Indiana Libertarians Protest Republican Snatching Immigrants

 About time for Libertarians to speak up.

Braun, ICE collaboration violates human rights (Indiana Capital Chronicle) by Evan McMahon lays out the Indiana Libertarian position - I think he hits the bull's eye.

Braun said the state will make 1,000 beds available in the Miami Correctional Facility to imprison people who have been convicted of nothing and have been given no due process rights. The Marion County Sheriff has said he will go along with the order, in part because the federal government pays him per detainee, while the state does not.

This is an affront to anyone who values liberty, limited government and human dignity. It wastes police resources — and Hoosiers’ tax money — in diverting them from searching for and prosecuting crimes against person and property by actual criminals to instead round up peaceful people who are seeking a better life. Immigrants work in our farms, factories and communities, shop at our stores, and contribute positively to our state’s economy and culture.

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 While Braun and Trump claim this is a roundup of “violent illegal immigrants,” the witch hunt has gone far beyond that. Of those being arrested, 71% have no criminal convictions at all – and among those who do, most are for minor offenses – and only 8% have been convicted of violent crimes. The number of those without any conviction being arrested and detained keeps rising.

However, Trump has been eager to not just deport the “violent” criminals, but to round up anyone who is Latino, Asian or Middle Eastern, treating everyone as a potential illegal immigrant, to meet the quota of 3,000 arrests per day vocalized by White House adviser Stephen Miller, while the administration gleefully touts deplorable conditions in detention centers and violates due process rights.

To desperately reach that goal, it means rounding up people who aren’t criminals, but who have fled oppressive communist and socialist regimes and lawfully sought asylum, revoking visas and green cards for students without explanation, and sweeping up U.S. citizens and throwing them in jail.

People showing up for their visa appointments — doing the right thing in good faith — are being arrested in court and taken to faraway detention facilities where they know nobody and have little chance of contacting representation. One was a 20-year-old Purdue student from South Korea who was on an active student visa, but arrested, detained and shipped to Louisiana at her hearing.

This is the work of a banana republic, not a republic bound by a Constitution that has a very clear mandate to protect due process rights and a tradition of “innocent until proven guilty.”

Mr. McMahon refers to human dignity - where has that idea is our politics? If we do not give others their dignity, then why should we think others will respect our humanity?

sch 8/12