ICE Mistakenly Deports Missing Teen To Colombia
from the these-people-get-to-censor-the-internet? dept
Wow. We've discussed, repeatedly, the ridiculous situation in which the US government via the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) arm of the Department of Homeland Security has been seizing domains and censoring websites, such as the case of Dajaz1.com. As we've noted in the past, the details of that operation showed an organization that didn't really understand what it was doing, and definitely seemed to believe in "shoot first, ask questions later."As many people have pointed out, why is "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" doing anything involving the internet or copyrights/trademarks online? So perhaps you could "excuse" their vast mistakes as them being out of their depth.
But what about the part of their mandate that they're actually supposed to be experts in? You know, keeping people who don't belong here out? Yeah, it appears they approach that with about the same level of detail awareness as when they deal with censoring blogs. In 2010, 14-year-old Jakadrien Turner ran away from home, "distraught over the loss of her grandfather and her parents' divorce." Her grandmother searched for her with no luck... until now. It seems that at some point in 2010 Jakadrien was arrested for shoplifting. She gave police a fake name... and that name apparently was the same as an illegal immigrant who was wanted in Colombia. And, that was enough to get the girl deported to Colombia last April. She remains there, currently detained by the Colombian government.
Apparently ICE took the girl's fingerprints "but somehow didn't confirm her identity and deported her to Colombia, where the Colombian government gave her a work card and released her." They've since taken her back into custody, since it was discovered she wasn't who they thought she was. ICE now says that they're "fully and immediately investigating this matter in order to expeditiously determine the facts of this case." Perhaps -- and this is just a suggestion -- ICE should start "fully and immediately investigating" stuff before they go around creating new and bigger problems...
![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: colombia, deportation, homeland security, ice
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I've got it!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
In other words, yeah, ICE screwed up, but the girls certainly didn't help matters by lying in the first place. Her bad choice of name started the ball rolling and I'm guessing she didn't do much to help reveal the truth until the process was well underway.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
Her bad choice of skin color was her worst mistake.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
I'm not saying she shouldn't take responsibility, I'm saying these ICE people shouldn't get special treatment from the rest of us citizens.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
You should be deported for being an idiot.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
I do a quick google search of my name and there is another Zachary Knight that works in web developer (the same fields as me) but he lives in Florida. If one of us commits a crime, should we both be potentially liable simply because we share a name? No.
Just because this girl gave an identity that matched a criminal's on the surface, they should have been absolutely sure that she was that person before deporting her.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
And just why shouldn't you, Zachary Knight, or should I say, ZACHARY KNIGHT?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
To be honest, this smacks of the "quick to report" story of Nintendo and Sony pulling their support of SOPA from a few days ago. Everyone is so ready to believe that ICE is truly evil when we really don't have all the facts. For all we know, the local police that did the initial lookup on the name are the ones that led ICE down the path of deportation:
Hey ICE, we've got a "Maria Gonzalez" in custody here and according to the computer she's got a warrant out for her in Columbia. Can y'all come on down and take care of this for us. There are no prints or pictures on file so we added them from the girl in custody. KTHXBAI.
I'm just trying to point out that maybe we should hear some of the details before we lynch. Once the details are released, lynch away. Until then... maybe take a step back for a second and stop screaming "but, but, but... FOR THE CHILDREN!!!"
/father of a 14 y.o. boy who could pass for 20+
//seen the crap modern teenagers try
///apparently was a teenager myself once...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
That's like investigating before taking action, you can't expect people to have time to be bothered with something silly like that can you?
There are evil pirates to catch out there... gotta get em all
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
Yes, we here at TD hold ourselves to a higher standard than those at ICE or many of the other TLAs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
Any law enforcement professional should be concerned about who they have in custody. Accepting what the "criminal" says at face value seems to be contradictory to their mission.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
"She said she was Columbian!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
The girl had no way to know that the name she gave belonged to someone who was on an immigration watchlist. Why should she be at fault for ICE not recognizing that a fourteen-year-old girl is not a twenty-two-year-old criminal on their watchlist? Why should the girl be blamed for ICE not doing the follow-through and confirming the girl's identity before deporting her to Colombia?
This was ICE incompetence; if the organization had followed through with confirming her identity before shipping her off to a foreign country intent on jailing her for crimes she didn't commit, nobody would be reading about its incompetence in this situation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
About 50% blame on the Local cops who should have informed her she was being arrested for warrants out of Columbia, giving the girl opportunity to confess she lied about her name, contact her parents, etc. Local cops do their job... follow up end of story.
and finally about 25% on ICE for not verifying the information given to the LEO's, but barring that ICE did what they were suppose to do. If you have a international criminal, you deport them back where they came from. Its not that complicated.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
Right, and because they can believe anything she says, they're both legally and morally released from having to investigate.
Oh, and as several others have pointed out, also because no two people could possibly have the same name.
I know a guy named Greg Schwartz who happens to live in the same town as another guy named Greg Schwartz. Fortunately they have different middle initials. Unfortunately the other guy is a bit shady. Our Greg Schwartz constantly gets mail for the other (including auto titles -- the other guy runs a junkyard), has been served with various legal notices, and I think even arrested once, for things that had nothing to do with him. He has several times had to go to court to prove who he is. Simply based on a common name.
But hey, it's OK. This bunch of bozos is let off the hook because she gave them a fake name, and they're so stupid they just assumed she was an adult illegal immigrant from Columbia with a Spanish accent. Not a problem, she shouldn't have been there in the first place, she was asking for it! They're all asking for it, all the time!
I think we should deport ALL accused shoplifters.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
If they can't reliably identify someone that is a weakness in the system.
I thought they had checks for those kind of things not to happen, apparently those protocols are not being followed only those that face the public like groping others.
The government actually already got bitten by this type of thing in the past, I do remember an underage porn actress that got a passport from the US government.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
Warrants must be confirmed and the individual being arrested on a warrant must be positively identified. Sounds like part of the process of doing so was done, they requested fingerprints. However, they needed to confirm the fingerprints matched before turning over the girl to the Colombian government.
Also, they should have run the fingerprints and the picture through the missing person system, which sounds like they failed there too. A whole bunch of fail.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Girl didn't help the situation thoough
Yeah because that argument works so well for paedophiles. "Your honor, she told me she was 22 - I didn't know she was just 14".
It's pretty amazing when ICE apologists, and maybe the ICE itself, resort to using the same arguments as paedophiles.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What does this mean about laws against child pornography
Doesn't this mean that it is problematic (if not outright stupid) to make the possession of child pornography a crime, especially since it is one regardless of lack of intent?
And don't get me started talking about steganography.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bad Idea
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Bad Idea
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So let me get this right.....
Columbia gets her and has no idea this isn't who they were looking for?
Did anyone stop and compare her to a photo? Surely the Colombian gov. has at least a picture of the people on their wanted list. Or is that asking too much??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I dont like ICE, I dont think we need them, but this thread seems like a witchhunt to make them out to be the bad guys.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
God damnit...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: God damnit...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: God damnit...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: God damnit...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: God damnit...
Doesn't anyone at ICE check the Amber alert system now and then at least?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: God damnit...
I strongly suspect that you are be sarcastic / ironic / whatever.
Seriously, you must know that law enforcement in America does not go to prison when they do these things.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: God damnit...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: OR...
Jes' Sayin'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: OR...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: lawsuit..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Johnny Dangerously?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
you know i keep hearing how anarchist are nutters but having been witness to crap from this *leadership* really makes me think they know something others dont.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ah, but you expect too much from thugs
Which is why, of course, they meddle in things beyond their understanding: EVERYTHING is beyond their understanding. And this is also why anyone with even a modicum of intelligence who wishes to evade them, will -- and easily.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ah, but you expect too much from thugs
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Also, I'm from ICE and we've been looking for you. Now that we've found you, you're under arrest for assault.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LMAO @ Pirate Mike.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Are you now suffering from multiple personality disorder? Or has your account been hacked? If a website is full of people whose views and ideas I loathe...I wouldn't bother visiting it. I wouldn't visit whatever sites child pornographers use to talk about CP...I'd avoid them for the scum they are.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Hey Mike...here's something you might want to try. Write a story about a murder. Someone gruesome and evil. Then let's see exactly how Average_joe manages to twist a story about a murder into why its so bad that Mike is a pirate.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
It made me laugh. Don't be so CTRL+X.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Others have said it before and I'll say it again. You have no substance, no style, nothing to say that is meaningful in any way. You do not debate, you do not post anything that stimulates any sort of intellectual discussion, you have shown yourself to be the mental equivalent of Beavis and Butthead.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
So he turned to drugs to find what this slang is, and now he's using the results..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Now, if Mr. Cook was uncharacteristically getting some weird ideas from Ms. Davis (involving bombing the solar panel, the only source of electricity, to get rid of some mice), when normally he cares not at all about issues unrelated to his job, you'd probably be worried.
Shortly after this, Mr. Cook's food started to taste weird. You don't think you've ever suffered a stomachache that bad before.
Thinking that Mr. Cook's behavior has been really weird and not at all like himself, you might think that Mr. Cook's mental health is getting shaky on this trip. You wonder if maybe you should be in charge of the solar panel, not him.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Are you sure you want to be remembered as stating this? Hint before you answer: think back to tax and admin laws/statutes, as well as Historic acts of government(s), as well as your own human observations using your intellect (that I know you have a fair amount of).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Good start
Shouldn't ICE be deporting them all?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Good start
And be careful if enough minorities move into the US all the white people are gonna back up and take over another country, probably with some genocide, shady deals, and mass deportation
/semi snark
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Good start
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Good start
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
re:
Stupid.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: re:
stupid
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: re:
Was the kid stupid? Yes, for lying about his age to get beer. Did the kid deserve to get drafted? No, because that was a failure of the government representative to check the boy's age.
The 14-year old girl lied about her name, and probably thought she had a very good reason to. Perhaps she's had bad experiences with cops before. We don't know. What we DO know is that ICE fucked up big time, in not at all bothering to verify her identity.
Or are you actually saying that law enforcement should take the word of everyone they arrest as the gospel truth?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: re:
I am willing to believe that this is not the first time this happened, and most likely will not be the last time until they have to start paying large lawsuits.
Part of the problem is the demand of X deportations a year.
Part of the problem is keeping the outside contracted "prison camps" full and making their owners money, and covering up the abuses.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: re:
Extreme Logic Failure on your part.
Her lack of truthiness had nothing to do with the inept government bungling that occurred. Her real name could just as easily have been on the deportation list - which is, I guess, all that it takes to get a boot in yer ass. This will probably be held up as a shining example of why we need to carry our papers with us at all times - hell we will all need new, better papers soon in order to stop this sort of travesty from ever happening again. Subtle threats work great - huh.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Where was she born?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ICE...
The U.S. government spooks are now primarily responsible for preserving the multimillion dollar salaries of entertainment industry executives as well as other rich executives. They don't care about wrecking the lives of millions of innocent people.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Columbia
I believe they should be lenient with her shoplifting when it is not like 14 year old runaways can get jobs to support themselves.
Knowing the American way I am sure many would ponder how she liked Africa. LOL
I can only feel that this girl needs to write a book when she had quite an adventure.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Columbia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
More lawsuits coming
I think this was a plot point of a recent Mad Men episode. They should totally sue Jakadrien for stealing their idea!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
There must have come a point...
However... there must have come a point when the girl realised things were heading in an unexpected direction (such as when she boarded a plane for Columbia). At this point did she shout out the trust? Did she explain who she was, where she is from, how old she is?
If she did any of this and the officials still bundled on her to a plane then they need to be punished with more then just being sacked. If she didn't do any of this then she is stupid but certainly not to blame for being deported.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: There must have come a point...
ICE: Yeah, right ... and everyone in prison is innocent - Hahahahahaha
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: There must have come a point...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So what's the solution?
But what is anyone proposing? Don't deport anyone. open borders? Ask the rest of the world to send all their convicts and nutters to the states?
You get someone who says they're a 22 year old from Columbia and never changes her story. She probably wanted the free trip.
It comes down to one screw up of not running the prints, but there's no mention that there was a set of prints on file to match either identity. But yeah, shut down the agency because they made one mistake.
BLAME THE GIRL. Do you really think there are medical tests to confirm age? There are 20 year olds who do look young. Which is more likely to be true: she looks young or she doesn't have the unique name she claimed. If she once said no, I'm a runaway call my mom, dad, grandma, school, dentist, ... she wouldn't have been deported.
Sounds like you're all really arguing for a national ID system with barcodes or implants given at birth. That's really the only way it can't be the girl's or parent's fault.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So what's the solution?
I knew someone would try to argue this was proof of the need for the government to issue everyone new papers. Let's not forget that one must carry their papers at all times or suffer the consequences.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Columbia
For a more well known example of American knowledge then cruise ship tours around Europe are common for those in North America. In this case the tour guide pointed out that their next stop would be Southampton in England. When he asked if there were any questions then one American woman soon asked "Do they speak English here?"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]