By John Andrews 25 January 2003
The US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is rounding up immigrant workers in the San Diego area in advance of this Sunday's Super Bowl football game. Dubbed "Operation Game Day" by INS officials, the ongoing sweeps have received virtually no publicity outside of one Reuters story and reports in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The INS confirmed the operation last Wednesday after several arrests had already been made. According to INS spokesperson Lauren Mack, "We do have an ongoing operation in San Diego aimed at providing security for the Super Bowl." Mack refused to provide the names of people being detained, the reasons for the detentions, or the numbers targeted. She did make clear, however, that none of the people detained have any known link to a terrorist organization.
The Union-Tribune learned from unnamed INS officials, who apparently did not identify themselves for fear of being punished for speaking to the media, that as of Wednesday about 40 of 80 people on a list had been taken into custody. Most are security guards, concession stand workers and taxi drivers with access to Qualcomm Stadium and other Super Bowl venues. About half are from Latin America, the others from the Middle East and Africa. At least one is a Nigerian-born British citizen who is working as a security guard, is married to a US citizen and has an application for permanent residency pending....
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jan2003/bowl-j25.shtml> -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>