The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
– ICE Executes Largest Single Workplace Raid In A Decade; 86 Illegals Arrested:
Ten people were arrested on federal criminal charges, one person was arrested on state charges and 86 immigrants were detained for being in the country illegally.
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– American Citizen Held By Immigration Enforcement For Over 3 Years Without Lawyer:
This Week’s Intelligence
American Citizen Held by Immigration Enforcement for Over 3 Years Without Lawyer
“I am an American citizen,” Davino Watson pleaded with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents, judges, and jailers. But to no avail; he was held in detention for over 3 years as a deportable illegal immigrant.
What did his court appointed lawyer have to say ? Nothing, because he was never assigned one. After all, illegal immigrants are not afforded the same rights of the accused and due process guaranteed to American citizens. The only problem: Davino Watson was in fact an American citizen.
Eventually, Watson was released and managed to get a meager court settlement of $82,500. But he would never see the money. Two weeks ago, an appeals court ruled that Watson is not entitled to the compensation. Turns out the statute of limitations expired–while he was still in ICE custody!
What this means:
Read moreAmerican Citizen Held By Immigration Enforcement For Over 3 Years Without Lawyer
– Trump On A Roll, Fires Director Of Immigration And Customs Enforcement:
Having said the infamous words “you’re fired” once already this evening, when President Trump relieved acting AG Sally Yates of her duties just after 9pm Eastern, and perhaps realizing just how much he missed the sound, moments ago Trump also relieved acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Daniel Ragsdale, who was replaced with Thomas Homan, who previously led ICE’s “efforts to identify, arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens, including those who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who enter the United States illegally or otherwise undermine the integrity of our immigration laws and our border control efforts.”
There was no immediate reason given for Ragsdale’s dismissal.
The full statement from DHS Secretary Kelly announcing Homan taking over as ICE Director is below.
Read moreTrump On A Roll, Fires Director Of Immigration And Customs Enforcement
– Big Brother Is Watching – New Emails Reveal Homeland Security Tracks License Plates At Gun Shows:
Newly discovered emails from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), reveal efforts of the federal government to track American citizens who visit gun shows across the country. The discovery came via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Wall Street Journal that revealed internal emails from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent requesting the support of local California police officers to “deploy license plate readers” at a 2010 gun show in Del Mar, California.
In an email titled “Request for Assistance,” an ICE investigator wrote, “We would like to see if you can support an outbound guns/ammo operation on (redacted) at the Crossroads (Del Mar) Gun Show. We would like to deploy license plate readers.” The email, whose sender and recipient are redacted, includes a large section of operational details that are also redacted.
– Austria ice storm – So bad that authorities use tanks to move supplies (Ice Age Now, Dec 9, 2014):
Entire towns cut off by thousands of fallen trees and ice-covered roads – More than 60 major roads are closed
4 Dec 2014 – Conditions worsened in the on-going ice storm in Lower Austria and Burgenland on Thursday.
Large areas of the eastern part of Austria have been brought to a standstill, with fire services calling in the military after finding ice-covered roads impassable in emergency vehicles.
Roads, trees and houses are covered in at least a centimeter of solid ice, leaving thousands of homes cut off and without power.
Read moreAustria Ice Storm … So Bad That Authorities Use Tanks To Move Supplies
– Department of Homeland Security cancels national license-plate tracking plan (Washington Post, Feb 19, 2014):
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of a plan by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to develop a national license-plate tracking system after privacy advocates raised concern about the initiative.
The order came just days after ICE solicited proposals from companies to compile a database of license-plate information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers. Officials said the database was intended to help apprehend fugitive illegal immigrants, but the plan raised concerns that the movements of ordinary citizens under no criminal suspicion could be scrutinized.
Read moreHomeland Security Cancels National License-Plate Tracking Plan
– DHS buys 7000 full-auto assault rifles, calls them ‘personal defense weapons’ (Natural News, Jan 28, 2013):
In yet another huge blow to the rhetoric and narrative of the Obama administration and its desire to disarm the American public, a DHS bid has been uncovered (see documents below) showing that the Department of Homeland Security recently put out an offer to purchase 7,000 full-auto “assault weapons” to be used domestically, inside the USA.
Keep in mind that President Obama is on the record saying, “AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals; that they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities.”
But it seems he really means they don’t belong on the streets of our cities unless they are in the hands of homeland security enforcers, in which case they can be FULL-AUTO assault weapons.
The DHS bid for 7,000 full-auto assault weapons is found by clicking here. The original credit for discovering this goes, to my best knowledge, to Awr Hawkins at Breitbart.com.
In the hands of the government, they’re called “Personal Defense Weapons”
The juiciest part of this bid is the use of the phrase “Personal Defense Weapons” to describe the full-auto AR-15s being purchased by DHS.
Apparently, when YOU hold an AR-15, it’s an “assault rifle.” But magically, if you hand that same rifle to an armed government homeland security enforcer, it instantly transforms itself into a “personal defense weapon.”
The request for bid actually says:
Read moreHomeland Security Buys 7000 Full-Auto Assault Rifles, Calls Them ‘PERSONAL DEFENSE WEAPONS’
See also:
– Reality Check: Interview With President Obama On The NDAA … Actions Speak Louder Than Words (Video)
– Obama White House Demands Military Prisons For Americans Under NDAA
– Pulitzer Prize Journalist Chris Hedges Warns of Physical Roundups Under Obama (Video)
– Obama’s Change: Killing Without Trial, Spying Without Warrant (Video) – OBAMA 2012!
– Black Panther Veteran Warns Of A Trojan Horse Named Obama (Video)
– Ron Paul On Indefinite Detention: The Tyranny Continues
– Homeland Security graduates first Corps of Obama’s Brown Shirts – Homeland Youth (Infowars, Oct 18, 2012):
The federal government calls them FEMA Corps. But they conjure up memories of the Hitler Youth of 1930’s Germany. Regardless of their name, the Dept of Homeland Security has just graduated its first class of 231 Homeland Youth. Kids, aged 18-24 and recruited from the President’s AmeriCorp volunteers, they represent the first wave of DHS’s youth corps, designed specifically to create a full time, paid, standing army of FEMA Youth across the country.
On September 13, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security graduated its first class of FEMA Corps first-responders. While the idea of having a volunteer force of tens of thousands of volunteers scattered across the country to aid in times of natural disasters sounds great, the details and timing of this new government army is somewhat curious, if not disturbing.
DHS raising an armed army
The first problem one finds with this ‘new army’ is the fact that they are mere children. Yes, 18 is generally the legal age a person can sign a contract, join the military or be tried as an adult. But ask any parent – an 18, 20 or even a 24 year-old is still a naïve, readily-influenced kid.
The second problem with this announcement and program is its timing. Over the past two years, President Obama has signed a number of Executive Orders suspending all civil and Constitutional rights and turning over management of an America under Martial Law to FEMA. Also in that time, domestic federal agencies under DHS, including FEMA, have ordered billions of rounds of ammunition as well as the corresponding firearms. Admittedly, these new weapons and ammunition aren’t to be used in some far-off war or to fight forest fires in California, but right here on the streets of America.
Read moreHomeland Security Graduates First Corps Of Obama’s Brown Shirts – Homeland Youth
– ICE Agents Sue to Stop Obama’s Deferred Deportation Policy (FOX News, Aug 23, 2012):
Disgruntled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are suing their bosses over changes made to deportation policy by President Barack Obama.
A lawsuit
filed Thursday on behalf of 10 ICE agents against the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and ICE Director John Morton asks the courts to overturn the June 15 directive by Obama to suspend deportation proceedings and offer work authorization to some immigrants brought here illegally as children.
The ICE agents accuse the Obama administration of keeping them from enforcing immigration law, and of overstepping Congress by changing deportation policy through a directive rather than legislation.
“The Directive commands ICE officers to violate federal law,” the lawsuit says.
Read moreICE Agents Sue Homeland Security To Stop Obama’s Deferred Deportation Policy
From the article:
The documents that detail the relationship between the federal government and the Sinaloa Cartel have still not been released or subjected to review — citing matters of national security.
National security? Oh, sure!
Don’t steal (kill and drug people), …
… our government hates competition.
You can’t make this stuff up!
– High-Ranking Mexican Drug Cartel Member Makes Explosive Allegation: ‘Fast and Furious’ Is Not What You Think It Is (The Blaze, Aug 9, 2012):
A high-ranking Mexican drug cartel operative currently in U.S. custody is making startling allegations that the failed federal gun-walking operation known as “Fast and Furious” isn’t what you think it is.
It wasn’t about tracking guns, it was about supplying them — all part of an elaborate agreement between the U.S. government and Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel to take down rival cartels.
The explosive allegations are being made by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, known as the Sinaloa Cartel’s “logistics coordinator.” He was extradited to the Chicago last year to face federal drug charges.
Zambada-Niebla claims that under a “divide and conquer” strategy, the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa Cartel through Operation Fast and Furious in exchange for information that allowed the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to take down rival drug cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly permitted to traffic massive amounts of drugs across the U.S. border from 2004 to 2009 — during both Fast and Furious and Bush-era gunrunning operations — as long as the intel kept coming.
– Obama Administration Ends States Right to Enforce Immigration Laws, ICE Mostly Won’t Respond (Intel Hub, June 25, 2012):
On the same day that a Supreme Court ruling stroke down key provisions of the controversial Arizona immigration law, President Obama has ended a federal program that allowed state and local police to deputize officers in order to make federal immigration arrests.
With a stroke of his pen Obama has effectively ended state immigration enforcement, forcing states to now call upon the infamous Department of Homeland Security’s Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) wing in order to deport ANY illegal.
Read moreObama Regime Ends States Right To Enforce Immigration Laws
Before:
– DHS Buys Enough Ammo To Wage Seven-Year War Against The American People
– DHS agencies to buy up to 7,000 new 5.56x45mm NATO ‘personal defense weapons’ (Activist Post, June 12, 2012):
The behemoth Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking up to 7,000 select fire (meaning that they are capable of both semi-automatic and automatic fire) 5.56x45mm North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) personal defense weapons (PDWs) on top of the hundreds of millions of hollow point rounds they recently acquired.
Unfortunately, the reason for both of these major purchases and the continuing heavy armament of DHS agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to go unexplained.
Read moreDHS Agencies To Buy Up To 7,000 New 5.56x45mm NATO ‘Personal Defense Weapons’
– DHS Considers Collecting DNA From Kids; DEA and US Marshals Already Do (Electronic Froniter Foundation, May 14, 2012):
Documents just released by US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in response to one of EFF’s Freedom of Information Act requests show that DHS is considering collecting DNA from kids ages 14 and up—and is exploring expanding its regulations to allow collection from kids younger than that.
The proposal appears to be working its way through DHS in the wake of regulations from the Department of Justice that require all federal agencies—including DHS and its components such as ICE—to collect DNA from individuals arrested for federal crimes as well as “from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States,” whether or not they have been involved in criminal activity. While the law specifically exempts a few classes of “aliens,” the documents we received show DHS may start DNA collection from anyone it fingerprints. Currently, that’s any child over 14 who’s detained, but we also found records that show ICE could lower that age even more.
Read moreDHS Considers Collecting DNA From Kids; DEA and US Marshals Already Do
– Obama admin. let grenades walk in Fast and Furious, documents show (Daily Caller, May 2, 2012):
In a shocking development in the Operation Fast and Furious investigation, documents show Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents allowed grenade parts to walk in addition to guns.The emails also show Obama administration officials acknowledging that they may lose track of grenades but would still be able to accomplish their original objective even if the grenades explode.
According to an internal email that was provided to Congress by the Department of Justice and first reported by CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson — who’s been the media’s most dogged reporter in tracking down facts on Fast and Furious – ATF began watching accused smuggler Jean Baptiste Kingery’s AK-47 purchases in 2004. In the 2009 internal ATF email, Obama administration officials admitted they believed Kingery was “trafficking them into Mexico.”
The 2009 email shows the ATF officials had then become aware of Kingery’s alleged grenade trafficking.
Read moreObama Regime Let GRENADES Walk In Operation ‘Fast And Furious’, Documents Show
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) researchers use advanced modeling and simulation equipment as they work on the DHS Control Systems Security Program (CSSP) in this handout photo taken April 28, 2010 at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho (Reuters/Chris Morgan/Idaho National Laboratory)
– DHS won’t explain its order of 450 million hollow point bullets (RT, April 4, 2012):
After 9/11, the United States government created the Department of Homeland Security to prevent future acts of terrorism and deal with other domestic issues. Now in order to keep doing such, the agency is asking for 450 million hollow point bullets.
The DHS has signed off on an “indefinite delivery” from defense contractors ATK that will include, for some reason, nearly 500 million high-power ammunition for .40 caliber firearms. The department has yet to discuss why they are ordering such a massive bevy of bullets for an agency that has limited need domestically for doing harm, but they say they expect to continue receiving shipments from the manufacturer for the next five years, during which they plan to blow through enough ammunition to execute more people than there are in the entire United States.
Read moreDHS Won’t Explain Its Order Of 450 Million Hollow Point Bullets
– ATK Secures .40 Caliber Ammunition Contract with Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS, ICE) (Market Watch, March 12, 2012):
ANOKA, Minn., March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — ATK announced that it is being awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) agreement from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS, ICE) for .40 caliber ammunition. This contract features a base of 12 months, includes four option years, and will have a maximum volume of 450 million rounds.
ATK was the incumbent and won the contract with its HST bullet, which has proven itself in the field. The special hollow point effectively passes through a variety of barriers and holds its jacket in the toughest conditions. HST is engineered for 100-percent weight retention, limits collateral damage, and avoids over-penetration.
“We are proud to extend our track record as the prime supplier of .40 caliber duty ammunition for DHS, ICE,” said Ron Johnson, President of ATK’s Security and Sporting group. “The HST is a proven design that will continue to serve those who keep our borders safe.”
– “We Don’t Need a Warrant, We’re ICE” (ACLU, Oct. 21, 2011):
On the night of October 20, 2010, Angel Escobar and Jorge Sarmiento were in bed in their small, two-bedroom apartment in the Clairmont complex in Nashville. The doors and windows were all shut and locked. Suddenly there was a loud banging at the door and voices shouting “Police!” and “Policia!” When no one answered, the agents tried to force the door open. Scared, Jesus hid in a closet. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began hitting objects against the bedroom windows, trying to break in. Without a search warrant and without consent, the ICE agents eventually knocked in the front door and shattered a window, shouting racial slurs and storming into the bedrooms, holding guns to their heads. When asked if they had a warrant, one agent reportedly said, “We don’t need a warrant, we’re ICE,” and, gesturing to his genitals, “the warrant is coming out of my balls.”
The Fourth Amendment strictly prohibits warrantless intrusions into private homes and the Constitution’s protections apply to both citizens and non-citizens alike. In the absence of a judicially authorized warrant, there must be voluntary and knowing consent; ICE officers forcing themselves into someone’s home does not constitute consent.
The ACLU and ACLU of Tennessee this week filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of fifteen residents of the apartment complex who were subjected to this large-scale, warrantless raid by ICE agents and Metro Nashville police officers.
Read more‘We Don’t Need A Warrant, We’re ICE’ … ‘The Warrant Is Coming Out Of My Balls’
– Union President Testifies: ICE HQ Ordered Agents Not to Arrest Illegals–Including Fugitives (CNS News, Oct. 20, 2011):
Chris Crane, president of a union that represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, testified in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration last week that ICE agents have been told by ICE headquarters not to arrest illegal aliens who do not have a prior criminal conviction even if they are fugitives who have been ordered deported by an immigration judge or are individuals who have illegally re-entered the United States after being deported and thus have perpetrated a felony.
“Aliens who could not be arrested included but were not limited to ICE fugitives that had been ordered deported by a federal immigration judge as well as aliens who had illegally re-entered the United States after deportation, a federal felony,” Crane, who is also an active-duty ICE agent, told the committee on Oct. 12.
“ICE officers and agents also alleged that they were not permitted to arrest or even speak to confirmed or suspected illegal aliens encountered in the field during operations and were prohibited from running standard criminal record checks for wants and warrants,” Crane testified.
Read moreICE HQ Ordered Agents Not to Arrest Illegals–Including Fugitives
– VeriSign demands website takedown powers (The Register, Oct. 11, 2011):
VeriSign, which manages the database of all .com internet addresses, wants powers to shut down “non-legitimate” domain names when asked to by law enforcement.
The company said today it wants to be able to enforce the “denial, cancellation or transfer of any registration” in any of a laundry list of scenarios where a domain is deemed to be “abusive”.
VeriSign should be able to shut down a .com or .net domain, and therefore its associated website and email, “to comply with any applicable court orders, laws, government rules or requirements, requests of law enforcement or other governmental or quasi-governmental agency, or any dispute resolution process”, according to a document it filed today with domain name industry overseer ICANN.
The company has already helped law enforcement agencies in the US, such as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, seize domains that were allegedly being used to sell counterfeit goods or facilitate online piracy, when the agency first obtained a court order.
That seizure process has come under fire because, in at least one fringe case, a seized .com domain’s website had already been ruled legal by a court in its native Spain.
Senior ICE agents are on record saying that they believe all .com addresses fall under US jurisdiction.
But the new powers would be international and, according to VeriSign’s filing, could enable it to shut down a domain also when it receives “requests from law enforcement”, without a court order.
Read moreVeriSign Demands Website Takedown Powers … Without Needing A Court Order
See also:
– Feds Really Do Seem To Think That Linking To Infringing Content Can Be A Jailable Offense
– ICE Arrests Operator Of Seized Domain; Charges Him With Criminal Copyright Infringement
Brian McCarthy ran a website, channelsurfing.net, that linked to various sites where you could watch online streams of TV shows and sports networks. A couple months ago, the government seized his domain name and on Friday they arrested him and charged him with criminal copyright infringement — punishable by five years in prison.
We just obtained a copy of the complaint (below) that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made against him — and they don’t even allege that he made a copy of anything! Just that he ran what they call a “linking website” which linked to various sites with copyrighted material. Under that sort of thinking, everyone who’s sent around a link to a copyrighted YouTube video is a criminal.
Read moreHomeland Security and ICE Arrest Man For LINKING To Other Websites
“If you don’t have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he’s illegal, we can make him disappear.”
Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008.
Also present was Amnesty International’s Sarnata Reynolds, who wrote about the incident in the 2009 report “Jailed Without Justice” and said in an interview, “It was almost surreal being there, particularly being someone from an organization that has worked on disappearances for decades in other countries. I couldn’t believe he would say it so boldly, as though it weren’t anything wrong.”
ICE agents regularly impersonate civilians–OSHA inspectors, insurance agents, religious workers–in order to arrest longtime US residents who have no criminal history. Jacqueline Stevens has reported a web-exclusive companion piece on ICE agents’ ruse operations.
Pendergraph knew that ICE could disappear people, because he knew that in addition to the publicly listed field offices and detention sites, ICE is also confining people in 186 unlisted and unmarked subfield offices, many in suburban office parks or commercial spaces revealing no information about their ICE tenants–nary a sign, a marked car or even a US flag. (Presumably there is a flag at the Veterans Affairs Complex in Castle Point, New York, but no one would associate it with the Criminal Alien Program ICE is running out of Building 7.) Designed for confining individuals in transit, with no beds or showers, subfield offices are not subject to ICE Detention Standards. The subfield office network was mentioned in an October report by Dora Schriro, then special adviser to Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, but no locations were provided.
Read moreAmerica’s Secret ICE Detention Castles: Jailed Without Justice
WTF?!
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The IntercontinentalExchange is probing trades in U.S. dollar index futures that briefly showed a massive 9% jump on Friday morning.
The lead contract surged as high as 82.18, up from a 75.38 close on Thursday. Such a move was improbable given that in spot markets, the dollar’s moves against major currencies such as the euro were limited to about 1%.
The ICE agreed, and according to an exchange official, all trades above 76.50 were being cancelled. The ICE was still investigating the cause of the incident, the official said.
Dollar index futures were still elevated after the incident, up a more modest 0.7% to 75.91.
The move briefly had an impact on other markets, as futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 99 points.
Read moreICE probing massive 9% jump in US dollar index futures
