South Florida Immigration Officials (FedExpress) Under Fire After Targeting Guatemalans in Jupiter

[AlphaCentauri]

A Guatemalan immigrant in Jupiter is facing deportation after Federal Express employees in Riviera Beach opened a package, inspected its contents, then reported a possible illegal alien to immigration officials, who swooped in when a group of Guatemalans arrived to pick up the package on January 6.

The case, which appears in today's New York Times, has become a flashpoint in U.S.-Guatemala diplomacy due to the manner in which federal authorities received the evidence. The package in question was from a company that the Guatemalan government used to deliver new passports to citizens living abroad. Diplomats for the Central American country say that, whatever the immigration status of those citizens, FedEx employees and American officials had no right to seize the package and examine passports that were the property of Guatemalan government.

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/01/vazquez_immigration_riviera_beach_jupiter_guatemala.php

[thunder rising]

1. Passports (as in multiple?). FedEx is not the US mail and hence can do what it wants.

The beauty of free enterprise.

[AlphaCentauri]

2. Funny how personal items could get exposed to the public

with out permission, just because an employee at FedEx could decide to make them public.

[thunder rising]

3. The real question is, does FedEx have a privacy policy regarding the packages?

Otherwise, any package can be examined.

[AlphaCentauri]

4. Do they inspect every package or just the ones with names like Jose or Latisha?

if their policy is to inspect every package thats fine but if they are just selecting the ones with names that belong to minorities that would be something else.

[thunder rising]

5. Or the ones that tick, hum, vibrate, contain literature (child porn come to mind?). Privacy is NOT

ensured. The passports should have been delivered to the US in a diplomatic pouch and mailed by the consolate.

But really, how do multiple passports end up in one package? They are all going to the same address.

[AlphaCentauri]

6. how do multiple passports end up in one package?

if they belong to the same family, they should.