I Beg Your Pardon, I Promised You A Stonegarden.
MayorBob.
Posted to Legal on Fri Oct 19, 2007 at 02:09:34 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
"Welcome to Otero County New Mexico" proclaims the county web site, mentioning that the county is proud home to Holloman Air Force Base. But, while Otero County may be welcoming to F117 Nighthawks and F-22A Raptors, it's proven to be a bit less welcoming to people with Hispanic surnames. At least that's the contention of two groups of plaintiffs in suits filed in federal court. Both cases charge county officials with targeting Hispanics and violating the civil rights of legal residents and illegal immigrants during sheriff department operations this past summer.
Otero County is close to the Mexican border, and, as such, is a logical transit point for illegal immigrants from south of the border. Border security is, of course, a subject of much concern. Thus, the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last year they were going to stuff border state coffers to combat illegal immigration under the aegis of Operation Stonegarden. The more than (US)$1 million appropriated to New Mexico was supposed to "enhance coordination among state and federal law enforcement agencies at our borders." Apparently, John Blansett, Otero County sheriff, managed to latch onto some bucks for his own operations. The infusion of cash allowed the sheriff to take an active stance in combating illegal immigration. Only, according to the two suits filed, Otero sheriff deputies went beyond "active" into the area of "terrorizing."
What (pdf doc) the suits allege (pdf doc) is that, beginning this past summer, Blansett and his deputies conducted raids in the town of Chaparall. During these raids, officers: "violently invaded homes without warrant", "stopped vehicles and pedestrians without cause", "assaulted and battered" suspects, and fabricated "violations or suspected violations of law" to justify racial profiling. Ten plaintiffs in the first suit filed anonymously, fearing "violent retribution." The second suit alleges the state-sponsored violence and constitutional violations reached "a new and unconscionable level this summer." In both cases, it's alleged that officers used "a welter of lies, abuse, deceptions and fraud to enter homes, interrogate and arrest people." The ACLU of New Mexico filed the first suit and director Peter Simonson said:"The raids ... violated several basic guarantees that people who live in this country, regardless of their immigration status, are promised by the Constitution of the United States. These raids are symptomatic of the same sort of reactionary policies that our government has been using to try and govern immigration over the last several decades."
The Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR), which filed the second suit, said it had turned its information over to Otero County in the hopes the matter could be resolved quickly and quietly. Blansett and the Sheriff Department denied all allegations and aren't making public statements about the lawsuit. Otero County attorney Dan Bryant said the county is studying the allegations and preparing a response. Both suits allege violation of plaintiffs' Fourth and 14th Amendment rights. While the ACLU suit dates the start of these actions when the county came by the federal Stonegarden funds, the BNHR suit alleges that the illegal actions began long before Sheriff Blansett received those monies.
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