Institutional Racism, ICE Raids, and Immigration Reform
![handle is hein.journals/usflr44 and id is 311 raw text is: Institutional Racism, ICE Raids, and
Immigration Reform
By BILL ONG HING*
Introduction
ON A COLD, RAW DECEMBER MORNING in Marshalltown, Iowa,
Teresa Blanco woke up to go to work at the local Swift meat packing
plant. Hundreds of others across the town were doing the same thing,
in spite of the miserable mixture of sleet, mist, and slush that awaited
them outside their front doors. As they made their way to the plant,
the workers, who were from Mexico, did not mind the weather.'
Unfortunately, the workers' day turned into a nightmare soon af-
ter they reported for work. Not long after the plant opened, heavily
armed agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agency (ICE) stormed onto the scene. Pandemonium broke out.
The workers panicked; many began to run; others tried to hide, some
in dangerous and hazardous areas.2 As the ICE agents began round-
ing up all the workers, they ordered those who were U.S. citizens to go
to the cafeteria. Noncitizens were directed to a different section of the
plant. Agents shouted out instructions: documenteds in one line, un-
documenteds in another. If an agent suspected that the person in the
citizens' line was undocumented, the agent would instruct the person
to get into the undocumented line. More than one individual was
told, 'You have Mexican teeth. You need to go to that line [for un-
documented persons] and get checked.'3
* Professor of Law, University of California, Davis. Many thanks to Rhonda Magee,
Jennifer Chac6n, and David Thronson for their insightful comments on an early draft of
this Article. Thanks also to Victoria Hassid who provided me with important research
assistance and to the USF Law Review Symposium editors for their incredibly helpful
suggestions.
1. NAT'L COMM'N ON ICE MISCONDUcT & VIOLATIONS OF FOURTH AMENDMENT
RIGHTS, COMMISSION HEARING: DES MOINES, IOwA 95-99 (Apr. 29, 2008) (unpublished tran-
script, on file with author) [hereinafter IOWA HEARING].
2. Id. at 39-41.
3. Id. at 66.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/usflr44&div=18&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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