Groups protest S. Idaho immigration raid
December 08, 2008
The Olympian
The Idaho Community Action Network and Catholic Charities of Idaho held a candlelight vigil in protest of an immigration raid at a wood manufacturing company in Nampa.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 16 Mexican nationals employed by the Idaho Truss & Component Co. on Thursday. The raid was part of a one-year investigation that began when employment records showed some workers may have used fake documents to secure their jobs.
The workers will remain in federal custody until they appear before an immigration judge.
A group of about 80 people gathered in Boise on Sunday at the Anne Frank Memorial for a vigil in support of the workers and in protest of the arrests that separated the men from their families three weeks before the Christmas holiday.
The Rev. Thomas Faucher, of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Boise, and Amy Hertzfeld, executive director of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center, were among speakers at the event, which included family members of the workers.
Veronica Mason, 34, of Nampa, said her 36-year-old fiance was one of the men arrested during the raid. He was brought into the county as a minor and has lived in the United States for about 17 years, she said. Mason is expecting the couple's first child in June and if her fiance is deported, said she'll move to Mexico to keep the family together.
"It's been really hard for me to get to the concept that he won't be here for the birth of his only child," she told the Idaho Press-Tribune. "It's just really devastating for the whole family."
Idaho Truss President Kendall Hoyd said the 16 workers were carefully documented when they were hired and he was unaware the were suspected of working in the country illegally.
ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers confirmed that deportation proceedings for the workers have begun.
The names of those arrested will not be released, Dankers said. Three of the 16 men arrested have been previously deported, while three others have been convicted of crimes in the United States, according to ICE.
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