Some cases of false arrest/imprisonment occurr because non-governmental actors LIE to police/prosecutors, etc, accusing someone of a crime he/she did not commit. There is only so much that can be done to prevent that type of false imprisonment/arrest.

However in this case, the illegal deportation was accomplished by government actors exclusively. There is no one to blame but the government itself. That, to me, is more egregious. Government actors, supposedly doing their job, who do not care to do it properly and who stomp on the rights of minority Americans because they assume they are “foreign” or “other.” I feel equally strongly about false arrest/imprisonment that occurs because of police misconduct, testilying, and prosecutorial suppression of exculpatory evidence.

It’s one thing if random citizens lie. It’s another thing when people use their position of trust and power to punish people they believe to be guilty of something without taking the time to sort out the facts or do their job properly. And especially when it’s because of race. That’s unconstitutional. The people responsible should lose their jobs, because they don’t care enough about the trust we have placed in them to do their jobs carefully and competently according to the laws of our country. And Mr. Guzman and his family should be compensated for the direct harm that our government perpetrated on them completely illegally.

I’m not sure what you mean by this.

The House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren held a hearing the other week addressing “Problems with ICE Interrogation, Detention, and Removal Procedures.”

She and a number of other House members DIRECTLY addressed the Pedro Guzman case, asking the ICE official some harsh questions and demanding answers.

Pedro Guzman’s attorney was present and provided testimony as was an attorney from the Florence project who spoke specifically about how ICE does not provide appropriate accommodations to people with disabilities and indeed that people with mental disabilties were being detained and even pushed towards deportation.

It was a great hearing that took something that was wholly in the media and disability blogging community and really put it under a magnifying glass…a Congressional magnifying glass (after all, they’re the ones who fund ICE).

The hearing information and testimony is available at: http://judiciary.house.gov/oversight.aspx?ID=410

and by Monday I hope to have a summary available on my site.

One of the sadder aspects of the hearing was that the disability community was not present to reinforce the importance of this, especially in light of the recent problems with law enforcement and disability. But hopefully, that will not be the case should this arise again.

This Comment/Response is Cross-Posted at Gimp Parade (Thanks Kay!)

Day Al-Mohamed
http://www.DayinWashington.com

He’s mentally disabled. I don’t think that if he is successful in this lawsuit that he is going to give up his job packaging high-yield securities to go buy a house on the French Riviera.

So I feel sorry for Guzman, as I do for everyone who is later vindicated. I generally support restitution for people who are harmed in that fashion. But I don’t think this is much different from those other cases. Am I missing something?