Some Thoughts on Immigration--Government Agents and The U.S. Constitution

I attended the showing of a film last Friday night (December 18,2009) at St. Bernard's Church on Lincoln Street. When the film was over I made the comment that I thought it was something that should be shown on "60 Minutes" or "20/20". Unfortunately it is a film that relatively few people will see. The film was about the government raid of a factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts two years ago where 31 people from Guatemala(?) and other countries were arrested by federal immigration agents. (They are called ICE Agents.) The film goes on to document the poor treatment with regard to verbal abuse and the plight of these undocumented immigrants in general. These particular people were taken to Fort Devens in Shirley, Ma. Families were separated. In some cases, fathers were at home with a baby not knowing where the mother had been taken. The mother ended up on a plane in handcuffs headed back home to Guatemala or wherever she came from without her husband or baby! These issues are not so simple as I so often hear as "Ship them out!"
The discussion that followed the film brought up various scenes in the film. All agreed that EVERYBODY IS ENTITLED TO BE TREATED WITH DIGNITY, AND THAT WE AS A NATION SHOULD RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS. Apparently these people caught in this raid were sworn at, called names, and otherwise insulted in ways that I am embarassed to write down here as an American! As I sat there, I was being brought back to when I was a young man and spent three years as a U.S. government agent. I was not an immigration agent, but I was a special agent for the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps. I worked in civillian clothes, had a set of credentials, a badge, a 38 caliber Colt revolver with a 2" barrel with a shoulder holster, and a plain colored new Chevrolet sedan to drive around in. I worked out of a field office with a SAIC(Special Agent in Charge) and other agents with specialty training. We had a "cover title" which was "First U.S. Army Research Group". Our "research" was supposed to be cold weather equipment in the White Mountains of New Hampshire especially Mt. Washington, one of the coldest places anywhere. In reality, we had nothing to do with any cold weather equipment and everything to do with the cold war at the time and trying to keep America's secrets from falling into the wrong hands. My training took place at Fort Holabird, Dundalk, Maryland. (Incidentally, this is the same place Ted Kennedy talks about in his book, "True Compass" but I have issues with what he says. But that is for another post.) I bring up my training at Fort Holabird because I was reminded again on Friday night of one fact that people pay lip service to but is something I thought very seriously about as a young man years ago and it is this: " We should always respect the U.S. Constitution and never take it for granted ." Please pay attention to what I am saying: In my training, I had a Captain Ballou. I will never forget that guy. He taught the subject called "Report Writing", and he was a stickler. I had good English teachers in high school and college who taught me grammar and writing skills, but nobody could match this guy. He beat them all. He, like all great teachers, would go beyond what he had to do. I remember him stressing with us that he wanted us to remember that we still lived in a democratic republic and were a country that would not tolerate a gestapo-type organization. He cautioned us against letting ego get in our way and to always remember that the United States Constitution was our real boss. Later when I was working as a special agent in military intelligence I was in a position to see the big picture. I knew the Table of Organization, so to speak, which included field offices in every major city in the United States and many minor cities had resident agents (including Worcester---I met him.) Here we were an "army" in civilian clothes going to work every day in shirt and tie but unknown to the civilian population. The thought occured to me several times back then how important the protections of that U.S. Constitution really were for the citizenry. I thought what a great help an organization such as the one I was in would be to a dictator!
We were not trained to swear at civilians or treat them with disrespect. There were times we had to put people under oath the same as in a court of law. Instead of us acting in a bad way, I can recall one time when a state governor wanted to charge our agents the tolls for riding on the toll road. Our SAIC, who also happened to be a West Point captain,went to the governor's office (in civilian clothes) and showed him his credentials. he then proceeded to explain that the federal government provided 90% of the funds to build the toll road and our agents were representatives of the federal government and should not have to pay the toll to ride on that road! The governor agreed, and we never again had to pay a toll anywhere in that state.
My life during those three cold war years was a fascinating experience. I was a military person in civilian clothes except for once a year when I had to qualify with the M-1 rifle at a military post. In all that time I dealt with hundreds of people in all walks of life: military,medical people, business people, college professors, police, scientists, ordinary citizens, bankers, and politicians. I never treated any of these people with anything but respect. Their station in life was not important to me. I was not trained to treat people according to their station in life. I would doubt that immigration agents are trained to swear at immigrants or to treat them with disrespect. Agents who do that are abusing their job.
Another issue that was brought up in the discussion was the plight of the young person who might have been born say in the Philippine Islands and come here at age two years with undocumented parents. Then at say age 19 he is "discovered" and deported. His whole life he has been an American but now overnight he has been put on a plane and transported to what to him is a foreign country. The poor fellow finds himself in a new country knowing nothing about the new place and probably in culture shock.
Now if you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have read the first episode of Adult Education in the Kingdom Of Blubarbaria--a fictitious place. If someone were unlucky enough to find himself deported as a bar--Blubararian to this place and having to learn the language he might end up at that learning center and need guidance services....and if that ex-politico still is there---He once told the level 4 ESOL guy, "We should never have let them in.".....I hope it wasn't YOU he was talking about......That would be bad news for you most likely don't you think??