[No subject] [Patrick Fox; Robert Cordero (Deportation Officer)]

Synopsis

Some of you will read this letter and say "What a little asshole! No wonder ICE, DHS, and the Immigration Court were sticking it to him. He brought it all on himself by being so insulting and antagonistic."

If you're one of the people that is thinking that, you're an idiot.

Everything I did, all of my insults, antagonism, and provocation was reactive.

It was not until AFTER ICE illegally arrested me, illegally detained, illegally interrogated me at their facility for 10 hours, illegally transferred me to one of their detention facilities 70 miles from anywhere, then illegally told me if I want to get out of custody I have to prove my US citizenship, that I became rude, insulting, and contentious with them.

It was not until AFTER the DHS lawyers appeared in court, knowingly making false claims about me, admitting they had no evidence of alienage and, therefore, no legal authority or basis to keep me detained, but refusing to agree to my release ... in fact, fighting to keep me detained, that I became contentious with them.

And it was not until AFTER the Immigration Judge acknowledged in court that the burden is first on DHS to establish alienage and that until they do, neither ICE nor the Immigration Court has authority or jurisdication over me, but simultaneously REFUSING to order DHS to release me and suggesting that if I provide my birth certificate and DHS is satisfied with it, then he might dismiss the case, that I lost all respect for the Immigration Judges and the entire system.

Consider that: The judge was literally saying the burden is FIRST on the government to prove you're an alien, and until they do, neither I (the Immigration Judge) nor they (DHS/ICE) have any jurisdiction or authority over you, it is illegal for them to keep you detained here, they have absolutely no authority to do so; but, I'm going to allow them to do so until YOU provide documentary proof, to THEIR satisfaction, that you were born in the US - even though there is absolutely no burden on you to prove you're a US citizen until AFTER DHS proves you're an alien. THAT is exactly what was going on in my case! And THAT is why I had absolutely no respect for any of it.

So, in this letter I am extremely insulting and provocative to my Deportation Office Robert Cordero. I was very deliberately seeking to antagonize him.

And much of what I said in this letter was total bullshit. Yes, I lied. I lied extensively. I lied to the people who were illegally detaining me and illegally trying to deport me from the country I was born in. Sorry, but I just have absolutely no remorse for any grief I may have caused any of them.

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On Thu, Nov 08, 2007, Richard Riess wrote:

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DO Cordero:

If you haven’t figured out by now, you’re not going to find a birth record for Richard Steven Riess in San Bernardino County. Yes, I was born there, however, since no one asked, I never bothered to mention that I did, formally, change my name in 1995.

Of course, it’s important to note that I never lied or withhold the truth. My true and legal name is now Richard Steven Riess. Not once have I been asked about my birth name.

It should be obvious to you by now that I am intentionally avoiding my release from ICE custody. My rationale is not quantum physics. I currently have, before the court, three felony charges and one arrest warrant. I believe the maximum for the three charges is in the area of 17 years. But as long as I’m in federal custody, in the process of being deported the local authorities can’t touch me.

So, I’ll wait here, where the food is decent, I’m treated well (admittedly pressing charges for assault against a staff member of the Dept. of Health has helped the rest fall in line), and the cigarettes and drugs are easier to get.

It’s only a matter of time until my attorney gets the charges dismissed on the basis that “the federal government interfered” and as a result “I can’t possibly be brought to trial”. Once this is done, I’ll call my good friend in Los Angeles – who is the immigration attorney that handles all the H1-Bs for my company – and he’ll bring my birth certificate, certificate of name change and other supporting documents.

Then, to coincide with the production of my proof of citizenship by birth, we’ll initiate a suit for failing to “prove, with clear and unequivocal evidence, that the person is, in fact, an alien” and for failing to issue or obtain a “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” pursuant to the CFR and the INA. In other words, when ICE Agent Jason Martin had his pride hurt by looking incompetent before his co-workers and thought he’d “get me” by issuing a dummy Form I-200 and Form I-286 and holding me in a tank for a day he never suspected he was being manipulated and that I would keep these copies of the dummy forms.

Now, bear in mind, the information written on the singular document, by one of your own ICE agents, and with no supporting evidence was provided, verbally, by me. That is to say, I simply used the agent’s own arrogance and my wonderful education in psychology to confuse and humiliate him into writing “Sudbury, Ontario, Canada” as the place of birth. You see, in response to his question “Of which country are you a citizen?” I stated “The United States of America.” Then, without waiting for the next question I said “Ontario, C-A. My parents are from Sudbury, M-A. What’s the matter? Are you slow?” He then looked at me, confused. I responded by lipping the phrase “Fuck you!” For my mother’s name I gave some gibberish and for my father I simply gave my middle and last name. In response to the question “When was the last time you entered the country?” I responded “To the best of my knowledge I’ve never left.”

Skip ahead two months (Jul 24th – Sept 25), coincidentally about a week before my pre-trial conference on the criminal charges, I suddenly decided to post my bond and be released to ICE custody.

During my interrogation, by one Jason Martin, I successfully answered his, and his coworker’s, questions. In case you’re not aware, a good interrogator will mix real, directed questions with ridiculous, irrelevant questions – intended to throw the interviewee off. Unfortunately for Mr. Martin and his inept colleagues, I am well versed in interrogation techniques as well as civil and even some immigration law.

If you check with the ICE office in Phoenix (but I know you won’t) you’ll find that on Sept 25th Jason Martin handled only one case that entire day. Can you guess why? Possibly my sarcastic and condescending responses to his very predictable and simplistic questions and tactics caused him to experience a sensation of anxiety which he interpreted as embarrassment or humiliation. Perhaps that embarrassment compelled him to ignore protocol, procedures and professionalism. Perhaps this is why I was not fingerprinted or provided my rights. Perhaps this is why my name is not on the I-200 he foolishly gave me a copy of.

Thinking back over the interactions between you and I, I’m sure you’ll see some similarity between my handling of Mr. Martin and yourself. And I’m pretty sure that right now you’re experiencing the same anxiety he did.

So, given that the federal detention facilities are so much nicer, cleaner and dignified than the Maricopa County jails and given that as long as I’m not in the custody of the MCSO the DA has no bargaining power in my case, is there any question why I’m not in a hurry to be released?

Quite obviously I’m using your own arrogance, insecurity and (falsely perceived) superiority to manipulate the situation to my benefit. But it’s nothing personal. I’m doing the same with the immigration judge and the attorney for the government. I also did it to the staff of the MCSO Towers Jail for two months.

This is lies! It was only the Deportation Officers I was fucking with. The DHS attorneys were too inconsequential for me to bother with. And while the judges, technically, had the power to dismiss my case and release me from custody, it had become clear they were not going to.

As for the MCSO, I had no need to fuck with them. My issues with them were handled through the institutional grievance process.

There was no formal procedure in place for seeking redress from the misconduct and abuses of ICE Deportation Officers, though. There was, literally, no oversight with them. The only way to fight back against asshole Deportation Officers was to antagonize them into saying and doing things that you could use against them later, to prove how corrupt and full of shit they (and the entire process) are ... oh, wait, that's exactly what I'm doing!

For the sake of completeness, there was, at the time this was going on, a department within DHS called the Office of the Inspector General, which handled complaints and claims against ICE employees. I called it once, to file a complaint against Cordero. They told me they don't handle those kinds of complaints, they were more for things like mishandling of funds.

I’m willing to bet I’m the first case you’ve seen of someone being released to ICE BEFORE going to court for their criminal charges. It certainly ensures never having to answer for the criminal charges ☺ Thanks.

Of course at this point there’s no drawback to me telling you this since A) nothing of what I’m doing is illegal, I haven’t broken any laws or stated any lies, and B) I know that even now you would not consider sending me back to the authorities in Phoenix – for doing so would be admitting that you and all your incompetent cohorts have been manipulated, and have violated official ICE policy and the INA because of your own personal insecurities (but don’t take my word for it – check with an attorney).

So, here’s what’s going to happen – I’ll wait here, at the “Eloy Hilton” until my criminal charges are dismissed. Then I’ll have my immigration attorney produce my birth certificate, name change certificate, school records, medical records, legal records, business records, et cetera, to prove my claim and you’ll have to let me go. I’ll be clear of all my criminal charges and I’ll have lost only a few months (I needed a vacation anyway).

And here’s the kicker – because of Jason Martin and Kristine Brisson’s sloppy handling of my case, leaving me in possession of evidence of their violations, and your subsequent show of incompetence and then the judge’s blatant disregard for the written law pertaining to burden of proof everything has come together nicely. To clarify, the burden of proof is on the alien to disprove the government’s claims. However, even before that point, the burden of proof is on the government to prove that the person is, in fact, an alien. And therein is the fault. Jason Martin failed to meet this burden and acted out of anger. And [that] suits my purposes just fine.

And sure, this letter implicates me but A) you can’t prove I wrote it, and B) it brings your own faults and those of ICE to light. For these reasons I’m sure you’ll want to bury it. But I’m not that nice.

All I can think right now is “Gee, it sucks to be you, huh?”

And now, the fact that you’ve read this far proves that I know you as well as I think ☺

Cheers,
R.

P.S. I’ll forward a copy of this letter to your supervisor and another to my acquaintances at the AZ Republic. Or maybe I’m just fucking with you some more.