the Mèmpôkap troupe takes you on a theatrical haunted tour Relive the legend of Jack in an immersive staging that promises an adventure "as scary as it gets" To add a touch of levity to this terrifying evening the show will be spiced up by the entertainment of acrobats warm your icy bones with steaming pumpkin soup The event is open to all brave souls aged 8 and over, with advance booking So put on your scariest costumes and come and shiver in the historic setting of the Château de Grouchy Refer your establishment, click herePromote your event, click here — Delray Beach police have arrested the driver is responsible for a fatal hit-and-run crash involving a pedestrian last month is facing charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving death He made his first appearance in court Saturday morning Delray Beach police said on June 17 at 12:12 a.m. was crossing North Congress Avenue in the 200 block when he was struck by Rameau's vehicle in the southbound lanes Desroches was pronounced dead at the scene Police said Rameau was driving his black Honda Pilot including the driver side mirror and fog light covering were scattered in the southbound lanes of North Congress Avenue Delray Beach police received a tip that led police to Rameau police made contact with him at his Boynton Beach apartment and questioned him about the crash he told them "he had an accident and that it was getting fixed," according to an arrest report and noticed that the damage the Honda Pilot sustained was consistent with striking a pedestrian including front-end damage and a cracked windshield who worked as a security guard at a Publix in Greenacres and Hiya in Boca Raton told detectives on the night of Jun 16 he left Publix at 11 p.m he left his home to go to his second job in Boca Raton Rameau told detectives he was driving his black Honda Pilot southbound on North Congress Avenue in the center lane and after passing Lake Ida Road Rameau told police the collision caused him to lose control of his car momentarily and that he did not know what he hit but that he was scared and continued driving to work Delray Beach police spoke to employees at the Publix Rameau worked at and learned that Rameau spoke with an employee about the crash Rameau is being held at Palm Beach County Jail without bond The "police" officers at the door look the part: flak jackets and the word POLICE emblazoned on their outfits Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents relying on deception to persuade community members to open their doors and allow agents into their homes without judicial warrants It's a tactic that undermines trust in the real police And it violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California the UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic Tolles & Olson LLP filed a class action lawsuit in U.S District Court in Los Angeles to force ICE agents to stop using the impersonation tactic and other unlawful practices during home arrests The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Osny Sorto-Vasquez Kidd a resident of Hacienda Heights who is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and two community organizations: the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) and the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) the lawsuit gained two classes of residents in the Southern California region who have been or are at risk of being subjected to the policies and practices challenged in the lawsuit ORDER May 16, 2024 A federal court granted a motion for summary judgement, vacating ICE's unconstitutional practice of "knock and talk." Read the order. ORDER February 7, 2023 A federal court granted class certification in Kidd v. Mayorkas. Read the order. UPDATEApril 26, 2021 The court ruled largely in the ACLU SoCal’s favor and denied ICE’s motion to dismiss. Read the order. FILINGApril 16, 2020 The ACLU Foundation of Southern California and partners filed this class action lawsuit in the United States District Court, Central District of California, Western Division. Read the complaint. FRAMINGHAM — Federal and local authorities cracked what they said was a large-scale drug operation arresting 13 people and seizing more than 70 pounds of drugs thousands of pills and more than a $1 million in cash In all, authorities served 19 search warrants in Framingham police seized 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds) of fentanyl; 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of cocaine; 15 pounds of methamphetamines; 40 pounds of amphetamines; and 15,000 fentanyl and methamphetamine pills According to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office some fentanyl and pills were laced with xylazine a tranquilizer that puts people at a high risk of overdose and cannot be treated with Narcan a drug used to help those suffering from opioid overdoses According to the District Attorney's Office the street value of the drugs was more than $7 million The investigation comes after a more than two-year investigation, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said during a press conference Thursday at the Framingham Police Station Framingham bust: 'Hundreds' of pounds of hallucinogenic mushrooms seized from home She said the investigation was inspired by the work of the MetroWest Drug Task Force which developed information while doing street level drug buys constant monitoring of a wiretap since February until this week," said Ryan "It's an enormous investment of resources by our office and by law enforcement all in an effort to remove this product from the street." it would have led to overdoses," Ryan said authorities seized an illegally possessed handgun; three loaded magazines; more than $100,000 in cash; $200,000 in jewelry; and 13 luxury vehicles worth more than $800,000 The investigation involved the MetroWest Drug Task Force, which is comprised of officers from Framingham, Ashland, Natick and Marlborough, as well as the Massachusetts State Police the New England office of Homeland Security and the Boston office's Drug Enforcement Agency Several other communities throughout the state assisted in the investigation According to authorities, investigators obtained a wiretap warrant from Middlesex Superior Court on Feb authorities determined that Sandy Marte-Carabello and that it included selling various narcotics in Framingham detectives discovered some members of the drug ring were earning $5,000 to $6,000 a day 'Significant bust': Framingham man charged with cocaine trafficking, distribution "Multiple kilograms were coming in on a weekly basis," said Ryan Framingham Police Chief Lester Baker said during the press conference that Thursday's arrests were important to people throughout the state "Everybody has someone in their life who has been affected by the opioid epidemic," he said "This is truly great work for the community The Ashland Police Department Ashland PD has been working for close to 2 years on this investigation We are proud of the endless hours of hard work that went into making this case and the countless lives that were saved by getting these substances out of the hands of dealers and off the streets." Those arrested and the charges are as follows: All 13 people were scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Framingham District Court Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com follow him on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime DELRAY BEACH — Osny Rameau told police he felt the impact as something collided with his SUV late on a Friday night he said; it knocked the driver-side mirror off his 2017 Honda Pilot and left behind hair The 45-year-old Boynton Beach man appeared in front of a judge at the Palm Beach County Jail on Saturday morning — 20 days after Delray Beach police officers say Rameau struck and killed 35-year-old Deison Desroches on the way to work A friend of Desroches watched from the gallery as Judge Scott Kerner ordered Rameau be held in jail without bail for allegedly leaving the scene of a fatal crash West Palm Beach hit-and-run: Palm Beach woman, 23, killed; driver arrested Officers said a southbound car struck Desroches as he crossed North Congress Avenue Described by friends and family as a loving father Police made an arrest Friday after information from a nearby license plate reader and an anonymous tipster pointed to the same man: Rameau who investigators said asked a coworker "If you hit someone do you go to jail?" one day after the crash Rameau told officers he didn't know what he'd hit and that he was too scared to stop driving before returning after his eight-hour shift to where he believe the crash happened collecting hardware broken off from Rameau's car that would help lead to his arrest Rameau has been charged with various traffic infractions since 2018 paying hundreds of dollars in fines and completing a court-ordered course in 2019 titled "Basic Driver Improvement." Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com Osny Kidd was arrested outside his Los Angeles apartment and taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Adelanto "I was in handcuffs from feet to waist to arms and briefly placed in solitary confinement and briefly placed in solitary confinement at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center The treatment and conditions Kidd describes raise questions of whether the detention facility violated ICE's detention standards, based on a review of an ICE manual that details those standards. The contractor ICE hired to inspect its facilities found no problems at Adelanto in recent years That contractor, a private firm called the Nakamoto Group, has become a lightning rod for criticism. The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General has repeatedly criticized the company for cutting corners on its investigations, conducting improper interviews, and producing inaccurate reports In one instance, the government watchdog said ICE failed to take seriously the problem of braided bed sheets hanging in detainee cells It said similar braided sheets had been used as a noose in one suicide and in several other attempts Nakamoto's failures cited in the government reports help explain why unsanitary harsh conditions at the detention centers persist Public scrutiny of detention facilities continues to increase. Meanwhile, the population of those detained at ICE's facilities last month reached an all-time high of 54,000 there are persistent questions from the inspector general about whether ICE is properly overseeing the contractors that run a majority of the agency's facilities ICE relies heavily on private industry in nearly every aspect of its operation Outside contractors GEO Group and CoreCivic operate most of ICE's adult detention centers Nakamoto has been charged with conducting annual inspections of ICE detention centers "It's really not an exaggeration to say that there is basically no meaningful accountability or oversight for the companies who are involved," says Heidi Altman director of policy at the National Immigrant Justice Center The DHS inspector general not only criticized Nakamoto's work, it also faulted ICE for not properly overseeing Nakamoto. "ICE does not adequately hold detention facility contractors accountable for not meeting performance standards," the inspector general wrote in its latest report in January A razor wire fence surrounds the Adelanto immigration detention center is that detainees are subject to everything from solitary confinement to negligent medical care says he filed grievances about his experiences (Kidd married in December; prior to that his last name was Sorto.) Kidd's Honduran mother brought him to the U.S He was supposed to be protected from deportation under DACA or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals but ICE agents arrested him outside his apartment because of a DUI charge that was later expunged from his record Kidd says the treatment at Adelanto was inhumane calling him and his fellow detainees names Kidd says he was briefly taken to a solitary confinement room called "Bravo." there was nobody watching in there," Kidd says "You'd see people come out of there with bruises I saw them come out of there with bruises." Kidd filed grievances under ICE procedures with GEO Group He says GEO promised to interview his fellow detainees about the mistreatment ICE did not respond to requests seeking comment about Kidd's claims GEO referred questions regarding the case to ICE says such treatment and conditions should have alarmed inspectors But Nakamoto inspectors reported no problems at Adelanto in 2017 and 2018 the company has held the contract to inspect conditions at more than 100 ICE facilities (Nakamoto inspections from previous years have not been made public.) The last time ICE's own Office of Detention Oversight reviewed Adelanto was in 2014 ICE's internal review found the facility already fell short in six areas its handling of detainee grievances and its food service NPR sued the City of Adelanto seeking access to documents regarding conditions at that facility.) But its spokeswoman Danielle Bennett says the agency has improved since the inspector general's reports Bennett said senior ICE officials now accompany Nakamoto investigators during their reviews including local staff stationed in each facility Bennett says the agency is also holding contractors accountable financial penalties against the contractors totaled $500,000 But one former senior ICE official told NPR the changes Bennett points out are minor. The bigger problem is ICE has no incentive to acknowledge problems. One of ICE's performance goals is for all of its detention centers to pass inspection — and the former official who requested anonymity to protect future employment prospects says Nakamoto is well aware of the pressures to meet that target Nakamoto is a private firm based outside Washington frequently credits her family's experience in World War II internment camps with shaping her company's mission The company's inspections contract with ICE started in 2011 the federal government's contracting database the potential value of Nakamoto's contract was $116 million last fiscal year Claudia Valenzuela is an attorney with the American Immigration Council She's filed lawsuits seeking information about ICE and its contractors "I think there should be more public scrutiny of Nakamoto," Valenzuela says How does this company continue to hold that contract?" But Nakamoto says it stands by its performance Nakamoto Vice President Mark Saunders said "we have made it abundantly clear that we are in no way political and we have no agenda other than to do our work." He declined an interview saying the company has already addressed negative allegations Last fall, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats asked Nakamoto to respond to problems raised in the inspector general's reports In her response Jennifer Nakamoto quoted from her own company's report calling the watchdog investigators inexperienced and their findings an "embarrassment" to their office She disputes many of the facts in the reports She wrote about her mother's birth in an internment camp saying she and her family have battled prejudice all their lives "the detained immigrant population as a whole has a better life because of what Nakamoto does." "What we concluded from all this mess is that still nobody's taken responsibility," Cohen says Nakamoto's contract with ICE is set to expire in September ICE declined to comment about whether it would renew it Become an NPR sponsor a 24-year-old DACA holder living in a middle-class suburb of Los Angeles thought he was opening the door for police officers who told him they were looking for a dangerous identity thief Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on the morning of October 2 They told him he was flagged as a high-risk offender,” Chance Kidd “The officers told him he had ‘multiple DUI’s’ and that they were going to deport him despite his DACA status Chance Kidd (left) and Osny Eduardo Sorto (right) Sorto did have a misdemeanor DUI from an arrest in April for which he served one day in jail but his family and attorneys point to the fact that his record was otherwise clean and that at the time of his arrest he was the sole breadwinner for his mother and siblings “He has now been detained for more than 40 days and we’ve been fighting to stop the order of removal,” Kidd said he has not been getting the prescription for HIV prevention He works in the medical field with HIV-positive patients and also fears being exposed in jail He also has not been treated for a broken retainer he has in his mouth that could do him serious damage His pleas to doctors there had gone unheeded.” Attorneys in Los Angeles this week filed an emergency motion for a stay of removal in front of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) but Sorto’s case illustrates once more the aggressive all-out campaign to deport anyone and everyone that ICE can get their hands on Kidd also questioned the way that ICE agents pretended to be police officers and told Sorto’s family that they needed to talk to him because someone was stealing his identity and they wanted his cooperation in the complex where the family lives and “sneaked in” when a car opened a gate to arrest him ICE was enforcing a previous order of removal issued by a judge when the young man was 10 years old Sorto came the United States from his native Honduras when he was 9 with an aunt They were arrested and given orders to appear in front of a judge Attorneys argue that his mother could not take him to a hearing in Texas (she lived in Los Angeles) because she was bedridden with a risky pregnancy “We argued that the original judge failed to grasp that a 10-year-old has no ability to attend court if his parent doesn’t take him,” said Sabrina Damast Sorto’s immigration attorney in Los Angeles we argue that conditions for the LGBT community in Honduras have significantly worsened such that Osny’s case should be reopened so he can apply for asylum.” The BIA agreed to grant an emergency stay of deportation for Sorto Sorto’s partner and attorneys say that Sorto is a model for his community who was able to finish high school and study nursing two siblings and three other children in her care “They were trying to deport him on the same day he was arrested,” Kidd said “The first attorney we hired didn’t do a good job and his appeal was denied.” Attorneys are also alleging that his arrest is illegal because Sorto is a DACA holder and the government has not bothered to go through the formal process of stripping him of the status before putting him on deportation Osny Eduardo Sorto (grey shirt) with family According to the documents filed with the BIA all of Sorto’s family is the country legally holds a permit under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Two of his siblings are citizens and one has DACA The other three children in his mother’s care are legal permanent residents Sorto has had trouble getting adequate medical care but it took almost a month before he got to see anyone.” Kidd said “He was told by doctors there that they don’t do preventive that they would only treat him if he is sick It’s like telling him they would only give him his treatment if he gets raped or poked by a needle which doesn’t make sense because the medicine it doesn’t work that way.” The Adelanto ICE Processing Center, owned and operated by the GEO Group, Inc., houses up to 1,940 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees. It was recently the object of a scathing report by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security inspectors made a surprise visit to Adelanto and found a number of violations to ICE’s Performance Based National Detention Standards issued in early October  noted that the officials “identified serious issues relating to safety and medical care that require ICE’s immediate attention.” “not only constitute violations of ICE detention standards but also represent significant threats to the safety Those included the availability of nooses made out of braided sheets in detainee cells —despite at least two  suicide attempts by hanging (and one successful one in 2017)— lack of medical care and wait lists of many months for a dentist Sorto’s attorneys asked the court to reopen his proceedings to pursue asylum withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) given the danger to his life in Honduras as a gay man and the harm that would come to his whole family should he not be here to help them Kidd has also requested permission to marry Sorto but he says ICE has not responded to the request Latino Rebels was waiting for ICE´s response to an inquiry about Sorto’s case his targeting by the agency and his treatment in Adelanto Pilar Marrero is a journalist and author living in Los Angeles, California. She produces and co-hosts The Pundettes, a political podcast. She tweets from @PilarMarrero […] What ICE agents did to Osny Sorto-Vasquez Kidd is not wrong either The agents were enforcing his previous order of removal from the country that had existed for some 14 years Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. The Oratorio Society of New York: an all volunteer 176 member choir that includes four solo singers a 33-piece orchestra of strings It was my first time at Carnegie Hall and the mood of the overflowing crowd was festive shouted into the crowd that was made up of a mostly elderly white folks greeting friends and family while hustlers hawked extra tickets to the sold out show “Messiah” was written in only 18-24 days despite it being two-and-a-half hours long at the time of its writing in the late London summer of 1741 was broke and angry but inspired Locked away into a room largely without food or sleep he recycled some of his earlier works into the masterpiece a collage of verses from the Old and New Testament follow the life of Jesus Christ from prophecy to death and resurrection making it popular for its very first performance in Dublin in April of 1742 It wasn’t until the mid 19th century that Messiah became a December tradition there simply wasn’t enough good Christmas music to get people in the holiday mood Fast forward to Christmas night of 1874 at New York’s Steinway Hall Only a year before the Oratorio Society of New York was founded by German immigrant Leopold Damrosch they were now to perform the monumental “Messiah.” They did very well so well that htye have performed nearly every year since just a few months after the construction of Carnegie Hall OSNY’s “Messiah” was conducted in its auditorium They have continued to perform there every year since Monday night marked OSNY’s 149th presentation of “Messiah,” the 130th at Carnegie Hall “We perform on Mondays because Broadway is dark giving us full-access to the best of New York City’s freelance orchestra players,” says Erica Jacobsohn Perelman Stage was nearly full to its last of its 2,200 seats three males dressed in black and one female in an outstanding green dress came on stage to a loud reception Close behind them in a sparkling red blazer followed Kent Tritle head of OSNY as well as two other NYC choirs The famous opening melody was played and I knew then that my emotions were now at the mercy of the Lord and Maestro Tritle’s movements the “golden tenor,” as Opera News called him was the first soloist to rise and take center stage Bakari told the movement’s great prophecy in jumpy staccato movements as if he were taken by some supernatural force Introduced by the choir’s verse “the glory of the Lord,” deep baritone John Brancy was next into the center Most of his words I could not decipher but I felt moved nevertheless Some of the choir members have been singing in choirs all their lives many studied music in college but followed a career elsewhere are the gateway into the Oratorio Society of New York a virgin shall conceive.” It is nearly unheard of that a man sings these verses and yet Moody hit and held every note with passion When Moody looked into the heavens at his last word the army of 176 voices rose behind him at the command of the Maestro’s hand a soloist with the voice of an angel takes the stage She’s described in the program as “this generation’s most thrilling coloratura soprano.” I have never heard notes so clear and she delivered every one on a silver platter Aside from performing the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s “Magic Flute” over 300 times around the world this is her seventh time singing for OSNY’s “Messiah.” and the great God himself!” Händel said about writing this particular passage The entire audience only came to their feet at the chorus’ final note King George II was moved to stand by the beauty of this passage and out of respect for their King Händel’s oratorio came to a prolonged ending with several repetitions of the word “Amen” and a roaring Maestro Tritle took Kathryn Lewek into his arms and planted a kiss on her cheek currently a senior in a New York City public high school was born in Germany to Jewish and Haitian parents and currently lives on the UES of Manhattan Bilal Taghi set off on a road trip with two friends About 400km (250 miles) from the border with Syria where they hoped to join Islamic State (IS) they were expelled to France and convicted earlier this year of association with planned terrorist activities was jailed in a special unit at a prison in Osny set up to isolate detainees linked to terrorism This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Caged fervour” Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents George Simion will face Nicusor Dan, a mainstream candidate, in a run-off There are five luxuries it can no longer feasibly afford Friedrich Merz’s career is one of unforced errors and puzzling missteps. But he is serious about Europe Both Donald Trump and Ukraine’s diplomats will consider it a success It's France's very first Family Entertainment Center offering a head-free day out for the whole family the park welcomes you to its huge indoor playground At My Dreamland you'll find games for children aged 3 and over in the Fun House a 350 m² house where your children are free to run There are also trampolines and an interactive climbing wall there's a dedicated area for children aged 6 months to 3 years equipment and games to stimulate their motor skills and help them develop The more than 2,300 m² of play space also includes a laser game for the very young, starting at €5 per game, for families and children alike. My Dreamland is also the place to organize your child'sbirthday party with 2h30 of free access to the games and disco room from €15.90 per child (minimum of eight children) offer a laser game session or opt for a pizza party option My Dreamland also offers fun and creative workshops in the mornings from 10.30am to 12.30pm (€20 per child) in the afternoons from 2pm to 5pm (€25 per child) organized in 30-minute sessions for €5 per child Parents can even take a break while watching their children by taking advantage of the on-site Forrest restaurant a fine selection of lunchtime dishes including pizzas there's plenty to keep young and old alike happy for a day at the playground ACLU SoCal Communications & Media Advocacy, communications@aclusocal.org LOS ANGELES — The “police” officers at the door look the part: flak jackets Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents relying on deception to trick community members to open their doors and allow agents into their homes without judicial warrants It’s a tactic that undermines trust in the real police the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California A call-in news conference featuring plaintiff Osny Sorto-Vasquez Kidd and attorneys on the case will be held at 10 a.m. Information and RSVP here and two community organizations: the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) “The Fourth Amendment does not permit ICE to enter a home without a warrant or valid consent,” said Michael Kaufman Sullivan & Cromwell senior staff attorney with the ACLU SoCal “ICE is impersonating police to make an end run around the Constitution.” ICE agents conducting warrantless home immigration arrests may use any of the following common scripts: The class action lawsuit includes stories of 10 individuals and their families who were victims of illegal home searches and arrests the agent at the door identified herself as a “detective” with a local police department She said she was investigating a dangerous criminal using the family’s address let the “detective” — followed by several more agents — inside “It’s not right how ICE impersonated police officers and lied their way into my family’s home,” Kidd said “I’m so grateful to have DACA because it is supposed to offer protections ICIJ and other groups have been working to ensure our community members are prepared to assert their rights when ICE shows up at their door ICE agents have resorted to unconstitutional ruses.” The cases spotlight the trust local police departments have attempted to built for decades in immigrant communities to make people feel safe to report crimes and aid in investigations In 1979 the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) adopted Special Order 40 that prohibits its officers from questioning community members about their immigration status the City of Los Angeles made it’s position clear in a 2017 letter signed by Mayor Eric Garcetti It stated that ICE was not welcome to impersonate police officers in the city saying the ruse “undermines decades of work” by the LAPD and “erodes public safety.” ICE has continued its impersonation tactic even during the current public health crisis “ICE has continued its home arrests tactics even at a time when residents have been ordered to shelter at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Annie Lai co-director of the UCI Law Immigrant Rights Clinic entire segments of the community cannot feel safe at home due to ICE’s reckless conduct.” said: “Local police depend on a good relationship with the entire community to investigate crimes Immigrants won't report crimes if they feel police will put them in a deportation pipeline The filing of this lawsuit is accompanied by a major campaign to continue informing people of their constitutional rights when encountering ICE at their homes. More information on the campaign can be found at http://icenotwelcome.org/ “This lawsuit seeks to require ICE to act openly and in accordance with the Fourth Amendment and ICE’s own regulations,” said Munger Tolles & Olson attorney Terra Castillo Laughton “We are challenging ICE’s practices of using false pretenses to enter community members’ homes and surrounding areas without consent or a warrant.” Read the lawsuit here: https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/kidd_v_wolf_-_complaint.pdf See the case page: https://www.aclusocal.org/en/cases/kidd-v-wolf. Osny Sorto-Vasquez got a call from his mom and knew something was wrong His younger siblings were crying in the background A woman who identified herself as a detective with the local police had come to the home Vasquez shares with his family and told them someone was using their address to ship contraband through the mail—potentially putting them in danger The woman showed the family a picture of a man who she said they were looking for “As soon as she said this person could hurt my family I automatically went into panic mode,” Vasquez told The Daily Beast Sorto-Vasquez, a 24-year-old who came to the U.S. from Honduras as a child, is in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA program which temporarily shields some young undocumented immigrants from deportation recently got a misdemeanor charge for driving under the influence His lawyers told him it wouldn’t jeopardize his DACA status Sorto-Vasquez’s life was upended in a particularly jarring way: He told The Daily Beast he’s lost access to HIV-prevention medication Sorto-Vasquez got a call from the same woman we spoke with you on the phone on Monday,’” he recalled “We’re with the local police department and we just want to make sure that everything’s OK and that you’re OK We’re outside if you could come out and talk to us And please bring your ID with you.’ And I said “‘You had a court date and you didn’t go to that court date,’” Sorto-Vasquez recalls one of the officers saying referring to a hearing scheduled in immigration court for him years ago “I can’t imagine something that would more fundamentally undermine public faith in local law enforcement than federal immigration personnel falsely impersonating them in order to arrest and deport someone.”— The Center for American Progress' Tom JawetzAn ICE spokesperson said officers with the agency frequently identify themselves simply as police but do not claim to be with agencies other than ICE “ICE agents and officers never pretend that they are from any other law enforcement agency,” the spokesperson said in an email The situation Sorto-Vasquez faced has grown increasingly common under the Trump administration according to immigration lawyers who spoke with The Daily Beast While ICE officers capitalized on being mistaken for local police under previous administrations the practice these days appears to be more frequent “This is certainly something that’s been a trend I think more so in the past year and a half than it had been previously,” said Heather Prendergast an immigration attorney who formerly liaised with ICE for the American Immigration Lawyers Association “It seems more brazen now than it did in the past,” she added who heads immigration policy work for the liberal Center for American Progress said the practice can hamstring local police “I can’t imagine something that would more fundamentally undermine public faith in local law enforcement than federal immigration personnel falsely impersonating them in order to arrest and deport someone,” he said Sorto-Vasquez’s mother came to the U.S. from Honduras on temporary protected status—another form of legal protection Immigration authorities set a date for Vasquez to appear in court and make the case for legal status his mother wasn’t able to take him to court that day because she was ill Sorto-Vasquez did not understand that missing that hearing could have ramifications for the rest of his life his family explained to him that he didn’t have legal status and started working to send him back to Honduras An ICE spokesperson gave The Daily Beast this statement on Sorto-Vasquez’s case: “Mr a citizen of Honduras illegally residing in the U.S. Sorto-Vasquez was convicted for driving under the influence last month.” who formerly helmed the American Immigration Lawyers Association said this appears to violate ICE’s own detention standards which say detainees should have all medically necessary treatment “If he has the prescription and it’s been duly authorized by a licensed physician then ICE should not be second-guessing whether it’s medically necessary,” Leopold said and I think it’s a violation of their own detention standards—which and even less surprising under this administration.” Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Betsy Swan is a former political reporter for the Daily Beast and formerly of Slate and National Review. You can follow her on Twitter @woodruffbets. Send her tips: tips@thedailybeast.com. You can also use our anonymous document submission system, SecureDrop. Click here to find out how Noah Shachtman is Editor-in-Chief of Rolling Stone He is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast A demonstrator displays a placard in front of the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters while protesting the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in Chicago President Donald Trump will end an Obama-era program preventing the deportation of immigrants illegally brought to the U.S putting in legal limbo about 1 million people who consider themselves Americans It swam around a small bowl in the administrative office “It was confiscated from one of the cells,” said the warder “A lot of things get into prison that shouldn’t.” A guard let us through the barred gate outside the office into the high-security section of the jail low-ceilinged corridor we filed – a handful of French journalists and I which looked out onto a wall surmounted by concertina wire the prison at Osny has become a testing ground for France’s most controversial new plan to combat Islamic radicalisation In February a “dedicated unit” opened within its walls expected to receive 20 violent or potentially violent extremists A similar unit has also come into operation at Lille Two more have opened at Fleury-Mérogis – Europe’s biggest prison The prisoners in these new anti-radicalisation units will enjoy resources that put the rest of the penal system to shame They will be supervised by a larger-than-usual complement of warders and they will receive visits by sociologists psychologists and historians (to argue against their rose-tinted ideas about medieval caliphates) The routine for these men will include theatre workshops political discussions and lessons in the prison school – reading and writing for the barely literate (Those who refuse to get into the spirit will be expelled back to the less salubrious environs of the prison system proper.) These inmates are not the most dangerous: those whose jihadi certainties are so ingrained that the system regards them as beyond hope The detainees who will enter these units are considered dangerous but salvageable but no one knows for sure if this is the case – just as no one knows if the new units are the solution to the problem There is even disagreement over what the problem is Over the past few years it has become a common belief that prison radicalisation is the most dramatic manifestation of a wider problem: the vehement rejection by many young French Muslims of what they see as a xenophobic and impious French republic As France’s media and politicians do not tire of pointing out some of the worst recent atrocities on French soil have been committed by men who were “radicalised” behind bars The unsatisfactory word “radicalisation” fails to convey the complexity of a phenomenon that still affects only a small number of people The process by which committed jihadis prey on impressionable people It can affect the well educated and the unlettered It usually involves a gradual political alienation from the values of the state and a dulling of the ability to feel another’s pain I was told repeatedly by probation officers a circular observation point protected by thick glass guided us down one of the corridors angling off it and showed us into an unoccupied cell so we could admire the freshly painted walls the toilet cubicle with newly installed saloon doors Five of the other cells on the corridor were locked shut They contained the first inductees into the dedicated units From behind one emanated the strains of a sung Arabic prayer The radio journalists hunched outside in order to record the sound At the far end of the corridor Seveyras showed us into the small rectangular exercise yard that has been built for the prisoners – into which it was impossible for anyone to lob packages from outside the perimeter fence the authorities at Osny seized more than 1,000 mobile phones that had entered the jail These devices are banned because they allow gangsters to stay in touch with their networks and radicals to access extremist content online (A recently freed prisoner told me that the IS flag is the phone wallpaper of choice for the newly radicalised.) After we had visited the jail’s multi-faith prayer hall (“It hasn’t been defaced since its inauguration in 2003,” Seveyras said proudly) we trooped upstairs to the governor’s office even tender manner seemed to belie her position as commissar of anti-radicalisation inside French jails it was easy to forget that this simple journalistic exercise almost never happened our expedition to Osny had been cancelled precipitately as the government struggled to find the appropriate way to announce its new policy – indeed struggled to decide whether to announce it at all This is the shivery new France – post-Charlie post-Bataclan – in which public support for hardline security measures introduced by the government is overwhelming apprehensions about the rise of Islamism shade into xenophobia and the worst crime of which any public official can be accused is laxisme The rightwing contempt for any efforts to “understand” the causes of terrorism has been adopted by key figures in the Socialist government In the aftermath of last November’s attacks he rounded on those who “seek excuses or cultural or sociological explanations for what happened” But the polls show that this approach is popular Almost 80% supported parliament’s recent vote to extend the state of emergency until May overwhelming support for a government bill that would strip terrorists of their French citizenship Public opinion is becoming more authoritarian A poll conducted in May 2015 showed that 52% favoured the restoration of capital punishment an increase of seven percentage points on the previous year Prisons are a reflection of the societies they serve You would expect French policy to run along similar lines in both At precisely the moment when official attitudes are toughening in the country at large in the nation’s jails the anti-radicalisation units may signal a new Key to their success will be precise observation and evaluation The first weeks are when detainees are most at risk – either to suicidal feelings or proselytisation which collates information on electronic dossiers stored in the pic must determine whether a given prisoner is having a malign effect on the others he may be expelled from the unit.) But Blin is thinking more ambitiously “If we can show these people that society is interested in them,” she said For all Blin’s enthusiasm for understanding these menaces to society the animating principle behind the new units is not philanthropic The majority of the detainees housed within them have been incarcerated for “criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise” – a portmanteau charge that encompasses fighters who have travelled to Syria and the administrators of jihadi websites alike and carries a maximum sentence of 10 years the men behind the locked cell doors – men considered too dangerous for us to meet – will be out Can the country’s prisons solve a problem that the wider society has utterly failed to repair Fresnes prison near Paris where some inmates have been given their own cells in an attempt to reduce the risk of radicalisation Photograph: Virginie Clavieres/Paris Match via Getty ImagesThe terrorist attacks of the last year – and the fact that most of the perpetrators were French citizens – have induced a nationwide panic about “homegrown” terrorism and the radicalisation of France’s Muslim minority a banner headline in the rightwing Le Figaro announced that the Interior Ministry had identified 8,250 French people who had been “radicalised” The story went on to report that this represented a more than 100% increase on the March 2015 figure What it neglected to say is that this remains an infinitesimal proportion of France’s estimated Muslim population of 4.7 million still less its total population of 66 million Confronted with the frightening prospect of a minority population alienated from the Republic and susceptible to the lures of an anti-state Islamism it is no surprise that French public opinion has latched on to the issue of prison radicalisation That prisons have a radicalisation problem is not in doubt but it may also seem an easier task to fix arrangements in prisons than to repair the societal rift between France and its Muslims Muslims constitute a disproportionate majority of the French penal population – an estimated 60% as opposed to 8% in society at large – and the proportion of Islamic radicals among the country’s 68,000 prisoners is growing During a visit I made in January to the prison at Fresnes told me that he had identified 43 radicals in his jail – up from 10 at the beginning of 2014 Critics of bunching Islamic radicals together in dedicated units fear that far from shielding the mass of detainees from contagion they may create ghettos of hardened extremists a former French detainee at Guantánamo Bay who now goes into jails to combat radicalisation told me that “ill-intentioned” inmates of the new units might prey on weaker detainees is something of a political fudge: both sides agree something must be done One of the problems in the French debate about radicalisation is that no one can agree on what constitutes a radical I have been quoted figures ranging from 1,000 to well over 2,000 radicals inside French prisons (including some 240 people who have been accused or convicted of terrorism) But some in this group may be inside for something as anodyne as non-payment of alimony Does that put them in the same category as the 1,000-odd Frenchmen and women who have gone to places – mostly Syria and Iraq – where jihad is currently being fought When sharing a tiny cell with two or three others the weaker cellmates are clearly at risk of being indoctrinated by stronger ones (France’s prison watchdog noted there were 928 prisoners for 580 places at Osny in a report last June; the dedicated units are exceptional in providing single-occupancy cells.) An extremist agenda can advance quickly as a result of the isolation boredom and anger that a young man feels in jail; a captive Muslim population clearly presents opportunities to the would-be radicaliser Nemmouche and the rest would not have become radicalised on the outside The first attempt to combat prison radicalisation in a systematic manner was undertaken two years ago by Stephane Scotto He had become alarmed by a huge increase in reports that radicals were imposing their values on less pious fellow prisoners – stopping them from smoking or listening to music abusing them as “heretics” in the exercise yard In October 2014 he grouped them together in a specially designated “unit for the prevention of terrorism” Mehdi Nemmouche and the rest would not have become radicalised on the outside?According to Scotto tensions relaxed across Fresnes following his measure Fresnes’s huge cellblocks are arranged in parallel allowing prisoners to call to each other out of their cell windows Many prisoners have smuggled in mobile phones and others have learned the knack of attaching messages to yo-yos and launching them into adjacent cells It is notoriously difficult to separate prisoners entirely from each other or the outside world a sociologist familiar with Fresnes told me These men were now living alongside weaker men whose radical sympathies had not yet hardened into a true propensity for violence The nightmare scenario of charismatic proselytisers working on impressionable detainees played out with catastrophic effects A warder at Fresnes described Scotto’s unit as a “finishing school” for extremism Scotto was clearly frustrated by the tendency of the public to blame prisons for a phenomenon that is manifest across society and which has been expediently laid at his door families and local associations have failed?” he asked Stephane Scotto watches a match between the inmates and members of the International League Against Racism Photograph: Virginie Clavieres/Paris Match via Getty ImagesAs well as receiving transfers from other institutions prisons in France tend to serve their local communities This is certainly true of the prison at Osny disaffection with the French republic and the growing popularity of Salafist ideas the death of two youths after their motorbike was struck by a police car led to several days of street fighting in which 100 policemen were injured some of them by live rounds fired by protesters In the tense aftermath of last November’s attacks local police launched some 200 raids on suspected radicals in the area The prison at Osny manifests all these societal problems in concentrated form referred to 12 inmates who are incarcerated there for terrorism a man who is serving eight years for administering a jihadist website and an amateur chemist who had accumulated the wherewithal to make bombs The report continued: “A further 20 detainees who have been incarcerated for [non-terrorist] criminal acts have also been identified as radicalised.” these radicals have developed “new friendships” with other detainees who are incarcerated for non-terrorist criminal offences This has allowed “classic delinquents to … consider themselves absolved of the facts of their criminality” gangsters and murderers feel that they have been pardoned by God because condemned or suspected terrorists tell them so At some point in the process by which radical Islamists take over an institution an atmosphere of intimidation occludes any spirit of coexistence This point seems to have been reached at Osny The CGLPL says that between 10 and 15 Muslims are “expelled” by their cellmates each year for being insufficiently devout (What it does not say is that this sanction requires the tacit cooperation of the prison authorities – they must arrange for the ostracised men to have new accommodation.) Women who wear halter tops or jeans to visit their detained loved ones are often insulted by Islamist prisoners for their “lewd” mode of dress and some have started covering up before entering the prison That Osny is being taken over by extremist ideas is not news to Nsangou Ntchara Mamadou whom I visited at his home in the nearby commune of Taverny which involved instructing biddable men from the former colonies in the values of the republic elderly Cameroonian who espouses ecumenism and whose front room (which doubles up as a mosque for the Muslims of Taverny) is adorned with the tricolore Gangsters and murderers feel that they have been pardoned by God because condemned or suspected terrorists tell them soNsangou was imam at Osny when the jail’s interfaith prayer room was inaugurated in 2003 “I would walk down the corridors arm in arm with the rabbi and the Catholic chaplain,” he recalled proudly “I called them my brothers.” One Friday in 2007 a Figaro journalist listened as Nsangou exhorted his congregation to avoid “rebellion and if he heard a prisoner expressing radical views It is easy to see how he angered the Muslims of Osny – and how they ended up boycotting him shuffling sadly around the room in his djellaba dug out old lists of inmates who had signed up to attend Friday prayers during his time at the prison In 2014 – his final year at Osny – it was two Although the religious complexion of French prisons has been changing for several decades the Republic’s policy of not identifying the faith of its citizens meant that few noticed The illusion of stability was reinforced by the historic association that the prison service Many 19th-century prisons (such as Fresnes) were built with chapels attached and even today hundreds of chaplains are on hand to attend to the spiritual needs of detainees The radicalisation of French prisoners began in earnest in the mid-2000s Prisons were receiving significant numbers of Muslims who had been educated in France and were well aware of the state’s obligation to facilitate the religious expression of all its citizens They began demanding privileges of their own: imams which already had an imam – Nsangou Ntchara Mamadou – and an interfaith prayer room The then Imam at Osny prison Photograph: Mehdi Fedouach/AFPThe more militant of these prisoners prostrated themselves in the exercise yard blared the call to prayer from their cell windows and declared their support for Osama bin Laden These actions were often punished with an immediate transfer or a spell in isolation But life in prison was starting to change under the influence of the caids – leaders of the new trend towards a more forceful assertion of Muslim identity Typically charismatic young men with resplendent beards they told their fellow prisoners to keep their underpants on while showering and proscribed watching women’s sports on TV in the cells Detainees signalled their piety by refusing to address female warders grew to the point where it came to take over life in some jails for a month every year with much reading of the Qu’ran and a logistically demanding distribution of halal food parcels in preparation for the breaking of the fast at dusk shed light on this period of rising religiosity He was freed from a jail in central France in 2014 after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence (he did not wish to divulge his crime to me) “The Muslims in jail never ask you what you’ve done,” he said approvingly over kebabs in the suburban restaurant where we met Kamel had grown up in the south of the country, in a family of North African background. Religion played no part in his upbringing which he described as “pretty much atheist” but he found the faith of his forefathers while in jail as a result of his friendship with Yacine (not his real name) but I found out he was serving 15 years for terrorism He was capable of chopping off heads – not that he spoke of things like that but when he said he didn’t like the country and hoped to leave The Muslims in the jail had won the right to congregate for Friday prayers “He took it on himself to deliver the sermon and he did that five or six weeks running before the administration stopped him.” Although he was no longer allowed to deliver sermons Yacine had established himself as a religious authority Prisoners began coming to his cell and soliciting his fatwas generally on matters of everyday observance For a man who had received no formal training – a man whom most Islamic experts would regard as scandalously unqualified – he had come far Yacine clearly posed a dilemma for the administration “he wasn’t the kind of guy to cause trouble to deal cannabis or get into fights.” But his agenda was insidious: a slow-burn conversion to a very aggressive form of radicalism he persuaded his targets to accept the truth of Islam the prison authorities started monitoring Yacine closely He sent word to Kamel not to approach him in the exercise yard – otherwise Kamel would attract unwelcome attention from the authorities other Islamists were taking over different parts of the jail The football pitch became a symbolic battleground “they told you to wear shorts below the knee.” Kamel stressed to me that although he became an observant Muslim under Yacine’s influence he was strong enough to resist the other man’s summons to militancy Islam seems to have been a support that got him through a long prison sentence allowing him to hit out at a state he hated “we got six people into a single cell to pray.” (The prison authorities regarded unauthorised congregations of this sort as an illicit “collective action”.) Kamel mentioned white converts to Islam he had met in jail and announced: “I want to do jihad.” These converts are a distinctive – and growing – feature of French prisons They are derisively known as petits blonds by the black and North African majority a practising Muslim and an official of the public sector union described one such convert – before and after the moment of his conversion But then he mowed down a little girl when drunk-driving and got five years.” When Stephane arrived at Fresnes he experienced what El-Houmass called prison shock: “He spent the first two weeks weeping like a baby.” One day an Algerian prisoner called Mohamed went up to Stephane in the yard and asked why he was crying “Mohamed was promising him forgiveness for what he had done But Mohamed gave him books and CDs.” Within another two weeks Stephane had converted and was growing a beard El-Houmass believes that the “blind faith” and isolation of converts such as Stephane increase their vulnerability to manipulation “In the end I collared Stephane’s parents in the visitors’ block ‘Your son is going off the rails in a big way he’s radicalising.’ The father didn’t believe me but then his son arrived and he saw the beard.” Stephane’s parents immediately arranged his transfer to another prison Although Islam has continued to rise in jails across France it would be wrong to assume that it is practised consistently by new Islamists there are many born-again Muslims who continue to get high listen to hip-hop and chat via Facebook with multiple girlfriends putting on a radical front can be a means to an end El-Houmass told me about a detainee at Fresnes who was desperate to get out of the cell he was forced to share with three smokers The man’s requests for a move went nowhere – Fresnes But this prisoner was aware that the administration had a policy of isolating radicals and he turned this knowledge to his advantage “He amused himself over the course of a week by issuing the call to prayer – every day Pretty soon he was identified as a dangerous prisoner and given his own cell.” In the past 18 months or so the behaviour of jailed radicals has changed significantly the CGLPL stated: “Since the end of 2014 instructions seem to have been given for [prisoners to] dissimulate so as not to display the outward signs of fundamentalism … calls to prayer issued from windows … have practically stopped Instances of violence towards personnel have fallen Outward manifestations of missionary activity have virtually disappeared.” This account chimes with those of the personnel I have spoken to at Osny “The signs of radicalisation are no longer wearing the djellaba or growing a beard,” one warder said Rather than proselytise directly and risk a spell in isolation the caids increasingly deputise “lieutenants” to win over the impressionable Fleury-Mérogis prison is one of the four in France to test the anti-radicalisation scheme Photograph: Eric Feferberg/AFPAccording to a sports trainer at Osny the most dangerous radicals nowadays “keep on good terms with the administration” said he had been able to observe many prisoners who have returned from IS territory in Syria I consider them dangerous because they’re smart.” In recent months sociologists across the prison network have become sensitised to a new type – the “dissimulator” who after a period of aggressive behaviour suddenly adopts a friendly tone when addressing them or who begins speaking to female warders after previously shunning them But some prisoners hide their religiosity for different reasons: the hostility of the prison administration and the fear that being labelled a pious Muslim will prejudice their chances of being let out on parole or allowed home for a visit This is a reflection of worsening mistrust between many Muslims and society as a whole men with beards and women in headscarves are more likely to be searched in public places than petits blonds Hostile asides are an expected consequence of taking a walk “You’ll get your comeuppance!” one woman hissed at Kamel as he passed near the Bataclan shortly after the massacre Tension rose in the jails throughout 2015. Following the November attacks, detainees at Fresnes disturbed the minute’s silence that was observed across the country with catcalls and oaths from their cell windows. Footage of this was posted on YouTube – a major breach of prison rules The detainee responsible has since been transferred A former prisoner from Lille told me about another prison where warders reacted to the November attacks by launching frenzied searches of the cells of Muslim prisoners “They were turned upside down,” the former prisoner told me any evidence of proselytisation.” But often the warders don’t know the difference between proselytisation and piety; their dragnet catches all Most French politicians agree that there is a difference between potential terrorists and devout Muslims who practise their faith legally all too many people in public life and the media make no distinction between the two – they make an amalgame in the language of French political science they are assisting in the radicalisation of this second group the problem of the amalgame is intensified inside France’s prisons Many prisoners are reluctant to be considered for the dedicated anti-radicalisation units – the extremist tag is hard to shed A second apprehension that some prisoners have is that fellow inmates who speak with mesmerising authority on Islam and jihad will sap their will to reform The mother of one detainee who fled Isis and is now at Osny described her son as “very impressionable; I’m afraid they will destroy him” She has managed to convince the authorities not to move him to the dedicated unit Each deradicalisation cycle is supposed to last six months after which the participants return to ordinary prison life – though in theory they will be closely monitored afterwards Yet quite apart from the wholehearted enthusiasm of the inmates other things are lacking even before the process really gets going the families of radicals would be closely involved helping to convince the detainee that a worthwhile life awaits him outside jail But many of the radicals have untidy home lives and little connection to their family – these can be reasons why they became radicalised in the first place There are so many elements necessary if one is to put a man back together so he no longer threatens his fellow man to expect the prison service to rectify problems of alienation and resentment that exist in society at large But my reporting on various pilot projects over the past few months suggests that there may be reason to believe that deradicalisation inside jails is indeed possible – at least for some One probation officer told me the story of a jihadi who had revealed to her apparently for the first time in adulthood that as a child he had been raped by his uncle This was important to the process of deradicalisation because “if you don’t recognise your own suffering you’re not going to recognise that of others” As part of an earlier pilot deradicalisation scheme at Osny last year a woman named Latifa ibn Ziaten came to speak to about 20 prisoners deemed at risk of radicalisation were some admirers of Mohamed Merah – who murdered Ibn Ziaten’s 30-year-old son Imad the first victim of his shooting spree four years ago But to the surprise of the personnel who were present the prisoners began confiding in this softly spoken but lamented that he had not grown up surrounded by love (Merah’s childhood was particularly barren in this respect.) They told her what crimes they had committed and confessed that they were afraid they might never be able to integrate with society and build a future everyone rose for a minute’s silence in honour of Merah’s victims The trauma counselling; the hand of friendship extended by someone whom one might expect to be full only of hate – here is the “understanding” that authoritarians in France find so repugnant And yet the model that is now being pursued in the new anti-radicalisation units – painstaking demanding discipline and compassion in equal measure – could serve as an example for the rest of the country if it is to reintegrate disaffected Muslims into a republic whose values All too rare is the public servant who suggests that the police state being constructed by President Hollande while perhaps keeping the French more secure in the short term will in the long run only make them more vulnerable Support for the reporting of this article was provided by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, or sign up to the long read weekly email here 2017 at 10:31 am ET.css-79elbk{position:relative;}All of the following information was supplied by the Suffolk County Police Department A criminal charge is only an accusation and does not indicate a conviction Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. 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