Beltway Area Indymedia

Last Thursday, Aug 23, Immigration agents sunk to a new low in fascism and brutality. While ICE was being protested at their headquarters, they sent agents to a SOCCER GAME at 11th and Irving sts for yet another roundup! ALL persons looking Latino were detained and ordered to show ID, whites allowed to leave.

Although their is NO LEGAL OBLIGATION to show ID in this kind of circumstance, ICE ignored the law, blocked all exists from the soccer fields, let all non-Latino people leave-and demanded ID from all people they judged to be Latino.

This is not even like a workplace raid where they use excuses about social security numbers, etc to get warrants. They cannot claim probable cause at a soccer match, therefore nobody is required by law to show ID. Of course, ICE relies on heavily armed intimidation to prevent people form exercising their rights.

These racist thugs have shown they understand nothing but force and mindless brutality. Now they are saying immigrants cannot even play a game of soccer without being vulnerable to the jackbooted gestapo of ICE.

This kind of activity , and the sort of legislation we've seen in places like Prince William County are reminescent of the sort of laws the Nazi Holocaust began with (circa 1935), and the sort of activities the Gestapo used to break themselves in.

Was Thursday's raid a retaliatory strike against immigrants for daring to speak out at ICE's headquarters?

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More from an email I received on the subject:

Dear Friends:

I would like to alert you to another recent ICE oppression that went widely
unnoticed here in Washington, D.C.

Last Thursday afternoon (8/23) at about 5:30 p.m., ICE officers raided a pick-up soccer
game at the field located at the corner of 11th & Irving, NW, where Latino youth
and other mostly immigrant individuals congregate to play soccer.

About 35 young people were on the field at the time. Entrances to the field
were blocked, and only the Latinos were made to line-up along the wall and were
checked for weapons and asked to present their IDs. Non-Latinos were allowed to
leave the field. I am told that four youth were detained and taken into custody
by ICE officials following the raid.

An African immigrant friend who was present during this raid hesitated before
leaving the field. He wanted to stay and protest the illegal nature of this
raid, but he declined to do so, because he feared for his own VISA status and
possible retaliation.

Please let people in the area who work with youth know about this situation, and please inform youth of their rights, and
please alert the media and anyone else you can when you are made aware of such
raids and situations of blatant discrimination in our community.