Aside from getting prominent mention in this SR Chad Sokol Story:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/feb/03/border-patrol-arrests-kept-secret/
They all are on a mission advocating an end to US Border Patrol and ICE actions with respect to US Immigration Laws, their stories and public Facebook and Twitter postings should make that perfectly clear.
Mohanad Elshieky AKA Mohannad El-Shieky AKA Muhanad Saleh and his Twitter posts sure have some folks including the media on a mission.
In the Chad Sokol story Mr. Sokol complains about Border Patrol detentions being kept secret, but the question I have is if it is so important to know the names of those arrested why not spend some of the great financial resources of the Spokesman Review and submit a FOIA seeking the names instead of just using Google to try and get the info? Even if the FOIA is initially denied as most are the SR sure as heck could use the extensive assets of the Cowles family to battle the denial, if there was one, all the way to SCOTUS if need be and try and get the policy changed.
Another option the Spokesman Review has is to send longtime SR Reporter and the SR Bureau Chief in Olympia Jim Camden on the 46-minute drive to Tacoma to attend the Immigration Hearings at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) so he can take notes and get names. It would also be a good place to get some interviews with some of the folks that, present, defend, and hear the Immigration Cases which might provide a balanced perspective.
One suggestion I would have for Jim Camden if the SR takes my advice is to take along a pair of boots if he decides to go into the vehicle seizure area… it can be a muddy mess sometimes.
https://www.ice.gov/detention-facility/tacoma-northwest-detention-center
https://www.ice.gov/detention-facility/tacoma-northwest-detention-center
Hector Quiroga a Spokesman Review Correspondent who is also a local Immigration Lawyer and GU Law Grad as well as kind of the go to guy for local and national media including Chad Sokol gave an interesting quote in the Sokol story:
“In a federal (criminal) case, we can at least see the indictment and who the person is and what the charges are,” said Hector Quiroga, a local immigration attorney who has represented clients arrested at the Intermodal Center.
No such records are publicly available in an immigration case.
“We have to go through a huge process to get information,” Quiroga said, describing a bureaucratic labyrinth where basic questions are often ignored or deflected. “I feel like I’m talking to myself sometimes.”
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/oct/30/trump-end-birthright-citizenship-for-some-us-born-/
Mr. Quiroga certainly with his immigration defense practice can provide some insight from the defense perspective and it is his livelihood after all , but I’m kind of confused by Mr. Quiroga’s statement? Yes, you are supposed to be able to see what the government has in a federal criminal case via Discovery, but I thought Dent v. Holder was still good law as far as Immigration Cases are concerned?
Paul Dillon the vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood in Eastern Washington, is without question one of those local hard charging activists and Freelancer for the SR and Inlander who founded an environmental news site published by the Spokesman-Review called Down To Earth and is also a Board Member for the Center for Justice. Mr. Dillon I can say with an extremely high degree of certainty is quite a Liberal gent, and there is nothing wrong with that, at least in my view.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/aug/16/protesters-decry-border-patrol-activity-at-spokane/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/mar/21/social-change-drives-spokane-teen-to-activism/
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/may/01/countys-earth-day-proclamation-became-lukewarm/
I think it would be pretty hard to dispute that Paul Dillon aside from not being a fan of President Donald Trump also isn’t a fan of the US Customs and Border Patrol.
Dianne Solis covers social justice issues and specializes in immigration for The Dallas Morning News. She’s a former foreign correspondent who was based in Mexico. She has journalism degrees from Northwestern University, Cal State University, Fresno, and a Nieman fellowship from Harvard.
https://www.dallasnews.com/author/dianne-solis
https://muckrack.com/dianne-solis-1/articles
If you read all of the Dianne Solis stories you might conclude that she also isn’t a fan of US Customs and Border Patrol, or for that matter President Trump…but that is up to you.
Fatma Marouf Professor of Law and Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Texas A&M University, certainly isn’t a fan of CBP or it appears President Trump
http://law.tamu.edu/faculty-staff/find-people/faculty-profiles/fatma-marouf
https://works.bepress.com/fatmamarouf/
I’m not quite understanding this statement by reporter Sokol:
“The immigration courts are secretive, too. They are not part of an independent judiciary, where openness and transparency are sacred principles. They also lack various constitutional safeguards required in criminal trials. Most immigrants appear in immigration court without an attorney.”
At first I thought maybe DOJ had changed things since my experience back in the day, but I sure can’t find where they did?
I don’t think anything has changed since August 2, 2018?
“We’re a part of DHS, so we’re beholden to DHS policy,” said Jason Givens, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman.
Chad Sokol did get a predictable quote from CBP Agent Jason Givens. I haven’t interviewed him, but I did interview his supervisor Bill Kingsford regarding the unknown comic case and found him to be very open about the local CBP’s bus boarding policy and how that policy was formulated based upon the SCOTUS decision in United States v. Drayton and the various Officer Safety Issues associated with boarding a bus, which may or may not be occupied with someone who could be dangerous, like for example a former Mexican Cop who had been arrested in Mexico in 2008 and 2009 on charges of homicide and drug possession and might not want to go back to Mexico.
I am all for government transparency and sometimes it takes diligence to get it, and like Mr. Sokol I think story shaping should be exposed and is “important information for people to have”.
I REPORT YOU DECIDE!!!
Buffalo Brian Breen 