Sweeping too far?

Immigration sweeps and arrests have been in the news a lot the past few days. (Infrequent) Co-blogger Marc Seitles has decided to represent pro-bono a family who has been caught up in all of this. It is a very sad story about a seven year old boy who has leukemia and is scheduled for bone marrow surgery.

His father was picked up in the sweeps. Turns out that the dad previously pled guilty to having a false social security number (so he could work as a janitor). He did not show up to sentencing because his son was so sick, and he was sentenced in absentia to 6 months. Three years later he gets picked up, right before the boy is scheduled for surgery. On Friday, Seitles filed an emergency habeas motion trying to get the father a resentencing and a bond so that he can be with his son for the surgery. It's being heard today. Here's the Channel 4 story. (The Herald article incorrectly suggests that this is in front of immigration officials today; it's not -- it's back before the district judge).

Seitles is very active in the immigration-turned-criminal arena. On Friday, the DBR (J. Kay) ran an article on the new identity theft statute that the U.S. Attorney's office is using in false document cases, which carries a two year minimum mandatory sentence. Seitles was extensively quoted in the article about a different client of his subjected to this new statute...

I'll update the blog later today on the outcome of the hearing. It's scheduled at 1:30...