Decius wrote:

] ] that's exactly the point. It makes it much easier to catch
] the
] ] bad guys when everyone else is at the party across town.
]
] Nice try, but if this was the case then they wouldn't have
] arrested so many people. You are over estimating the
] intelligence of your government beaurocrats.

I think you missed my point. While all this is going on, you don't think they've grabbed a couple of suspects or ne'er-do-wells and hauled them off for questioning? A good diversion is always a great tactic to hide when you're going to do something really nasty.

] 1. I don't have a problem with the round up, only with the
] arrests.

well, they were illegal. Frankly, it's about time that the INS actually did their job of policing non-citizens.

] 2. They arrested people for simple paperwork problems (failed
] to file a change of address form) and "other crimes" which
] presumably includes traffic warrants, something the INS
] usually doesn't care about. They arrested as many people as
] they possibly could.

I think it's about time they started caring. It's one thing if you're going through the naturalization process and intend to become a citizen. It's another when you're here partaking of resources and not following the rules.

] 3. They arrested enough people to cause a scare, so if they
] run a similar program in another state there will be a large
] number of people who would otherwise have shown up who will
] not show up because they are afraid (maybe they have a traffic
] warrant out). The result is that if the intent is to observe
] who doesn't show, than these efforts will be LESS EFFECTIVE in
] the future because of the arrests. If the government is crafty
] enough to run this as a decoy, then they are crafty enough to
] make sure they don't ruin its usefulness for this purpose in
] the future.

see above. If anything, I think this was a tactic to get people to start coming TO the INS, instead of the INS having to spend resources that it doesn't have to go AFTER offenders.

] 4. All they had to do with the people who had paper work
] problems is give them an opportunity to fix things. This would
] serve the purpose of stirring up the community enough to
] notice the odd man out, it would get the INS paperwork in
] order, and INS ends up looking like someone you can trust.

now who's overestimating our government bureaucrats?! INS is run about as well as the IRS. It's a mountain of garbage. Proof positive that you actually can screw things up so badly that it is impossible to fix. Frankly, they probably ran across a high percentage of people that their db's weren't even aware of or incomplete.

] 5. Not showing up is a pre-tense for deportation of registered
] aliens. People are afraid to show cause they'll get poped for
] a traffic warrant, and now the feds have a reason to deport
] them.

oh well.

] 6. Basically, the simplest explanation is that this is a
] fishing expedition. They can't haul the whole community in for
] questioning directly, but they've found a loophole that lets
] them net at least a quarter of the community.

I agree with that. I also think that it served its purpose to get aliens to be more proactive with their interaction with INS, lest they get popped. I also think this was a diversion to attract attention to the masses, while the real news is how some folks got 'taken away by a black van right off the street.'

] 7. The use of force beyond necessity is the definition of
] tyranny. (See 4.)

Who's to say whether it was necessary or not.

RE: Yahoo! News - Hundreds of Muslim Immigrants Rounded Up in Calif.