Immigration raids impact local families
Activists say ICE knocking on doors with deportation orders
by: Chiara Canzi
Charlotsville News and Arts
October 14, 2008
Maria’s husband worked two jobs to help pay rent, to buy food and other necessities. Maria, who prefers not to have her last name printed, says he was working one day in late September, when police approached him. Now, he’s being held at Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville. Maria and their 8-year-old-daughter have not seen him since.
Maria’s husband, like many other undocumented workers, was a target of recent efforts by the federal government to cut down on illegal immigration. Raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have increased in the Charlottesville area, says Linda Hemby, member of Creciendo Juntos, an inter-agency network focused on the Latino community in Charlottesville, Albemarle and surrounding counties.
Those targeted by the federal government are undocumented immigrants who either have already been ordered deported but are still in the country or have a deportation letter waiting for them. Some attribute the increase in deportations to local law enforcement checking workers’ immigration status during routine traffic stops. According to Weldon Cooper Center estimates, 3.3 percent of Charlottesville’s population is Hispanic.
On October 9, Hemby moderated a panel on the impact of immigration raids on Latino children, saying that there has been evidence that ICE agents are going into Southwood trailer park “knocking on doors with deportation orders,” she said.
Calls to ICE were not returned by press time. According to the 2007 ICE annual report, 276,912 illegal aliens were deported, including 40,534 who have done so voluntarily.
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