For years the agents of I C E, or the Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been asked to concentrate on sending back or deporting hardened criminals, not small-time offenders and those who pose little danger to society. But a deportation case that transpired in rural Louisiana proves the very opposite, suggesting that ICE does work with police departments to encourage racial profiling, unfair detention and other civil-right malpractices.

A case arose in a small town near the Texan state border in the month of May. Two Honduran men were arrested by police officers; the police demanded to see their papers. Although the men were not charged with any crimes they were still handed over to the Border Patrol and then to ICE. They were then detained as illegal immigrants who had been deported in the past. The men awaited deportation for more than 140 days, when a racial justice body filed a civil complaint on their behalf. The men seemed to have been arrested and then detained for a long period of time, without the cover of any local law-enforcement agencies charging them for a crime.

 “It is imperative that the departments work to avoid becoming a conduit, or an incentive, for improper profiling by local law enforcement,” it was reported.  “We would ask that you consider both releasing them from custody and seeking closure of their removal actions.”

But this was ignored – one of the immigrants was deported and deportation of the other was soon expected.