AIR Director Ryan Bates (left in suit) speaks during a press conference at the Detroit Hispanic Development Center about the recent abuses by ICE agents. Photo courtesy of AIR

DEARBORN — A young Russian man from Michigan was forced to
watch his mother get strip searched in immigration detention. Ivan Nikolov
remembers his mother crying the whole time, and begging the officers to stop
humiliating her. He says instead of responding with human decency, the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer told her to be glad they
didn’t shoot her in the head.

Nikolov and his mother were arrested at their home and taken
to detention, where he spent almost four months. He says every detainee is
treated poorly. “The officers made racial slurs at all of us, especially
the blacks and Latinos. The officer in charge of immigration at the jail even
taunted us with a little song that went something like, ‘Some are black, some
are brown, some are white, but they’re all mine,'” Nikolov said.

After complaining about the poor treatment of detainees, he
was accused of attempting to incite a riot, and moved to a violent criminal
unit at the detention center.

In recent weeks ICE has also been accused of surrounding an
elementary school, conducting warrant-less, illegal searches and refusing to
let a pregnant woman have access to her medication while in detention.

Nikolov and others involved in similar incidents shared
their stories during a rally against ICE abuses at a UAW office in Dearborn on
Monday, April 18, with nearly 1,000 in attendance, including dozens of Arab
Americans and American Muslims.

Juana Jimenez is a mother of two U.S. born children and is
facing deportation. She was stopped by the River Rouge Police late January,
handcuffed and taken to immigration detention for about seven hours. Jimenez
says officers told her she was in custody because she wasn’t from the United
States. “They treated me like you have no idea…That’s something I don’t
want for anyone,” she said at the rally. 

Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) joins U.S. Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) at a rally in Dearborn against recent abuses by ICE agents in Detroit. Nearly 1,000 attended. PHOTO: Natasha Dado/TAAN

Martha Valadez, a member of the Washtenaw Interfaith
Coalition for Immigrants Rights, said the organization has received over 255
calls, and 191 are complaints about deportation, detention and ICE. She said 85
of the cases resulted in children being separated from their parents, and
others involved assault from local police. “ICE is responsible for the
separation of thousands of families, and increasing numbers of single parent
households,” Valadez said at the rally, which was sponsored by the
Alliance for Immigrant Rights and Reform (AIR)  of Michigan.

Speakers at the rally includedCongressman Luis Gutierrez
(D-IL), Rep. John Conyers of Michigan’s 14th Congressional District, Rep.
Hansen Clarke of Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, State Rep. Rashida
Tlaib (D-Detroit), State Rep. George Darany (D-Dearborn), State Rep. Harvey
Santana (D-Detroit) and UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, among others.

“When those we have trusted to uphold the law, take the
law into their own hands, all of our civil liberties are at stake. Every ICE
action, every deportation, and every new escalation has a lifetime of
consequences for our families. The toll in immigrant communities across the
country has been huge and the stories I am hearing on my tour are heartbreaking
and harrowing,” Gutierrez said.

Leaders meet with ICE officials

Three days earlier, on Apr.15, Detroit-area community
leaders privately met with ICE National Assistant Secretary John Morton at the
Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services’ office in Dearborn to
discuss a similar list of alleged ICE abuses. Morton flew in from Washington
for the meeting.

Morton was asked to respond to allegations of unfair
treatment by his agency. The violations range from surrounding elementary
schools and scaring parents and children to illegal searches of homes. ICE
recently issued a statement 
admitting it broke its own policies by intimidating and tormenting
families at Hope of Detroit Academy on March 31.

A list of demands was submitted to Morton, including that
ICE immediately respect their own policies and end all warrant-less searches
and raids of homes as well as enforcement activities near schools, churches,
mosques, community centers and health clinics.

Additionally, the leaders demanded to know who authorized
the enforcement actions at schools, if anyone, and why. Community leaders also
demanded that officers involved in the incidents at Hope of Detroit Academy be
identified and disciplined along with the officers involved in the warrant-less
searches of homes.

Detroit Field Office Director Rebecca Adducci was asked to
submit a civil rights plan to the community that specifically addresses how
such problems will be prevented in the future.

Following that meeting a press conference was held at the
Detroit Hispanic Development Center in Detroit. “We demanded answers. We
demanded an investigation, but most of all we demanded accountability. It is
not enough to have new policies. It is not enough to have apologies. We need to
know that those responsible for these abuses will be disciplined, transferred
or removed,” AIR Director Ryan Bates said at the conference.

“Policy change in the future doesn’t mean anything if
ICE has proven that it will violate its own policy,” he added. 

Executive Director of the Center, Angie Reyes, said Morton
agreed to complete a review on the violations and respond within 30 days.

Other abuse incidents were highlighted at the press
conference. In Cincinnati, Ohio an immigrant father was thrown against a wall
during an enforcement action, and one U.S. citizen woke up to the sound of
three ICE agents in his home with no warrants or consent granted.

Ruben Torres, an engineer for Detroit Public Schools, was
stopped by ICE officers on Mar. 24 while waiting at a traffic light.  Torres was born in the U.S., but the
ICE officer claimed he stopped him because he had an expired work visa from
2003 or 2004. Torres believes he’s a victim of racial profiling.

“This is a pattern we see with ICE. We see an abusive
pattern of enforcement and searches without warrants, but also they lie to
folks in enforcement situations. In this case by telling Mr. Torres that they
know his visa is expired when they have no evidence. In other cases threatening
families that they can be arrested for obstruction of justice if they don’t
open the door and let them in, or other sorts of situations where they’re not
telling the truth, and they’re doing it to try and trick folks,” Bates
said.

Torres told the officer he was born in the United States, so
he didn’t have a visa, but the agent continued asking for it. He supplied his
driver’s license and other identification.

Despite offering proper identification, the agent told
Torres it was going to be his final chance to tell the truth about his
citizenship after much questioning. “He said he didn’t want anything, and
he just wanted me to provide my visa,” Torres said, speaking at the
conference. 

An additional three ICE agents arrived at the scene, and
asked Torres the same questions, including where his parents were born and
where he attended school. Torres says he has no record of criminal history.

He thought he was being stopped by an undercover officer
because the ICE vehicle was unmarked. 
“He said he needed my birth certificate. I said, ‘Who drives around
with a birth certificate in their wallet? I was born in the United
States…’  I just couldn’t
understand why he wanted me so bad. And I didn’t like the feeling they were
going to drag me downtown for finger printing and possible deportation,”
Torres, 45, said.

The day after that incident, ICE issued a statement
admitting it had broken its own polices and conducted improper searches at
schools, including Hope of Detroit. Witnesses say they saw ICE at another
elementary school in Southwest Detroit. Maria Castellanos, 53, of Detroit said
she saw ICE agents raiding Neinas Elementary on Apr. 7.

“…I’m here to say that I have seen ICE and immigration
surrounding schools, and this leads to panic among the parents, and I’ve seen
parents being taken away,” she said.

Congressmen Conyers and Clarke are expected to hold a forum
on racial profiling and ICE violations April 27 at the Hope of Detroit Academy
from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.