SPLC Urges DHS to End Raids Terrorizing Latino Communities in North Alabama

"The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) urged the Department of Homeland Security today to end raids by federal immigration agents that have terrorized north Alabama families and that undermine federal efforts to protect the civil rights of the state’s Latino community in the wake of the state’s harsh new anti-immigrant law.  The letter was sent to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after the SPLC learned of raids at apartment complexes and mobile home parks in Fort Payne and Collinsville in recent days. Armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered homes without permission and even interrogated young children about their parents’ whereabouts.  The letter asks Napolitano to stop the raids and conduct an investigation into civil rights violations that may have taken place. It also notes that the raids undermined efforts by several federal agencies to protect the Latino community from civil rights violations resulting from the state’s anti-immigrant law, HB 56." - SPLC, Dec. 16, 2011.