Like this:

A couple months ago, I was standing in line at a Subway on Shepherd and Washington, and I overheard a conversation that perked my ears and turned a couple heads. Two Caucasian women were discussing moving into their new apartment. One girl mentioned hiring a moving service, while the other suggested to “get some Mexican’s off of Washington because they are cheap and happy with whatever you pay them.” They either didn’t see or didn’t care to see the other Mexican, Hispanic, and Latinos standing behind them.

Immigrants don’t have the luxury of writing a resume and going on interviews in hopes of getting a job. Washington Ave. is known to be a place where men wait for any working opportunity they can get. As cars pull over, men dash to be among the fortunate few that get to work.

There are many streets like Washington Ave, where Immigrant men’s only crime is being a hard worker in search of an opportunity.

On January 30th, 2009, CASA de Maryland released a video that uncovered the details of an Immigration & Customs Enforcment (ICE) raid in Southeast Baltimore, MA. that happened January 27th 2007. The footage shows ICE agents arresting 24 men under the suspicion of being illegal immigrants. The agents were not in uniform, did not offer a reason for the arrest, and they posed as contractors.

CASA de Maryland filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for the release of all documents related to the raid. According to the Baltimore Sun, staff attorney for CASA, Justin Cox comments,

In order to arrest someone in this country, you need probable cause that that particular person has committed a crime. And in order to detain someone, to question them about their immigration status, again you need individualized and reasonable suspicion that that person, that individual person is undocumented in this country.

WYPR news from Baltimore reports that Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP, said that this incident was clearly racial profiling.

The issue here is, what was the impetus to have them arrested, to have them harassed, to have them detained? And it was only one issue: the fact that they were of one ethnicity. That itself is racial profiling.” NAACP classify this issue as racial profiling.

In its lawsuit, Casa of Maryland claims that federal immigration agents unlawfully targeted Latinos in the raid while ignoring people of other ethnicities.

ICE’s mission statement is,

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, protects national security and upholds public safety by targeting criminal networks and terrorist organizations that seek to exploit vulnerabilities in our immigration system, in our financial networks, along our border, at federal facilities and elsewhere in order to do harm to the United States. The end result is a safer, more secure America.

Is it possible that ICE has forgotten their mission statement? They are targeting day workers who aren’t doing any real crime other than being hard workers.