Register as Immigrant, get rounded up as criminal.

(All this said, of course I think this shows that people can be evil fuckups. I also think that they can just be plain idiots.)

Seriously though, the CNN story, linked to on the other thread about this, makes it more clear what exactly is going on. I had a hard time discerning anything from the BBC piece.

"will provoke a continuing counterreaction and will also make a fair amount of GOP diehards around here actually question the government more"

Actually, Ned, I think many GOP diehards will applaud this unquestioningly.

That said, judge the info on the link for yourself -- here's the key info about what is happening in LA, sorry about the formatting suckness:

LOS ANGELES, CA

INS Office statements:

The new Acting District Director indicates, as of 12/16/02, that earlier policies noted
below have been changed.  Now, anyone considered out of status will be arrested
and held until they have been cleared through security checks.

Early statements indicated that, if the individual “has ever been out of status�, he will
be detained and put in removal proceedings, even if an adjustment of status
application is pending. Later, LA indicated that it has
prosecutorial discretion to proceed.  Later still, LA indicated that it will not be
exercising prosecutorial discretion, but will be detaining all individuals considered to
be out of status.
 
After a background check is completed, bond will be
considered.
 
As of 12/4, LA was registering 50-60 people per day.  It had referred two people to
investigations, and taken one person into custody.  Later reports, as of 12/17/02,
show a sharp increase in the number of detentions, now believed to be somewhere
between 200-500.  In a case in which there had been an approved I-130 (priority
date not yet current) and the individual was eligible for 245(i), the person was not
taken into custody.  Pending motions to reopen on denied changes or extensions of
status are also favorable factors.  However, this was an early case, and the District’s
approach has since changed (see above).
 
Registrants have the right to counsel.
 
Definition of “national� will be based on retention laws of the country of birth.
 
INS officer can adjudicate an extension of status application (but not change of
status application) for someone who failed to timely file one, or an
application for replacement I-94, on the spot.
 
People who fail to register are subject criminal penalties and removal.

Reports from individuals/attorneys of actual experiences:

In two instances in which registrants were interviewed by INS District Adjudications
Officers, the following information was requested:

1) Family name
2) First name
3) Middle initial

They were then asked to provide their drivers' licenses, passport, I-94 form
and asked the following questions:

4) What's your nationality
5) Place of Birth
6) Sex
7) Date of Birth
8) Height
9) Weight
10) Hair color
11) Eye color
12) Purpose of your visit
13) Names of Mother and Father
14) Mother/Father dates of birth
15) Last address in country of origin
16) Social security number
17) Place of issuance of visa
18) Date of issuance of visa
19) Expiration date of issuance of visa
20) Passport Number
21) City of issuance of the passport
21) Date of issuance of the passport
22) Expiration date of issuance of the passport Although all the information
requested is on the passport, the INS
District Adjudication Officers did not look at the passport and asked the
clients directly for the information.
23) What airline did you fly in entering the United States
24) Flight number
25) Date of arrival
26)
Time of arrival

Following the interviews, the interviewer made photocopies of employment
verification letters and paycheck stubs. Fingerprints were taken of the right
and left index fingers. The INS interviewer then took
the I-94 form and signed the back of the I-94 form and also printed their
District Adjudication Officer number. The interviewer then annotated the I-94
form acknowledging the person had registered. The passport, driver's license,

and I-94 were then given back to the registrant.

Reports are being received of large numbers of people being detained at the
LA office.  Stories abound of INS running out of handcuffs, and registrants
being placed in criminal prisons because of lack of space in INS detention
facilities.

The political composition of the right around here is far more varied than might be considered, I think.

And thanks for posting that procedural list. What's the legality of something like this? Is this the immigration counterpart to a roadblock?

I should clarify -- around Southern California in this particular case. Though as for in general, I'd suggest that looking at the GOP as a monolith of evil is as productive as looking at Democrats as collective treefucking atheist pagans. For instance. Maybe I'm lucky in knowing people like my dad, who generally votes GOP on many things but does not let party affiliation dictate what he thinks about the state of the country and how it is being run. But I doubt very much that he is alone.

As Yanc3y points out, never underestimate the ability of people distant from a situation to act like complete cunty cockfarmers over it.

A careful choice of phrase there, Dan. ;-)

Had this exact same thing happened in NYC, however, I'm sure what most above have said about this solidifying GOP support would hold to some degree, I imagine. Then again, I've never had to spend too much company in a circle of GOP supporters in the east coast, so I dunno.

On 12/19, an announcement was made in a cafeteria filled with family members waiting to bond out their relatives, that persons with bonds set over $5,000 would remain in custody and family members could post the bonds; persons with bonds lower than $5,000 would be released and receive a letter telling them to report back in 30-60 days and the bond would not need to be paid.

My guess is that the large bonds are for those with notable violations and everyone being let go are those folks that just had the general screwups that Nabisco alluded to above. Nowhere near enough in terms of an apology or admission of stupidity, obviously. I'll be interested to see what pressure is maintained.

Undoubtedly Ashcroft's attitude is that anyone rounded up as a part of this sweep is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, or has violated the terms of whatever visa let them into the U.S., and therefore is not entitled to the due process of law. Remember, this is the same administration that answers the most basic questions about Camp X-Ray by saying that the people there are non-U.S. citizen combatants, and therefore this law or that principle doesn't apply.

The Trump administration has deported thousands of people to about a dozen countries, often to places where they have no ties. As mass detention in the United States becomes politically complicated, the administration is eager to cut more deals to deport migrants.

Such arrangements are taking shape in particular in Africa, where Mr. Trump has ushered in a new style of diplomacy that prioritizes deal-making over enforcing human rights and promoting democracy. The policy is called “America First in Africa.”

The Trump administration has deported thousands of people to about a dozen countries, often to places where they have no ties. As mass detention in the United States becomes politically complicated, the administration is eager to cut more deals to deport migrants.

Such arrangements are taking shape in particular in Africa, where Mr. Trump has ushered in a new style of diplomacy that prioritizes deal-making over enforcing human rights and promoting democracy. The policy is called “America First in Africa.”

The United States has already cut deals with the strongman leaders of Cameroon and Rwanda. Migrants are being detained under an arrangement with Equatorial Guinea, an autocracy where torture is systemic. Others are being held in Eswatini, a monarchy with a history of human rights abuses, and South Sudan, which is teetering on civil war.

Many of these migrants had been living in the United States under legal protections preventing them from being sent to their home countries because of the threat of political, religious or ethnic persecution.

The administration has not disclosed how many people have been sent to third countries. The biggest group by far, though, is the nearly 14,000 people who were sent to Latin America and the Caribbean, according to Human Rights First, a nonprofit group that tracks deportations.

About 560 migrants were in immigration custody in early March, waiting to be sent to a country other than their own, American officials told a federal judge. Of those, 139 had convictions. The administration said the offenses included murder, rape and assault.

The government is eyeing deportation for an additional 7,600 migrants who are not detained. About one in six has a criminal record, it said.

“I came to the U.S. for protection,” one woman said in an interview from detention in Cameroon. She said she had been arrested while trying to enter the United States and was granted legal protections preventing her from being sent home.

She spoke on the condition that her name and home country not be identified because she feared reprisals, including being sent home against her will.

In Cameroon, migrants are held in a government compound in Yaoundé, the capital. A lawyer said at least two deportees had contracted malaria, which is rampant in the region. The windows stay open, and the facility often does not have electricity or hot water, the lawyer said. Recently, people have been allowed to leave between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

In South Sudan, migrants are held in a gated, three-story house just outside Juba, the capital. A Laotian man told his lawyer that he and others were being held in intense heat with relentless mosquitoes.
Lawyers for some migrants have not heard from their clients in months.

Eswatini is holding people in a maximum-security prison. Another Laotian man told his lawyer that he felt “like a caged animal with no end in sight.”

…Each deal appears to be different. In some cases, the arrangement is never revealed and the benefits can be only inferred.

After El Salvador agreed to take migrants, for example, the United States paid the country millions of dollars, and the State Department upgraded its travel advisory.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/world/africa/trump-deportation-africa-migrants.html?unlocked_article_code=1.YlA.reQU.AcJbQ5tKV8qX&smid=nytcore-ios-share

So disgusting what we're doing. And we're doing so many disgusting things that it's exhausting to even remember them all to stay disgusted.