The Pink Flamingo :: ICE Agents Out of Control

Maximiliano Mateo-Mendez has two teenage boys who managed to get themselves in trouble with ICE. Mateo-Mendez is here, legally, checking up on his kids. He doesn't even live here, but in Santo Domingo. He has had a thriving business until a few weeks ago. After his boys managed to get themselves in trouble, for allegedly using false identifications, he flew to the US to check on them, and bail the kids out.

"...Mateo-Mendez, arrested and detained while in this country on a valid Dominican passport and visitor's visa, may eventually get his wish. But he's still being held in the Alamance County jail, facing more accusations that he violated the terms of his visa, according to a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Monday, Mateo-Mendez pleaded guilty to making false statements to a federal officer after a prosecutor from the U.S. Attorney's Office offered a plea agreement that gave Mateo-Mendez credit for the time he was jailed, avoiding a maximum punishment of six months imprisonment. Sworn statements from the immigration agent who arrested Mateo-Mendez said the Dominican citizen lied to him repeatedly about why he was in the United States. But Mateo-Mendez's defense attorney, Andrew McCoppin, said his client wasn't truthful only because Mateo-Mendez didn't want to worsen the situation for his two sons, who were appearing in court that day on criminal charges. Mateo-Mendez's case highlights the ability of immigration agents to question people on the street without the probable cause that limits other police agencies. Immigration lawyers and advocates worry this will help lead to greater levels of racial profiling and have a chilling effect on the willingness of immigrant crime victims and witnesses to talk to police and testify in court.

``To allow immigration agents to come into the federal and state courthouse and questioning people is really going to pose problems,'' said Sara Dill, a Miami-based immigration and criminal lawyer. Dill is a co-chairwoman of the American Bar Association's committee on immigration law and said the group is studying the legal rights of clients, especially as more local law enforcement agencies work closely with federal immigration agents to deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes...."

While there, Mateo-Mendez ran afoul of another one of those lovely ICE agents who doesn't believe in telling the truth, even when the US Marshal's Service has the video to prove other-wise. The problem is ICE has basically become an agency out of control with no accountability. Anyone who is in the country and not a US citizen who runs afoul of them, no matter why, legal or illegal, is subjected to indefinate inprisonment, just for not answering a question properly.
H/T Eristic-Ragemail.

According to the local papers, Maximiliano Mateo-Mendez was walking down the street, looking Hispanic. He was approached by out of control ICE Agent, detained, and has been rotting jail ever sense.

"...After Mateo-Mendez's sons were arrested by federal authorities, the father flew to Raleigh on May 3 using a valid Dominican passport and with a visitor's visa issued to him by U.S. authorities. Along with a number of other Dominican citizens, his sons, Maximo Mateo-Espinal and Wilkin Mateo-Espinal, had been accused of illegally using Puerto Rican identities. The group is also thought to be connected to a number of recent home invasions in the area, according to federal court documents.

On May 7, the day his sons had their initial appearances in the federal courthouse, ICE agent Stephen Cardwell approached Mateo-Mendez and the girlfriend of one of his sons outside the courthouse on New Bern Avenue.

In an affidavit filed in court documents, Cardwell initially said that court security officers told him that Mateo-Mendez and the woman had tried to get in the courthouse using insufficient identification.

But the U.S. Marshals Services log shows otherwise, indicating that Mateo-Mendez was allowed inside the building after showing valid identification, according to Pettit. Cardwell's suspicions also were raised when a Raleigh police officer spotted a car a few blocks away from the courthouse that was thought to be connected to the home invasions, according to statements made by Cardwell at a May 29 bond hearing.

Cardwell testified he took Mateo-Mendez, his son's girlfriend, and two other women who approached the group while the agent was there, in handcuffs back to an office to question the group further after he determined they were being untruthful.

McCoppin, the defense attorney, questioned why Cardwell didn't call a number available to agents to check the validity of Mateo-Mendez's visa instead of taking the group away in handcuffs.

Even while being questioned at ICE offices, Mateo-Mendez continued to deny that he was there to see his sons. But the three women said otherwise.

``He stated to me that he did not know,'' the two men, Cardwell said, according to a transcript of a court hearing where Mateo-Mendez unsuccessfully asked to be released on bond...."

It is rather obvious this man was simply trying to take care of his family and then leave to go back to the Dominican Republic. It is also obvious that ICE is an agency out of control, with no accountability. If this continues, we're soon going to start hearing about American Citizens being deported back to countries where ICE assumes they should live.