THE RIGHTS WORKING GROUP CONDEMS DUE PROCESS VIOLATIONS RESULTING FROM IMMIGRATION RAIDS IN LAUREL MISSISSIPPI

THE RIGHTS WORKING GROUP CONDEMS DUE PROCESS VIOLATIONS RESULTING FROM IMMIGRATION RAIDS IN LAUREL MISSISSIPPI

Coalition Calls for Due Process for Immigrants

August 26, 2008 Washington, D.C. - Today, the Rights Working Group (RWG) Policy Director Jumana Musa issued the following statement in response to the recent immigration raid in Laurel, Mississippi that resulted in the arrest of 350 undocumented workers.

"Monday's raid at Howard Industries in Laurel, Mississippi is just the latest in a disturbing pattern of abusive raids on workplaces and homes that violate the due process protections guaranteed to all people living in the U.S. The government cannot simultaneously claim to be respecting the due process rights of the workers who were taken into custody while acknowledging that no lawyers were present when those same workers, who will likely be facing criminal charges, were interrogated.

This failure to provide access to a lawyer who can inform detainees of their legal rights comes in the wake of the Postville, Iowa raid, which made a mockery of due process by failing to ensure that detainees understood the charges against them, assigning detainees an inadequate number of attorneys who were not given enough time to assemble a defense, and then whisking detainees through a kangaroo court en masse for imprisonment and deportation. We fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with the Department of Justice and local law enforcement, will use these same coercive tactics in the Mississippi raid.

The Bush Administration's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies have taken us down a dangerous path where well established due process and human rights have been abandoned for immigration policies that push expediency over justice.

We call upon Senators Obama and McCain to disavow policies that violate the human rights and civil liberties of people living in this country, irrespective of immigration status. Everyone in detention must be treated with respect for their human rights and the rule of law."

The Rights Working Group, a coalition of 250 community-based grassroots groups and national organizations formed in the aftermath of 9-11 that works to ensure civil liberties and human rights protections for all people living in the U.S. Throughout the week of September 22nd and culminating on September 25th, the RWG will help organize the "Night of 1,000 Conversations," whereby thousands of people across the country will convene to spotlight and rectify the violations of human rights and civil liberties that are happening everyday as result of DHS practices.

Contact: Priya Doshi, Communications Director, (202) 296-2300 x 125; pdoshi@rightsworkinggroup.org