Border Patrol Accused Of Racial Profiling

Oh good grief...

LOS ANGELES - A civil rights lawyer on Wednesday demanded authorities investigate a roundup of hundreds of undocumented immigrants in what he called a desert dragnet based on racial profiling.
In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, attorney Luis Carrillo claimed U.S. Border Patrol agents only pulled over people with brown skin in the five-day operation known as "Operation Desert Denial."
More than 600 undocumented immigrants were detained from May 19 to May 24 along Interstate 40 near Barstow.
No light-skinned people were detained, Carrillo said.
"They gave people with blue eyes and light skin a free pass," he said.
Carrillo also criticized authorities for focusing efforts far from the border. He said he did not plan to file a lawsuit against the Border Patrol.

Do you think that maybe the 600 detained illegal immigrants were all brown-skinned because there aren't that many white people trying to illegally immigrate from Mexico?

I'm just sayin'...

You can read more from Rob Port at SayAnythingBlog.com

Comments: 4

Jonathan S. Jun 2, 2006, 4:50pm EDT

Wow, Rob, good point. I think it is hilarious that someone, who is obviouslly Hispanic, is up in arms due to the fact that the Border Patrol is going after Illegal Mexican Immigrants, because THAT IS THEIR JOB. Apparently, they are supposed to go after Legal Americans instead..... things that make you go WTF.

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Cat Warren Jun 2, 2006, 5:36pm EDT

Hmm. I don't know enough about body types in Mexico to make a judgment on this. It seems like it would make perfect sense to the patrol. On the other hand, I can see this as being an oversimplification of the problem. An interesting quandry.

George McNaughton Jun 2, 2006, 5:50pm EDT

Up here in Vermont we have occasional IMS roadblocks where they scan the passengers. Some of the local Pakistani's and other mid-eastern looking people have just taped a copy of their papers to the car window. What in the heck, of course they are racial profiling -- no we should be stopping Finnish looking people, you never know when an escaped Viking may be trying to sneak into America!

Cena W. Jun 4, 2006, 1:54pm EDT

Thanks for the post Rob.

This is certainly one for the "I thought I had heard it all category."

Border Patrol Accused Of Racial Profiling

Comments: 4

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