The immigration enforcement officers involved in an operation that resulted in the shooting death of a man in Houston were not wearing body cameras at the time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday. And the father of three who died was not the agents’ intended target, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia.
A spokesperson for Garcia, the Houston Democrat whose district includes the predominantly Latino area where the shooting took place Tuesday morning, said she had spoken with David Venturella, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Venturella allegedly told Garcia that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed on Tuesday by an ICE agent, was not the intended target of the operation.
“Another passenger had an administrative warrant and was the target,” Joseph Guzman, a spokesperson for Garcia, told Houston Public Media.
They’re absolutely not warrants, and immigration judges are not judges. Nor is the idea that violently imprisoning and expelling people from the country is a mere civil relief that doesn’t require the same legal protectections as a criminal case, despite using punishments similar to serious felonies in the criminal justice system.
Almost everything about the immigration enforcement system is an extralegal fabrication designed to evade the 4th amendment. And we just let it happen because we live in a racist country with racist institutions.
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There’s a misunderstanding people have about criminal and civil law. With the exception of certain felonies, most people would much rather face the criminal process than the civil. Criminal convictions can make you pay a fine. Civil judgements can take your house, deny you access to your children, or worse.
When the government goes after you civily, it’s even worse. I work in municipal development, and when fighting developers, we begin with criminal courts, and civil courts are the escalation.
That all being said, it should still go through a judicial process, but Congress does allow certain executive agencies to administer certain penalties and judgments without going through the judicial process. And mostbof the time it’s not a big deal. If someone doesn’t pay their taxes, a late fee shouldn’t have to become a judicial process.
But it’s bullshit that immigration courts are administrative. When someone’s freedom can be taken away the judge/jury should not have the same boss as the prosecutor. It’s vile.
Yeah I think we’re in agreement. I’m aware that congress has authorized the current system I just think it’s insane that the courts have deemed it constitutional to create a second parallel judicial system that isn’t subject to the same protections we have in other circumstances. I can understand the civil court system for fines and things of that nature. But serious punishments like deportation should be part of the standard judicial system, not some “civil” process. And the same goes for arrest warrants that don’t need to be signed by a real judge. The whole system is extremely legally dubious and I truly cannot understand what reasoning the courts have for ignoring common sense and the plain text of the bill of rights–other than racism.
The thing is - most civil stuff (that’s not mediated or settled) also goes through the real courts.