EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso County Commissioners Court voted on Monday, June 23, in favor of a resolution seeking “transparency and due process” from federal agents who are rounding people up outside of hearing rooms in El Paso as part of a nationwide push to target all undocumented migrants who may be subject to removal, El Paso County said in a news release.
The County said people are being taken into custody — including people who have legal authorization or are even citizens — by masked, armed agents who often have no identification or warrants.
These situations are “spreading fear in many communities, sparking a grassroots backlash, and raising significant issues about abuse of power by the current federal administration,” read the news release.
“I put forth this resolution, which is similar to ones first passed in Hays County and now adopted by other local governments, because of the stories we are hearing from El Paso and around the country,” El Paso County Commissioner David Stout said. “Targeting entire communities because of their skin color, language, or national origin for mass roundups is un-American. If this can be done to one community, it can be done to others.”
The County said the resolution calls for a clear, consistent, and constitutionally sound process for the handling of individuals, undocumented migrants or otherwise, by any agency or organization operating within El Paso County.
This process must also include timely and transparent notification detailing who was taken, under what authority, where they were transported, and why such actions were undertaken, the County said.
The County also urges every city council and county commissioners court to adopt similar resolutions reaffirming the timeless American principles of “fairness, justice, and human dignity.”
“El Pasoans have attending hearings in the Downtown federal administrative building and in the federal courthouse to witness the inhumane, mass-dismissal of the hopes and dreams of people who are trying to stay in the country. Several shared their stories of what they have seen at the courthouse, in the murky immigration system, and in the communities where masked agents now roam,” read the news release.
“On the way home I realized that for the first time in my life, and I am 73 years old … I was frightened, in my own country, of my own government. Things have gotten even worse since April,” stated attorney and retired Judge Linda Chew, who shared a story about escorting a couple who were legally in the U.S. to ensure they were able to pass safely through a border checkpoint in April.
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