Wal Mart Raids Seem Not To Be Rumors
I received what seemed to be a hoax-like text message yesterday regarding Wal Mart having given permission to ICE to conduct raids on premises. I found various reasons to discount this as a rumor, for one, ICE doesn’t need permission to conduct raids, or so I reasoned.
I heard from a third-hand sources that two days ago there had been a raid at the 290-Tidwell Wal Mart, but I have been unable to speak to the witness to corroborate.
A few minutes ago, I heard that there had been another raid at a Wal-Mart in the north part of town. I spoke to a trustworthy Wal-Mart employee who confirmed the following:
-According to his/her conversation with someone from personnel, Wal-Mart has given permission to ICE to check their employees’ papers. “Employees only,” this person clarified, “not customers.”
-This person also confirmed that many customers walked in the store today claiming that ICE was outside of the store checking for papers.
-This person confirmed that ICE was NOT in his/her store, as far as he/she was aware.
-This person heard rumors that employees from another store claimed that ICE had entered their store and had performed an operation inside their location.
I am heading to Wal-Mart right now. This could be bad information from a personnel employee and rumors from other employees, so I am trying to gather more facts. The rumors seem to be stacking up, however.
I am thinking about calling for a press conference in the later afternoon tomorrow. Stay tuned.
After visiting Wal-Mart, I could not find one person who had seen an ICE agent outside of Wal-Mart. This could be, in part, due to having shown up too late. As far as the comment from personnel, I have concluded that this person might have been referring to the practice of turning in I-9 documentation to ICE when asked, which is, unfortunately, common practice. If ICE asks personnel for documenation, they get it one way or the other. I have not chalked this up to merely rumor yet. I think it is possible that there was an I-9 verification (desk raids) at some locations, but I have found no evidence of detention raids. I’ll keep an eye out. I spoke to two different managers and they also confirmed that they had seen nothing, but suggested that I speak to the corporate office, which I will do tomorrow.
Receive e-mails (no more than twice monthly) about 
Yes, I got this text. I hope its not true. Please email any articles that may come up between now and the 20th. thanks!
still digging for information
Curiosity made me look up these “rumors” I came across this site i found very informative…since receiving the same text…i was looking for answers. Many of my family members are in the same boat. Ive asked you to friend me on fb,so i can follow because i feel you are a very resourceful person, more so that could give any positive insight to whats really going on. I live in Minnesota..and any messages i hear or read i would gladly text them along. Gracias y mucha suerte en su proposito de conseguir respuestas…Peace.
my sister works at a wendys right in front of a walmart store in haltom city tx (FORT WORTH) and she said she saw an immigration van there today but there was nobody in it
Compañer@s,
I work as the Communications Coordinator for the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, which is a San Diego based coalition of legal, labor, faith-based and community based organizations. The consortium includes the ACLU, AFSC and many community based human rights organizations.
I also run the website which has been accessed 4138 times this past week due to people trying to find some truth to the Walmart Raids Rumors. People have accessed the site from 27 states across the country, including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and New York.
Working with all these organizations and having so many thousands of people access the site, we have not received one single testimony from an eye-witness that saw raids were taking place anywhere in the country. We normally get calls and emails from people who visit the site and have questions and all of these organizations are well known in the communities. This does not mean that ICE is not visiting certain stores to do I-9 verifications or for other reasons. They have visited stores in the past and will continue to do so. But there is no evidence that raids have taken place as of yet.
And we mention only what we know. We are not trying to speak for or defend Walmart. What we want to do is prevent the deepening of the fear that already exists in our communities. It was fear of the raids that broke the back of the marches in 2006 and we must do what we can to prevent that from happening again, especially now since immigration reform is on the agenda again.
Finally, the source of the rumors have been confirmed. A human rights group in Georgia, known as the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human rights, wanted to put pressure on Walmart to take a stance in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, INVENTED the rumor about the raids to discourage people from shopping there. They admitted to this in a report done by Univision. We suspected it had something to do with them since they have been the only group calling for a boycott of Walmart stores.
If there are cases of raids taking place, we have to hear from the eye-witnesses. Documentations must be taken of their testimony, and having someone else report or speak for another person is only hearsay and does not serve as a credible source. Human rights groups are trained in taking documentation and eye witnesses should speak to a human rights observer, or a lawyer. If there are cases, please have them documented and we can connect them with lawyers in order to be able to take some legal action.
Please check out the articles we have posted on our website to see the coverage we have about the rumor, and let’s look for real ways to mobilize the community for their freedom and rights.
http://www.immigrantsandiego.org
R.F.
my friend told me that she heard there was a raid in the mt vernon walmart in washington state. they said it was on the spanish news, Primer Impacto, but i have not seen anything on there. I am checking local news stations but havent found anything yet.
I live in La Habra, Ca. I work as a waitress and although La Habra is a latino community, Pico Rivera is even more; one of my coworkers saw the raids conducted at the walmart. My neighbor confirmed also that in Anaheim there were also vans with people inside. Its so unfair because Walmart should appreciate us more, we are their costumers, they should ask us for papers at the check out when we give them our hard earned money. Shame on walmart for allowing this.
I would love to be able to interview them. Many organizers do not believe that this actually occured since no eye-witnesses have come forward. I finally spoke to an eye-witness here in Houston, but they refused to go on the record.
I have been informed by a family member that works at a local Austin TX Walmart, that ICE will be at the store 3/21, they were not informed for what reason, just my 2 cents, I hope some kind of reforms is passed soon. this great country of all for all was built by all for all
something needs to change for the better, we immigrants contribute billion and billions of dollars to this country, if this turns out just to be a rumor the economic impact will be felt, not just by walmart but by all those companies that sell to Walmart. we wait and see…..
Hello, My name is Kathy and I was in a WalMart in Palm Bach County, to be specific on Belvedere Road and Military and there was a raid from ice, in WalMart, I heard that ICE did have prior permission from WalMart to enter the stores and do a Lock down, which they did, this was at 3pm a on Wednesday 03/10/2010, and this was not aimed at workers but to shoppers. I was placed in a Van, were I was told by a immigration official that we f…. came here to get the jobs that belongs to the Americans. She also threaten to take my kids to Child Services, if my work permit came back false. WALMART AND IMMIGRATION ARE WORKING TOGETHER TO GET RID OF THE ILLEGAL ALIENS, I WAS THERE THIS IS NO RUMOR!!!!! SHOP AT YOUR OWN RISK AT WALMART, THERE HAVE BEEN FOUR ICE RAIDS ARE TAKING PLACE IN Several PALM BEACH COUNTY WalMart’s
Hi my name is Gabbie I was brough here as a child and I’m now 25 and I’m so scared, this is horrible!! I wish people would understand that we young adults are just trying to give our families a better life and is so unfair that we are being chased down as animals it is so painful to live in fear all the time… we need this reform
Hello I just want to add that ice has also started with this raids at walmart in Austin, San Marcos and Seguin Texas, we are asking everyone to be very careful when shopping at those locations, ice agebts tend to be very aggressive and racist. They will insult you and treat you like criminals. Also a very important note, ice has also started going inside the HEB stores with their permission. These people are working undercover so you will not recognize them. Please stay away from this places.
TO:Siqueiros
How can there be witnesses if most of them were deported? and those that weren’t are afraid to come foward. I am not as skeptical as most about these raids since other such human righst crime have happen in a not so distant past. The only difference being that it happened to other cultural groups such as the japanese in the wwII. Not many will come forward for fear of future turbulation, we are talking about a global chain of stores who would want to go against that? Fear is a powerful remedy to voice that want to speak, i would just hope that those that did incounter such a horrible crime to come forth and speak and know that they are not alone.