One of the less recognized effects of the USA PATRIOT Act and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security has been increased racial profiling of not only Arab-looking persons in the United States, but people of other ethnicities. The strengthening and expansion of immigration law has led to a crack-down on immigrants in general, not only on alleged terrorists or those with the same religion or culture as alleged terrorists.

Maru Mora Villalpando, ESL coordinator for Casa Latina, an organization in Seattle that provides Latino immigrant workers with educational and employment opportunites, noticed that from mid-July to early August less people were attending her ESL classes. There were reports of people skipping medical and dental appointments and a noticeable drop in clientele in Latino businesses. People were afraid to be out of their homes a lot and were even afraid about sending their children to school in September.

It was because of rumors about Operation Endgame, a program conducted by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since July 2004 ICE has been enforcing a program called Operation Endgame in King County, which seeks to investigate and remove undocumented immigrants with a criminal history. Villapando, who is also a member of the ICE Melt coalition, remarks that "we are not opposed to this." ICE Melt, a coalition of 25 organizations including Committee for Amnesty and Social Justice and Casa Latina, does not oppose the lawful punishment of those who engage in criminal activities.

However, members of the ICE Melt coalition do see a problem in the way that ICE enforces Operation Endgame: undercover surveillance in public places such as parks and racial profiling. Due to its methods, ICE ends up removing undocumented immigrants who do not have criminal records as well as those who do, which means that Operation Endgame effects the entire Latino/a immigrant community, which plays an important role in construction and agricultural industries and whose labor everyone in King County depends upon, not just those who engage in criminal activities. Furthermore, Villalpando called representatives from Cambodain, Vietnamese, and Iranian communities and they reported that they had not experienced similar surveillance or detentions, which leads her to believe that there is racial profiling in the application of Operation Endgame.

ICE Melt has been able to document 36 cases in which ICE used racial profiling to remove undocumented Latino/a immigrants whether or not they had criminal records. Villalpando told me the story of one woman who was approached in front of the Fred Meyer in Shoreline. She did not know that she had any rights, such as the right to remain silent, so she immediately admitted to not having immigration documentation and was deported the next day. In some cases undocumented immigrants have a right to the hearing and there is even the possibility of rearranging their immigration status. However, according to Villalpando, when approached by an immigration enforcer, "They get so much pressure from the agents, that they just sign the voluntary deportation document. They don't know that they actually have rights."

ICE Melt started trying to end the fear by educating people about their rights and training people about how to report incidents. They distributed Casa Latina, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, ACLU, and the Committee for Amnesty and Social Justice's phone numbers for people to report incidents. They began training people from Headstart and are trying to reach other large organizations to train them on what to do when ICE comes calling.

Simultaneously, ICE Melt began a campaign to prevent King County from collaborating with ICE and have succeeded at temporarily halting such collaboration until the mid-October King County Council meeting. They are also trying to push through legislation that would prevent King County employees from inquiring about a person's immigrant status. Similar legislation passed in Seattle in January 2003 and currently Seattle employees including police officers can not inquire about a person's immigration status and thus can not stick there nose where it doesn't belong, in immigration law.

The PATRIOT Act and the post-9/11 Homeland Security culture have created an atmosphere where local governments feel pressure to cooperate with immigration enforcement agencies. But these agencies in turn violate civil rights by profiling people according to their racial and ethnic characteristics. For Villalpando, the problem with ICE's enforcement in King County is that it "works in a way so that it effects the rest of the immigrant community whether you have a criminal record or not."

If King County were not able to cooperate with ICE in Operation Endgame, and were not able to inquire about immigration status, then the fear of being discovered as an undocumented immigrant would not be as dominating in a person or a family's life. Immigration law is extremely complicated and, since being undocumented does not necessarily mean that one should be deported, it can't be left to police officers or other city employees who don't know the details to enforce.

Our lives and the King County economy rely heavily on immigrant labor in construction and agricultural industries. For people to feel that they have no rights when they do, to feel that they can not send their children to school or go to their doctor's appointments, and because so much of all of our lives are dependent on the labor of Latino/a immigrants, it is essential that ICE and King County end their collaboration and that King County employees do not have the right to question a person about their immigrant status.