Are ICE's "Cross Check" raids a doublecross? Please click "view original piece" above to hear radio program.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) claims that the people that it picked up in its most recent high profile operation, “Cross Check,” were folks that “you definitely wouldn’t want to live next to.” Never the show to take the government at their word, we decided to talk about who was really detained and discussed this issue with Jessica Vaughn of the Center for Immigration Studies and Donald Anthonyson of Families for Freedom. Jessica explained why she supported the action and explains why she believes that the problem with the Obama Administration’s approaches to ICE raids, like Cross Check is that they don't detain enough people. Donald tells us why he disagrees and why he believes that raids like these, that brand those detainees as the “worst of the worst,” end up dehumanizing people we would, and do, live next door to.

One of those people that we would want to live next to is apparently the father of Sgt. Marc Suarez, A veteran who recently returned from Afghanistan, Marc challenges the notion that those that were picked up in the Operation Cross Check were all the “worst of the worst” criminals by telling us about his father who was picked up in this most recent operation. Suarez explains that his father was on ICE’s radar for a drug offense that happened 14 years ago and even though he had completely changed his life since then he was picked up anyway. Alina Das, a Professor of Law at NYU, also calls in to discuss the broken immigration system in the U.S. and tells our listeners that there is no correlation between how undocumented immigrants are treated in the United States and how difficult it is immigrate to the U.S. legally.  To hear this segment, click here.