from the over filled labor pool.....and with a little luck the right wing rich evil scum in government might even get to pass a few laws to roll back civil rights.

    Still here goodgawd? Now today, the Mexicans are the Okies.
    People back then were more inclined to be good and generous to each other. Today we have many ignorant poor abused people (that would be you) actually supporting the rich evil pigs who keep them down. To see the poor idiots most victimized by Bush and pals cheer on the abuses of fellow poor people is tragic.
    As usual the Republicans and Democrats treat this issue the same, while they vocalize different BS to justify or hide it.
  • lorn, you do see the light, don't you! ... sorry to jump all over you earlier ... and the benevolent imf and world bank and wto make more slaves the world over ... and americans are propagandized to think they have a some stake in some future of the country and willfully refuse to understand until they and their cheerleader cadre themselves are impoverished and shackled ...
  • I wonder about a couple of these airports that get millions in government aid, when there are only a few flights out and in a day.
    Can't remember which airports, but probably a search would detail it.
  • Susanne
    Unfuc**ing believable!
  • Whataload Tripe
    Start taking your anti-psychosis meds immediately and see a mental health professional asap. LOL
  • turnip
    . . . and they then said: "well, maybe that was true. . but this cannot be so"
    when that was found to be true, it was said: "well certainly it appears that that may also be true, but these other things will never come to pass."

    -- and so it goes with the weak . . still clinging to their party and deity-myth construct when their artificial and socially dictated world view is threatened. LOOK at the fucking story. LOOK at the past 10 years, and the hundred stories just like it. If you chose to ignore this reality, and deny it, partisan it, and rationalize it. . . you are the problem, so hold your useless tongue and let us get on with it.
  • dennycrane
    Are these the old Internment Camps that "RayGun" was going to use when he was governor of California in the '60's? Or do we get "new" ones? I hope my "bunk" faces north. Remember, if they come after me in the morning, they will be after you in the evening. I hope they won't find the notes I typed on my "Underwood" that I left in the "pumpkin" patch.
  • Catherine
    Welcome to Arizona.
  • tjfxh
    I had a friend with a green card whose paperwork was lost. He was arrested on a traffic violation. When I called the local station, I was told that he was transferred to DHS and gave me a contact number. Good luck on that one. When I called, they told me that there was no way they could tell me anything about the case since I didn't know his green card number and there were seventy five people being held going by that last name. I called our Congressman's office and told them the story. They called back saying they got stiffed by DHS too. Three months later, he had a hearing and was deported. Needless to say, he and his family were in shock, and a lot of the rest of us, that this could have happened in America.
  • michaelgass
    The argument can be made that county jails are too packed to take ICE prisoners.

    The argument CANNOT be made that any facility is unregistered or unaccountable.
  • scott
    just goes to prove Glen Beck is full of shi# when he says there are no secret prison camps in the us.
  • SouthernYankee
    He is full of shit no matter if the country has camps or not. He is the biggest LIAR there is. The bastard is laughing all the way to the bank.
  • kajaja420
    in order to be a lair you have to have a concept of what the truth is, glenn beck is a bullshitter
  • SouthernYankee
    LOL, you have a good point and it must run in the GOPbagger party. Head bullshitter is quitter Palin.
  • Jello Biafra
    There's a prefab building and a funny smell
    Around the hill outside of town
    Every now and then we wonder
    But we shrug our shoulders
    And get back to work

    There's a railroad there and trains go by
    And there's people locked in cattle cars
    And have you noticed
    The french fries at the A&W
    Taste a little strange?
  • Jello Biafra
    You've been hangin' round
    With an enemy of the state
    Come with me
    To the building
    Where no one stops to watch

    C'mon Bleed
    C'mon Bleed
    C'mon Bleed
    Bleed For Me

    We'll strap you to a pipe
    Electrodes on your balls
    C'mon scream
    C'mon writhe
    Face down
    In a pool of piss

    C'mon bleed
    C'mon bleed
    C'mon bleed
    Bleed for Me.
  • NotConvinced
    I think this subject would make for a good question to Mr. Gibbs.
  • seen2much
    There are NO secret detention centers.
    Concentration camps cannot happen in America.
    We abide by due process.
    We do not torture.
    We are a nation of laws, not men.
    America is a free country.
    We are from the government, and we are here to help you.

    If you believe in these and other fairy tales, it's time for you to grow the hell up.
    Pull your head out of your ass and look around. We are in some SERIOUS shit.
  • john
    better pull ur head out then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • proudliberal1947
    Ah yes and the president is a Constitutional Scholar, and he didn't speak to the Public Option, and they were going to prosecute the Bush era War Criminals, and they were going to close Gitmo, and the banks are lending money to stop foreclosure, and the the list just keeps growing.
    The fairy tale continues.
  • starvapor
    This is nothing new....

    The REX 84 program established muti-use detention centers throughout the country long ago:

    http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/FEMA-Conce...

    http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=U...
  • you had me until this st. raygun mantra of the 'nine most terrifying words in the English language':

    "We're from the government and we're here to help."

    i really all began with nixon's team of control freaks, but this little canard from 'the great communicator' is what they used against us and it brought down government dedicated to the good of the people - they did it through tax cuts and dodges to the richest, ever rising 'defense' budgets and by giving you the illusion that you have a stake in how the rich and wall street are doing [there is a new bullshit book out right now "The 5 Big Lies about American Business" from some smooth talking asswipe spinmiester called medved that claims the rich make the jobs for the poor - right we've got the richest top end ever and where are the jobs? you see, money and corporations have no nationality or loyalty anymore ... the investment and dividend collection class legislate privatized profits and socialized losses and wars of choice off the books ... good luck

    our gvnmt at the bidding of the 'richest' and 'brightest' systematically underfunded or eliminated those things that would promote the general welfare - education, higher minimum wages, fair trade pacts and affordable, quality health care for all ...

    i predict they'll grab your social security before you're eligible in order to save the nation from economic collapse ... but you go ahead with raygun quotes ... that asswipe b actor - sorry ronnie jr. but that's just the way it is ...
  • lorn
    He made 7 points and you agree with 6 of them.
    Your one bone of contention sees you launch into a rant equating him with some sort of Reagan lover? WTF?

    As for the government coming to help? There were times when my government made my life easier and other times more difficult. Whatever.

    The big issue in the article is secretive illegal detention and his six points address that directly and arguably his 7th point does too.
    Does the fact that all of this is happening under the OBAMA ADMINISTRATION cause you to go off on some half baked rant about fascist Ronnie Raygun?
    Let's get back to the present where right here in America the Democratic messiah sits on his throne while black sites are filled with non persons. Maybe the Nobel peace prize dude could spend five minutes trying to deal with this issue? After all it is Christmas.
    Feliz Navidad!
  • you're proving my point - little mr. lack of reading comprehension - it's non-millionaires saying "those poor" or "those unemployed" or "taxes are bad" cause "taxes take from me" and "government can run a circle jerk" ... well, the intent since nixon has been to defeat popular [precisely because they are successful] government programs from within ... mantras like 'the nine most terrifying words' repeated by non-millionaires is why your government has been able to discard you and serve the huge defense and media and financial corporations at the expense of the american citizen and working class and the shredded united states constitution.

    you are now officially a rogue criminal nation despised and feared and NOT loved worldwide. 'honest american' is an oxymoron; you are all liars and war criminals - since you are a democracy. you attack countries at will. you poison the soil and water and air of these countries. you impoverish their populations. make rulers of inhumane thugs. you torture. you disappear those who call you out on your corruption.

    so citizen ... it turn on you ... it's not only all of those less-than-us people over there that face disappearance and illegal incarceration it is american citizens too! lmao
  • winkhorst
    "spinmeister called medved that claims the rich make the jobs for the poor"

    This is the old Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged" drivel. The fact is that companies can and have run without upper management, but they can't run without the workers. So it's actually the workers who make the income for the rich.
  • kajaja420
    'we' do, 'they' don't
  • Ted Haggard
    Sick Sick Sick. These are the people who depicted a blackface prisoner as a Halloween party joke - the guy won best costume. This shows the filthy bastards who are doing the deeds underneath these vile, mostly Bush-appointed agency leaders are reflecting their utterly revolting and criminal ways.
blog comments powered by Disqus