Protesters Shut Down The Arizona Federal Operation Streamline ICE Court

Photos: Facebook

Nineteen protesters taken into custody for chaining themselves into the rims of Operation Streamline Court ICE buses, federal court fences and blocking ICE buses.

By H. Nelson Goodson

October 11, 2013

Tucson, Arizona - On Friday, at least nineteen Not1More protesters were taken into custody for blocking ICE buses on an I-10 off ramp on Fontage and 18th St. by chaining themselves to tire rims and immobilizing several buses full of undocumented immigrants that were enroute to an ICE federal court. More then a half dozen of Not1More protesters also chained themselves to a fence at the Tucson federal court number 6, according to reports posted by Facebook users in the area.

The protesters in a three and a half hour long peaceful protest forced the federal Operation Streamline Court (OSC) session for Friday to close for the first time in six years and suspended its mass group convictions of about 80 to 100 undocumented immigrants on weekends. An OSC judge quickly convicts and sentences a mass group of detainees at the same time from 30 to 130 days in jail and then they're transferred to private prisons avoiding an immediate removal of the immigrants. After they complete their sentences, then they are removed from the U.S.

"They are lined up in shackles and rapidly tried as a group to prison terms before eventually being expelled from the country. The Tucson court convicts an average of 80-100 people every weekday in its sessions," the National Day Laborer Organizing Network reported.
The OSC process is unconstitutional and violates the due process of each individual detained by ICE, according to protesters and immigrant rights activists.
Today's protest coincided with this week's stop the mass deportations events nationally and the push to pass an immigration reform bill march and rally in Washington, D.C. where eight U.S. Representatives were taken into custody.