The caravans began several years ago as a way for migrants who did not have the money to pay smugglers to take advantage of safety in numbers as they moved toward the U.S. More than 1.7 million people have been expelled invoking this law since March 2020. President Joe Biden announced it would end a policy that allows turning back asylum seekers on grounds of protecting the country against the coronavirus pandemic. The march came as the administration of U.S. We fill out paperwork, but they never process it." "They require us to get a visa, but we never get any answers. "They are practically holding us prisoners they do not allow us to leave this state because we are not regularized here," said Venezuelan migrant Noreydi Chávez. Migrants have complained they have been essentially confined to Tapachula by the slow processing of their asylum cases and that they are unable to find work in the border state of Chiapas that would allow them to support their families. The officers, who had riot shields, batons and what appeared to be an irritant spray, detained some marchers, but many others ran past them. In a clash with National Guard officers and immigration agents, the migrants used the cross they were carrying as a battering ram to break through security forces' lines, shattering the wooden cross. The migrants described the march as a traditional annual protest related to Holy Week, and those at the front carried a white cross, as others have done in previous years. Some 500 migrants from Central America, Venezuela and elsewhere pushed past police and National Guard lines in southern Mexico in one of the first such marches this year. “That can throw your finances into a world of hurt,” he said.įollow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter. They might have to miss work to get a new license or to have an outdated one reinstated. Morgan also said poor people might face cascading problems if they are caught without a driver's license during a roadblock. ![]() They have a baby daughter, and they said the park in their neighborhood has rickety bridges that are dangerous for strollers. ![]() Morgan and Rhoades said the roadblocks don't make them feel safer, and they wish the city would spend money on other services. “Our lawsuit is not intended to detract from the city’s efforts but to ensure that everyone’s rights are respected and that disruptive measures are not unfairly imposed on majority Black and low-income neighborhoods," Wade said in a news release Thursday. Wade said the lack of a driver's license, auto registration or liability insurance "hasn’t been shown to be indicative of criminal behavior or intent.” She said she understands the police chief and people in Jackson want to curb crime. Mississippi Center for Justice president and CEO Vangela M. The police department said more than 100 felony arrests have been made at checkpoints since January. We have outstanding warrants where people once again are wanted for murder, aggravated assault, carjacking, rape, drive-by shootings.” "Our intent is to get wanted individuals off the streets. Citing the Supreme Court rulings in Scott v. “People think that it’s roadblocks, and people took it wrong that we’re targeting a certain group of people," Davis said. The question for the court was whether the law, as it stood at the time of the incident, clearly established that use of a rolling roadblock or deadly force was clearly prohibited where the chase involved a motorcyclist wanted only for motor vehicle violations. Last Friday, WLBT-TV reported that Jackson Police Department Chief James Davis said the checkpoints are set up in areas with high rates of violent crime. “By routinely stopping people in certain neighborhoods for crime control purposes without any reason to believe they have committed crimes, (the initiative) treats them like wanted suspects as they drive to and from school or work or for other legitimate reasons,” said the lawsuit.Ī spokesman for the mayor's office, Justin Vicory, said Thursday that the city does not comment on pending lawsuits. The police department started its latest roadblocks in January in an initiative it calls “Ticket Arrest Tow." The class-action lawsuit says Jackson police are violating people's constitutional right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure by using roadblocks in majority-Black and low-income neighborhoods to try to catch crime suspects. Morgan and Rhoades are among several named plaintiffs in a lawsuit that the Mississippi Center for Justice filed Thursday to challenge the constitutionality of police roadblocks in Jackson. “These roadblocks are important when we have communities that have been plagued by carjackings, plagued by various forms of violence,” Lumumba said. 14 news conference, Democratic Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba described them as “useful tools” to the police department. ![]() Jackson - which has a Black mayor, a Black police chief and a mostly Black police force - has been using roadblocks for years, with multiple officers stopping vehicles to check for driver's licenses and auto insurance and to try to find people who are wanted on arrest warrants.
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