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Jeanfromfillmore
01-28-2010, 01:32 AM
Sheriff Accused of Violating Immigrant's Rights
Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones was in federal court Tuesday, facing charges he violated an illegal immigrant's constitutional rights.

Our partners at the Journal News report the charges stem from a lawsuit filed after a 2007 incident when Luis Rodriguez and others were rounded up at a construction site on Port Union Road by Butler County deputies and a former immigration specialist hired by Jones, according to reports.

Officials said they were at the site to talk to a supervisor about undocumented workers, but while there Rodriguez and others were interrogated and asked to provide identification, said Rodriguez's attorney, Al Gerhardstein. Gerhardstein said his client, who had lived in Butler County for 11 years, was arrested and charged with providing a false identification and was deported to Mexico, though he was later acquitted of the charge.

Rodriguez' children, including two born in the United States, returned to Mexico, too, to keep the family together.

The court will decide if Jones authorized deputies and the former ICE agent to arrest Rodriguez and whether he had the right to do so, according to reports. Gerhardstein contends that Jones doesn't have that authority and that Rodriguez's fourth and fourteenth amendment rights were violated. The fourth amendment guards against unreasonable search and seizure, and the 14th amendment guarantees the right to due process and equal protection to all people within the U.S.

Rodriguez is seeking damages and also trying to establish the principle that there aren't any exceptions to the Fourth or 14th amendments.

A judge will decide in the next few weeks whether the lawsuit can continue.

http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Sheriff-Accused-of-Violating-Immigrants-Rights/hML07Me4TEaovONp_MNK8w.cspx

4shadows
01-28-2010, 08:17 PM
In my humble opinion, these are un-founded charges, but I am glad the kids went back to Mexico to be with the family, I am not for families being divided, now if they would only stay there.