Dropped cases against LA protesters reveal false claims from federal agents
Welcome to our news segment: TL;DR of Immigration News, for when the news is Too Long and you Didn’t Read it.
This is a weekly collection of immigration-related news stories. These bite-size summaries will keep you up to date without overwhelming your inbox.
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Inside the Manhattan Court Where ICE Fights to Keep Immigrants Locked Up
Judges and attorneys who work at the Varick Street court in New York City are observing a pattern: DHS is pulling out all the stops to detain everyone it can get its hands on. From January 20 to the end of June, new detainee cases at Varick Street filed by DHS more than tripled from the previous year’s count. Still, current numbers are far from the mass detention Trump and ICE leadership promise their followers, and there are signs that these last six months have been a warmup for the detention regime that is to come.
One detainee was granted bond twice only to have DHS prevent his release by imposing an automatic stay on his bond ruling. This authority was rarely used in the past but is becoming increasingly common under the current administration. The detainee’s attorney, Ilana Herr, says her client’s case “shows how the goal of DHS right now is to keep people in detention by any means, even where immigration judges have ruled that they are not a public danger or flight risk.” And, she said, “...baseless gang allegations are being used against people without real evidence supporting them.” Many other detainees have been denied bond. Often detainees are sent to prisons far from their homes in New York, making them difficult to locate by their own attorneys.
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US court decisions allow for Abrego Garcia’s release, bar his deportation
Abrego Garcia’s plight - his wrongful kidnapping and trafficking to El Salvador in contravention of a court order - represented an early flashpoint in the current regime’s ongoing ethnic cleansing project. Garcia was snatched up and sent to El Salvador with nothing remotely approaching due process, and even after he was returned and placed in prison, the regime has been attempting to deport him.
US District Judge Waveryly Crenshaw in Nashville, where Abrego Garcia is currently jailed, has ruled that these fascist goons have no legal basis for their continued attempts at persecution, ruling also that Abrego Garcia can be released and is not a flight risk as the Trump Administration has claimed.
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Dropped cases against LA protesters reveal false claims from federal agents
As the military occupation of LA draws down and community organizers, activists, lawyers, and protestors prepare for ICE and DHS’ next moves, protestors charged with felonies during the first weekend of anti-ICE protests have had their charges dropped. The Guardian reveals that this is largely because federal agents were filing false affidavits that prosecutors did not end up using. In other words, federal agents seem to have been caught blatantly lying.
According to the Guardian article, officers made false statements, misinterpreted video footage, accused protestors of physical assaults that the officers themselves actually perpetrated, and even named a wrong defendant in an indictment. Why go through all the trouble to detain protestors, file charges, and have officers testify, only for charges to be dropped?
“It seems this is a way to detain people, hold them in custody, instill fear and discourage people from exercising their first amendment rights,” said Cristine Soto DeBerry, a former CA state prosecutor.
In a related story, according to sources talking to the LA Times via TPM, the US Attorney’s office has been struggling to get grand juries to indict Los Angeles anti-ICE protestors. And US Attorney General Pam Bondi is not happy about it!
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A teenager secretly recorded his own brutal arrest by ICE agents
Content warning: the linked story contains video showing a violent ICE arrest.
18-year-old Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was on his way to work, showing his mother a “silly Tiktok,” when law enforcement pulled over the car he was riding in. As immigration agents arrived on the scene he had the presence of mind to keep his phone out and begin recording.
What he captured was disturbing. Agents in tactical gear violently arrest multiple civilians who are not resisting, using a stun gun on at least one person. They tell the young man that he has no rights (a lie no matter what his legal status). After the violent arrest, not knowing they’re being recorded, agents can be heard joking about the use of the stun gun, about getting a bonus for meeting arrest quotas, and about the idea that they will have to start shooting more immigrants during detention stops.
Though Laynez-Ambrosio is a US citizen, he was still held by ICE for six hours after the incident. The Guardian summarizes that he “was charged with obstruction without violence and sentenced to 10 hours of community service and a four-hour anger management course. While in detention, [Laynez-Ambrosio] said, police threatened him with charges if he did not delete the video footage from his phone, but he refused.” His lawyer says the charges were in retaliation for his filming.
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Action items:
- Support Bail funds. One low-risk way to support immigrants and activists is to donate to bond and bail funds. Immigrant bond funds allow immigrants to await their court dates with their families and communities rather than in a cell. Bail funds help immigrants and activists who have incurred jail costs and legal fees as a result of standing up for themselves and their neighbors. Here are some great ones to support:
- National Bail Fund Network - allows you to find and support bail funds in your area
- Immigration Bond Freedom Fund
- Detained Immigrant Bond Fund
- Since ICE and the regime are continuing to go all-in on their invasion of LA, we recommend supporting the LA-based Coalicion de Autodefensa Comunitaria/Community Self-Defense Coalition
- Protect yourself and your community. Check out resources from the powerful organizers at the Ruckus Society and Across Frontlines about how to keep each other safe. If you're already an NAA member, you already have access to our complete virtual, password-protected Member Resource Hub with resources on everything from action tactics to deportation defense.
- Support Never Again Action’s organizing by making a donation today. You can make a tax deductible donation via our fiscal sponsor at this link, or you can donate directly to our 501(c)(4) organization at this link.