When I was a student at Oberlin College, Casa Fiesta was one of the most popular hangout spots in that small, Midwestern town.  Best known for their margaritas, fajitas, and endless supply of free tortilla chips, the Mexican restaurant was always packed with students, townspeople, and professors. It was located just kitty-corner from the house where I lived, so close that sometimes I would always catch a whiff of frying garlic and onions when I walked to and from class.

But that may all have changed at about 11 am this Wednesday, when Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officials made a series of arrests at the Casa Fiesta in Oberlin and in Casa Fiestas in Ashland, Fremont, Norwalk, Oregon, Sandusky, Vermillion and Youngstown, Ohio.  Overall, 58 immigrants were arrested, although three women were eventually let go. However, they will still be required to appear before a federal immigration judge.  According to ICE spokesman Greg Palmore, the immigrants -- all Mexican citizens -- are likely to be deported as soon as possible.  

UPDATE #3:  So it has been a crazy 24 hours.  But what is most outragous is that Col. Doherty of the State Police actually said yesterday:

Doherty said state police will not be conducting immigration raids or sweeps. But he added, "I’ve taken a position that this is not a sanctuary state, and if we find someone who is here illegally or unlawfully, we will notify ICE."

Yet, within minutes, that is exactly what happened.  

I don't know how to write about this, but I'm going to try anyway.

I've been following the discussion on immigration for over a year, and there are a lot of complexities to it and a lot of back story.

But this story is so terrible that I don't think you need to know all the details of the law or intricacies of how we got to where we are in the United States as far as our broken immigration policies are concerned.

This story is about an essay written by Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, a certified Spanish interpreter for federal courts, who was present at the ICE raid in Postville, Iowa.

I found out about this essay in a circuitous way.  I first read the entire essay at The Sanctuary where Duke had it up in its entirety.  Immediately after reading it, I rebooted the essay and found he had removed it ... turns out Dr. Camayd-Freixas had asked him to refrain from posting it after finding that the New York Times was going to do a front page story on it.  Duke and other pro-migrant bloggers complied.  Now that the story has been published, the essay is once again up at The Sanctuary.

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

The Independent

Any sentient being that cares about the environment knows that Sen. James Mountain Inhofe (R-OK) is the worst public servant when it comes to protecting our earth. He is most famous for saying on the Senate floor:

“With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.”

In friday's Independent from the UK, the headline will read: Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole

Yup! There's ice up there. And as a political junkie I'm psyched!

Why? Why should this news make a political junkie happy? Why is this news for a political blog? Because science best describes reality, and as our esteemed colleague Mr. Colbert said, "Reality has a liberal bias."

And when reality has a problem, we liberals have a problem. A triumph for science is a triumph for liberals.

Let's get on the Reality Express and go for a jump!

What do we know?

We know that oil is a limited resource.  

We know that demand for it is climbing because of China and India.  

We know that we went into Iraq for oil and that supplies there have been threatened by fighting.

We know that Bush is an oil man.

We know that Exxon is now making the largest profits in the history of the world - billions.

We know that because there is the so-called oil "crisis," some Congress people want a windfall profits tax.

We know that because there is the so-called oil "crisis," Exxon and the other oil companies are pushing for  a tax BREAK so they will have some "incentive" to explore for oil.

We know that because of the so-called oil "crisis," the president and Exxon and others are pushing to lift bans  on drilling in ANWAR and off the coast of the US.

We know that because of the so-called oil "crisis," both the coal and nuclear industries, each known for large environmental threats, are suddenly saying "We're BAAAACK."

Could the bubble in the energy futures market be ready to pop? I doubt it. But a little extra oversight can't hurt. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that ICE Futures Europe, the unregulated electronic futures exchange that speculators have been using to bet on and profit from crude oil price increases, has agreed to regulatory oversight.

The U.S. commodity futures regulator Tuesday said ICE Futures Europe has agreed to make permanent position and accountability limits for some of its U.S.-traded crude contracts, subjecting itself to the same regulatory oversight as its New York based counterpart.

Following intense scrutiny and censure by Congress over skyrocketing oil prices, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission also said it would require daily large trader reports, and similar position and accountability limits from other foreign exchanges.

More after the jump...

A few days ago, I wrote about Arthur Mkoyan, the high school valedictorian in California who is scheduled to be deported to Armenia after he graduates.  Although Arthur dreams of studying medicine at a university in California, ICE officials plan to send him and his parents back to Armenia because they are currently undocumented.  The family has been seeking legal asylum in the U.S. for more than 10 years.

CNN has a good article with more details on the situation:

If you think that the immigration raid and subsequent unprecedented filing of felony charges and prison for undocumented aliens simply reflects a new hard line against illegal aliens, I have a different hypothesis for you.

I have a hypothesis that suggests an entirely different scenario and motivation.  It may be much darker than we think.  I like this hypothesis, because I have found that with the Bush administration, everything is motivated by darker forces and more reckless and cynical goals than I could have ever imagined.  To me, the Bush administration has been an education, a true enlightenment.  Everything they do is grounded in objectives that are baser, more criminal, and more evil than I could have ever previously imagined.  On a daily basis, the Bush administration has provided Watergate-type revelations, without flinching, without blinking, and in such a brazen and morally bankrupt manner that my eyes widened in astonishment.

Consider this scenario after the fold.

Over at Standing Firm you can read the terrible story of how our federal government is dealing with the problems of immigration -- by coming into small towns and raiding them, tearing families apart, and terrorizing an entire community.

On Monday, May 12, federal immigration authorities raided the Agriprocessors, Inc. meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa. This massive raid led to the arrest of more than 300 workers and quickly threw this small town of less than 3,000 people into chaos.

Throughout the last week family members have been desperate to get information about their loved ones, children are staying away from school for fear of leaving their homes, attorneys have been attempting with limited success to gain access to workers being detained by federal authorities, and the entire town faces an uncertain future. Fears are growing that the detained workers will soon be shipped across the country to be prepared for deportation without being able to speak with attorneys or family members.

At this point, in the fading months of the Bush's reign, I've cynically become accustomed to one saddening report after another about the mismanagement and malfeasance running through much of our government. However, coming across the Washington Post's four-day series, Careless Detention reignited my anger and indignation at the direction our country has taken over the past eight years. Specifically, I'm disgusted by today's story about alien detainees being drugged for deportation with the aid of doctors and nurses from the Division of Immigration Health Services. This story cuts particularly close to home as I've just attained my MD, and I will be working for the federal government after I finish residency.

After the jump, I'll get into specifics and discuss why I find this article's revelations so troubling in light of Abu Ghraib, our country's current torture policy, warrantless wiretapping, and other unchecked governmental power.

On the surface the News reports read like any other Immigration Raid. As Drudge reported:

"Federal officials say a raid at a northeastern Iowa meat processing plant this week was the largest in US History. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say 390 people have been arrested on immigration charges after Monday's raid at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville. The facility is the world's largest kosher meatpacking plant. The raid was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and people who are in the country illegally. Fifty-six of those arrested have been released on humanitarian grounds; many of them have to take care of children. Others arrested in the raid at are being held in county jails and at a converted fairgrounds."

But peel back the onion and a tale of one of the most heinous employers in US History is revealed. Yet, of all the arrests, no arrests were conducted in the Employer ranks. Let´s investigate.

Not that I'd be so callous to wish the need for a tumor to be removed from their brains, but if Lou Dobbs or Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ever had such a need, they'd be in good hands with Dr. Alberto Quiñones-Hinojosa.

At the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa has four positions. He is a neurosurgeon who teaches oncology and neurosurgery, directs a neurosurgery clinic and heads a laboratory studying brain tumors. He also performs nearly 250 brain operations a year. Twenty years ago, Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa, now 40, was an illegal immigrant working in the vegetable fields of the Central Valley in California. He became a citizen in 1997 while at Harvard.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in California have stooped to a new, almost unbelievable low: intimidating schoolchildren.

Allow me to state the obvious: schools should be safe.  And they should feel safe for the kids, their parents, and the teachers and staff who work there.  But for the students at four Oakland schools and Berkley High School on Wednesday, school felt anything but safe.  That day, rumors spread throughout the schools that ICE were nearby, possibly planning raids at the schools.  Parents text-messaged their kids, warning them that ICE agents were close by so that the undocumented parents couldn't come to the schools to pick their children up. The Berkley school district became so overwhelmed with calls that they set up an automated voice message for parents, which according to the San Francisco Chronicle, stated that the administration would "not allow any child to be taken away from the school."    The schools -- including Stonehurst Elementary, where immigration officials were parked across the street -- became a panic scene.  

In addition to being gouged for overpriced tickets, both legal and illegal immigrants will have to prove that they have a valid US Customs stamp on their passports in order to purchase an alcoholic beverage at two Boston concert venues.

Boston Globe writer Maria Sacchetti reported that bartenders at both the Orpheum and Bank of America Pavilion are acting as self-imposed customs agents and refusing to serve alcohol to any foreigner lacking a current U.S. Customs stamp on their passport.

By Gouri Bhat, senior staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project.

Earlier this week U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) invited a group of reporters on a media tour of the new and improved T. Don Hutto Family Detention Center in Taylor, Texas. The Hutto facility houses immigrant children and families detained by the government and was the subject of multiple ACLU lawsuits filed against ICE last year, challenging the harsh, prison-like environment at the facility.

Workers terrorized, handcuffed and held without food or water. Mothers separated for days or weeks from children. Guns brandished at innocent workers just doing their job.

Sound like another country? Unfortunately, this scenario has taken place in America--perpetuated by our own government at American workplaces. And finally, people are starting to take notice.

Yesterday, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union held a public hearing in Boston to address a March 2007 ICE raid involving hundreds of federal agents in New Bedford, Mass. which resulted in the detention and terrorizing of hundreds of employees who couldn't provide proof of their legal immigration status.  Senator John Kerry, among others, was there to testify on the government's failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform.