Mexican Expulsions

Supporters rally against deportation for detained Occupy Oakland

2011-11-17T16:35:00.000-08:00

By Matt O'Brien
Oakland Tribune
11/16/2011

OAKLAND -- Alameda County officials said Wednesday they have no authority to stop immigration agents from detaining and deporting an Occupy Oakland protester who was arrested while meditating outside City Hall.

The District Attorney's office dropped misdemeanor charges against 36-year-old activist Pancho Ramos Stierle for loitering and refusing to disperse from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza as riot police were clearing out the Occupy encampment there on Monday.

But while the criminal charges were dropped on Wednesday afternoon, a federal immigration hold on Ramos Stierle remains in effect and friends fear he could be deported to Mexico.

"I don't have the authority to go against the federal government," said Alameda County Superior Court Commissioner Karen Rodrigue, speaking to dozens of Ramos Stierle's supporters who came to his arraignment in a downtown courthouse.

The peace activist was among those arrested as riot police cleared the Occupy encampment in a predawn raid Monday.

He had been meditating on the plaza for more than three hours as police officers surrounded the camp and most other protesters fled.

After he was booked in a county jail, a federal fingerprints database flagged him as a deportable immigrant from Mexico. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a note to jailers asking him to be held.

The activist's lawyers argued on Wednesday that the note -- called an immigration detainer -- is
merely a request for local authorities to keep him detained, not a demand, and that the county has the ability to reject it.

"Our position is that they don't have to honor the hold. That's clear as day," said lawyer Francisco Ugarte. "The federal government has said the hold is a request."

The sheriff's department and district attorney's office disagreed.

"The sheriff's department is going to pay attention to what the feds tell them to do," said Deputy District Attorney Josefa James, speaking in the courtroom to one of Ramos Stierle's lawyers.

On the immigration hold, James said, "we don't have anything to do with it, but there's nothing we can do about it, either."

About 50 activists and friends formed a meditation circle outside the courtroom and shared stories about Ramos Stierle as they awaited his arraignment.

Equipped with notepads, pens, cellphones and laptops, they spent hours making phone calls and writing emails and handwritten letters to local authorities.

"We all have the responsibility to do the right thing, and we're asking (District Attorney) Nancy O'Malley to do the right thing in this instance," said his lawyer, Yolanda Huang.

O'Malley did not return a request for comment.

Although Ramos Stierle is now in the county's custody, not the city's, Huang said county and federal authorities should respect ordinances approved by the Oakland City Council, which declared the city a sanctuary for all immigrants -- first in 1986, and then again in 2007.

"He was arrested on city property," Huang said. "He was arrested by Oakland police officers. And he's been held in the city of Oakland."

However, that "City of Refuge" policy has not been enforced, especially since Alameda County and all other Bay Area counties joined the federal Secure Communities network last year. Fingerprints of everyone arrested by local police get automatically sent to a federal database, which flags arrestees who appear to be immigrants subject to deportation, either because they are in the country illegally or committed a crime.

Lawyers and immigration authorities have declined to discuss how Ramos Stierle was able to live in the U.S. and whether or not he had permission to be living here.

"We are not at liberty to disclose further details about Mr. Stierle's immigration history," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice, citing privacy restrictions. The agency has also not said if it intends to take custody of Ramos Stierle, but it did ask the county to keep him detained until agents decide if they wish to pick him up.

Lawyers said the immigration agency has 48 hours after the arraignment, which was late on Wednesday afternoon, to make that determination.

Friends said Ramos Stierle was from Mexico City and had studied at UC Berkeley on a student visa.

He dropped out of a graduate astrophysics program at the university in 2008 and became a full-time activist, they said.

A resident of Oakland's Fruitvale district, he gathered fruits from neighborhood trees and leftover organic produce from farmers markets and distributed the food for free to residents who needed it. He was involved in a range of causes, from immigrant rights to environmentalism, and had protested the city's gang injunctions. Much like a Buddhist monk, he lived off a "gift economy," supported by friends he inspired through his activism and secular spirituality.

"He only rides bikes," said friend Miriam Dowd, visiting the courtroom Wednesday. "He calls gasoline 'dinosaur juice.'"

Inspired by Gandhi, Ramos Stierle spent each Monday in silence, communicating only through writing. He was following that practice when Oakland police officers approached him after 6 a.m. Monday and arrested him.

When they asked him questions, he answered on a notepad. He maintained the vow of silence all day in the county jail, but cracked a smile every once in a while, said cellmate Paul Bloom of San Francisco.

"He was doing nothing but being a peaceful presence. That was our intention," said Adelaja Simon, 24, who was meditating with Ramos Stierle and another activist when the three of them were arrested. Simon, Bloom and more than 30 other arrested protesters were released later that day, but Ramos Stierle was kept in the county's custody because of the immigration hold.

Simon said Ramos Stierle was conscious of his actions and he did not feel worried about what would happen to his friend.

"He's calm and he's present, and wherever he lands, he'll still stand for love and he'll keep doing good work for the community," Simon said.

Staff writer Robert Salonga contributed to this story.

http://www.mercurynews.com/occupy-oakland/ci_19349925

Westbrook home, Portland restaurant among targets of federal raids

2011-11-16T16:38:00.000-08:00

From Staff Reports
American Journal
November 16, 2011 1:54 pm

WESTBROOK – Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this morning raided a Westbrook home and a restaurant on the Westbrook/Portland line.

Similar raids have been reported at restaurants in Brewer, Waterville and Lewiston.

The raid of the residence, at 100 Bridge St., near the Dana Warp Mill, involved Westbrook police officers as well as federal agents. Agents could be seen talking to a man outside the residence.

Agents also raided Kon, an Asian restaurant on Brighton Avenue in Portland, near I-95 and the Westbrook line.

Officials from ICE referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which declined comment at the time. The raid coincided with raids at Super China Buffet in Waterville and Twin City Buffet in Brewer, as well as at a home in Brewer, which have been reported by Current Publishing's media partner, WCSH6 NEWSCENTER, which also reported that a sign at the Brewer restaurant said it is closed today. The Lewiston Sun Journal is reporting an ICE raid at a restaurant in Lewiston, as well.

Check back to keepmecurrent.com for more on this developing story.

http://www.keepmecurrent.com/american_journal/news/westbrook-home-portland-restaurant-among-targets-of-federal-raids/article_c6f1dad6-107a-11e1-9ad1-001cc4c03286.html

La mayoría de deportados es gente honrada: Cónsul

2011-11-15T16:41:00.000-08:00

Organización Editorial Mexicana
El Sol de Mexico
14 de noviembre de 2011

La Voz de la Frontera

Mexicali.- Las funciones de apoyo que realizan los Consulados de México en los Estados Unidos a los mexicanos residentes en dicho país, son muy amplias y abarcan muchos aspectos de las necesidades que tienen en lo referente a trámites personales para la obtención de documentos y otros programas, explicó ayer la Cónsul de nuestro país en Caléxico, ex diputada Gina Andrea Cruz Blackedge.

La funcionaria fue la invitada especial de la sesión semanal de todos los lunes del Grupo Los Madrugadores de Mexicali que coordina el señor José Holguín Navarro ante quienes hizo una amplia exposición de las diversas actividades que se desarrollan en apoyo de los mexicanos residentes en el valle Imperial vecino del municipio de Mexicali.

Entre ellas destacó la asistencia que se brinda a las personas que son deportadas, principalmente de niños a los cuales se les presta especial atención por ser más vulnerables que los adultos, además de estar al tanto de las horas en que son repatriados nuestros connacionales de los cuales algunos quieren volver a ingresar al vecino país y otros regresar a sus lugares de origen.

Al respecto, la Cónsul quien es oriunda de esta capital, indicó que el Consulado les brinda ayuda económica a estos mexicanos deportados la cual consiste en darles el boleto de regreso a sus entidades y 40 dólares más para los gastos del viaje, lo cual es aprovechado por muchos de ellos.

Dijo que esto es un acto de confianza a estas personas ya que aún cuando se les da seguimiento no se sabe si puedan bajarse en algún otro punto de esta zona fronteriza, ya que no existe un estudio sobre ello, además de que rechazó las aseveraciones de algunos de que los migrantes son culpables de que haya aumentado la inseguridad en Mexicali.

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n2309247.htm

Mexican Deportees Strain Cities South Of The Border

2011-11-10T03:38:00.000-08:00

By Jason Beaubien
NPR
9 November 2011

For many Mexican migrants who've just been deported from the United States, the border city Reynosa is where the American Dream dies.

Maria Nidelia Avila Basurto is a Catholic nun who heads a church-run shelter for deportees in Reynosa, in the northeast corner of Mexico, just across from McAllen, Texas.

"Many of them arrive with nothing," she says. "We have to give them everything — clothes, shoes, everything."

Last year, the U.S. deported a record number of immigrants. Almost 400,000 people who were in the country illegally were arrested and sent back to their home countries.

The vast majority were Mexicans, and many were released into dangerous cities like Reynosa. The city is struggling to deal with the thousands of deportees who arrive each month and are vulnerable to violent thugs, drug gangs and corrupt officials.

Temporary Assistance

Avila's shelter feeds the deportees and offers them bunks to sleep in, but only for three nights, then they have to leave. In the past, the shelter was shut during the day. Residents were expected to go out and search for work or try to line up help from relatives.

Many of them arrive with nothing. We have to give them everything — clothes, shoes, everything.

- Catholic nun Maria Nidelia Avila Basurto, who runs a shelter for Mexicans deported from the U.S.

But Reynosa has gotten so dangerous over the past couple of years that now, rather than the deportees being locked out of the shelter during the day, they're locked in.

Avila says that when the deportees were out during the day, many of them were abducted, beaten or robbed. But by keeping them in the shelter, the nun says, they've been able to avoid that.

Mexican kidnapping gangs often target people who have family in the United States under the assumption that most can quickly raise a ransom of $500 or $1,000.

This part of Mexico isn't dangerous just for migrants. Even the former mayor and his son were kidnapped over the summer.

Avila says her problem is that the number of deportees continues to rise, making it harder for the shelter to help them make the transition back into Mexico.

Deportation Numbers Growing

Lately the deportations are happening every day, she says. Many days, 100 or 120 are released by U.S. immigration officials at the international bridge adjacent to downtown Reynosa. For some of them, this is their first taste of freedom after serving lengthy criminal sentences in the U.S. Others were picked up for drunk driving or traffic offenses.

Santana Castrejon Alvarez, 58, said he was arrested after being caught using a fake Social Security number. "In the United States, everyone buys fake documents. Everyone. Unfortunately, I bought them too, like everyone else," he said.

Castrejon says he spent much of his 21 years in the U.S. working at a McDonald's in Chicago. He also worked in a plastics factory and a pizza restaurant. Castrejon had just started a new job, and the employer turned him in to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

He says he has no intention of staying in Mexico and plans to try to cross again illegally into the U.S.

"Here, I don't know where to go because all my family is still over there in Chicago. My wife, my sister, nieces, nephews — everyone," he says.

For the deportees who do decide to stay in Mexico, they face more than just the perilous streets of Reynosa. Jobs are scarce. The minimum wage is the equivalent of $5 a day. And corruption is rampant.

Deportees Need Mexican Documents

Many of the deportees arrive in Reynosa with no form of identification. As the drug war has spread in Mexico, so have security checkpoints. It's nearly impossible to move through the country without a picture ID. Volunteers from a local human rights group make temporary credentials for anyone who needs them.

The volunteers have just returned from the printer and are distributing them to the deportees.

Jose Elejarza Maldonado with the Center for Border Studies and Human Rights in Reynosa says that without some form of identification, the returning migrants will fall prey to corrupt officials.

Elejarza says his group regularly gets complaints that corrupt police and other authorities steal from these individuals.

The Mexican government does help deportees with one-way bus tickets to their home states, and the U.S. government has started flying more of them into Central Mexico, but still thousands end up being exiled each month into violent border cities such as Reynosa.

Migrant advocates here say that roughly 30 percent of the deportees immediately turn around and head north. They'd rather take their chances with the U.S. Border Patrol than venture out into an environment where they could get beaten, robbed, kidnapped or worse.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/09/141932810/mexican-deportees-strain-cities-south-of-the-border

KU sociologist calls for legalizing current immigrants

2011-11-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap
KU News Service
Nov. 8, 2011

LAWRENCE — In a new book on U.S. immigration, University of Kansas sociologist Tanya Golash-Boza proposes that legalizing immigrants currently in the United States would not only be cost-effective but also a step toward focusing on the human rights of immigrants.

Golash-Boza argues in “Immigration Nation: Raids, Detentions, and Deportations in Post 9/11 America” that the war on terror has translated into a war on immigrants.

“Funding used to fight terrorism is being used to instill fear in immigrants,” says Golash-Boza, an assistant professor in both sociology and American studies at KU.

With legalization, the United States would receive more revenue from income taxes – about 75 percent of an estimated 10 million undocumented migrants currently pay taxes. In addition, U.S. Treasury revenues would gain from administrative fees for legalization.

Golash-Boza urges her readers to focus on the human cost of current policies: “The immigration policy debate must take into account the human cost, in addition to security and economic needs.

“The practical solution is not to try to remove all of them or to scare them away, but to encourage them to come out of the shadows by offering them an incentive to do so.” Golash-Boza suggests making legalization less cumbersome and rendering quotas more in line with U.S. labor needs.

U.S. immigration policies have failed to curtail the numbers of migrants, but instead have allowed an immigration industrial complex to thrive – fed in part by a fear of foreigners, Golash-Boza points out. The complex allows some industries to profit by marginalizing a workforce needed only part of a year and for others to profit from enforcement services, such as privately run detention facilities. The combination of fear, profit potential and political power has created a human rights crisis.

A surge of deportations by U.S. immigration authorities since Sept. 11 is a trend that concerns Golash-Boza.

“The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 made it clear that there are people who seek to harm civilians in the United States,” and that there is a need for national security, Golash-Boza writes. “Yet building fences, raiding factories and terrorizing immigrant communities does not make the United States a safer place.”

Most migrants are not terrorists, Golash-Boza notes. Most come to the United States to work, and most come without intending to stay more than a year or two. Some discover they must to stay longer to pay off debt incurred to enter the country illegally. (The going rate to smuggle humans from Mexico is about $4,000 and from China, $80,000.) Most come from Central and South American countries.

“Migrants from Mexico, Central and South America, or other countries in the Global South who walk across deserts, swim across rivers, or climb over fences in search of better employment are not terrorists. Neither are undocumented workers who work in meat processing and garment factories, “ Golash-Boza adds.

Undocumented migrants make up 5 percent of the U.S. labor force – working primarily as agricultural workers, roofers, food-processing employees and as maids and housekeepers. Some U.S. farmers are reporting income losses due to the rise in deportations and increase in border enforcement, she notes.

Undocumented immigrants are an easy group to scapegoat, she says. Media pundits fuel fear with sensationalized reports of crimes committed by undocumented or illegal immigrants. Media pundits and politicians campaigning for office de-humanize people by referring to undocumented immigrants as “illegals.”

In 2009, 85 percent of the undocumented migrants came from 10 countries. The greatest number, 6.6 million, came from Mexico. El Salvador followed with 530,000; Guatemala with 480,000; Honduras with 320,000 and the Philippines with 270,000. India and Korea each contributed 200,000; Ecuador, 170,000; Brazil, 150,000 and China, 120,000.

Yet when Golash-Boza compared the number of deportations by country, the top 10 list included nine nations in the Caribbean, Central and South America and none in Asia. Given the numbers of immigrants coming from Asia, Golash-Boza suggests racial profiling may explain the absence of Asian countries on the deportation top-10 list.

In 2009, about 393,000 people were deported. Not quite a third had been convicted of a crime. More than two-thirds were deported for noncriminal offenses – they lacked proper documentation or had violated the terms of their visas.

Golash-Boza points out that many deportees had lived in the United States for most of their lives, were legal permanent residents, and left behind jobs and families. In some cases, mothers arrested on the job were forced to leave infants behind -- some becoming wards of a state. A few 2009 deportees included teens adopted as toddlers by U.S. families who had never filed citizenship papers.

Golash-Boza is among the first sociologists to focus on human rights. She serves on the American Sociological Association’s section on human rights. She is author of “Yo Soy Negro: Blackness in Peru” and has two more to soon to be released: “Due
Process Denied” and “Deported: The Casualties of Mass Deportation from the United States.”

“Immigration Nation: Raids, Detentions, and Deportations in Post 9/11 America,” was released by Paradigm Publishers this spring and will be available in paperback in March 2012.

http://www.news.ku.edu/2011/november/8/legalize.shtml

Buscan solución al problema de los migrantes

2011-11-08T05:07:00.000-08:00

Por María ELENA DÍAZ
El MEXICANO
06 de noviembre de 2011

MEXICALI.- Más que “satanizar” el problema que representan los miles de deportados por esta garita, hay que buscar opciones para apoyarlos, establecieron ayer representantes de la iniciativa privada durante una reunión que sostuvieron con autoridades de los tres niveles de gobierno.

Lo anterior durante una reunión de trabajo que sostuvieron para analizar la problemática que se presenta con motivo de los miles de deportados por esta garita.

En la reunión participaron por parte del sector empresarial, el Presidente del Consejo Coordinador Empresarial de esta ciudad, Angel Zaizar Prado y el Presidente de la Cámara Nacional de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo de Mexicali, Jorge Cervantes Arenas.

Durante la reunión precisaron que de lo que va de Enero a Septiembre se han repatriado solamente por la garita de Mexicali más de 50 mil connacionales que son deportados por las autoridades Norteamericanas.

Precisaron que de esa suma el 30 por ciento generalmente pretende regresar a los Estados Unidos a través de un promedio de dos intentos de retorno hacia el vecino país.

Asimismo estuvieron presentes el Subsecretario de Población, Migración y Asuntos Religiosos, René Zenteno; el Director General de Registro de Población, Alberto Alonso Icoria; el Delegado de INAMI, Antonio Valladolid Rodríguez y la Cónsul de México en Calexico Gina Andrea Cruz Blackledge.

Ante ellos, el dirigentes de los comerciantes aseguró que ello “no satanizan a los inmigrantes”, sino que pretenden que exista una solución definitiva para estas 50 mil personas que son deportadas hacia nuestra ciudad.

Dentro de los acuerdos tomados por esta mesa presidida por el Consejo Coordinador Empresarial, Canaco Mexicali propuso el establecimiento de un Consejo Ecuménico en el que participen todas las Iglesias de todas las denominaciones que existen en esta ciudad para establecer en el centro de la Ciudad un lugar en donde se puedan atender a todos los migrantes con el objeto de darles hospedaje y comida durante dos o tres días con el compromiso de estos migrantes de conseguir trabajo.

El presidente de la CANACO dijo que para este efecto hay que tener coordinación con la Secretaria del Trabajo a través del establecimiento de bolsas de trabajo en este Centro de Atención del Migrante, con la Sociedad Civil a través de la aportación de ingredientes para la confección de alimentos para dichos migrantes y con la aportación de los comerciantes para proveer a través del banco de alimentos, los alimentos necesarios para esta casa.

Asimsimo Cervantes Arenas se comprometió a realizar las gestiones necesarias ante el Presidente Municipal, Francisco Pérez Tejada a efecto de que uno de los predios que se encuentran abandonados en la Zona Centro de la ciudad pueda ser destinado a este Centro de Atención al Migrante motivando a sus propietarios para que los remocen y los adecuen.

Asimismo, el presidente de la Cámara de Comercio convocó a las autoridades presentes entre ellas, Luis Alfonso Vizcarra, Subsecretario General de Gobierno, para que a través de recursos del Gobierno del Estado, del Gobierno Federal y Municipal se lleven cabo estas acciones y poder asegurar que los connacionales puedan tener un techo donde refugiarse, comida como alimentarse y sobre todo buscar una forma honesta de vivir a través de una bolsa de trabajo.

Asimismo se acordó en la mesa de trabajo ver la forma en que estas personas ya no busquen regresar a Estados Unidos, sino que quieran regresar a su lugar de origen en cualquier lugar de la República Mexicana para que sean trasladadas a estos lugares, buscando que se amplíen los recursos federales para este motivo y coordinándose con las aerolíneas para obtener precios baratos para trasladarlos o bien a través de transporte foráneo público.

De esta manera se busca acotar el efecto de los repatriados, buscando por un lado conseguirles trabajo, pero por otro lado ayudándolos a regresar a su lugar de origen.

Establecieron que las personas que pretender regresar a su lugar de origen, de acuerdo a las estadísticas, equivale a un 25 por cientos del total de los repatriados.

También asistieron representantes de la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública del Estado, quienes se comprometieron a realizar los esfuerzos necesarios para ayudar con el problema de la migración.

En esta mesa de trabajo se aclaró que de los poco más de 50 mil repatriados que regresan de Estados Unidos a Mexicali solamente mil personas de ellas son excarcelados de Estados Unidos.

http://www.el-mexicano.com.mx/informacion/noticias/1/3/estatal/2011/11/06/516978/buscan-solucion-al-problema-de-los-migrantes.aspx

Immigration officials back away from deportation program; Effort quickened process but raised rights issues

2011-11-07T01:46:00.000-08:00

By Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 6, 2011

Federal immigration officials have quietly backed away from a program in Arizona and other Western states aimed at quickly and efficiently deporting illegal immigrants rather than keeping them in costly detention centers.

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants, including thousands from Arizona, have been deported under the program over the past several years. Called stipulated removal, it allows the government to quickly deport illegal immigrants held in detention centers as long as they forgo a hearing before a judge to review their legal rights and to determine if they want to fight their case.

The phaseout follows controversies and concerns.

Immigration officials hailed the program as cost-effective deportations for people who wanted to go home. Critics worried that the government was strong-arming immigrants to accept deportation without regard for their due-process rights.

Immigration officials changed course in September 2010 after a federal appellate court ruled that an immigrant held in an Eloy detention center had his rights violated. After that, speedy removals were offered only to illegal immigrants with lawyers, who could help them fight their cases. Lawyers are not provided at taxpayer expense in deportation proceedings.

Since then, immigration officials have not deported a single illegal immigrant through the program in Arizona, said Vincent Picard, a spokesman for ICE in Phoenix. Picard could not provide statistics for other states.

ICE officials did not publicize the dramatic policy change. Many immigrant lawyers and critics of the program were unaware the change had been made.

Time and money

In a deportation proceeding, an illegal immigrant has the right to appear in front of an immigration judge to decide whether to contest the case. The immigrant also has the right to hire a lawyer.

But under stipulated removal, an immigrant who doesn't want to fight deportation gives up the right to a hearing. The immigrant also gives up the right to an appeal. Once the immigrant agrees to those stipulations, the judge signs a deportation order, even if the immigrant is not in the courtroom.

Supporters of stipulated removal, which remains in effect in other parts of the country, say it benefits both the government and illegal immigrants. The program can save time and money.

The illegal immigrant is typically deported within a day or two. In comparison, an illegal immigrant facing deportation can spend weeks or even months in detention. In 2011, the average time was 29 days, according to ICE statistics.

The average daily cost of detention in 2011 was $112.83, said Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman.

"Such agreements between ICE and the alien are advantageous to the government in that it relieves the immigration court of the need to have a hearing, saves ICE additional detention costs, and allows the alien to return to his/her country expeditiously," Picard said in an e-mail.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that favors strict immigration enforcement, said the program should be expanded, not scaled back.

Offering stipulated removal only to immigrants who hire their own lawyers bogs down the judicial process and defeats the purpose of the program: to quickly remove illegal immigrants with no legal grounds to remain in the U.S. who want to go home, Vaughan said. It also clogs up immigration courts, making less room for immigrants with strong legal cases to remain in the U.S.

"I see the greater use of stipulated removal as expediting the inevitable, with the result being swifter access to hearings for the people who are more likely to benefit from them," she said.

Phillip Crawford, a former field director for ICE's enforcement and removal operations in Arizona, said it is a shame that stipulated removals have been curtailed.

The program, he said, had several levels of "safeguards" to ensure that the rights of illegal immigrants were protected and that participants understood what they were signing. Each case was reviewed by ICE officers during processing at detention centers, by ICE prosecutors and by an immigration judge who has the power to reject the deportation if the judge believes the immigrant had legal grounds to remain.

He also said the program targeted illegal immigrants from Mexico convicted of aggravated felonies with little chance of legally remaining in the U.S.

"It was an excellent program," Crawford said.

Rights protected?

Critics say stipulated removal circumvents immigrants' rights and largely targeted immigrants who had not committed crimes.

A 30-page report released in September by the National Immigration Law Center accused government officials of pressuring illegal immigrants to accept quick deportation by threatening long detention stays if they tried to fight to remain in the U.S. The government also often didn't provide adequate interpretation and translation to immigrants who didn't speak English, the report said.

The report found that 80 percent of those deported through the program hadn't committed crimes.

The report also found that 96 percent of those deported didn't have lawyers. Therefore, the report concluded, many of those without criminal records may have been eligible to remain in the U.S. if they had had a chance to fight their case.

Instead of deportation, the non-criminals also may have qualified for less-severe voluntary departure, which gives immigrants the chance to return to the U.S. if they qualify for a green card, said Karen Tumlin, managing attorney for the Law Center. Instead, by accepting stipulated removal, immigrants are generally barred from coming back to the U.S. for as long as 10 years and face felony charges for illegally re-entering the country.

The report was based on 20,000 government documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Tumlin said she was unaware that ICE had stopped offering stipulated removals to immigrants unless they had a lawyer. The Arizona Republic discovered the new policy in September, when it began examining the Law Center report.

"If that's true, it would be welcome news," Tumlin said.

The change, she said, alleviates concerns that the quick removals were violating the due-process rights of illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants placed in deportation proceedings can sometimes fight their case in court if they meet certain conditions, such as having resided in the U.S. for a long period of time, having no criminal record and having children born in this country.

Evolving program

Launched in 1995 to help alleviate overcrowding in federal, state and local detention centers, the stipulated-removal program was rarely used until President George W. Bush's administration began ramping up immigration enforcement in 2004. The high rate continued during the first two years of President Barack Obama's administration. According to ICE, 32,635 people were deported in 2010.

From 2004 to 2010, immigration officials deported more than 160,000 under the program, according to the National Immigration Law Center's September report.

The report found that more than 24,000 came from the detention center in Eloy, the highest number of any facility in the country.

Internal government e-mails obtained through the Freedom of Information lawsuit and posted online by the National Immigration Law Center show that in 2005 alone, 5,787 illegal immigrants from Mexico detained in Eloy were deported through the program and that stipulated removals accounted for more than 50 percent of all deportations at the center.

In September 2010, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that immigration officials at Eloy had violated the rights of Isaac Ramos. Ramos, an illegal immigrant from Mexico with prior criminal convictions, had agreed to stipulated removal while being detained in Eloy in 2006. The court ruled that the government failed to make it clear to Ramos that he was giving up his right to talk to a lawyer, who could have explained the process and the penalties. The court also ruled that the immigration judge who signed Ramos' deportation order failed to determine if Ramos had agreed to stipulated removal "voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently," as required.

Ramos, who is married to a legal permanent resident and has two U.S.-citizen children, had argued that he should be allowed to return to the U.S. since his rights to due process were violated. The court, however, denied that request.

Since backing away from using stipulated removal, ICE has worked out a different approach in Arizona, Picard said.

Illegal immigrants who do not have legal representation and do not want to contest their cases are given the option of attending "prompt hearings," Picard said.

Held in front of immigration judges, the hearings ensure that immigrants facing deportation are advised of their "full array" of rights under the law, he said. Immigration judges also confirm that the immigrants are aware of any possibility to legally remain in the U.S.

"Only if the judge is satisfied that the aliens are removable under the charges filed against them, and are making a knowing and intelligent waiver of their rights, will the judge order their removal," Picard said.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2011/11/06/20111106immigration-arizona-deportation-program.html#ixzz1cx6wDGx2

DREAM Act Remembered On Day Of The Dead

2011-11-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

By Yolanda Gonzalez Gomez
The Huffington Post
5 November 2011

DENTON, Texas -- Juana Perez is a bilingual education major and the president of a campus organization that raises awareness about the federal DREAM Act, a bill that would enable certain undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors to apply for permanent residency.

She is also undocumented.

In honor of the Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday on Nov. 1 that celebrates life and death, Perez dedicated an altar this week to the "Dreamers," those students unable attend college because they are undocumented. Her motto: "Education, not deportation."

The celebration of the holiday at the University of North Texas -- the fourth largest university in the state, with 36,000 students, including 5,000 Latinos -- echoed a growing sentiment among Latino students: immigrant children who succeed in school should be given a chance to repay the investment in their education.

Perez, a petite young woman brought to the U.S. by her parents from Mexico, placed crosses at the altar with the names of young people who died trying to cross the border into the United States. She lit candles in honor of "Dreamers" caught up in deportation proceedings, and those who have died in detention centers for lack of medical services.

"We never give up trying to educate others about the DREAM Act and how important it is," said Perez, adding that the proposed law would not only benefit Latinos but also young people of all nationalities.

The long-standing DREAM legislation, an un-passed bill that would grant some undocumented students legal status in return for two years of college or military service, has become a focal point of the heated immigration debate.

President Obama has expressed support for the DREAM Act and immigration reform, with the administration recently announcing a policy change that would spare many "Dreamers" from deportation as enforcement is focused on undocumented immigrants with criminal records, rather than young people or students. According to the policy, the administration has also begun reviewing more than 300,000 deportation proceedings to weed out the "low-priority" cases. Yet, the administration also recently released its latest deportation numbers, which showed a record number of nearly 400,000 deportations in fiscal year 2011, which ended in September.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, has supported undocumented students, signing a bill as governor that allowed undocumented immigrants who are Texas residents to obtain in-state tuition rates.

Still, students have become an active and vocal force in pushing for immigration reform, attending DREAM Act hearings and rallying across the country.

At the University of North Texas, professors of Mexican-American studies, history and anthropology asked students to prepare altars that spoke to social issues affecting the Latino community. The theme: "Knowledge is power."

"It was a cultural exercise that echoes the demographic reality of Hispanics in Texas," said Roberto Calderon, who teaches history and Mexican-American studies.

The campus-wide celebration included a procession of altars honoring Chicano professors, family members killed on 9/11, the DREAM Act and "Dreamers."

The traditional altars were decorated with skulls, flowers, candles, religious icons, food, portraits of loved ones and admired public figures. The students shared Mexican sweet bread and churros, a fried-dough pastry, amid music and dancing.

"This enduring tradition promotes an exchange between different ethnic traditions and gives shape to our own culture," Calderon said. More Latino students receive a college education in this suburb north of Dallas than in the city and Forth Worth combined, he added.

This year, more students participated in the university's three-year-old Day of the Dead celebration than in the past, Calderon said.

"Exclusion and opposition are no longer viable in our society, as new communities gain more power and presence," he said.

Favian Rios, a member of the Lambda Theta Phil fraternity and a criminal justice major, dedicated an altar to the undocumented students missing from college classrooms.

"We hope that the university and the community might take notice of our participation, that we are proud of our heritage, and break stereotypes about Latinos," Rios said.

"We wanted to express that we are in touch with our traditions, that we haven't forgotten that we are Latinos in a country where our identities can be forgotten," said Elizabeth Guevara, also a criminal justice major.

Anthropology Professor Mariela Nuñez-Janes, said the celebration was intended to, "send the message to educators that our Hispanic culture is important in places of higher education."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/04/dream-act-day-of-the-dead_n_1076490.html

Judge orders immediate deportation of dance group member

2011-11-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

Latino Fox News
November 04, 2011

Chicago – An Ohio judge ordered the immediate deportation of a young Hispanic detained 14 days ago along with members of his Aztec dance group as they were driving across several states to put on a show.

Judge D. Williams Evans Jr. ordered the immediate deportation of Joel Almeida Gonzalez, who had a previous deportation order and will be sent back to Mexico next Tuesday.

Gonzalez is one of five undocumented dancers who were driving from New York to Joliet, Illinois, to take part in an Aztec dance ceremony on Oct. 21.

Joel was traveling with his brother Erick Almeida Gonzalez and Alberto Vera Ramirez, Carlos Tirado Carmona and Byron Tzoc Guarchaj when they were stopped in Tiffin, Ohio.

All of the immigrants are from Mexico with the exception of Guarchaj, who is a Guatemalan citizen.

When their vehicle was pulled over, police found that the travelers had no documents and consequently handed them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The men were held in Seneca County Jail until Thursday.

Debra J. Pelto, spokeswoman for the detainees, told Efe that Tirado Carmona, freed on $5,000 bail, and Erick Almeida Gonzalez on $2,500 bail, were ordered to leave the country voluntarily by Dec. 18.

Vera Ramirez, who was let out on $1,500 bail, and Guarchaj, on $5,000 bail, face another appearance in court.

"The intention was to release them all, including the two who have been given a date for voluntarily leaving the country, so they at least have a chance to put their affairs in order in New York and say goodbye to their families," Pelto said.

The arrest of the Hispanics caused surprise in New York and Chicago where the Aztec dancers are known in artistic circles.

In New York last week volunteers collected donations at several points around the city and managed to come up with $3,000 toward paying the bail bonds. In Chicago groups formed to help the detainees' families.

Roberto Ferreyra of the Nahui Ollin dance group in Chicago told Efe that a change in immigration laws is vital in order to prevent incidents like this.

"There should be a way that people who contribute to this country can work," Ferreyra said. "It's a binational problem - there's free transit for trade and there ought to be free transit as well for those who work."

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/04/judge-orders-immediate-deportation-dance-group-member/#ixzz1cxF5p2nH

Deportaciones separan a miles de niños estadounidenses de sus padres

2011-11-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

Univision
Fecha: 11/03/2011

Hay 5 mil niños en cuidado temporal tras quedar sin sus padres, reveló estudio

La intersección entre el proceso federal de deportación de inmigrantes y el sistema local de bienestar infantil está llevando a situaciones desastrosas, en las que padres detenidos o deportados terminan perdiendo la custodia de sus hijos porque no pueden asistir a las audiencias ni cumplir con los requisitos necesarios para recuperarlos.

Un estudio nacional sin precedentes develado el miércoles estimó que hay más de 5 mil niños en el sistema de cuidado temporal cuyos padres están detenidos por inmigración o fueron deportados a su país de origen, sin que estos hayan podido hacer nada para recuperar a sus hijos.

"Cuando por alguna razón padres e hijos se ven separados y los hijos pasan al cuidado del estado, la mayoría de las veces se logra una reunificación. Pero en el caso de los padres inmigrantes deportables, las barreras son increíblemente más elevadas", explicó Seth Freed Wessler, autor del estudio Familias Destrozadas, del Centro de Investigaciones Aplicadas (ARC).

Familias destruidas

Este problema se hace más acuciante en los estados y localidades cuyos departamentos de policía tienen acuerdos con el gobierno federal para asistir en labores de deportación, ya que tienden a realizar más deportaciones de personas con tiempo en el país y lazos familiares.

Como esa colaboración y la cantidad de deportaciones han venido aumentando, también son más los padres que han terminado por perder la custodia de sus hijos, sea temporal o permanentemente.

Según el estimado de ARC, 46 mil madres o padres de ciudadanos estadounidenses fueron deportados en los primeros meses de 2011.

En cualquier caso, las decisiones son difíciles, pero más aún cuando los niños caen en la custodia de autoridades de bienestar infantil.

Separaciones forzadas

El estudio identificó casos de este tipo de separación forzada en al menos 22 estados. En Los Ángeles, en el período estudiado, se encontró que hay 1,178 niños en hogares de cuidado temporal, con padres deportados o en proceso de deportación, un 6.2% del total.

"Cuando los niños pasan a la custodia del estado, es común en casos de detenidos por ICE que los padres pierdan todo contacto con sus hijos. A menudo los mueven a centros de detención muy alejados de su lugar previo de residencia y no les permiten asistir a las audiencias en la corte infantil", dijo Rinku Sen, directora ejecutiva de ARC.

En muchas ocasiones, los padres son inmigrantes que no han cometido ningún delito, simplemente caen en manos de las autoridades por manejar sin licencia, estar en el lugar equivocado y hasta ser víctimas de violencia doméstica.

Doble castigo

Ese fue el caso de Hilaria, una mujer en Phonix, cuya historia está explicada con detalle en el reporte. Hilaria fue arrestada tras un incidente de violencia doméstica mientras trataba de defenderse de una paliza de su marido, que la acusó a ella del ataque. Por ser indocumentada, Hilaria terminó detenida por inmigración.

Los niños quedaron con él, hasta que algún tiempo después las autoridades de bienestar infantil se dieron cuenta de que él abusaba de las drogas y se llevaron a los pequeños.

Hilaria sigue detenida y sus hijos en foster care. Cuando fue entrevistada en un centro de detención por los investigadores del estudio, la mujer declaró que "aguanté el abuso por mis hijos, pero ahora me los han robado".

Familias destruidas

Hay otros casos similares. Dos hermanas indocumentadas fueron arrestadas en Nuevo México y deportadas cuatro meses después. Ninguna de ellas tenía un delito en su haber y sin embargo sus tres hijos fueron colocados en cuidado temporal, donde permanecieron durante 14 meses hasta que gracias a la intervención del consulado mexicano pudieron reunirse en México.

No obstante, los casos con final feliz no son tan comunes, dijeron los investigadores. Las leyes actuales requieren detención obligatoria para la mayoría de los inmigrantes en proceso de deportación y no existe un mecanismo formal que permita a una persona detenida participar activamente del proceso que se inicia cuando los menores son puestos en custodia del estado.

Asimismo, el sistema de bienestar infantil no tiene mecanismos para actuar y, según las conclusiones del estudio, a menudo no tienen una idea clara de lo que está pasando y creen que por el hecho de estar detenidos, las personas deben ser delincuentes y, por tanto, la reunificación resulta menos deseable.

En los casos en los que los consulados de las personas deportables son contactadas y entran en acción, se observan mejores resultados, pero esto no ocurre sino en un puñado de lugares donde las autoridades del condado han buscado activamente esa relación.

Fustigan al gobierno

Los autores del estudio fustigaron a las autoridades de inmigración por lo que caracterizaron como indiferencia ante la situación de estas familias.

"ICE no siente que tenga ninguna responsabilidad por las vidas reales que la gente tenía antes de la detención", dijo Wessler. "No hacen prácticamente nada para facilitar el contacto de los detenidos con las autoridades de bienestar infantil".

Pero una portavoz de ICE negó las acusaciones.

"No hemos visto el contenido de este reporte, pero en realidad nuestro departamento hace lo posible para asegurar que los detenidos tienen la oportunidad de hacer las decisiones importantes respecto al cuidado y custodia de sus hijos", dijo Virginia Kice.

"De acuerdo con el memo de prioridades emitido en junio de 2010, ICE generalmente no arresta a individuos que son los principales custodios de menores, a menos que sean sujetos legalmente a la detención obligatoria por el riesgo de fuga o la severidad de su historia criminal".

Cifras escandalosas

El reporte de ARC, sin embargo, parece contradecir esta afirmación a cada paso.

"No me sorprende para nada ver estas cifras. Cuando deportas a más de un millón de personas hay padres y madres de niños ciudadanos... muchas veces se llevan a ambos, dejando a estos niños desprotegidos. En los viajes que he hecho por el país lo he visto en carne propia", dijo el congresista Luis Gutiérrez, al reaccionar ante el reporte.

“Cuando por alguna razón padres e hijos se ven separados y los hijos pasan al cuidado del estado, la mayoría de las veces se logra una reunificación. Pero en el caso de los padres inmigrantes deportables, las barreras son increíblemente más elevada”, agregó.

http://noticias.univision.com/inmigracion/noticias/article/2011-11-03/estudio-deportacion-padres

Estadounidense finge ser indocumentado para ser deportado y evitar la prisión

2011-11-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

EFE
Fecha: 11/03/201

Washington, 3 nov (EFE).- Un ciudadano estadounidense de Utah fingió ser un inmigrante indocumentado tras ser detenido por tráfico de drogas, para ser deportado a México y evitar así una larga condena en prisión, informó hoy la emisora de radio local KTAR.

Jaime Alvarado, de 27 años, fue acusado el miércoles en un tribunal federal de un cargo por hacer declaraciones falsas o inconsistentes y otro por dar información personal falsa a un agente del orden, por lo que permanecerá en prisión hasta su juicio.

Tras ser detenido en febrero de 2010, Alvarado aseguró al tribunal que se llamaba Saúl Quiroz, que era mexicano y que se encontraba en el país ilegalmente, y a continuación se declaró culpable, según los documentos del caso citados por la emisora.

El tribunal refirió entonces su caso a la Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE) y fue efectivamente deportado a México.

Casi un año más tarde, el pasado febrero, el hombre volvió a ser arrestado en el condado de Salt Lake, en Utah, en relación con sus antiguos cargos.

Esta vez, en cambio, Alvarado reconoció ante el juez que no se llamaba Saúl Quiroz y que "en realidad era un ciudadano estadounidense", según los documentos.

El joven pasó entonces a custodia de los agentes de ICE, quienes le refirieron de nuevo a las autoridades locales una vez comprobada su ciudadanía.

En su reunión con esos agentes, Alvarado explicó que había vuelto a entrar en Estados Unidos en abril de 2010, utilizando su pasaporte estadounidense, y que había inventado la historia "para evitar una larga sentencia a prisión".

http://feeds.univision.com/feeds/article/2011-11-03/estadounidense-finge-ser-indocumentado-para

Amid record deportations from the US, Mexico urges migrants to head home

2011-11-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

But despite record deportations, many migrants at a shelter in Nogales, Mexico, now consider the US to be home.
By Lourdes Medrano
Christian Science Monitor
November 3, 2011

Nogales, Mexico: Day and night, hundreds of Mexican migrants stream into this border city after being deported from the US amid record deportations taking place under the Obama administration.

At one migrant shelter in Nogales, workers encourage deportees to return home rather than attempt to cross into the US illegally again, through the treacherous desert that spans both sides of the border.

“There’s a federal program that will pay for your bus ticket so you can get back home,” Valente Camacho Terraza tells a group of migrants arriving at the center, which functions both as a shelter and transportation company.

But "home" for many of them is not the interior town from which they left, but cities in the US where they have worked for a decade or two, or sometimes more. Cuauhtémoc Bravo Guerrero, a migrant at the center who was recently deported from California, says he spent 30 years in the US. He has been at the shelter for days, unsure of his next move. “I want to go back to California,” he says.

Most of the migrants get a couple days of rest and nourishment before deciding whether to return to their states of origin or head back toward the international line. Without money or family ties in Nogales, many accept the Mexican government’s offer, Mr. Camacho says.

But in the past year, he has noticed that a lot of migrants tend to stay longer – some up to a month. He attributes that to the changing make-up of the migrant population.

About five years ago, the shelter was crowded with migrants – mostly men – who kept getting caught after crossing the border repeatedly. That has changed over time to include more women and children, who are housed in another shelter for minors. The mix now includes fewer people heading north and more migrants who are being deported after spending a decade or two north of the border, Camacho says. They linger at the shelter trying to reach family members in the US and figuring out where they might go next.

“Things get complicated for them,” Camacho says.

In an outdoor waiting area, several men wait in silence. Most have just been deported after being picked up in Arizona, California, and other states. No one is eager to share names. Two young men say they were deported after spending time behind bars in Arizona. A middle-aged man who lived in the US for 20 years says he was deported after Phoenix police stopped him while driving with a broken side mirror.

A few miles away, at the downtown border crossing, a Border Patrol bus arrives mid-afternoon with another group of deportees: a boy about eight years old, 23 women and 35 men who walk toward Mexico in a single file.

Officials might try to urge them to continue heading south, but for many their roots are now behind them.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/1103/Amid-record-deportations-from-the-US-Mexico-urges-migrants-to-head-home

ACLU Lawsuit: Warrantless Raid on Tennessee Apartments Aimed to Clear Complex of Hispanic Residents

2011-11-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

By Ashley Portero
Business and Law
November 1, 2011

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 15 residents of a Tennessee apartment complex who had their homes illegally raided by immigration officials on Oct. 20, 2010, an act the suit claims was the result of a conspiracy to rid the complex of its Hispanic residents.

Multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, in addition to officers from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and the employees for the private security company Crime Suppression Services, forced their ways into multiple residences in South Nashville's Clairmont Apartments without a search warrant, ultimately arresting 20 people, according to the lawsuit. The ACLU of Tennessee reports ICE officials broke into apartments, harassed residents with racially-charged slurs and even held guns to the heads of some unarmed individuals.

When one of the residents asked the law enforcements agents if they had a search warrant, one agent reportedly replied, "We don't need a warrant, we're ICE." He then gestured to his genitals and made an explicit reference, saying the warrant was "coming out" of that area.

It is unclear as to whether the agent in question has been identified. Lindsay Kee, the communications director of ACLU Tennessee told the International Business Times the office did not have any additional information about the incident beyond what is listed in the legal complaint.

ICE officials did not return a request for comment. The agency told The Tennessean it does not comment on pending litigation.

Did Law Enforcement Officials Violate 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments?

The lawsuit argues law enforcement officials violated the plaintiffs' -- who are all U.S. citizens -- rights under the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws.

In particular, the Fourth Amendment strictly prohibits law enforcement from intruding into private homes without a judicially authorized search warrant. In the absence of a warrant, citizens' must offers their voluntary and knowing consent.

The plaintiffs include a child who the ACLU claims was detained and interrogated while playing soccer on a playground because he appeared to be of Latino descent.

The lawsuit names several ICE agents, officers from the Nashville police department as well as the apartment complex's owner, manager and security company. The apartment complex is managed by Greystar Real Estate Partners and owned by TriTex Real Estate Partners.

In a statement released shortly after the incident, the Nashville Police Department said the raid was in response to reports from Clairmont Apartments' employees who said there was a threatening gang presence at the complex, The Tennessean reports. Police said they were concerned gangs were preying on undocumented immigrants that were hesitant to report robberies and other crimes because of their immigration status.

The department statement, according to the newspaper, said officers merely conducted "knock and talks" and did not illegally force their way into their homes.

The statement does not appear on the police department's Web site.

The lawsuit claims Greystar manager Tracy Hall told police she intended to "clean house, and get the Hispanics gone." As a result, the management company reportedly allowed building conditions to deteriorate. In addition, in the course of one rental cycle Greystar abandoned its on-site offices, began demanding Social Security numbers in order to sign lease agreements, and coordinated immigration raids that led to 20 detentions and resulted in scores of apartment vacancies.

Some of the 20 people arrested during the Oct. 2010 raid were placed into deportation proceedings, while others were released. No criminal charges were pursued.

In an Oct. 19 news conference where ACLU officials announced the lawsuit -- just one day before the year-anniversary of the incident -- Megan Macaraeg of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said many Hispanic residents are leaving Clairmont Apartments out of fear.

"I was just there today chatting with residents," Macaraeg said. "There are still apartments that stand vacant, and most Hispanic residents who were there are gone, have fled the site of terror."

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/241396/20111101/aclu-lawsuit-warrantless-raid-tennessee-apartment-complex.htm

EU violó acuerdos en casi 50% de repatriaciones: SG

2011-10-31T11:15:00.000-07:00

Preocupa al gobierno la criminalización que se hace de los migrantes para deportarlos
La Jornada
31 Octubre 2011

México, DF. El gobierno mexicano solicitó a su contraparte estadunidense revisar los convenios de repatriación, ante el hecho de que casi la mitad de las expulsiones se ejecutan fuera de los convenios bilaterales y de las pautas (detenciones y devoluciones) registradas por décadas.

En ese contexto, demanda a Washington que garantice el acceso a la información relacionada con los motivos de expulsión de cada uno de los repatriados y, en los expedientes de aquellos con antecedentes penales, conocer los motivos del encarcelamiento.

"El gobierno federal debe impulsar la revisión de los convenios de repatriación", señaló a La Jornada René Zenteno Quintero, subsecretario de Población, Migración y Asuntos Religiosos de la Secretaría de Gobernación (SG).

Esta dependencia, responsable de la política interna y de migración, puso en alerta a la administración federal en conjunto, así como a los gobiernos de las entidades fronterizas, luego de revisar las estadísticas del Departamento de Seguridad Interna de Washington y del propio Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM).

Con base en lo anterior, el subsecretario Zenteno concluye que si bien el número total de mexicanos repatriados ha disminuido sistemáticamente (de 1.7 millones en 2000 a 637 mil en 2010), el perfil de los operativos para deportarlos “se ha vuelto más heterogéneo, principalmente por la creciente presencia de migrantes procesados dentro de Estados Unidos.

“Muchos de ellos –dijo– tienen varios años viviendo allende la frontera; tienen redes familiares sólidas, sus hijos nacieron en el vecino país y otros son deportados por medio de una ‘orden judicial de remoción’. En esta condición –con tintes de criminalización– fueron devueltos 282 mil mexicanos, motivo de preocupación del gobierno mexicano.

"Actualmente casi la mitad de las repatriaciones no se reconocen en la pauta, por décadas dominante, de detenciones en la frontera y devoluciones inmediatas a México. Todo ello confronta el diseño y operación de la política pública hacia la población repatriada en las ciudades fronterizas", subrayó el funcionario.

La alerta anterior se relaciona a que las expulsiones están fuera del Memorándum de Entendimiento sobre Repatriación Segura y Ordenada de Nacionales Mexicanos. Por ello, el gobierno pide a su contraparte ampliar y fortalecer el mismo.

Ese convenio está firmado entre distintas agencias estadunidenses y dependencias de México, el cual establece que las repatriaciones deben realizarse en horarios y con procedimientos que garanticen orden y seguridad para todos los involucrados en 18 puntos oficiales de devolución, localizados en 17 ciudades de la frontera norte de nuestro país.

Las estadísticas del INM dan cuenta acerca de estos procesos de repatriación con base en el citado memorándum: cerca de 50 por ciento de los actos anuales ocurridos entre 2004 y 2010 se concretaron en las ciudades de Tijuana, Baja California, y Nogales, Sonora.

En ese lapso, Tijuana registró más de 150 mil repatriaciones por año. En lo que va de 2011 van 322 mil deportaciones. Tijuana ha recibido casi a 65 mil connacionales; le siguen Mexicali, Nogales y Nuevo Laredo, con 51 mil, 45 mil y 39 mil, respectivamente.

Como se difundió (La Jornada, 9 de agosto de 2010), de los mexicanos devueltos por autoridades migratorias de Estados Unidos, 35 mil 779 afirmaron que fueron detenidos en sus trabajos u hogares (en 2005 sólo fueron 8 mil 146).

Además, 52 mil 835 fueron devueltos sin sus familiares (en 2004, ese indicador se ubicó en 18 mil 714 mexicanos), según la Encuesta sobre Migración en la Frontera Norte.

A escala general, las agencias estadunidenses destacaron en sus informes que el año pasado alcanzaron un cifra récord de casi 393 mil personas deportadas, de las cuales 72 por ciento fueron mexicanos. Para el gobierno federal es preocupante que sus homólogos argumenten que estos operativos tiene como fin "remover" a un mayor número de criminales extranjeros. Para el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, son antecedentes criminales incluso las faltas administrativas.

Además de la ruptura de familias y otras redes comunitarias, al ejecutar abruptamente las deportaciones, la oleada de expulsiones de quienes tienen antecedentes penales representa también una preocupación para el gobierno mexicano, por el impacto que las repatriaciones colectivas traen aparejadas en la ya de por sí violenta frontera norte.

El problema con las repatriaciones, explicó, no ocurre sólo con base en cuántos llegan o a qué ritmo lo hacen, sino también cómo se incorporan al tejido social en las ciudades fronterizas o en el interior del país.

Por lo pronto, autoridades de los tres niveles de gobierno han tenido que coordinar acciones para determinar qué harán con el "nuevo perfil" de las deportaciones, especialmente para comunicar a los migrantes con sus familiares en ambos países y, en muchos casos, dotarles de documentos de identidad oficial.

Como muchos de los connacionales han pasado incluso varios lustros en Estados Unidos, deben tramitar su registro al sistema de salud y, en su caso, integrarse a actividades productivas.

Ante ésto, la Secretaría de Gobernación pide también la colaboración de la sociedad para que, junto con las autoridades, se proteja a los repatriados y se les facilite el acceso a los servicios a los que, como mexicanos, tienen derecho.

http://www.vanguardia.com.mx/euvioloacuerdosencasi50derepatriacionessg-1136070.html

Transfer programs push deportations to record high

2011-10-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Written by Sandra Dibble
San Diego Tribune
Oct. 30, 2011

Deportations along the California-Mexico border rose sharply during the past fiscal year mainly because of U.S. efforts to disrupt smuggling routes and discourage migrants who keep making illegal crossings, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

During the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, the agency reported 33,006 removals in the region — an increase of more than 82 percent over the previous year. The latest figure is a record high for the California-Mexico region.

Deportations also reached an unprecedented level nationally, though the rise was far less steep. ICE this month reported 396,906 removals nationwide during fiscal 2011, an uptick of barely more than 1 percent over fiscal 2010.

Removals along the California-Mexico border are carried out through the agency’s San Diego Field Office, which covers San Diego and Imperial counties. That office’s newest annual deportation total ranked third nationally, after San Antonio (63,090) and Phoenix (56,198).

The dramatic boost in removals for the San Diego office was largely due to two “lateral repatriation programs” designed to deter persistent illegal border-crossers and thwart smugglers, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for ICE in San Diego.

In February, a local program was launched to target undocumented immigrants who are repeatedly caught at the San Diego border and transfer them to other jurisdictions for removal from the country. The San Diego office handles about 400 of those cases in a typical month, Mack said.

Also contributing to the soaring total was a national program spearheaded by Customs and Border Patrol that last year brought thousands of illegal immigrants who were detained in Arizona and Texas to San Diego for deportation, and those numbers were added to the San Diego tally as well, Mack said.

A primary rationale for the transfer programs is that deporting people farther away from where they entered the United States will make it tougher — and more expensive — for them to reconnect with their smugglers and try to cross again.

The ICE figures have sparked renewed discussion about the Obama administration’s deportation policy, which has placed greater focus on undocumented immigrants with criminal records. The national ICE statistics show that 55 percent of deportees in fiscal year 2011 had been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor — compared with 31 percent in 2008.

About 43 percent of deportees handled by the San Diego Field Office in the most recent fiscal year had criminal records.

Nationally, the major crime categories were traffic offenses, led by drunken driving. These were followed by crimes involving dangerous drugs, including use, possession and distribution; immigration violations; and assaults.

Deportations across the country have skyrocketed over the past decade, though the rate of increase has dropped over the past three years. One factor driving some of the increases has been the Secure Communities program launched in 2008 under then President George W. Bush, through which the fingerprints of detainees — anyone from shoplifters to killers — are checked for immigration violations, said Aarti Kohli, director of immigration policy at the Berkeley-based Warren Institute.

Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Equality Alliance San Diego, is among those challenging the administration’s immigration enforcement strategies.

“Increased deportations are not a fix to our broken immigration system,” she said. “Contrary to what the administration promised, the deportations are not focused on serious criminals. They are sweeping up misdemeanor offenders and non-criminals.”

Many immigrants are confused by the administration’s policy, said Lilia Velazquez, an immigration attorney in San Diego. “People tell me, ‘I was arrested, (but) didn’t the president say that people like us should not be arrested?’”

Others criticize President Barack Obama for being too lenient on border security and deportations.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., said the record-setting removal numbers for fiscal year 2011 are still too small to make a substantial impact.

“The administration refuses to ask for additional resources for deportations,” said Krikorian, who favors stronger limits on both legal and illegal immigration.

Peter Nuñez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego who lectures at the University of San Diego, said it’s hard to argue against the administration’s official emphasis on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records. “But we can’t send a message at the same time that all other illegal (immigrants) are essentially immune from being removed or deported.”

At the Warren Institute, Kohli said the ultimate solution is wide-ranging immigration reform.

“There are a lot of things that are broken with our immigration system,” she said. “The one entity that could fix it, Congress, has been unable to do that.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/30/transfer-programs-push-deportations-record-high/

El gobierno de Zacatecas abrirá en Tijuana una oficina para atender a los paisanos que han sido deportados y a quienes no pudieron cruzar la frontera.

2011-10-29T01:32:00.000-07:00

En Tijuana ayudarán a zacatecanos; Se abrirá en diciembre próximo un centro de apoyo para quienes son deportados
Por Jorge Morales Almada |
La Opinión
2011-10-29

El gobierno de Zacatecas abrirá en Tijuana una oficina para atender a los paisanos que han sido deportados y a quienes no pudieron cruzar la frontera.

Rafael Hurtado, representante del gobierno de Zacatecas en California, informó que el centro de atención a zacatecanos se inaugurará entre el 15 y 18 de diciembre.

En California se estima que radican unos 400 mil zacatecanos, casi una tercera parte de la población total en ese estado del centro de México.

Hurtado dijo que la apertura de ese centro de atención es en respuesta a la necesidad que hay por el incremento de zacatecanos que están siendo deportados o que se están regresando debido a la crisis económica en Estados Unidos.

"El Ayuntamiento de Tijuana, a través del DIF, nos va a echar la mano mientras encontramos una oficina", comentó Hurtado.

En la oficina de atención a zacatecanos se les ofrecerá alimento, transportación a los albergues de migrantes y ayuda económica para el pasaje de regreso a Zacatecas. También se atenderá a quienes requieren realizar algún trámite en su estado.

La oficina de atención a migrantes de Zacatecas operará de manera similar a las que ya existen en Los Ángeles, California; Chicago, Illinois, y Dallas, Texas.

La nueva oficina dependerá el Instituto Estatal de Migración de Zacatecas, la cual tiene un presupuesto de 8 millones de pesos anuales para ese tipo de centros de ayuda.

Se estima que cada mes unos 200 zacatecanos están siendo repatriados por la frontera de Tijuana.

MÁS RECURSOS

Por su parte, Efraín Jiménez, vicepresidente de la Red Mexicana de Líderes y Organizaciones Migrantes, dijo en entrevista desde la Ciudad de México, que dentro del presupuesto que se discute en el Congreso han acordado con los diputados que integran la Comisión de Población, Fronteras y Asuntos Migratorios aumentar el Fondo de Apoyo al Migrante de 100 millones de pesos a 300 millones de pesos.

Sin embargo, recalcó, ese montó podría elevarse hasta los 1,000 millones debido a la gran necesidad y ante lo cual están de acuerdo varios diputados que integran la comisión.

Este año, dijo Jiménez, se estima que unos 700 mil migrantes han regresado a México por la crisis, las políticas antiinmigrantes o las deportaciones.

Ese dinero se destinaría para crear proyectos productivos de los migrantes deportados y para ayudar a las familias a la reintegración, mencionó el representante de los migrantes.

El Fondo de Apoyo al Migrante se creó en 2009 con 300 millones de pesos ante la contingencia por las masivas deportaciones, el año pasado se redujo a 100 millones, y este año se espera elevarlo a 1,000 millones.

Por lo menos ese fondo recuperará los 200 millones que le quitaron el año pasado, apuntó Jiménez.

De elevarse a los 1,000 millones, indicó Jiménez, la cifra representaría solo el 3% de los impuestos que se pagan por concepto de remesas.

"Es decir que el gobierno de México no nos está dando nada, solo regresando parte de lo que pagamos en impuestos", recalcó.

De manera adicional, dijo, se están gestionando más de 200 millones de pesos para un fondo que estaría abriendo albergues para deportados en la frontera norte de México.

También se está abogando para que no se reduzca el fondo del Programa 3 X 1, ya que en el presupuesto de egresos se pretenden recortar 57 millones de pesos.

‘El Ayuntamiento de Tijuana, a través del DIF, nos va a echar la mano mientras encontramos una oficina’.

Rafael Hurtado

Representante del gobierno de Zacatecas en California

http://www.impre.com/laopinion/noticias/2011/10/29/en-tijuana-ayudaran-a-zacateca-279668-1.html

Protecting illegal immigrants to catch criminals

2011-10-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

By PAUL McENROE
Minneapolis Star Tribune
28 October 2011

AUSTIN, Minn. - It was after 1 a.m. when the policeman arrived at Patricia Sanchez's house, and he understood in a glance why she had dialed 911. Her face was streaked with scratches and her neck bore the red imprint of a man's hand.

"You're lucky to be alive," he said. He arrested her husband for domestic violence with intent to strangle and told the young woman to get an order for protection as soon as the courthouse opened.

The next morning, before returning to work at her packinghouse job, Sanchez stood at a court clerk's window, filling out a piece of paper supposedly strong enough to stop abuse.

While Sanchez waited at the courthouse, though, police were at her home, searching for evidence that her husband was an illegal immigrant. Rummaging through drawers and bedding, an officer noticed a framed photograph on the living room wall. It depicted a woman identified as Lisa Salazar in her white work uniform and hard hat, honored as Quality Pork Processors' Employee of the Month.

Except that Salazar looked exactly like Patricia Sanchez. Police also found documents suggesting Sanchez had committed identity fraud to get work and receive benefits for her children.

A week later, Sanchez sat bewildered in the Mower County jail, facing immigration charges and the threat of deportation back to Mexico. The victim had become a suspect.

The frightening June night in 2009 transformed Sanchez's life -- and now it has thrust Mower County into the vanguard of a national struggle over illegal immigration, policing and crime.

Today, after more than a year of soul-searching over law and justice, Mower County has a striking new policy: Illegal immigrants who become victims of violent crime will not be charged with document offenses, giving them immunity to aid the prosecution of more serious, violent felonies.

In Austin, a storied meatpacking town of 24,700 near the Iowa border, the issue has been pushed to the fore by an unlikely voice: Jeremy Clinefelter, the tough-minded assistant prosecutor who helped deport Sanchez's husband and then charged her with felony fraud.

"It didn't feel right morally," Clinefelter said. "We're prosecutors. But more that, we're here to be fair and just."

Mower County may be unique in the Upper Midwest, according to Rice County Attorney Paul Beaumaster, president of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association. But its new approach, he said, could have wider repercussions by removing a form of blackmail used against illegal immigrants.

"The abuser says, 'You can't go to the police, or I'm going to tell them you're here illegally,' " Beaumaster said. "It's a legitimate use of prosecutorial discretion in assuring that a defendant doesn't get to use our immigration laws as a weapon."

Since Congress created a program called Secure Communities in 2007, local police and prosecutors across the country have been playing an ever-larger role in enforcing federal immigration law. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have been arrested and deported, often in a process that started with a routine traffic stop or a set of fingerprints taken at a county jail.

But one question keeps arising: How can police and prosecutors build trust in growing ethnic communities when illegal immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding fear they will face arrest and deportation if they step forward to report crime?

Secure Communities places a priority on catching dangerous illegal immigrants convicted of violent felonies, yet federal documents show that one-fourth of the immigrants deported under the act had no criminal convictions.

At least five states have dropped out of the program in the past year, amid concerns about the potential for abusive and counterproductive tactics.

In Minnesota, however, some influential lawmakers are eager to have the state participate, even though that's not mandatory until 2013.

Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, who pressed the legislation last spring, says the issue has been unfairly politicized. "I agree we should have amnesty programs for victims and witnesses who report crimes," she said. "But if we're going to house them in our jails or in our custody, we want to find out whether they're here illegally."

But civil liberties lawyers -- and some prominent lawmen -- disagree.

"You're going to put the community in an adversarial position with their police," says John Harrington, a state senator and former St. Paul police chief. "You're taking out the people who are in the best position to tell us about dangerous people in our community."

He soon found that, geographically and emotionally, Austin sat at the center of an immigration wave roiling southern Minnesota. The big meatpacking plants across the state's southern tier required an endless supply of workers willing to do grueling, dangerous jobs for modest wages. People willing to travel thousands of miles from the Texas-Mexico border for low wages satisfied it.

But there was a hidden cost to the boom. Austin had hundreds of residents with two, sometimes three, different names. They had purchased stolen IDs from brokers along the Mexican border or once they arrived in the Midwest. That meant there were also hundreds of victims of identity theft somewhere -- crime victims who suffered because of immigrants seeking work.

From 2000 to 2009, the Hispanic population in Mower County more than doubled, to nearly 3,500, part of a larger immigration wave statewide. Clinefelter's stolen-identity caseload was running at 50 to 70 files per year by 2005, most of them illegal immigrants. He'd become the office expert on document crimes.

As a teenager, Patricia Sanchez had risked her life crossing the Mexican border and the treacherous Sonoran Desert to get to the United States for a better life. Now, in the summer of 2009, she found herself in a Sherburne County jail cell leased by federal immigration authorities. Her sister in California had taken the children.

"People at immigration see us as criminals," she recalled. "I told them: 'I came here to work. I don't use drugs, I don't drink. I am not a bad person."

Meanwhile, her case had been taken up by a St. Paul attorney, former Ramsey County District Judge Alberto Miera. He argued that the police had conducted an illegal search of Sanchez's purse and wanted the fraud case dismissed.

Finally, the attorneys agreed to go to trial on a charge of simple forgery, still a felony. A judge found Sanchez guilty. She received a year's stay, marked down to a misdemeanor if she obeyed the law.

Then, satisfied with a finding of guilt, Clinefelter and Nelsen took a step on Sanchez's behalf -- the crucial step that could save her from deportation. They supported her application for a special visa granted to victims of domestic violence, a document known as a U-Visa. It worked.

By that fall, Sanchez was released from federal custody, reunited with her children, and back at work on the cutting line at Quality Pork.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/immigrant-protect102811/immigrant-protect102811/

Most deported illegal immigrants from 4 Latin American countries

2011-10-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
October 27, 2011

Four Latin American countries accounted for 91 percent of the record number of people deported in the recently-completed fiscal year.

Nearly 363,000 of the 396,900 people deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in fiscal year 2011 were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, government figures show. Here’s the breakdown:

• Mexico - 286,893 (72 percent)

• Guatemala - 33,324 (8 percent)

• Honduras - 23,822 (6 percent)

• El Salvador - 18,870 (5 percent)

There was a big dropoff to the next country, Brazil, which accounted for 3,364 deportations. Only seven other countries accounted for more than 1,000 deportations: Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Jamaica, China and Peru.

The combined deportations of citizens from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have accounted for 87-91 percent of the yearly deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement every year since 2001, government figures show.

Mexico has been the leading country of origin for deportees every year in this span, accounting for 57-73 percent of the yearly deportations.

Criminal illegal immigrants

The breakdown of the felony and misdemeanor crimes committed by the nearly 217,000 deportees defined as "criminal" illegal immigrants is not yet available for the completed fiscal year 2011.

But, the figures through the first 10 1/2 months of fiscal 2011 show that five crimes account for 62 percent of the people in this category:

• Dangerous drugs - 37,083 (22 percent)

• Driving under the influence, liquor - 28,214 (17 percent)

• Immigration offenses - 28,110 (17 percent)

• Miscellaneous traffic offense - 14,331 (8 percent)

• Assault - 11,386 (7 percent).

Four of these crimes — drugs, DUI, immigration and assault — have been among the top five every year since 2001.

But the miscellaneous traffic offenses category has not always been among the leaders. The percentage of criminal illegal immigrants who have committed some kind of traffic offense has been on the rise each of the past five years.

This category includes hit and run; transporting dangerous material; driving under the influence of drugs; driving under the influence of liquor; and other traffic offenses. Here is a look at how this category has increased as a percentage of the total deportations of “criminal” illegal immigrants:

Fiscal 2011* — 44,136 (26 percent)

Fiscal 2010 — 42,339 (22 percent)

Fiscal 2009 — 27,354 (20 percent)

Fiscal 2008 — 16,249 (14 percent)

Fiscal 2007 — 10,787 (10 percent)

Fiscal 2006 — 6,154 (7 percent)

The Obama administration has taken criticism from both sides of the immigration debate for rising deportation levels.

Republican border hawks and critics of the administration's immigration enforcement strategy call the deportation numbers inflated because they include people who voluntarily leave with no penalties and may be able to cross back into the country illegally.

Immigrant rights groups contend the government is unfairly targeting illegal immigrants who are not a menace to society, separating families and creating fear in immigrant communities.

Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com

http://azstarnet.com/most-deported-illegal-immigrants-from-latin-american-countries/article_2943c31c-00d0-11e1-aca9-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1cxSmWity

Juárez: Migrants' situation worsens with decrease in support services

2011-10-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

by Lourdes Cardenas
El Paso Times
10/24/2011

CIUDAD JUAREZ -- The vulnerability of migrants has worsened in recent years not only due to the drug-related violence throughout Mexico, but also because of the conditions in which they are being deported from the United States, analysts said in a conference on immigration last week.

"Many come with nontreated health problems, poorly fed, without belongings," said Rodolfo Rubio, a researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte. " They are even deported with the uniform of the detention center. They have no family or social networks (in the place where they are left), their situation is highly vulnerable."

The situation has deteriorated even more. Support services offered to migrants in cities such as Juarez are declining. In fact, Juarez's municipal office dedicated to provide services to migrants -- in transit or repatriated -- closed its operations in July.

A spokesman for the Juarez municipal government confirmed that the migrant services office (Oficina de Atención al Migrante) closed its operations July 19. He cited budget issues as one of the reasons.

"The office used to support returnees with a bus ticket to travel to their place of origin, as well as providing them food for the trip," said Luis Cano, city spokesman. "Migrants continue to receive support from state government through the office of the National Employment System, plus the federal government by the National Institute of Migration."

The decline began in 2009 when former mayor José Reyes Ferriz asked the U.S. immigration authorities to repatriate them to other places, arguing that many of the deportees were criminals that could be easily recruited by organized crime. At the time, between 60 and 65 percent of the deportees to Juarez would come from immigration detention centers in the United States.

Reyes' decision created a crisis to the institutions that provided services because of the lack of migrants to be served, Rubio said.

In 2008, only 1.2 percent of migrants going to the United States passed through Juarez, a percentage that continues today.

The same decline occurred with deportations. In 2004, 12.8 percent of those deported by all border-crossing points were sent to Juarez. Four years later, in 2008, the percentage stood at 9.8 percent. Today, there are no deportations to Juarez from U.S. detention centers. The bulk of the deportations (36.3 percent) now go through Tucson-Nogales.

The changes have made things difficult for those organizations that help migrants.

Take for instance, the "Casa del Migrante" of the Catholic Diocese of Juarez. It receives between 20 and 30 people daily, a figure that includes transit migrants and deported. The house can accommodate up to 300 people.

"Due to the increase of violence it was decided to deport people to other borders, but still, so far this year we have had a considerable number of migrants," said Blanca Rivera, in charge of the Casa del Migrante.

The organization receives funds from the Catholic Dioceses as well as donations from other institutions.

Regarding the possibility of going back to the previous trends in which migrants crossed through big cities such as Tijuana and Juárez, Rubio said it would depend more on the U.S. surveillance measures.

"The migrants, the smugglers and the coyotes are in constant search of the places where the possibility of being apprehended is less, not where the possibility of risk is higher or lower," he said. "It seems then that the crossing point choice has more to do with the idea of getting to the place rather than with security conditions."

Lourdes Cardenas may be reached at lcardenas@elpasotimes.com; 546-6249

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19179826?source=most_viewed

Is US deportation of criminals driving up Mexico border violence?

2011-10-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

Mexican President Felipe Calderon last week accused the US policy of deporting criminals into northern Mexico of fueling the criminal violence that is ravaging the country.
By Geoffrey Ramsey
Guest blogger for Christian Science Monitor
October 24, 2011

With US deportations at a record high, the Mexican government is increasingly concerned that deportees with criminal records are contributing to border violence.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon caused somewhat of a media stir with some of his recent comments on US immigration policy. Speaking at the Third International Forum on Migration and Peace last week, the president lambasted the US for its treatment of undocumented immigrants, saying that the US “would not be the power that it is today without migration.” He also claimed that the recent wave of anti-immigrant legislation will likely take a hit on the US economy, predicting that US goods will become “worse in quality and more deficient than in other regions.”

Mr. Calderon reserved his strongest criticism, however, for the US government's approach to deportation. According to him, the practice of busing deportees over the border and releasing them fuels the violence in the north of the country, as some individuals with criminal records turn to a life of crime in the border towns where they are released.

Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz.

Calderon claimed that between 60,000 and 70,000 migrants are sent to northern border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez every year. Among these, he said, "there are many who really are criminals, who have committed some crime and it is simply cheaper to leave them on the Mexican side of the border than to prosecute them, as [the US] should, to see whether they are guilty or not." The result, he added, is that they “quickly link up with criminal networks on the border."

Although this is the first time that Calderon has come out so publicly on the matter, the accusation is not new. In fact, local and state officials on northern Mexico have complained for years about the practice of US criminal deportations. Just last year the mayors of four different border cities in Mexico called on US officials to stop deporting individuals with criminal records along the border. At the time, then-Mayor of Ciudad Juarez Jose Reyes alleged that 28,000 of the 80,000 people deported to his city since 2007 had violated US law. Of that number, according to him, 7,000 were convicted rapists and 2,000 were convicted murderers.

The issue is bound to become more prominent if current deportation trends continue. According to figures recently released by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), a record 396,906 individuals were deported from October 2010 through September of this year. Although the administration has claimed that 55 percent of those had felony or misdemeanor convictions, it is unclear how many of those were simply related to immigration violations. Still, as the administration maintains its emphasis on deporting criminals, the fears of local officials are not likely to be assuaged in the near future.

And these official concerns are not unfounded, as the phenomenon of deported criminals becoming involved in borderland criminal networks has been documented in the past. One example is Martin Estrada Luna, the individual who authorities say is responsible for killing at least 250 people in the northern state of Tamaulipas and burying them in a series of mass graves. According to the AP, Estrada became the leader of the local Zetas outfit just 18 months after he was deported.

--- Geoffrey Ramsey is a writer for Insight – Organized Crime in the Americas, which provides research, analysis, and investigation of the criminal world throughout the region. Find all of his research here.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/1024/Is-US-deportation-of-criminals-driving-up-Mexico-border-violence

Families fear U.S. will deport parents, leave kids home alone

2011-10-24T01:32:00.000-07:00

Agence France-Presse
The Montreal Gazette
October 23, 2011

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Parents who entered the United States illegally so fear for their future in Alabama that many are drawing up legal custody papers in case they have to leave their children behind following deportation.

"They could just run us out of the country when we are out in the street with the kids," fretted Ruben, who asked that his family name not be used.

But "now I have found a job, and I have three kids to support. I can't just leave out of fear. We have to tough it out," the Mexican migrant said.

His answer: to spell out legally what happens with his kids if the worst happens to him and his wife, Marina.

A federal appeals court last week blocked provisions in the nation's toughest immigration law that required schools to check whether students were in the United States legally or not, and required immigrants to carry an alien registration card.

But it also backed new police powers for detaining anyone suspected of being illegal immigrants, as well as provisions making it illegal for undocumented immigrants to enter into business transactions.

Since Alabama's state law HB 56 took effect September 28, thousands of families have all but stampeded out of Alabama, social and humanitarian groups here said.

Still others have decided to stay and live in fear. They desperately strain to stay below the radar, for example buying more food less often so that they can leave home less often.

Ruben and Marina are among more than 500 families that sought out legal aid to set up power of attorney paperwork in case they should be whisked out of their children's lives.

U.S.-born children do not have to leave the country but parents being deported may have to decide if their kids should be left alone abroad.

"We like to go shopping together, the five of us. And it is far away. So (fearing that we might be caught and deported), we had a power of attorney drawn up," Marina said, adding hopefully: "God help us!"

Among the legal issues parents are scrambling to try to plan for: who will care for their children in case of an unwanted family separation, and who will care for homes they may have bought, the advocacy group Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama said.

The group said it had about 20 visits a day before the law was passed, and that the volume surged to 70-100 visits a day since it took effect.

Ruben works eight hours a day seven days a week taking care of a golf course for 7.60 dollars an hour. "We can't go back to Mexico because we are very poor there, and in most of the United States things are bad too, so for now, we have to stay here," explains Marina.

Miguel, a construction worker, said he was trying to arrange legally for his sister in a neighboring state to come collect to Alabama to get his children in case he is picked up and deported.

"I am having trouble sleeping, having nightmares about being caught and deported. And the worst thing is imagining what could happen to my kids," he said.

Vanessa Stevens, a spokewoman at HICA, said HB 56 "is making impossible the everyday life of immigrants . . . It is sad to say, but that's the goal of this law, they want immigrant out of here."

"Many people fled for fear and that is hurting our local economy and our reputation as a state in the country and in the world," Stevens said.

Nationwide, there are an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, most of them from Latin America and the largest group from neighboring Mexico.

The Pew Hispanic Center, the top U.S. institute for the study of the Hispanic community, estimates that in Alabama there are 130,000 undocumented immigrants.

Though Arizona proposed the first immigration law that criminalized undocumented aliens, its most controversial provisions, such as empowering the police to question a person's immigration status, were blocked by the courts.

But other states have followed suit with their own laws in defiance of Washington.

The legislation has not been without cost. In Georgia and Alabama, a shortage of workers has appeared in key sectors including agriculture as immigrants head for the borders.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/Families+fear+will+deport+parents+leave+kids+home+alone/5593724/story.html#ixzz1bdQiq7N2

EEUU: 95% de los inmigrantes deportados son latinoamericanos

2011-10-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

La Tribuna
22 octubre, 2011

MIAMI.- El 95% de los casi 400.000 inmigrantes deportados por las autoridades estadounidenses en el año fiscal que terminó en septiembre es de América Latina, principalmente de México, según cifras a las que The Associated Press tuvo acceso.

De los 396.906 inmigrantes que deportó la policía de inmigración ICE en el año fiscal 2011, 377.510 es originario de Latinoamérica, según información enviada a la AP por la Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas, conocida como ICE por su nombre en inglés.

La información sobre las deportaciones provocó indignación entre los hispanos, que le reclaman al presidente Barack Obama que cumpla con su promesa electoral de implementar una reforma migratoria integral

Con 286.893 deportados, México ocupa el primer lugar de la lista de los 10 países con más nacionales repatriados. La cifra equivale a casi las tres cuartas partes del total de deportados de todo el mundo.

En la lista de los 10 países con más deportados que entregó el ICE a la AP solo figura uno que no es de Latinoamérica: Jamaica, que con 1.572 repatriados ocupa el décimo puesto.

En segundo lugar, detrás de México, se ubica Guatemala, con 33.324 deportados; seguido por Honduras, con 23.822; y El Salvador, con 18.870.

En el quinto puesto de la nómina figura Brasil, con 3.634; en el sexto Colombia, con 2.273; en el séptimo Ecuador, con 1.991, y en el octavo Nicaragua, con 1.693 repatriados.

Los otros dos países de Latinoamérica con deportados son Perú y Costa Rica, con 1.190 y 440, respectivamente, según el ICE. Ninguno de los dos figura en la lista de las 10 naciones con más deportados.

El ICE no comentó de inmediato la tendencia observada en las cifras. Néstor Yglesias, portavoz del ICE en Miami, dijo el jueves que debía consultar a la sede del ICE en Washington para responder las preguntas de AP al respecto. Expresó que desconocía cuándo llegarían las respuestas.

El detalle de deportados latinoamericanos fue revelado a la AP después que las autoridades informaron el martes que durante el año fiscal 2011 deportaron a 396.906 personas.

El ICE no informó si hay un récord de deportaciones más alto en la historia del país, pero sí dijo que era la cifra más alta desde que esa agencia fue fundada en 2003.

El cónsul general de México en Miami, Juan Miguel Gutiérrez Tinoco, dijo que como los mexicanos constituyen la mayor parte de la población hispana que vive en Estados Unidos, son los más deportados. También el hecho de la vecindad entre los dos países influye, estimó.

“La comunidad mexicana, aún siendo indocumentada, da grandes aportes a la economía”, expresó el cónsul.

“No son un costo fiscal”, manifestó el diplomático entrevistado por la AP y explicó que los deportados en su mayoría solo “buscan oportunidades para mejorar su calidad de vida”.

John Morton, director del ICE, dijo que el 55% de los deportados tenían condenas por delitos o infracciones, un 89% más que con respecto al total de criminales deportados en el año fiscal 2008. No se aclaró cuántos de esos delitos constituían violaciones de las leyes de inmigración.

En el 2008, un año antes de que asumiera como presidente Barack Obama, fueron deportados 349.068 latinoamericanos, cerca de 48.000 menos que en el 2011.

Hernán Martínez, activista de la organización de ayuda a inmigrantes Comité de Servicios de Amigos Estadounidenses, calificó de “abuso” y “violación a los derechos humanos” las deportaciones de latinoamericanos.

“No están deportando a quienes deberían deportar, a los criminales, porque (el servicio de) inmigración ataca a los inmigrantes, especialmente a los latinos”, consideró Martínez en diálogo con la AP.

“Es como si tener cara de mexicano fuera un delito… hay que mejorar la forma de regular la inmigración y no estar atacando a la gente indefensa”, dijo el activista de nacionalidad salvadoreña.

María Rodríguez, directora de la coalición de inmigrantes de la Florida, dijo que los latinoamericanos que están siendo deportados no son criminales.

“El ICE llama criminales a personas que son miembros activos de nuestra sociedad y que tienen profundas raíces en este país, a trabajadores agrícolas, padres de niños que son ciudadanos de Estados Unidos y estudiantes que serían elegibles para el Dream act”, dijo María Rodríguez, directora de la coalición de inmigrantes de la Florida, en una declaración enviada por correo electrónico a la AP.

El proyecto de ley conocido como Dream Act, que el Congreso rechazó, concedía un estatus legal a ciertos alumnos que terminaban la secundaria y que fueron traídos al país por sus padres antes de cumplir los 16 años y que además planeaban ir a la universidad o enrolarse en el servicio militar.

Aunque en el 2011 se deportaron casi 3.500 latinoamericanos más que en el año fiscal anterior, el porcentaje se mantuvo sin cambios debido a que también aumentó en cerca de 4.000 personas la cantidad total de deportados.

De acuerdo con el censo del 2010, en Estados Unidos viven cerca de 50,5 millones de hispanos, que representan al 16% de la población.

La población mexicana es la que ha crecido más en la última década, de 20,6 millones en el 2000 a 31,8 millones en el 2010. Así, casi el 63% de los hispanos que viven en Estados Unidos, es de origen mexicano, según el censo. (AP)

http://www.latribuna.hn/2011/10/22/eeuu-95-de-los-inmigrantes-deportados-son-latinoamericanos/

Calderon: U.S. dumping Mexican criminals at border

2011-10-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

America shares blame in violence, Mexican president says
The Tucson Sentinel
21 October 2011

Mexican President Felipe Calderón says the United States is responsible for fueling violence in Mexico's border areas, because it chooses to deport criminals, rather than prosecute them.

He said it was cheaper to send them back rather than put them on trial, and that the deportees then became involved with criminal gangs in Mexico.

The Associated Press reported that U.S. officials this week revealed a record number of deportations in the past fiscal year, adding that those with criminal convictions had nearly doubled since 2008.

Calderón told an immigration conference in Mexico City:

"There are many factors in the violence that is being experienced in some Mexican border cities, but one of those is that the American authorities have gotten into the habit of simply deporting 60,000 or 70,000 migrants per year to cities like Ciudad Juarez or Tijuana."

Calderón said that among the deportees were “many who really are criminals."

The BBC reported that when illegal Mexican immigrants finish a prison term in the United States they are taken to the border and freed.

But Mexican nationals with criminal records in the United States cannot be held in their home country if they have not broken the law there.

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/102111_mexico_us_criminals/calderon-us-dumping-mexican-criminals-border/

Judge Dismisses Arizona Suit on Immigration Enforcement

2011-10-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 21, 2011

PHOENIX (AP) — A lawsuit by Gov. Jan Brewer that accused the Obama administration of failing to enforce immigration laws or maintain control of her state’s border with Mexico was dismissed Friday by a federal judge.

In her ruling, Judge Susan Bolton of United States District Court in Phoenix said the governor’s claim that Washington had failed to protect Arizona from an “invasion” of illegal immigrants was a political question that was not appropriate for the court to decide.

Governor Brewer, a Republican, filed her countersuit after the Justice Department challenged Arizona’s immigration enforcement law. She was seeking a court order that would require the federal government to take extra steps, like erect more border fencing, to protect Arizona until the border was controlled.

The judge wrote that she also barred some of the governor’s claims because the issues had been dealt with in a 1994 case by Arizona and could not be litigated again. Court precedent also requires the dismissal of some claims, Judge Bolton wrote.

In a statement, Governor Brewer said she was not surprised by the ruling. “It is but the latest chapter in a story that Arizonans know all too well: The federal government ignores its constitutional and statutory duty to secure the border,” she said.

The Department of Justice issued a one-sentence statement saying it was pleased by Judge Bolton’s decision.

The department sued the State of Arizona last year in a bid to invalidate Arizona’s immigration enforcement law. Judge Bolton, who ruled in that case as well, put key parts of the law on hold, like a provision requiring police officers, while enforcing other laws, to question a person’s immigration status if officers had a “reasonable suspicion” that the person was in the country illegally.

Governor Brewer has asked the United States Supreme Court to hear her appeal of Judge Bolton’s ruling in that case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/us/judge-dismisses-arizona-suit-on-immigration-enforcement.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Record number of deportations

2011-10-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

By Dwayne Parker
WFMZ
October 20, 2011

READING, PA.-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) reported it deported almost 400,000 undocumented immigrants for the fiscal year 2011.

Officials report it's the largest number of deportations since the agency's creation.

"I'm not shocked about it," said Anthony Maturano, immigration attorney. "For the last few years it's been about enforcement."

Maturano, who works out of his office on 5th Street in Reading, indicated that, in some cases, I.C.E. agents who conduct raids find more than just the targets of their investigations.

"My experience with my clients has been that immigration will come into a home looking for one person and they find lots of people and they take them all," said Maturano.

Maturano added that the numbers may also be on the rise because local law enforcement may be sounding the alarm.

"I think that there are more people coming to immigration's attention because there may be a traffic stop and the police call because there's no driver's license. So immigration comes in for that," said Maturano.

According to I.C.E., for the Pennsylvania region, 6,746 people overall were deported. Of that number, 4,159 were convicted criminals, and 2,587 were non-criminals.

The agency has even created priority categories to aggressively deal with the issue.

"We're very clear. We want to prioritize those who are convicted criminals, we want to prioritize those who are egregious and repeat violators, we want to prioritize those who are security threats, those who have existing warrants," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "What you see happening now, particularly over the last year, fiscal year 2011, is that while the number, around 400,000 remains about the same, the composition of those within that number who are being removed is now shifting to reflect the priorities we've set."

http://www.wfmz.com/news/Record-number-of-deportations/-/121458/3975110/-/i33uuyz/-/

Comments on Immigration Alienate Some Hispanics

2011-10-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

By TRIP GABRIEL
The New York Times
October 19, 2011

Today, Republican candidates are competing over who can talk the toughest about illegal immigration — who will erect the most impenetrable border defense; who will turn off “magnets” like college tuition benefits.

But after such pointed proposals heated up yet another Republican debate, on Tuesday night, some party officials see a yellow light signaling danger in battleground states with large Hispanic populations in November 2012. Will Hispanic voters remember and punish the eventual Republican nominee?

“The discussion of creating electrified fences from sea to sea is neither prudent nor helpful,” said Ryan Call, chairman of the Republican Party of Colorado, where Hispanics cast 13 percent of votes in 2008 and helped President Obama flip the state to blue. “They’re throwing red meat around in an attempt to mollify a particular aspect of the Republican base.”

Besides Colorado, Mr. Obama cemented his victory in part by carrying three other swing states with large Hispanic voting populations: Florida, Nevada and New Mexico.

Republican strategists have hoped to win many of these voters back by appealing to their discontent over the economy and to their social conservatism, issues that helped George W. Bush win a historically high 44 percent of Hispanic voters in 2004.

Now, however, that pitch may be thwarted, according to some Republican strategists.

Both Herman Cain, the former business executive, and Representative Michele Bachmann are proposing a 1,200-mile border fence — electrified, in Mr. Cain’s case, double-walled in Mrs. Bachmann’s.

Mitt Romney has attacked Gov. Rick Perry of Texas as soft on illegal immigration. Mr. Perry punched back in the debate on Tuesday in Las Vegas, accusing Mr. Romney of “hypocrisy” because, Mr. Perry said, “you had illegals working on your property.”

Robert Ramirez, a Republican state representative from Colorado who attended the debate, said Hispanic voters in his state “are sick and tired of empty promises from the Democratic Party.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Ramirez was concerned about the nominees’ lack of sensitivity. “We can’t pretend the Latino vote doesn’t exist,” he said. “It’s time we became the party of inclusion.”

Even Mr. Romney, who has been more measured in his remarks, may have lost Hispanic support over his criticism of a Texas law that allows some children of illegal immigrants to attend state colleges on in-state tuition.

“He can make as many trips to Florida and New Mexico and Colorado and other swing states that have a large Latino population, but he can write off the Latino vote,” said Lionel Sosa, a strategist in Texas who advised Mr. Bush and Senator John McCain on appealing to Hispanics. “He’s not going to gain it again.”

In each of those states, plus Nevada, Hispanics are a growing share of eligible voters, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Although these voters have traditionally favored Democrats, Mr. Obama’s 67 percent share of the Hispanic vote in 2008 dipped to 60 percent who voted Democratic during the 2010 Republican wave that swept the midterm elections, said Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew center.

In a Pew survey that year, Hispanic voters ranked education and the economy as their top issues. But there was strong support for state-level “Dream” acts allowing children of illegal immigrants to attend colleges on in-state tuition, and 61 percent disapproved of more border fencing.

Many analysts credit the Democratic victories that year of Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, and Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado to get-out-the-vote efforts by Latinos.

“Sharron Angle got destroyed in the election because of her anti-immigration stand,” said Andres Ramirez, a Democratic strategist in Nevada, referring to Mr. Reid’s opponent, a Tea Party darling. Mr. Ramirez predicted that Hispanic participation in the 2012 election in Nevada would surpass the 15 percent from 2008, and he said that Republicans missed an opportunity in holding a debate in Las Vegas to showcase more moderate immigration views.

“Their rhetoric on illegal immigration was very over the top,” he said. “It will cost them in the future.”

Heidi Smith, the Republican national committeewoman from Nevada, said the focus on illegal immigration was a distraction. “It’s taking time off of the big issue, and that is we don’t have any jobs,” she said.

In Florida, where the Hispanic vote has traditionally leaned Republican because of large numbers of conservative Cuban-Americans, immigration issues may be especially divisive in 2012. The state’s favorite son Republican senator, Marco Rubio, seems only too happy to duck immigration issues, and the Republican-controlled State Senate refused to pass a bill this spring with a tough requirement on employers to check workers’ immigration status.

Joe Gruters, chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota County in Florida, said that showing toughness against illegal immigration was an “electrifying” issue and could bump a Republican candidate many points in primary polls. He is disappointed by the moderation of candidates’ proposals so far. “Nobody said, ‘We have to repeal the 14th Amendment,’ ” he said, referring to the constitutional guarantee of citizenship to a child born in the United States. Critics of illegal immigrant mothers who supposedly enter the country to have “anchor babies” sometimes propose repealing the Reconstruction-era amendment.

Mr. Gruters was quick to concede that such positions would cost an eventual Republican nominee.

“In case they’re the nominee, it could be a deal-breaker where they take themselves out as a serious contender,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/us/politics/immigration-talk-turns-off-some-hispanics.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Latino residents sue ICE over apartment raids

2011-10-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

By Associated Press
October 19, 2011

NASHVILLE — Fifteen residents of a Nashville apartment complex sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers Wednesday over what they said were violations of their constitutional rights during a raid last year.

The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and claims ICE officers, along with Metro police, entered homes without warrants, consent or probable cause.

It alleged the raid was part of a conspiracy with the owners of the Clairmont Apartments to rid the complex of Latinos. All but one of the plaintiffs are Latino.

The suit claimed the officers violated several constitutional rights and seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages.

ICE and Metro’s deputy legal director both said they do not comment on pending litigation.

According to the suit, in early 2010, the Clairmont Apartments were sold in bankruptcy proceedings and taken over by a company that allowed conditions to deteriorate in an effort to force out current residents, many of whom were Latino.

The company abandoned its onsite offices, hired a “notoriously harsh” security company, allowed two buildings to lose hot water and saw an immigration raid that led to at least 20 detentions but no criminal arrests, the suit said.

The suit said ICE and Metro Gang Unit officers on Oct. 20, 2010, broke into apartments and held unarmed adults at gunpoint, shouting obscenities and racial epithets at them.

At a news conference announcing the suit, ACLU of Tennessee director Hedy Weinberg said her group respects the right of the United States to control immigration, but the rights to due process and equal protection apply to everyone.

“Looking Latino is not probable cause,” she said.

Megan Macaraeg with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said she was called to the apartments when the raid started.

“It was like nothing I had ever seen,” she said. Describing how she came to the U.S. to escape repression in the Philippines in 1974, she called the raid “personally appalling to me.”

Another federal suit was filed earlier this month by four Clairmont residents claiming similar rights violations during a smaller raid that took place Oct. 1, 2010.

http://www.timesnews.net/article/9037273/latino-residents-sue-ice-over-apartment-raids

Coupeville mother of 5 seeks mercy for detained husband

2011-10-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

By Jessie Stensland
WHIDBEY NEWS TIMES
October 16, 2011

By all accounts, Jaime Villicana-Campos is a wonderful husband and a beloved father to his children.

He held two physically demanding jobs and worked seven days a week to support his large family. He somehow still made time to spend with his little girls, especially 6-year-old Angelica who suffers from epilepsy. She is particularly close to her doting father and is known in the family as "Daddy's girl."

But because of the nation's sometimes vexing immigration laws, Villicana-Campos is sitting in a Tacoma federal detention facility. He was nabbed by immigration officials in June, a month before his fifth daughter was born. He still hasn't met baby Sophia.

In the meantime, his wife and five daughters languish without him in a Central Whidbey home that his brother-in-law rented for the family. His wife, Terra Villicana, is fighting for his freedom, but suffers from depression that's so debilitating that she had to be temporarily admitted to a psychiatric unit. Tears constantly stream down her cheeks as she discusses the untenable situation.

"This is beyond pain. This is torture," Terra said. "The hardest thing is to hear the kids cry at night. They just want their dad."

Jaime Villicana-Campos is married to an American citizen and has five children born in America. He has lived in America since he was 14. He worked hard and paid taxes. But still, he faces prison followed by deportation to Mexico because of a mistake he made in 1997.

Under federal law, Villicana-Campos can't become a citizen because he was convicted of a felony. His wife explains that he was hanging out with the wrong crowd when he was a young man in Skagit County. He drove some friends to what turned out to be a drug deal and was arrested by the police.

Villicana-Campos, who didn't speak English very well at the time, got some poor advice from an attorney. Terra said he was advised to plead guilty with the promise that he'd be sentenced to work ethics camp and then would be able to return home.

But instead, the Skagit County judge sentenced him to two years in prison. After he got out, he was deported to Mexico. As Terra explained, the other members of Villicana-Campos' family had become American citizens, but for some reason he was never naturalized.

Terra admits that her husband sneaked into the country twice. The first time was when he was 14. Then he again entered illegally after he was deported.

In a statement on the case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement corroborates the details of Villicana-Campos' story, but adds that he was convicted of trafficking cocaine and methamphetamine. He was deported to Mexico "based on that aggravated felony conviction," according to ICE.

After returning to Skagit County, Villicana-Campos met Terra, who had grown up in Coupeville. They fell in love and were married in 1999. They had their first daughter, Jasmine, in 2001.

Jasmine now goes to Coupeville schools. Like her younger sisters, she's taken her father's absence hard and often cries herself to sleep, sometimes grasping her father's shirt.

"All I want is for my daddy to be home and for him to have his papers," she said. "If I could have that, I would be the happiest girl alive."

Terra said Angelica's seizures had been under control, but the stress of her father's absence has caused them to flare up. The doctors have had to increase her medication.

As Terra explained, immigration agents came to get Villicana-Campos at their home in Mount Vernon on June 23. They pounded on the door and claimed they were police officers. She answered the door and questioned them. They eventually admitted they were from immigration, but promised they just wanted to talk to her husband for a few minutes and then would leave. Terra was eight-months pregnant at the time and begged Villicana-Campos to hide, but he wanted to take responsibility for his actions. They took him away in handcuffs.

About a month later, July 28, Terra had her fifth baby while Villicana-Campos sat in federal detention. She said it's impossible to describe how difficult it was to have the little girl without her husband there.

"I'm miserable every day," she said. "It's so difficult to answer these kids' questions."

The statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, explains the government's case.

"On July 6, Mr. Villicana-Campos was released to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service after he was criminally charged with illegally re-entering the United States after deportation, a felony charge that carries a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison. Mr. Villacana-Campos remains in U.S. Marshals' custody at this time as he awaits sentencing following his conviction on the felony immigration charge," according to the statement.

While the family waits for answers, Terra has been fighting to bring her husband home. She's contacted attorneys, lawmakers, a civil rights group and even the White House. She's currently working with Sen. Patty Murray's office in hopes of helping her husband's case.

In addition, she's collected testimonials from people who know her husband. At the time of his arrest, he was a manager of a horse farm and also worked at a mobile home park for seniors. Terra said he was loved by the residents and was known for helping folks on his own time.

"They were crying because they miss him so much," she said.

Another one of her allies is Dr. Robert Prins, a well-known and respected OB/GYN physician in Anacortes. He delivered all five of her girls and has offered to help the family in any way he can. He described Villicana-Campos as "a fine father."

"I have known Terra now as you can see for over 10 years and she is a delightful young lady," Prins wrote in a letter of support. "She has taken great care of her children, loves her husband and has been an asset to our community and it is a real tragedy that immigration has what I would consider to be blinders on with regards to the circumstances here. I fully understand the issues of illegal immigration and am in agreement with the general attitude and approach, but this seems like a very exceptional circumstance and those of us in the community who know and love Terra, would very much like to see this resolved in her favor."

While immigration laws are rigid, there is some hope for Villicana-Campos. His fate is largely in the hands of judges. His attorney has petitioned the Skagit County Superior Court to have the conviction vacated because he wasn't properly advised about deportation. If the attorney is successful, it would open up a road to citizenship.

Villicana-Campos already pleaded guilty in federal court to entering the country illegally. His sentencing hearing is set for Dec. 8. He's facing a maximum of 20 years in prison, but Terra prays the judge will recognize the exceptional circumstances and have mercy. She plans to bring Sophia to meet her father.

"These children just need their dad," she said. "He's an amazing, wonderful, wonderful dad and it just doesn't make any sense that they are keeping him away from his kids."

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/sound/article/Coupeville-mother-of-5-seeks-mercy-for-detained-2221500.php#ixzz1bdYp7iVa

Alabama law affects all aspects of immigrant life

2011-10-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

By Perla Trevizo
Times Free Press
Saturday, October 15, 2011

FORT PAYNE, Ala. -- The full provisions of Alabama's new immigration law have yet to be implemented, but already its impact in the immigrant community -- including fear -- is considered much larger than in other states with similar get-tough measures.

"I don't think we saw anywhere near the level of terror from families and children we are seeing [in Alabama]," said Mary Bauer, legal director with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., in a telephone news conference last week.

It's been over two weeks since Alabama's law -- considered by many on both sides of the debate as the toughest in the country -- went into effect. Advocates and immigrants say the result has been a climate of fear that affects everything from families and schools to business and agriculture.

In other states, "we've heard stories of families choosing to leave and rotting crops [because farmers can't find laborers], but not wholesale terror and destruction of families," Bauer said. "The other laws didn't have provisions involving schoolchildren, and the most onerous provisions were [blocked by courts]."

Count Valentina Rodriguez among the immigrants who are afraid for themselves and their children.

The single mother worries about what would happen to her 10-year-old daughter if Rodriguez should be stopped by a police officer and detained for being in the country illegally.

Rodriguez went to Niko Services for Immigrants, a Florida-based nonprofit that has an office in Fort Payne, last week to ask what she could do to sign a power of attorney so friends could keep her daughter if she is deported.

"We don't want people to feel sorry for us, but as parents, these are things you think about," said the Mexico native.

IMPACT

Alabama's immigration law took effect Sept. 29 after a federal judge upheld most of it, including requirements that police officers check the immigration status of people they detain for other reasons and that public schools determine the status of their students and report it to the state.

However, the public school provision temporarily was blocked Friday by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Nicholas Milano, director of Niko Services, said he's been getting calls day and night from people asking him what they should do.

Bauer said a complaint hotline at Southern Poverty received more than 2,000 calls statewide in less than one week. Calls ranged from sick immigrants who didn't want to drive to a hospital, to parents reporting their Hispanic children being call "wetbacks" and bullied in school, she said.

Fort Payne City Superintendent of Schools Jimmy Cunningham said he's not aware of anything like that happening in his school district. Children are being enrolled in school regardless of legal status, he said, and the documentation is to be used for reporting purposes only.

But parents are afraid, and there have been reports of children taken out of school or not showing up for class. Hispanic students make up about 31 percent of all students in the Fort Payne school district. Since the law went into effect, 34 of 968 Hispanic students withdrew, Cunningham said.

Merchants along the main street of Fort Payne said business has decreased 40 to 50 percent.

"People are not leaving their homes" because they're not here legally and are afraid of being stopped by police, said Silvestre Juan, a naturalized citizen from Guatemala who operates Tienda Latino, where he sells Latin American products and offers money-transfer services.

Jose Barrios, who was visiting Juan, said he has four brothers who left for Tennessee and Kentucky once the law went into effect. But Barrios said his U.S.-born children, ages 8, 13 and 15, and his home keep him in Alabama.

"My wife and I have talked about it, but we just don't know what to do," said the Mexico native who entered illegally in 1992 and has lived in Fort Payne for 14 years.

He signed a power of attorney giving his brother, a legal permanent resident, custody of his children if he and his wife are deported.

A few blocks from Tienda Latino, Juan Vitela talked about the possibility of closing his store, La Unica Beauty Shop, because business is so bad.

Norberta Vitorio, 48, said she lost her job last week after telling her boss she was afraid to drive.

"He asked me if I was in the country illegally, and when I said 'yes,' he told me I couldn't work there anymore because he could get in trouble," she said.

The Mexico native said she plans to go back to her country in January.

The section of the new law that frightens people most is the provision that gives law enforcement the right to check their immigration status if they're detained on other charges or reasons, residents said. Many fear it can lead to racial profiling. It's also the provision that has been blocked by federal judges in other states, including Georgia and Arizona. But it was not part of the Alabama provisions that were blocked by Friday's court ruling.

Vitela said he left the store with another friend, also Hispanic, last week and was followed closely by a police car. As he made a right turn, he was stopped for crossing into the other lane. He and his passenger were asked for their driver's licenses. Each produced his license but noted that passengers had not been asked for ID before.

ENFORCEMENT

The role of local law enforcement in the new law doesn't concern only immigrants. Police and public officials have their own worries.

"We haven't had any training on it whatsoever," said Fort Payne Police Chief Randy Bynum. "It really means a lot of unknowns; we just don't know how we are going to handle it."

So far they haven't made any arrests under the new law, he said.

Ricky Harcrow, DeKalb County Commission president for 16 years, said the county is in limbo on many aspects of the law, including what is required for people renewing their tags. Do they need to verify legal documentation in person or can they still mail it in?

He also worries about how enforcement may affect local governments.

"The cost of [the law enforcement implementation] can get astronomical," he said. "There are so many things involved ... that can be a nightmare."

The law may be hard to implement initially, but something needs to be done about illegal immigration, Harcrow said.

In justifying the bill, its authors cited the economic hardship that illegal immigration has caused the state in health, education and costs for public benefits.

"Illegal immigration is encouraged when public agencies within this state provide public benefits without verifying immigration status," the bill reads.

TWEAK THE LAW?

The Hispanic community in Fort Payne, the largest share of unauthorized immigrants in the country, has grown 86 percent since 2000 -- from 1,574 to 2,930 in 2010 -- attracted primarily by work in the poultry and hosiery industries.

Immigration, legal or illegal, has helped fill jobs that might be hard to fill otherwise, Harcrow said. But he also said immigrants have taken jobs away from people who "probably would have done" the work. Still, he would like to see the law tweaked to include some program or exemption for farmers or poultry growers who need seasonal help, which often is filled by undocumented workers.

"I do think that needs to be looked at on the local level; we know what we need," Harcrow said.

As states get tougher with immigration, farmers have reported crops rotting in the field because they can't get enough workers.

Stephen Talley, from Talley's Farm in Crossville, Ala., said he lost the only Hispanic employee he had on his 12-acre farm, where he grows strawberries and pumpkins. The Mexico native returned to his country with his wife and two U.S.-born children at the end of August, Talley said, when the law originally was scheduled to go into effect. Talley said he wasn't aware of his status.

"Some of the bigger farms are seeing a larger impact, especially apple farmers," he said.

Workers are hard to find, he said.

"During strawberry season I might need five or six people, but from October through April, I don't. I can't supply anyone with s full-time job," he said.

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/oct/15/alabama-law-affects-aspects-of-immigrant-life/?print

Immigrants in Ala. fear families being torn apart

2011-10-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

By Mark Strassmann
ABC News
October 14, 2011

(CBS News)--Alabama has put itself on the front lines of the battle against illegal immigration with a tough new law. But that law is being challenged as unconstitutional. On Friday, a panel of federal judges in Atlanta weighed in on the most controversial parts of the law, overturning -- at least for now -- two major provisions.

The law requires schools to check the immigration status of students, which the judges have suspended. It also requires legal immigrants to carry papers proving their legal status; the judges suspended that too. But the court let stand a provision that allows the police to detain immigrants they suspect are illegal.

The law took effect six weeks ago and had swift and dramatic effects in Alabama. CBS News correspondent Mark Strassman reports on what this all means.

Liz Betancourt is scared to leave the house in Florence, Alabama.

"I am illegal," she said. "I am not from here."

Her family moved from Mexico to the U.S. when Liz was an infant. She's now 19, but has never applied for citizenship or a green card.

Under the state's new law, if she's picked up by police, she could be deported. And during that process, which can take months, there's no legal guarantee her daughter Idelfy -- born in Alabama and a U.S. citizen -- would stay with her.

But the widespread perception among illegal immigrants is deportation would split families apart -- although deported parents would be allowed to take their children with them.

"We just came here to work," said Betancourt. "Our parents ... they just come here to give their children a good education."

Even a routine trip to the store has many illegal immigrants here worried they'll end up arrested. And in case they're deported, some parents are signing papers, turning over legal care of their kids to someone else.

If Betancourt's deported, her aunt, a U.S. citizen, would care for Idelfy so the baby could stay here.

Fear of deportation is spreading through families living here illegally. In Albertville, Alabama's public schools, 81 of 1,100 Hispanic students have dropped out in the last two weeks.

Alabama employers like farmer Keith Smith are also feeling the effects. Smith needs 20 workers to harvest his sweet potatoes. Most mornings, he's lucky now if only nine show up.

"They're putting me out of business, this law," said Smith, "And if things don't change, if they don't come up with something better, people like me -- we're a has-been."

On the contrary, Scott Beason, the Republican state senator who sponsored the state's new law, argued: "They're displacing Alabama workers. And our goal is to have many Alabamians as possible working."

He points to Alabama's unemployment rate -- just under 10 percent -- and the estimated $290 million Alabama spends educating and caring for illegal immigrants.

"Has the impact been what you expected?" Strassman asked.

"I think so," answered Beason. "All the focus is on the illegal alien and the challenge they may have for being here illegally. People always forget the person who were unable to start a business or who lost their business because the competitor down the road hired an illegal alien."

The Friday decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals here in Atlanta is only temporary. Its final decision could be months away. And Liz Betancourt -- the woman interviewed in our story -- was fired by her cleaning company right after she spoke with CBS News.

CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley asked Strassman what happens next in the court fight.

"Friday's decision conflicts with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision about a similar provision in Arizona's law -- the provision that focuses on whether a local or state police agency can check the immigration status of someone simply because they're suspected of a crime. Because those decisions conflict, legal scholars now say it is much more likely this issue will reach the U.S. Supreme Court."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/14/eveningnews/main20120777.shtml

Deportation laws group criminals with innocent

2011-10-14T02:43:00.000-07:00

BY ERIN HARTWIG
Northwest Missourian
October 12, 2011

The U.S.-Mexico border is not as out of control as the press sometimes makes it seem, writes Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in a press release issued Oct. 5. For the last two and a half years, there has been a huge decline in the number if illegal immigrants crossing the border and dramatic increases in seizures.

In 2010, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 195,000 convicted criminals, 81,000 more than in 2008.

Congress doesn't have a clear-cut set of rules and regulations regarding border patrol and the reform of immigration laws. The states themselves have had to create their own patchwork of laws to help secure our border with Mexico.

Napolitano aims to change this. If Congress and the states work together, it will be easier to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the border.

Before Obama came into office, the immigration enforcement policies were such that as many resources were spent on arresting and deporting college students as much as convicted criminals. ICE conducted worksite raids and didn't consistently punish the employer, or target those people who posed a threat to public safety.

There needs to be a priority system to judge whether or not an illegal immigrant should be deported. America needs to deport more of the illegal aliens that have been convicted of crimes. Some of the people who cross the border from Mexico come here specifically to commit crimes against U.S. citizens; some come for a better life for their children and for opportunities that aren't available in their home countries. The people who were born to illegal immigrant parents or came here as children deserve some sort of immunity to deportation. Many of children of illegal immigrants don't even know they shouldn't be here. Yes, they are part of American's immigration problem, but they aren't a public threat.

There needs to be some sort of legislation in place that requires background checks on illegal immigrants. If someone has been convicted of a crime and they came to America illegally, they get deported. However, if the background check reveals no criminal history, they should be put through a system that would enable their legal residency in America.

Our country is unique and has been built on the backs of immigrants; this is how it should stay. However, all our country's immigrants should be legal.

http://www.nwmissourinews.com/opinion/article_3cc8a704-f52c-11e0-b2bb-001a4bcf6878.html

Indocumentados en Alabama hacen planes en caso de ser deportados

2011-10-13T01:49:00.000-07:00

Alistan documentos legales para encargar hijos y pertenencias en Estados Unidos
Univision.com
Fecha: 10/10/2011

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Los miedos causados tras la puesta en vigor de la ley migratoria HB 56 de Alabama van en aumento. Una semana después, inmigrantes indocumentados, aterrados ante la amenaza de ser arrestados y deportados, acuden a notarios para dejar a sus hijos bajo la custodia de familiares o amigos, y también sus propiedades y pertenencias.

Entre otras medidas, la severa ley migratoria, considerada la más dura en su tipo en Estados Unidos, permite a las policías locales (estatal y municipal) arrestar a inmigrantes si sus agentes tienen duda razonable que se trata de indocumentados, y a las escuelas a verificar el estado migratorio de alumnos nuevos y padres de familia.

The Associated Press escribió que el paso que están dando los indocumentados “habría parecido inconcebible hace muy poco”, y agregó que además de familiares y amigos, en algunos casos los indocumentados incluyen a compañeros de trabajo en los poderes notariales.

Un reciente informe del Consejo Nacional de La Raza (NCLR) y de The Urban Institute, reveló que en Estados Unidos viven entre 3 millones y 5 millones de niños estadounidenses hijos de inmigrantes indocumentados. En el estado de Alabama viven entre 25 mil y 50 mil extranjeros sin la debida autorización para permanecer en Estados Unidos.

Datos del Instituto Pew Hispanic señalan que la mayoría de los indocumentados son de origen Latinoamericano, principalmente de México.

Clima de incertidumbre

La semana pasada, decenas de residentes indocumentados firmaron documentos en los que autorizan a otros a cuidar de sus hijos de ser necesario, confirmaron grupos de asistencia a inmigrantes.

Una pareja que vive sin papeles en el cercano condado de Shelby logró la promesa del jefe del hombre, de enviar a sus tres hijos -todos ciudadanos estadounidenses- a México si encarcelan a la pareja, reportó The Associated Press.

Uno de los autores de la polémica ley HB 56 de Alabama, el senador estatal republicano Scott Beason, dijo que dichas preocupaciones no se plantearon cuando los legisladores consideraban la medida.

Beason se pregunta si las versiones no están destinadas a suscitar simpatía por los inmigrantes que están aquí sin un permiso de permanencia legal por parte de las autoridades federales.

No tienen a nadie

María Patiño y su esposo son originarios de México, viven en Alabama y no tienen parientes cercanos que los asista en caso de ser detenidos y deportados.

Dijo que cada vez que acude a dejar a sus hijos a la escuela “reza” para que no tenga un encuentro con la policía, la detengan, la arresten y la entreguen al servicio de inmigración, que la pondrá en proceso de deportación.

Un encuentro casual con la Policía podría terminar con sus dos hijos de escuela primaria sin padres, si ella y su marido son repatriados a México o los menores son colocados en adopción, escribió AP.

La pareja está indocumentada en Estados Unidos y no tienen amigos ni familiares como para cuidar de los hijos.

"Cada vez que salgo no sé si volveré", dijo Patiño, de 27 años, llorando. "No puedo dejar de trabajar. Mis hijas necesitan zapatos y otras cosas".

Número de ayuda

Ante tal panorama de incertidumbre o preocupaciones, defensores de los inmigrantes reiteraron la existencia de una línea telefónica gratuita: 1(800) 982- 1620, para reportar los actos de abusos a los que está dando origen la ley migratoria HB 56.

"Nosotros hemos recibido más llamadas de las que hemos podido manejar", dijo una activista del Centro Nacional para Leyes de Inmigración. "Lo importante a saber es que si deja su número de teléfono y un recado, nosotros le devolveremos la llamada".

La información que reciba el Centro durante los próximos días a través de la línea telefónica gratuita 1(800) 982-1620) será vital, ya que la jueza que dio luz verde a la Ley HB 56 de Alabama, dejó la puerta abierta para que defensores de los inmigrantes regresen a su Corte y le soliciten nuevamente que detenga esta ley, si es que llegan a demostrar que ésta está causando daño a la población del estado de Alabama.

"Esto, claro, va a acosar y a espantar a mucha gente de que no matriculen a sus hijos, que no los sigan llevando (a la escuela). Así es que esto es lo más peligroso (de la ley migratoria HB 56), en mi opinión", apuntó.

Otras preocupaciones

La HB 56 convirtió en delito criminal si un indocumentado solicita una licencia de manejar o comercial en Alabama, y permite que se anulen contratos hechos con indocumentados.

A finales de septiembre una corte de distrito decretó medidas cautelares para garantizar que no se pueda impedir a indocumentados pedir trabajo, que no se pueda criminalizar a quienes asistan a indocumentados, que los negocios pueden seguir deduciendo salarios de indocumentados de impuestos estatales, y que los trabajadores no pueden demandar a empleadores que contraten a indocumentados.

Empresarios agrícolas de Alabama temen que la HB 56 los impacte negativamente al provocar una grave escasez de campesinos que impida el levantamiento de las cosechas.

© 2011 Univision Communications Inc.

La recepción y atención de mexicanos deportados de EU corresponde exclusivamente al INM

2011-10-12T01:46:00.000-07:00

Se estableció de manera clara el derecho de los detenidos a la notificación consular y el acceso a la ayuda de las representaciones consulares
Por Primitivo López
Hoy Tamaulipas
10/10/2011

Laredo, Texas.- La recepción, atención y traslado a sus lugares de origen en la República mexicana de mexicanos arrestados en los Estados Unidos y deportados a México es responsabilidad única y directa del Instituto Nacional de Migración.

La repatriación se rige por un Acuerdo firmado el 12 de Octubre de 2009 entre autoridades mexicanas y estadounidenses en la región sur de Texas, informó Miguel Angel Isidro Rodríguez, Cónsul General de México.

En el caso de la anunciada deportación masiva de mexicanos de California y Arizona con antecedentes penales, los Consulados mexicanos no intervienen, ratific´po el diplomático mexicano.

En dicho acuerdo, firmaron los consulados generales de México en Austin, San Antonio y Laredo, y la Delegación Regional del Instituto Nacional de Migración de Tamaulipas.

Por Estados Unidos lo signaron la Patrulla Fronteriza, la oficina regional de Inmigración y Aplicación Aduanera (ICE), además del Buró de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza (CBP)

Una de las grandes ventajas de este acuerdo fue el establecimiento de mecanismos especiales para repatriar a personas en situación de vulnerabilidad como enfermos, lesionados, adultos mayores, mujeres embarazadas y muy en especial menores de edad.

El funcionario –agregó- que también se estableció de manera clara el derecho de los detenidos a la notificación consular y el acceso a la ayuda de las representaciones consulares.

También se abrieron canales de comunicación y de intercambio de información entre autoridades migratorias, para que las autoridades mexicanas conozcan con antelación la información de nacionales mexicanos que serán repatriados, mencionó.

Esto permite dar un auxilio efectivo a los migrantes deportados, ya que se establecieron horarios para realizar los cruces.

Aquí se incluyen menores de edad no acompañados por adultos o personas que requieran un tratamiento médico en México, a quienes no se les regresa hasta no tener los arreglos para recibirlos xn una atención adecuada para su salud.

http://www.hoytamaulipas.net/notas/43661/La-recepcion-y-atencion-de-mexicanos-deportados-de-EU-corresponde-exclusivamente-al-INM.html

Hispanics sue feds over raid; Lawyer says agents target old addresses

2011-10-11T00:21:00.000-07:00

By Brandon Gee
The Tennessean
Oct. 10, 2011

Four Nashville residents say federal agents illegally entered their apartment while looking for a fugitive at the complex.

Their attorney says the raid represents a pattern of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Nashville operate. They go to an old address where the target of the raid no longer lives but go ahead and arrest whoever happens to be living there now.

“This is not the only time this has happened,” said immigration attorney Elliott Ozment, who has filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of local Hispanic residents who claimed they were mistreated by federal and local authorities. “They get an old address, they go to that old address looking for somebody who hasn’t been there in years and arrest others incidentally. That’s the way they operate.”

Ozment filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in response to the first of two controversial raids that police and immigration authorities conducted at a South Nashville apartment complex last year.

He filed the lawsuit on behalf of four former residents of the Clairmont apartment complex. Pablo Cahuec-Castro, Myra Leticia Juarez, Ottoniel Perez-Piox and Maria del Rosario Osorio say Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials illegally entered their home on Oct. 1, 2010 — with the assistance of the complex’s maintenance supervisor — and subjected them to unreasonable searches and unlawful seizures.

The Oct. 1 arrests were followed by a much larger ICE operation on Oct. 20, 2010, that included the Metro Nashville Police Department and resulted in 20 federal arrests. The Tennessee Immigrant Rights Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union called a news conference after the second raid and claimed dozens of residents had their rights violated by ICE agents who broke into homes without consent and dragged people out at gunpoint in front of children.

Ozment claims his clients were treated similarly on Oct. 1.

According to the lawsuit, ICE agents threatened to break down their door and “drag every one of you out one by one” if they weren’t allowed into the apartment. The lawsuit states that the agents did not have a warrant but that Cahuec-Castro eventually let the agents in out of fear.

Fugitive not found

The agents were looking for a fugitive whom they did not find in the apartment. Cahuec-Castro and Perez-Piox were arrested after questioning and after agents found an entry matching the fugitive’s name in Cahuec-Castro’s cellphone contacts.

“Defendants violated Plaintiffs clearly established constitutional rights by arresting them after an illegal entry into their residence, unlawful and involuntary custodial interrogation, unlawful search and seizure of … Cahuec-Castro’s cellular phone, and an unlawful search of plaintiffs’ home,” the lawsuit states.

Ozment said Cahuec-Castro is now fighting deportation in immigration court and Perez-Piox has returned to Guatemala.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for physical and mental pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and medical and psychological expenses, as well as punitive damages.

ICE would not comment on the lawsuit.

“ICE is precluded from commenting on pending litigation,” New Orleans-based spokesman Temple Black said. “We routinely report matters of public record when they are releasable.”

In addition to the ICE agents, the lawsuit names the Clairmont’s owner, manager and former maintenance supervisor as defendants. The complex is managed by South Carolina-based Greystar Real Estate Partners. Messages left with Greystar and Atlanta-based TriTex Real Estate Partners, which owns the complex, were not returned. The maintenance supervisor, Scott Jarvis, no longer works at the complex.

According to a Metro police news release, staff at the apartments reported a strong gang presence at the Clairmont and said employees had been threatened after the Oct. 1 arrests of Cahuec-Castro and Perez-Piox. The police gang unit said members of the MS-13 and SUR-13 gangs lived in the complex and were suspected of preying on undocumented workers there who were hesitant to report robberies and other crimes because of their immigration status, according to the release.

Police began monitoring the complex and targeting suspects after receiving the apartment managers’ complaints and ultimately conducted the raid with ICE on Oct. 20. While residents claimed they were terrorized, the news release states that officers merely conducted “knock and talks,” meaning they knocked on doors and spoke with those who answered while looking for suspects or criminal activity at the same time.

Some of the 20 people arrested that day were placed into deportation proceedings while others were released. No criminal charges were pursued. Employees at the complex said conditions have improved since the sweeps, but Ozment said the long-term impact has been harmful.

“They are full of fear, the Hispanic community, very fearful,” he said. “Now, at least, they don’t open their doors when people knock.”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111010/NEWS03/310100030/Hispanics-sue-feds-over-raid

Deportan a 66% más paisanos infractores

2011-10-10T01:33:00.000-07:00

Por Verónica Sánchez de Agencia Reforma
El Mañana
09 de Octubre de 2011

El número de mexicanos deportados de Estados Unidos aumentó 66% al pasar de 169 mil a 282 mil

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO.- Entre 2005 y 2010, el número de mexicanos deportados de Estados Unidos en la modalidad de “removidos”, es decir, que cometieron alguna infracción, aumentó 66% al pasar de 169 mil a 282 mil, de acuerdo con un reporte del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM).

Esto, señala, ha reducido la circularidad migratoria y desalentado a muchos de volver a cruzar a ese país, pues un extranjero que es “removido” tiene consecuencias administrativas o criminales en regresos subsecuentes.

“La situación se vuelve más crítica si consideramos que muchos de ellos ya no tienen vínculos ni un lugar de destino específico en México, sin embargo, tampoco pueden regresar a Estados Unidos por las dificultades del cruce y las restricciones que les son impuestas”, destaca el documento “Migrantes Aprehendidos y Devueltos por Estados Unidos”.

Y es que, según el estudio elaborado por el Centro de Estudios Migratorios del INM, el número de connacionales deportados que declararon radicar en la Unión Americana creció de 6 a 22% entre 1995 a 2010.

En tanto, indica, uno de cada 10 de los que afirmaron vivir en México llevaban al menos un año residiendo en ese país. Aunado a ello, uno de cada cinco de los deportados durante 2010 fue clasificado como “criminal”.

“En la mayoría de los casos, se les procesó por faltas administrativas menores como no respetar señales de tránsito, ser reincidentes en el ingreso a Estados Unidos sin documentos migratorios, entre otras”, subraya.

El organismo señala que el incremento en cuestión coincide con el aumento de los deportados que ya no quieren volver a intentar cruzar al país norteamericano.

Con base en la Encuesta sobre Migración en la Frontera Norte de México, indica, el porcentaje de desalentados deportados pasó de 14 a 34% de 2006 a 2010.

Tan sólo durante el año pasado, estimó, hubo 151 mil connacionales desalentados.

El documento urge a implementar acciones bilaterales y en cada uno de los países para desalentar la migración y promover la inserción de los migrantes en sus lugares de origen.

Como primer paso sugiere la búsqueda de estrategias para tener estadísticas similares y validadas por los dos países.

“Si bien, la migración de mexicanos a Estados Unidos tiene una tradición centenaria y ha funcionado sin la intervención del gobierno mexicano o, en el mejor de los casos, ésta ha sido insuficiente y marginal; los cambios recientes por parte de Estados Unidos en las políticas de aprehensión y devolución de extranjeros en condición migratoria irregular la han transformado en un evento de alto riesgo y crecientes costos humanos y monetarios”, advierte.

http://www.elmanana.com.mx/notas.asp?id=257468

Changing face of migration on display at border

2011-10-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

Migrant shelters along the Mexican border are filled not with newcomers looking for a better life, but with seasoned crossers determined to return to families in the U.S.
By DAMIEN CAVE
The New York Times
October 8, 2011

AGUA PRIETA, Mexico — "My wife, my son — I have to get back to them," Daniel kept telling himself, from the moment he was arrested in Seattle for driving with an expired license all the way through the deportation proceeding that delivered him to Mexico in June.

Nothing would deter him from crossing the border again. He had left his hometown at 24, he said. Twelve years later, he had an American son, a wife, near-fluency in English and three brothers in the United States. "I'll keep trying," he said, "until I'll get there."

This is increasingly the profile of illegal immigration today. Migrant shelters along the Mexican border are filled not with newcomers looking for a better life, but with seasoned crossers: older men and women, often deportees, braving ever-greater risks to get back to their families in the United States — the country they consider home.

They present an enormous challenge to American policymakers, because they continue to head north despite obstacles more severe than at any time in recent history. It is not just that the American economy has little to offer; the border itself is far more threatening. On one side, fences have grown and American agents have multiplied; on the other, criminals haunt the journey at every turn.

And yet, while these factors — and better opportunities at home — have cut illegal immigration from Mexico to its lowest level in decades, they are not enough to scare off a sizable, determined cadre.

"We have it boiled down to the hardest lot," said Christopher Sabatini, senior director for policy at the Council of the Americas.

Indeed, 56 percent of apprehensions at the Mexican border in 2010 involved people who had been caught previously, up from 44 percent in 2005. A growing percentage of deportees in recent years have also been deported before, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.

For the administration of President Obama, these repeat offenders have become a high priority. Prosecutions for illegal re-entry have jumped by more than two-thirds since 2008. Officials say it is now the most prosecuted federal felony.

Obama has already deported around 1.1 million immigrants — more than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower — and officials say the numbers will not decline. But at a time when the dynamics of immigration are changing, experts and advocates on all sides are increasingly asking if the approach, which has defined immigration policy since 9/11, still makes sense.

Deportation expensive

Deportation is expensive, costing the government at least $12,500 per person, and it often does not work: Between October 2008 and July 22 of this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent $2.25 billion sending back 180,229 people who had been deported before and come back anyway. Many more have returned and stayed hidden.

Some groups favoring reduced immigration say that making life harder for illegal immigrants in this country would be far more efficient. They argue that along with eliminating work opportunities by requiring employers to check the immigration status of new hires, Congress should also prohibit illegal immigrants from opening bank accounts, or even obtaining library cards.

"You'd reduce the number of people who keep coming back again and again," said Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The alternative, says Doris Meissner, the country's top immigration official in the mid-1990s, is to accept that illegal immigrants like Daniel "are people with fundamental ties to the United States, not where they came from."

"Our societies are so deeply connected," Meissner said, referring primarily to the United States and Mexico, the main source of illegal immigrants. "And that is not reflected at all in policy."

The administration acknowledges that immigrants like Daniel are rooted in the United States and typically have otherwise-clean criminal records. But under its new plan introduced last month — suspending deportations for pending low-priority cases, including immigrants brought to the United States as children — repeat crossers are singled out for removal alongside "serious felons," "known gang members" and "individuals who pose a clear risk to national security."

Administration officials say they are trying to break the "yo-yo effect" of people bouncing back, as mandated by Congress when it made re-entry a felony in 1996.

But some experts argue that this commingling actually undermines security. After a decade of record deportations, critics argue, it has become even harder to separate the two groups that now define the border: professional criminals and experienced migrants motivated by family ties in the United States.

"If you think drug dealers and terrorists are much more dangerous than maids and gardeners, then we should get as many visas as possible to those people, so we can focus on the real threat," said David Shirk, director of the Transborder Institute at the University of San Diego. "Widening the gates would strengthen the walls."

Threat of drug gangs

The border crossers pouring into Arizona a decade or two ago were more numerous, but less likely to be threatening. David Jimarez, a border-patrol agent with years of experience south of Tucson, recalled that even when migrants outnumbered American authorities by 25 to 1, they did not resist. "They would just sit down and wait for us," he said.

Over the past few years, the mix has changed, with more drug smugglers and other criminals among the dwindling, but still substantial, ranks of migrants.

The impacts are far-reaching. In Mexico, less immigration means less business. Border towns like Agua Prieta, long known as a departure point, have gone from bustling to windblown. Taxis that ferried migrants to the mountains now gather dust. Restaurants and hotels, like the sunflower-themed Girasol downtown, are practically empty. On one recent afternoon, only three of the 50 rooms were occupied.

"In 2000, we were full every day," said Alejandro Rocha, the hotel manager.

New research from the University of California, San Diego, shows that crime is now the top concern for Mexicans thinking of heading north. As fear keeps many migrants home, many experienced border guides, or coyotes, have given up illegal migration for other jobs.

In Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, one well-known coyote is now selling tires. In Nogales, the largest Mexican city bordering Arizona, power has shifted to tattooed young men with expensive binoculars along the border fence, while here in Agua Prieta — where Mexican officials say traffic is one-thirtieth of what it once was — the only way to get across is to deal with gangs that sometimes push migrants to carry drugs.

It is even worse in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. Just standing at the border fence brings out drug-cartel enforcers demanding $300 for the right to pass. Migrants and the organizations that assist them say cartel lieutenants roam the shelters, looking for deportees willing to work as lookouts, earning $400 a week until they have enough to pay for passage north.

"I was thinking about doing it, too," said Daniel, looking down. "But then I thought about my family."

More danger for agents

U.S. law-enforcement officials say the matrix of drugs, migration and violence has become more visible at the border and along the trails and roads heading north, where more of the immigrants being caught carry drugs or guns — making them more likely to flee, resist arrest or commit other crimes.

"There's less traffic, but traffic that's there is more threatening," Jimarez, the border agent, said.

Larry Dever, the sheriff of Cochise County, Ariz., which sits north of Agua Prieta, agreed: "The guys smuggling people and narcotics now are more sinister."

Cochise County has been an established crossing corridor since the mid-1990s. Since 2008, the police there have tracked every crime linked to illegal immigrants, in part because state and federal officials frequently requested data, treating the county as a bellwether of border security.

Indeed, when a Cochise rancher named Robert Krentz was killed in March 2010 after radioing to his brother that he was going to help a suspected illegal immigrant, the county quickly became a flash point for a larger debate that ultimately led to SB 1070, the polarizing Arizona bill giving the police more responsibility for cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Yet, crime involving illegal immigrants is relatively rare (5 percent of all local crime). Mostly it consists of burglaries involving stolen food. And, public records show, in 11 of the 18 violent crimes linked to illegal immigrants over 18 months, immigrants were both the victims and attackers.

A recent USA Today analysis of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California found that crime within 100 miles of the border is below both the national average and the average for each of those states — and has been declining for years. Several other independent researchers have come to the same conclusion.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2016439814_immigration09.html

Alarma número de deportaciones por Tamaulipas

2011-10-08T02:23:00.000-07:00

Un total de 88 mil 731 migrantes fueron deportados de EU durante los primeros 8 meses del presente año por la frontera tamaulipeca
Por Julio Manuel L. Guzmán
El Universal
5 de octubre de 2011

Un total de 88 mil 731 migrantes fueron deportados de Estados Unidos durante los primeros 8 meses del presente año por la frontera tamaulipeca, situación que el gobierno del estado calificó como alarmante.

El secretario General de Gobierno, Morelos Canseco Gómez, indicó que las cifras de personas deportadas son alarmantes, ya que la cifra denota un incremento de hasta 30 mil migrantes, respecto al flujo migratorio de 2010.

Señaló que la semana pasada el gobernador de Tamaulipas, Egidio Torre Cantú sostuvo una reunión de trabajo en la sede del Instituto Tamaulipeco para los Migrantes (ITM) de Nuevo Laredo que permitió conocer, principalmente, la situación de quienes son deportados por las autoridades estadounidenses a través de los puentes fronterizos de México en Tamaulipas.

En la reunión se presentó un diagnóstico de la situación de los fenómenos de inmigración, migración, transmigración, repatriación y deportación que ocurren en Tamaulipas.

En dicho evento el mandatario estatal pidió reforzar las tareas de colaboración con la sociedad civil y el esfuerzo altruista que realizan las Casas del Migrante, así como con las autoridades municipales y federales para articular políticas públicas coincidentes que permitan evitar deportaciones sin sustento.

Para ello, Tamaulipas demanda conocer con anticipación la programación de esos actos y tener acceso al conocimiento (antes de la deportación) de si se trata de nacionales mexicanos o de extranjeros y si algunos tienen antecedentes penales en los Estados Unidos o en México, a fin de proteger a la sociedad en caso necesario.

Canseco Gómez destacó que con lo anterior se permitirá a las autoridades migratorias brindar una atención adecuada y evitar que los deportados puedan ser presas de las bandas de la delincuencia organizada que operan en esta entidad.

Señaló además que se solicitó a la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) en representación del gobierno mexicano que establezca normas y protocolos nítidos de actuación con su contraparte estadounidense para conocer con la debida anticipación si habrá deportaciones y quiénes serán las personas deportadas

"Si hay personas que por diversas circunstancias deben ser repatriadas o deportados que exista una instalación federal, una Estación Migratoria, como lo hubo en otras épocas para poder recibirlos, atenderlos y en su caso ayudarlos a llegar a su lugar de origen", puntualizó.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/798886.html

Aspiring Pastor at Risk of Deportation Speaks Out for Immigrant Rights and Keeping Faith

2011-10-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

By Ray Downs
The Christian Post
October 06, 2011

On his way to Lafayette, La., 19-year-old David Morales believed he was going to attend bible college, where he would learn the word of God and become a pastor. It was his dream. In many ways, it was the American dream, but before he even made it to his destination, David experienced a nightmare at the hands of immigration officials.

Morales came from a family of modest means, being the first in his family to graduate high school. Now, he believed, he was going to be the first one to attend college. That all changed when his bus was stopped, immigration officials came aboard, and asked David a single question:

"Are you an American citizen?"

After admitting that he was not a citizen, Morales was arrested and spent 17 days in jail before his family posted a $4,000 bond, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. He is now in the trial process and at risk of being deported to Mexico, a country he vaguely remembers and has few remaining ties to.

Morales was not born in the United States, but you would not guess that by talking to him. His family brought him to Utah from Mexico when he was 9 years old and was soon speaking more English than Spanish. He did well in school, kept out of trouble, and volunteered in his community, both as a fundraiser for homeless teenagers and as a Spanish interpreter during parent-teacher conferences at his local elementary school.

It could be said that David was a "model citizen" – and that is why, facing the threat of deportation, David has become the epitome of why supporters of the DREAM Act, which creates legal methods for undocumented immigrants to attain legal status, are still fighting to get the legislation passed, despite being struck down in December last year.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act hopes to give children who were brought illegally into the U.S. by their parents a "second chance" of sorts if they have shown to abide by a list of restrictions:

• Arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16

• Have proof of being in the country for at least five years

• Graduated from an American high school, obtained a GED, or has been admitted to an institute of higher education

• Be between the ages of 12 and 30 at the time of the bill's enactment

• Have registered with the Selective Service if male

• Be of "good, moral character" (a legal definition that essentially means one is not a criminal or troublemaker)

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, people who know Morales say he fits the requirements perfectly.

"David is one of those kids you don't want to lose," said Erik Contreras, co-chairman of the Utah Latino Legislative Task Force and a Morales family friend. "He is a role model. He is the kind of kid we need involved in our community."

Michele Callahan, Morales' high school principal, agreed.

"He was very unique for a kid this age. He was always thinking of others rather than himself. Everybody loved him," she said. "I hope for a good outcome for him. I know he had big plans."

However, with immigration being one of the country's hottest issues, there are people who say that despite the "good, moral character" of Morales, illegal immigration needs to be stopped.

"It's unfair at a personal level for Mister Morales to have to face a situation like that," Eli Cawley, president of the Utah Minuteman Project, told the Salt Lake Tribune. "But then again, life isn't fair. If you want fair, you join the Girl Scouts. There are lots of situations where children have to accept the unfair [circumstance] that is foisted on them by their parents."

Some have even said that the country's move towards stricter immigration laws, such as the recent Alabama legislation that has caused many Hispanic people to leave the state, according to an article on the conservative blog, Daily Caller. The Daily Caller also reports that hiring is up in one Alabama county because so many undocumented workers have left, causing job openings for legal residents.

"It is amazing to see the effects," said Chuck Ellis, a member of the city council in Albertville, Ala. "A large proportion of the illegal Hispanic community has moved … self-deportation is a real thing."

Ellis added that unemployment dropped from 9.5 percent to 9.3 percent over the last few weeks.

A .20 percent decrease is not an impressive number, and possibly unrelated to the Alabama immigration law – especially since so many of those who left were undocumented, meaning their jobs were not officially registered. However, in a time of mass unemployment, some will say that any decrease is significant.

Of course, human beings are more than decimal point figures, and mass desertions have much more of an effect on an area than a few job openings.

In Cullman, Ala., area businessman Bobby Noles said he would be losing money from so many Hispanic people leaving the area, according to the Cullman Times.

"I'll be losing about $4,000 a month in rent," Noles said. "Even if you try to explain that they can stay, they're nervous and don't fully understand the law. They believe there's something that could happen to cause them trouble."

In addition, Noles said that although undocumented workers do not officially pay income taxes, employers are able to legally deduct taxes from their books. Area businesses also benefit from having more people buying more products.

"You also have to think of the huge impact they’ve had on our economy when they arrived here," Noles was quoted as saying in the Cullman Times. "They buy gas, pay rent, buy groceries and a lot of other things. Sure they send money home, but they have to live while they’re here and they spend a lot of money to do that."

They also attend church.

Bishop William Willimon, of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, told The Christian Post Sept. 29 that when Republican Gov. Robert Bentley signed the bill into law in June, the impact was felt immediately in some churches.

"We were concerned. The minute the law was passed I started hearing from pastors," Willimon said.

"One of our congregations, the Sunday after this was passed, had a 50 percent drop in attendance," he said.

And then there is David Morales. Caught in the middle of the whirlwind of immigration legislation, the 19-year-old is currently living in Utah and awaiting his Dec. 8 trial, which will determine whether or not he can stay in the country where his family lives on a working permit good for one year, Morales told CP today. After that, he will have to keep re-applying for one-year permits in order to be in the U.S. legally until he is eligible for American citizenship.

If he is denied the working permit, Morales will ask to leave the U.S. voluntarily in order to avoid being deported, which will mean he will have to wait at least ten years before being allowed back in the country.

The setbacks have forced Morales to put his Bible college plans on hold for the time being. Oval Bible College in Louisiana does not accept undocumented students and Utah-area Bible colleges are reluctant to accept him due to his recent media exposure, Morales said.

Such is the bureaucratic process for Mexico-born, American-raised teenager who wants to be a pastor.

However, despite the setbacks, Morales has turned the negatives into a positive. He is currently attending his first semester at Salt Lake Community College and considering majoring in Sociology. He has also become heavily involved in the movement to get the DREAM Act passed by speaking out at schools and churches.

At a rally in Salt Lake City last month, Morales spoke to DREAM supporters about his and many others' experiences with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), KSL.com reported.

"What ICE is doing is wrong," he told the crowd. "What I had to go through was wrong. (It is) wrong for any hardworking American to live through what I went through."

But Morales and other DREAMers, as they like to be called, are getting their voices heard.

"Many are rising out of the shadows and raising their voices and saying we will no longer stand in silence," Morales said. "We are undocumented, unafraid and unapologetic."

"In a way, I'm glad I went to jail because I have been able to meet so many DREAMers," he told CP, adding that he has been able to assist many immigrants who do not know where to go or are just too afraid to find out.

"People who are afraid to talk, I can be a voice for them," he added.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is expected to deport nearly half-a-million undocumented people this year – the most ever in a single year, the AFP reported. But Morales, who has not given up his dreams of attending Bible college to become a pastor, believes people should continue living their lives and not let the fear of deportation prevent them from living their lives or attending church.

"I don't think people should be afraid. If God brought us here to this country, it's for a reason," Morales said. "God has control over everything, so people should not be afraid of congregating…but we should pray."

Morales' optimism and faith leads him to believe that the legal threats undocumented people are facing will soon end.

"Something has to happen. This can't go on forever. We're not sitting still."

http://global.christianpost.com/news/aspiring-pastor-at-risk-of-deportation-speaks-out-for-immigrant-rights-and-keeping-faith-57505/

Napolitano: U.S. will set record for deportations

2011-10-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Homeland Security chief says approach prioritizes ‘finite resources’
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that the government is poised to set another record for deportations in just-ended fiscal 2011, citing the numbers as proof that the administration is not pursuing a backdoor amnesty for illegal immigrants that critics charge.

“We cannot, on the one hand, be on the verge of removing, for the third consecutive year, a record-breaking number of unlawful individuals from this country, with the highest number of criminal removals in American history, and, at the same time, be abrogating our law enforcement responsibilities,” Ms. Napolitano said in a speech at American University, billed as a “reality check” on the state of immigration enforcement in the Obama administration.

President Obama has come under fire from both sides of the immigration debate: Hispanic advocates say he’s deporting too many people, while those who favor a crackdown say he unilaterally is imposing an amnesty.

Ms. Napolitano said both charges cannot be true, and said she has tried to chart a middle path that calls for focusing deportation efforts on those who have long criminal records that stretch beyond immigration violations.

The Obama administration has granted immigration authorities great latitude to halt deportation cases against broad swaths of illegal immigrants who meet criteria such as studying here illegally or having family members who depend on them for support.

Critics say that amounts to amnesty, but Ms. Napolitano said it is a prioritization of resources.

“It makes sense to prioritize our finite resources on removing a Mexican citizen who is wanted for murder in his home country ahead of a Mexican national who is the sole provider for his American citizen spouse,” she said.

She said she has “grown weary” of charges that the border is not secure, and she said that charge is a disservice to the immigration authorities in her department who enforce it.

Critics, though, point to measures that suggest the administration is leaving some tools unused.

Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, who is House Judiciary Committee chairman, said the Obama administration has severely curtailed raids on work sites to net illegal immigrants. And he pointed to statistics that showed only 44 percent of the Southwest border is considered under “operational control.”

“If we are going to have smart and effective immigration enforcement, we need to enforce all of our immigration laws and turn off the jobs magnet that encourages illegal immigration,” he said.

While there is near-universal agreement on the need for tighter border enforcement, a thornier issue emerges on enforcing the laws inside the interior of the country, where about 10 million illegal immigrants live, and many work.

Many in Mr. Obama’s political base want less enforcement targeting those living here already, and they cite the record deportation levels as evidence this administration is moving in the wrong direction.

Facing that charge, Mr. Obama last week in a round table with Hispanic reporters said the deportation numbers were artificially high because they include those caught at the border, thanks to enhanced enforcement.

“The statistics are actually a little deceptive because what we’ve been doing is, with the stronger border enforcement, we’ve been apprehending folks at the borders and sending them back. That is counted as a deportation, even though they may have only been held for a day or 48 hours, sent back, that’s counted as a deportation,” he said.

But the numbers show the number of people returned after being apprehended on the border is down substantially, while deportations of those caught in the interior has risen.

The ratio of those sent back with criminal convictions, however, has indeed risen significantly, from about a third of deportees at the beginning of the administration to about half in fiscal 2010. And more than two-thirds of the ones without criminal convictions were either recent border crossers or repeat immigration violators, Ms. Napolitano said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/5/napolitano-us-will-set-record-deportations-2011/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

Hiring Locally for Farm Work Is No Cure-All

2011-10-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

By KIRK JOHNSON
The New York Times
October 5, 2011

OLATHE, Colo. — How can there be a labor shortage when nearly one out of every 11 people in the nation are unemployed?

That’s the question John Harold asked himself last winter when he was trying to figure out how much help he would need to harvest the corn and onions on his 1,000-acre farm here in western Colorado.

The simple-sounding plan that resulted — hire more local people and fewer foreign workers — left Mr. Harold and others who took a similar path adrift in a predicament worthy of Kafka.

The more they tried to do something concrete to address immigration and joblessness, the worse off they found themselves.

“It’s absolutely true that people who have played by the rules are having the toughest time of all,” said Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado.

Mr. Harold, a 71-year-old Vietnam War veteran who drifted here in the late ’60s, has participated for about a decade in a federal program called H-2A that allows seasonal foreign workers into the country to make up the gap where willing and able American workers are few in number. He typically has brought in about 90 people from Mexico each year from July through October.

This year, though, with tough times lingering and a big jump in the minimum wage under the program, to nearly $10.50 hour, Mr. Harold brought in only two-thirds of his usual contingent. The other positions, he figured, would be snapped up by jobless local residents wanting some extra summer cash.

“It didn’t take me six hours to realize I’d made a heck of a mistake,” Mr. Harold said, standing in his onion field on a recent afternoon as a crew of workers from Mexico cut the tops off yellow onions and bagged them.

Six hours was enough, between the 6 a.m. start time and noon lunch break, for the first wave of local workers to quit. Some simply never came back and gave no reason. Twenty-five of them said specifically, according to farm records, that the work was too hard. On the Harold farm, pickers walk the rows alongside a huge harvest vehicle called a mule train, plucking ears of corn and handing them up to workers on the mule who box them and lift the crates, each weighing 45 to 50 pounds.

“It is not an easy job,” said Kerry Mattics, 49, another H-2A farmer here in Olathe, who brought in only a third of his usual Mexican crew of 12 workers for his 50-acre fruit and vegetable farm, then struggled to make it through the season. “It’s outside, so if it’s wet, you’re wet, and if it’s hot you’re hot,” he said.

Still, Mr. Mattics said, he can’t help feeling that people have gotten soft.

“They wanted that $10.50 an hour without doing very much,” he said. “I know people with college degrees, working for the school system and only making 11 bucks.”

A mismatch between employers’ requirements and the skills and needs of the jobless — repeated across industries — has been a constant theme of this recessionary era. But here on the farm, mismatch can mean high anxiety.

The H-2A program, in particular, in trying to avoid displacing American citizens from jobs, strongly encourages farmers to hire locally if they can, with a requirement that they advertise in at least three states. That forces participants to take huge risks in guessing where a moving target might land — how many locals, how many foreigners — often with an entire season’s revenue at stake. Survival, not civic virtue, drives the equation, they say.

“Farmers have to bear almost all the labor market risk because they must prove no one really was available, qualified or willing to work,” said Dawn D. Thilmany, a professor of agricultural economics at Colorado State University. “But the only way to offer proof is to literally have a field left unharvested.”

Mr. Harold’s experience is a repeated refrain where farm labor is seasonal and population sparse. And even many immigration hard-liners have come to agree that the dearth of Americans willing to work the fields requires some sort of rethinking, at least, of the H-2A program. Indeed, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, a conservative Republican, is pushing a bill that would greatly expand the number of foreign guest workers admitted to the country each year.

In Colorado, the unemployment rate in many rural counties is also significantly lower than in the cities — two neighboring counties here, for example, had 5.5 percent and 6 percent unemployment rates in August, according to state figures, compared with 9.1 percent for the nation as a whole. The big increase in the wage rate for H-2A workers, meanwhile, up nearly $2.50 an hour — calculated by averaging what farmers had to pay last year — also suggests that labor demand was already rising.

Mr. Harold usually hires about 50 local workers for the season — regulars who have worked summers for years — and most returned this year, he said. Finding new employees was where he ran into trouble. He was able to recover after the season started, he said, by rushing in another group of H-2A workers from Mexico.

But the broader story of labor in agriculture, economists and historians said, is that through good times and bad and across socioeconomic lines, people who find better lives off the farm rarely return. Mr. Harold and other H-2A farmers said that most of the local residents who tried field work this summer, for example, were Hispanic, many of whom, they said, had probably immigrated in years past for agricultural work before taking better-paid jobs in construction or landscaping.

Other farmers left in the lurch by local workers conceded that what they had to offer was a tough sell — full-time but temporary work. About 56,000 foreign workers came into the country with H-2A visas last year, according to the most recent federal figures, down from 60,000 in 2009.

Heath Terrell is one of the few new local residents who stuck it out. Mr. Terrell, a former hay hauler, was hired to drive a corn truck. That job kept him out of the fields, and out of the sun. Now, as the season has shifted from corn to onions, Mr. Terrell, 42, said he might just stay on with Mr. Harold through the winter, or at least onion season.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/us/farmers-strain-to-hire-american-workers-in-place-of-migrant-labor.html?_r=1&hp

After Ruling, Hispanics Flee an Alabama Town

2011-10-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
The New York Times
October 3, 2011

ALBERTVILLE, Ala. — The vanishing began Wednesday night, the most frightened families packing up their cars as soon as they heard the news.

They left behind mobile homes, sold fully furnished for a thousand dollars or even less. Or they just closed up and, in a gesture of optimism, left the keys with a neighbor. Dogs were fed one last time; if no home could be found, they were simply unleashed.

Two, 5, 10 years of living here, and then gone in a matter of days, to Tennessee, Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Arkansas, Mexico — who knows? Anywhere but Alabama.

The exodus of Hispanic immigrants began just hours after a federal judge in Birmingham upheld most provisions of the state’s far-reaching immigration enforcement law.

The judge, Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, upheld the parts of the law allowing state and local police to ask for immigration papers during routine traffic stops, rendering most contracts with illegal immigrants unenforceable and requiring schools to ascertain the immigration status of children at registration time.

When Judge Blackburn was finished, Alabama was left with what the governor called “the strongest immigration law in this country.” It went into effect immediately, though her ruling is being appealed by the Justice Department and a coalition of civil rights groups.

In the days since, school superintendents have reassured parents — one even did so on television in Spanish — that nothing had changed for children who were already enrolled. Wary police departments around the state said they were, for now, awaiting instructions on how to carry out the law.

For many immigrants, however, waiting seemed just too dangerous. By Monday afternoon, 123 students had withdrawn from the schools in this small town in the northern hills, leaving behind teary and confused classmates. Scores more were absent. Statewide, 1,988 Hispanic students were absent on Friday, about 5 percent of the entire Hispanic population of the school system.

John Weathers, an Albertville businessman who rents and has sold houses to many Hispanic residents, said his occupancy had suddenly dropped by a quarter and might drop further, depending on what happens in the next week. Two people who had paid off their mortgages called him asking if they could sell back their homes, Mr. Weathers said.

Grocery stores and restaurants were noticeably less busy, which in some cases may be just as well, because some employees stopped showing up. In certain neighborhoods the streets are uncommonly quiet, like the aftermath of some sort of rapture.

Drawn by work in the numerous poultry processing plants, Hispanic immigrants have been coming to Albertville for years, long enough ago that some of the older ones gained amnesty under the immigration law of 1986. But the influx picked up over the last decade, and the signs on Main Street are now mostly bilingual, when they include English at all.

What the new immigration law means on a large scale will become clearest in a place like Albertville, whether it will deliver jobs to citizens and protect taxpayers as promised or whether it will spell economic disaster as opponents fear.

Critics of the law, particularly farmers, contractors and home builders, say the measure has already been devastating, leaving rotting crops in fields and critical shortages of labor. They say that even fully documented Hispanic workers are leaving, an assessment that seems to be borne out in interviews here. The legal status of family members is often mixed — children are often American-born citizens — but the decision whether to stay rests on the weakest link.

Backers of the law acknowledge that it might be disruptive in the short term, but say it will prove effective over time.

“It’s going to take some time for the local labor pool to develop again,” said State Senator Arthur Orr, Republican of Decatur, “but outside labor shouldn’t come in and just beat them every time on cost and put them out of business.”

Mr. Orr said there were already signs that the law was working, pointing out that the work-release center in Decatur, about 50 miles to the northwest, was not so long ago unable to find jobs for inmates with poultry processors or home manufacturers. Since the law was enacted in June, he said, the center has been placing more and more inmates in these jobs, now more than 150 a day.

On Monday morning, one of the poultry processing plants in Albertville had a job fair, attracting an enormous crowd, a mix of Hispanic, black and white job-seekers, lining up outside the plant and down the street.

“This needed to be done years ago,” Shannon Lolling, 36, who has been unemployed for over a year, said of the law.

Mr. Lolling’s problem seemed to be with the system that had brought the illegal-immigrant workers here, not with the workers themselves.

“That’s why our jobs went south to Mexico,” he said. “They pay them less wages and pocket the money, keep us from having jobs.”

Not far from the plant, in the Hispanic neighborhoods, it is hard to differentiate the silence of the workday, the silence of abandonment or the silence of paralyzing fear.

Many Hispanics have chosen to stay for now, saying, with little apparent conviction, that the law will surely be blocked by the president, the judge, “the government.” Until then, they are not leaving their homes unless absolutely necessary. They send others to buy their groceries and tell their children to quit the soccer team and to come home right after school. Rumors of raids and roadblocks are rampant, and though the new law has nothing to say about such things, distrust is primed by anecdotes, like one told by a local Hispanic pastor who said he was pulled over outside Birmingham on Wednesday, within hours of the ruling. His friend who was driving — and who is in the United States illegally — is now in jail on an unrelated misdemeanor charge, the pastor said, adding that while he was let go, a policeman told him he was no longer welcome in Alabama.

“I am afraid to drive to church.,” a 54-year-old poultry plant worker named Candelaria said, adding, “The lady that gives me a ride to work said she is leaving. She said she felt like a prisoner.”

All summer long, Allen Stoner, a lawyer in Decatur, has been helping his Hispanic clients fill out forms appointing friends or family members as guardians of their children, who are in many cases American-born citizens. This way, the children would not be transferred to social services if the parents were arrested and deported.

Much of this was done by the time the judge’s ruling came down, though last week Mr. Stoner’s clients began to contact him immediately to ask what they should be doing. Monday was quiet.

“We had a lot of phone calls Thursday and Friday,” Mr. Stoner said, “but it has plummeted.”

He did not know for sure, but he figured his clients were gone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/after-ruling-hispanics-flee-an-alabama-town.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

México y EE.UU. deportan guatemaltecos

2011-10-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

Agencia efe / Guatemala
La Opinión
2011-10-02

Las autoridades migratorias de México y Estados Unidos han deportado a 45,615 indocumentados guatemaltecos en lo que va del 2011, informó una fuente oficial.

Según la Dirección General de Migración (DGM) de Guatemala, desde el 1 de enero al 21 de septiembre, México deportó a 23,401 inmigrantes guatemaltecos que iban de paso hacia Estados Unidos.

Durante todo el 2010, las autoridades mexicanas deportaron a 28,090 indocumentados de este país centroamericano, precisa la información oficial publicada en su página de internet.

Mientras que Estados Unidos ha deportado en el 2011 a 22,214 guatemaltecos, la mayoría de ellos (20,366) hombres.

En 2010, las autoridades migratorias estadounidenses deportaron a un total de 27,222 indocumentados hacia Guatemala.

http://www.impre.com/laopinion/noticias/latinoamerica/2011/10/2/mexico-y-eeuu-deportan-guatema-275129-1.html

Crossing Over, and Over

2011-10-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

Migrant shelters along the Mexican border are filled with seasoned crossers: older men and women, often deportees, braving ever-greater risks to get back to their families in the United States — the country they consider home.
By DAMIEN CAVE
The New York Times
Published: October 2, 2011

AGUA PRIETA, Mexico — "My wife, my son — I have to get back to them," Daniel kept telling himself, from the moment he was arrested in Seattle for driving with an expired license, all the way through the deportation proceeding that delivered him to Mexico in June.

Nothing would deter him from crossing the border again. He had left his hometown at 24, he said. Twelve years later, he spoke nearly fluent English and had an American son, a wife and three brothers in the United States. "I’ll keep trying," he said, "until I’ll get there."

This is increasingly the profile of illegal immigration today. Migrant shelters along the Mexican border are filled not with newcomers looking for a better life, but with seasoned crossers: older men and women, often deportees, braving ever-greater risks to get back to their families in the United States — the country they consider home.

They present an enormous challenge to American policy makers, because they continue to head north despite obstacles more severe than at any time in recent history. It is not just that the American economy has little to offer; the border itself is far more threatening. On one side, fences have grown and American agents have multiplied; on the other, criminals haunt the journey at every turn.

And yet, while these factors — and better opportunities at home — have cut illegal immigration from Mexico to its lowest level in decades, they are not enough to scare off a sizable, determined cadre.

"We have it boiled down to the hardest lot," said Christopher Sabatini, senior director for policy at the Council of the Americas.

Indeed, 56 percent of apprehensions at the Mexican border in 2010 involved people who had been caught previously, up from 44 percent in 2005. A growing percentage of deportees in recent years have also been deported before, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.

For the Obama administration, these repeat offenders have become a high priority. Prosecutions for illegal re-entry have jumped by more than two-thirds since 2008. Officials say it is now the most prosecuted federal felony.

President Obama has already deported around 1.1 million immigrants — more than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower — and officials say the numbers will not decline. But at a time when the dynamics of immigration are changing, experts and advocates on all sides are increasingly asking if the approach, which has defined immigration policy since 9/11, still makes sense.

Deportation is expensive, costing the government at least $12,500 per person, and it often does not work: between October 2008 and July 22 of this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent $2.25 billion sending back 180,229 people who had been deported before and come back anyway. Many more have returned and stayed hidden.

Some groups favoring reduced immigration say that making life harder for illegal immigrants in this country would be far more efficient. They argue that along with eliminating work opportunities by requiring employers to verify the reported immigration status of new hires, Congress should also prohibit illegal immigrants from opening bank accounts, or even obtaining library cards.

"You’d reduce the number of people who keep coming back again and again," said Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The alternative, says Doris Meissner, the country’s top immigration official in the mid-1990s, is to accept that illegal immigrants like Daniel "are people with fundamental ties to the United States, not where they came from."

"Our societies are so deeply connected," Ms. Meissner said, referring primarily to the United States and Mexico, the main source of illegal immigrants. "And that is not reflected at all in policy."

The administration acknowledges that immigrants like Daniel are rooted in the United States and typically have otherwise clean criminal records. But under its new plan introduced in August — suspending deportations for pending low-priority cases, including immigrants brought to the United States as children — repeat crossers are singled out for removal alongside "serious felons," "known gang members" and "individuals who pose a clear risk to national security."

Administration officials say they are trying to break the "yo-yo effect" of people bouncing back, as mandated by congress when it toughened laws related to illegal re-entry in the 1990s.

But some experts argue that this commingling actually undermines security. After a decade of record deportations, critics argue, it has become even harder to separate the two groups that now define the border: professional criminals and experienced migrants motivated by family ties in the United States.

"If you think drug dealers and terrorists are much more dangerous than maids and gardeners, then we should get as many visas as possible to those people, so we can focus on the real threat," said David Shirk, director of the Transborder Institute at the University of San Diego. "Widening the gates would strengthen the walls."

Crime and the Border

The border crossers pouring into Arizona a decade or two ago were more numerous, but less likely to be threatening. David Jimarez, a Border Patrol agent with years of experience south of Tucson, recalled that even when migrants outnumbered American authorities by 25 to 1, they did not resist. "They would just sit down and wait for us," he said.

Over the past few years, the mix has changed, with more drug smugglers and other criminals among the dwindling, but still substantial, ranks of migrants.

The impacts are far-reaching. In northern Mexico, less immigration means less business. Border towns like Agua Prieta, long known as a departure point, have gone from bustling to windblown. Taxis that ferried migrants to the mountains now gather dust. Restaurants and hotels, like the sunflower-themed Girasol downtown, are practically empty. On one recent afternoon, only 3 of the 50 rooms were occupied.

"In 2000, we were full every day," said Alejandro Rocha, the hotel’s manager.

New research from the University of California, San Diego, shows that crime is now the top concern for Mexicans thinking of heading north. As fear keeps many migrants home, many experienced border guides, or coyotes, have given up illegal migration for other jobs.

In Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, one well-known coyote is now selling tires. In Nogales, the largest Mexican city bordering Arizona, power has shifted to tattooed young men with expensive binoculars along the border fence, while here in Agua Prieta — where Mexican officials say traffic is one-thirthieth of what it once was — the only way to get across is to deal with gangs that sometimes push migrants to carry drugs.

It is even worse in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Tex. Just standing at the border fence brings out drug cartel enforcers demanding $300 for the right to pass. Migrants and the organizations that assist them say cartel lieutenants roam the shelters, looking for deportees willing to work as lookouts, earning $400 a week until they have enough to pay for passage north.

"I was thinking about doing it, too," said Daniel, looking down. "But then I thought about my family."

American law enforcement officials say the matrix of drugs, migration and violence has become more visible at the border and along the trails and roads heading north, where more of the immigrants being caught carry drugs or guns — making them more likely to flee, resist arrest or commit other crimes.

"There’s less traffic, but traffic that’s there is more threatening," Mr. Jimarez, the border agent, said.

Larry Dever, the sheriff of Cochise County, Ariz., which sits north of Agua Prieta, agreed: "The guys smuggling people and narcotics now are more sinister."

His county, 6,169 square miles of scrub brush, ranches and tiny towns in the state’s southeast corner, has been an established crossing corridor since the mid-1990s. Since 2008, the police there have tracked every crime linked to illegal immigrants, in part because state and federal officials frequently requested data, treating the county as a bellwether of border security.

Indeed, when a Cochise rancher named Robert Krentz was killed in March 2010 after radioing to his brother that he was going to help a suspected illegal immigrant, the county quickly became a flash point for a larger debate that ultimately led to SB 1070, the polarizing Arizona bill giving the police more responsibility for cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Yet, crime involving illegal immigrants is relatively rare (5 percent of all local crime, Sheriff Dever said). Mostly it consists of burglaries involving stolen food. And, public records show, in 11 of the 18 violent crimes linked to illegal immigrants over 18 months, immigrants were both the victims and attackers.

This is not the portrait given by Republican border governors, including Rick Perry of Texas, a presidential candidate who recently said that "it is not safe on that border." But while Mexican drug cartels have increased their presence from Tucson to New York — sometimes engaging in brutal violence after entering the country illegally — Americans living near the border are generally safe.

A USA Today analysis of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California in July found that crime within 100 miles of the border is below both the national average and the average for each of those states — and has been declining for years. Several other independent researchers have come to the same conclusion.

But the border is not safe for people crossing or patrolling it. The number of immigrants found dead in the Arizona desert, from all causes, has failed to decline as fast as illegal immigration has, while assaults on Border Patrol agents grew by 41 percent from 2006 to 2010, almost entirely because of an increase in attacks with rocks. The heightened risks have stimulated a debate: Has the more aggressive approach — bigger fences, more agents and deportations — contributed to, or diminished, the danger?

Sheriff Dever, lionized as an "illegal immigration warrior" by immigration opponents, says that increased enforcement has made Americans safer and should continue until his neighbors tell him they are no longer afraid.

But some immigration advocates contend that the government’s approach is too broad to be effective. "We have to really separate out the guy who is coming to make a living with his family from the terrorist or the drug dealer," said Peter Siavelis, an editor of "Getting Immigration Right: What Every American Needs to Know."

Home Is Where the Children Are

Deportations have muddled that delineation. In a recent line of deportees piling off a bus on the San Diego side of a metal gate leading to Tijuana, all were equal: the criminal in prison garb with the wispy goatee; the mother averting her eyes; and longtime residents like Alberto Álvarez, 36, a janitor and father of five who said he was picked up for driving without a license.

"Look, I’ve been in the U.S. 18 years," he said, slinging a backpack over his Izod shirt. "Right now, my children are alone, my wife is alone caring for the kids by herself — they’ve separated us."

During the immigration wave that peaked around a decade ago, deportations often meant something different: many deportees had not been in the United States for long; they were going home.

But now that there are fewer new arrivals, the concept of home is changing. Of the roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, 48 percent arrived before 2000. For the 6.5 million Mexicans in the United States illegally, that figure is even higher — 55 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. There are now also 4.5 million American-born children of unauthorized immigrant parents.

Experts on both sides of the debate say this large group of rooted immigrants presents the nation with a fundamental choice: Either make life in the United States so difficult for illegal immigrants that they leave on their own, or allow immigrants who pose no threat to public safety to remain with their families legally, though not necessarily as citizens.

Steven A. Camarota, a demographer at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said the government should revoke automatic citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants, and seize assets from deported illegal immigrants so they have fewer incentives to return.

President Obama, having made no progress on getting his legalization plan through Congress, has instead been trying to make enforcement more surgical. Under the new guidelines, officials will use "prosecutorial discretion" to review the current docket of 300,000 deportation cases, suspending expulsions for a range of immigrants.

Several factors prompt "particular care and consideration" for a reprieve, including whether the person has been in the United States since childhood, or is pregnant, seriously ill, a member of the military or a minor, according to a June memo that initiated the change.

The issue of "whether the person has a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, child or parent" appears in the memo’s secondary list of factors to consider. But it is not clear how broadly leniency will be applied. Repeat crossers are given a special black mark, and the administration has already deported hundreds of thousands of minor offenders, despite claiming to focus on "the worst of the worst."

Several Democratic governors and law enforcement officials are particularly angry about Secure Communities, a program to run the fingerprints of anyone booked by the police to check for federal immigration violations. A large proportion of those deported through this process — 79 percent, according to a recent report by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University — were low-level offenders, often arrested for traffic violations.

Administration officials dispute that, saying the ratio of serious criminals is increasing, and that ultimately they must enforce immigration law against all violators. They have mandated that the program be used nationwide by 2013.

Mexico’s border cities offer a portrait of what that could mean. Nearly 950,000 Mexican immigrants have been deported since the start of fiscal 2008. And in Tijuana — a former hub for migrants heading north, which now receives more deportees than anywhere else — the pool of deportees preparing to cross again just keeps growing.

Maria García, 27, arrived here after being deported for a traffic violation. She said she had spent six years living in Fresno, Calif., with her two Mexico-born sons, 11 and 7. She was one of many who said that without a doubt, they would find their way back to the United States.

"They can’t stop us," she said.

The constant flow of deportees has become a growing concern for Mexican officials, who say the new arrivals are easy recruits, and victims, for drug cartels.

One former deportee was arrested this year for playing a major role in the deaths of around 200 people found in mass graves. In Tijuana, a homeless camp at the border has swollen from a cluster to a neighborhood, as deportees flow in, many carrying stories of being robbed or kidnapped by gangs who saw their American connections as a source for ransom.

Minutes after he arrived, Mr. Álvarez, the janitor, said he was worried about surviving — "you’re playing with your life being here," he said. But his twin sons would turn 2 in a few weeks, and like many others, he said that no matter how he was treated in the United States, he would find his way back.

"I feel bad being here, I feel bad," he said. "I’ve got my kids over there, my family, my whole life. Here" — he shook his head at the end of his first day in Tijuana — "no."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/world/americas/mexican-immigrants-repeatedly-brave-risks-to-resume-lives-in-united-states.html

Negocia México datos mas precisos de deportados. Información biométrica de criminales deportados

2011-10-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

Por Elizabeth Vargas
Ensenada.net
1 de octubre de 2011

Los datos biométricos de personas internadas por diversos delitos en cárceles de California, Estados Unidos y que podrían ser deportadas a México se ha convertido en una prioridad para Baja California.

El Secretario de Seguridad Pública de Baja California Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, reveló que dentro de los acuerdos de la XXIX Conferencia de Gobernadores Fronterizos, este es un proceso que fue planteado pero aun no se concluye.

Existe un plan piloto con el sur de California para generar intercambio en materia de seguridad, en particular los compartir datos biométricos de miles de criminales de sus cárceles.

El objetivo es que Estados Unidos como nación, proporciones esos datos de las cárceles estatales y federales, particularmente en aquellos casos donde se trata de personas indocumentadas que luego son deportadas al México.

Existen actualmente avances en esta materia, hay información de prisiones de California, pero cuando llega a México no es oportuna y se trata solo nombres, nada mas.

El acuerdo que se tiene, plantea que además que los datos se den de forma oportuna, se incluyan datos biométricos de sus delincuentes de los cuales ahora al ser deportados, solamente se le avisa a México que se les liberará en la frontera, pero no se realizan otras especificaciones.

Estados Unidos tiene implementado en varios de sus Estados, un programa denominado Comunidades seguras, el cual fue arrancado en el 2008 y para el 2009 contemplaba incluir a 25 condados ubicados a lo largo de la frontera México-Estados Unidos.

Este programa ha procesado las huellas digitales de 1 millón de individuos que son ingresados a cárceles locales, en ciudades como Phoenix, Arizona; Dallas y Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; y Los Ángeles, California.

Esta base de datos de ser entregada a los estados fronterizos mexicanos, permitiría una herramienta más, para el combate a la delincuencia en ambas regiones.

Actualmente de las miles de deportaciones que recibe México en su Frontera Norte, no se tienen datos precisos de quienes son y que crímenes cometieron en aquella nación.

http://www.ensenada.net/noticias/nota.php?id=22127

Federal immigration crackdown includes 18 arrests in Sacramento area

2011-09-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Magagnini
The Sacramento Bee
Thursday, Sep. 29, 2011

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the arrest Wednesday of more than 2,900 immigrants convicted of crimes, including 18 in the Sacramento area.

The weeklong raids across the country reflect ICE's focus "on the arrest and removal of convicted criminal aliens that threaten the public safety of our communities here in Northern California," said Timothy Aitken, field office director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Francisco.

That office supervised the arrest of 186 immigrants in the Bay Area and the north state who are considered fugitives or have criminal histories.

The 18 arrested in the Sacramento region came from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, the Philippines and Uzbekistan, said Michael Vaughn, assistant field director for ICE in Sacramento. Only one was a legal permanent resident, Vaughn said, and all are facing possible deportation.

"They were convicted of crimes ranging from DUI to voluntary manslaughter," Vaughn said. "I've got drug cases, spousal abuse cases, transportation to sell narcotics, possession for sale, carrying a concealed weapon, willful cruelty to child, battery on a peace officer and theft."

Six of those arrested were ICE fugitives who had already been ordered removed by an immigration judge, but then disappeared, Vaughn said.

Seven others arrested in Sacramento are facing deportation for their convictions, but still will have their day in court before an immigration judge, Vaughn said.

Five more were previously deported criminal aliens who had returned to the United States and were apprehended again. They included a 52-year-old Mexican national who had been deported after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon. He was arrested by Sacramento's fugitive operations team in Stockton and faces federal prosecution for illegal re-entry after deportation, a crime which can bring up to 20 years in prison, Vaughn said.

Those arrested in the Central Valley were picked up as far north as Chico, as far south as Modesto and as far east as Roseville, Vaughn said.

ICE said it's targeting immigrants who present the greatest security risk to public, such as those charged with or convicted of homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, major drug offenses and threats to national security. The agency is also tracking those who have been previously deported and illegally re-entered the country.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/29/3946874/federal-immigration-crackdown.html

Insecure Communities: An ICE dragnet in Bedford County targeting Latinos wasn't subtle — which may have been the point

2011-09-29T06:53:00.000-07:00

By Jonathan Meador
Nashville Scene
September 29, 2011

In The Godfather, hotheaded Sonny Corleone refers to war with a rival crime family as "going to the mattresses." It's not often that a quote from a mob movie applies so literally to federal anti-immigration activities, but maybe that's just how Immigration and Customs Enforcement rolls.

A recent spate of federal patrols in nearby Bedford County shocked and awed the immigrant community into meek subjugation two weeks ago as agents of ICE's fugitive operations unit made their presence known at multiple Latino-frequented businesses. Among these was Corsicana Bedding Inc., a mattress supply store, where ICE personnel allegedly scared the daylights out of the store's manager and employees during normal hours of operation.

Witnesses and media reports describe the spectacle of government vans and SUVs, windows tinted and teeming with federales, storming local homes, businesses, and area Lowe's and Walmart department stores. Reportedly they were searching for four Latinos accused of violating probation related to their immigration status.

The high-octane dragnet was cast over a sustained three-day period beginning in the early hours of Sept. 17 — one week after a consortium of local immigrants-rights groups held a hearing detailing racial profiling of Latinos by the Bedford County authorities. It ultimately succeeded in apprehending three of its targets, albeit with a cool-headed subtlety worthy of Sonny himself.

But members of the activist community are left wondering if ICE's cowboy behavior — a marked break from its mass Bush-era factory raids — is either retaliation for the Sept. 12 hearing, mere coincidence, or some combination of the two.

"That's definitely the conclusion one can draw from the situation," says Bill Geissler, a member of Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville (LUS), one of the hearing's organizers. "Of course, [ICE] denies it. But honestly, even if this was coincidental, it was, at the very least, utterly inefficient. All of that bluster to arrest three people who violated their probation? Clearly, they wanted their presence felt, to be seen, and it worked. This is a small town, and people are terrified."

Maybe for good reason. According to a report released at the hearing, "The Forgotten Constitution," Shelbyville Latinos are already hounded by local law-enforcement agencies more than any other ethnic group, based on research conducted and compiled by several area organizations, including LUS, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), among others.

According to the report, out of 74 reported arrests for traffic violations in the first quarter of 2011, 26 were Latinos. And even though Latinos comprise 20 percent of Bedford's 45,000 inhabitants, "approximately 39 percent of arrests for driving license violations were arrests of Latinos."

The report also criticizes the Bedford County Sheriff's Department — who declined to comment for this story — as "a zealous participant" in DHS' Secure Communities program, a full-fledged bureaucratic deportation machine created under Bush II and injected with steroids by Obama. What's more, it lambasts the department's mishandling of the so-called "Tennessee Jailer Bill," a state law that permits local authorities to detain suspected illegal immigrants on ICE's behalf for up to 48 hours.

"As a result," the report finds, "immigrants have languished in Bedford County jail for days and weeks longer than non-immigrants, without access to legal council, even when their only crime was driving without a license. Many are ultimately removed by ICE, even though the Bedford County jail had detained them illegally. Only after systematic advocacy and legal education by community members have officers begun to allow immigrants to post bond."

Although the Bedford County Sheriff's Department did not respond to repeated requests for comment, Capt. Tony Bennett recently told the Associated Press, "We're doing exactly what the immigration department has asked us to do."

Geissler, who often visits Bedford County's jail on behalf of incarcerated Latinos, finds Bennett's comment amusing, if not troubling.

"I don't know why he says those things," says Geissler, laughing.

Nevertheless, ICE spokesman Temple Black issued a statement to dismisses claims of federal retaliation as "without merit."

"ICE did not attend the [hearing], track participants or target supporters," Black says. "Rather, wholly apart and distinct from the meeting, ICE identified and arrested three convicted criminals who were living at large within the community. These arrests are in line with ICE's focus on convicted criminals and public safety threats, recent border violators, and those who game the immigration system."

Despite such assurances, the disconnect between ICE's public statements, its internal machinations and its public performance is pronounced enough to warrant sufficient skepticism.

A March 27, 2010, Washington Post article revealed that internal documents circulated among ICE's field offices sharply contrasted with the official line espoused by ICE chief John Morton. As Morton and the Obama administration sought to decrease the number of deportations nationwide, local ICE units adopted a different policy, setting quotas for detention and deportation.

And for the second time in less than a year, the 7,000-strong ICE agent's union unanimously passed a no-confidence in Morton, whom they criticized for a June 2011 memo that binds the tactics of the agency with something resembling the rule of law.

Officials within the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security who attended the Shelbyville hearing could not be reached for comment on this story, leaving the seemingly schizophrenic relationship between ICE's rhetoric and ICE's deeds — as well as federal opinion on Bedford County's apparent proclivity for profiling — up for debate.

But the chilling effect that ICE's actions have had on Shelbyville residents is hard to deny.

"The underlying impression that I have, and this is just my personal opinion, is that there is a lot of fear in the community regardless of your document status," says Noel Johnson, president of SOCM and an eighth-generation Bedford County resident. "People are feeling unwanted. They feel that no matter what they do, there is a risk they will be pulled over, so they're driving less, which makes it more difficult for them to get access to health care, to food, to basic services. I certainly don't have any facts or figures to report, but that to me definitely seems to be the case."

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/an-ice-dragnet-in-bedford-county-targeting-latinos-wasnt-subtle-andmdash-which-may-have-been-the-point/Content?oid=2640581

Local cop implements bad policy in school

2011-09-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor:

Carbondale police officer Alvaro Agon is being accused of harassing the Latino community. I attended a meeting with Police Chief Schilling, Mayor Bernot, and Town Manager Jay Harrington, with a room full of concerned parents and students. Each told a story of how Alvaro affected them and their families personally. Dozens of complaints were read detailing specific infractions.

Alvaro, as a school resource officer, is creating fear and stress among Latino students and families. The stories shared were horrifying to hear. All present were citizens. I shared my own story, as a parent who saw 4- and 5-year-old Latino children afraid to go in the same room for a safety discussion with Alvaro last Halloween.

School resource officers are part of a unique program designed to create a “positive peace keeper” presence in schools to reduce juvenile delinquency. SROs can create strong connections with children, building relationships based on trust, compassion, and guidance. It's a great program that has positive results when implemented appropriately. Chief Schilling told the group that ICE and SROs are in a shared task force throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.

A decision was made to have ICE and SROs share a task force. Alvaro made a decision to collaborate with ICE to deport undocumented immigrants. As a result, Latino children have been targeted in our public schools to ferret out undocumented parents. School administrators have ignored infractions — while ICE raids on nonviolent Latinos have increased — splitting families.

National immigration enforcement policy and education policy have clear boundaries, with laws and codes that separate the two. Alvaro Agon very well might be a kind person who cares for his community, and attends church faithfully. However, an abusive choice was made to engage in activities that have crossed the line legally and ethically. Trust has been breached within the community. Retaining Alvaro Agon compromises the SRO program.

The parents and students have asked for one simple solution for months, “Remove Alvaro as SRO.” It's unfortunate public officials aren't willing to do it.

Anita Sherman
Glenwood Springs
The Aspen Times
September, 26 2011

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20110927/LETTER/110929878/1020&ParentProfile=1061

Latino dad of 2-year-old transplant patient faces deportation

2011-09-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

EFE
September 26, 2011

Phoenix – In his two years of life, little Jesus Pereyra Jr. has faced some tough trials, first in surviving a heart transplant and now the possibility of being separated from his dad who could be deported.

The little boy, still convalescing, hangs onto his father's legs as if aware that he might soon be gone if forced to go back to his native Mexico.

Like many others, Jesus Pereyra Sr. crossed the Arizona desert on foot illegally in 2005 in a difficult five days's march through scorching heat in search of a better life.

"We had no water or food, they assaulted us and took everything we had, even our shoes," the 24-year-old Pereyra said in an interview with Efe.

With much effort and sacrifice, Pereyra settled in Phoenix and since then has worked in construction and installing swimming pools.

In 2007 he met a neighbor, 22-year-old Raquel Garcia, whom he later married.

Just when the undocumented immigrant thought he had it all, a family and a job, he was detained in a sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Pereyra was put in line for deportation in January 2010.

He didn't have the minimum 10 years living illegally in the United States required to appeal his deportation, nor could he regularize his immigration status even though his wife is a U.S. citizen.

Under current law, Pereyra must go back to Mexico for his application to be considered.

While Pereyra was dealing with ICE, his son was diagnosed with a rare condition in June 2010, for which only a heart transplant could save his life.

"I knew then I had to leave the country to obey the judge's order, but I couldn't leave my wife and, above all, my boy who was fighting for his life," Pereyra said.

After three months of waiting and in what the parents call a "miracle," little Jesus received the heart transplant he needed, but now his dad runs the risk of being arrested at any time and deported by ICE.

"It would be impossible for us to take him to Mexico," Raquel Garcia told Efe, because following the transplant their son needs constant medical checkups and the medication he will have to take all his life.

"My son could not get that kind of medical care in Mexico," his mother said, unable to keep back the tears.

Marina Alexandrovich, the immigration attorney representing Pereyra, told Efe that she is currently focused on trying to reopen the immigrant's case since his son's illness occurred after the immigration judge heard his case.

"I only want the chance to be with my family, with my son, to take care of him and work for them," Pereyra said.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/09/26/latino-dad-2-year-old-transplant-patient-faces-deportation/#ixzz1Zv3riTGm

Undocumented Immigrants Still Fearful of Deportation

2011-09-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

By LaToya Dennis
WUWM, Milwaukee, WI
September 26, 2011

This summer, the Obama administration announced it was halting deportations of non-criminal undocumented immigrants, until it could review each case. Many advocates applauded the decision, calling it a first step toward allowing many workers and students living here illegally to remain. Critics voiced opposition to what they call - amnesty for law-breakers. A few years ago, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that Wisconsin is home to between 75,000 and 115,000 illegal immigrants. As WUWM’s LaToya Dennis reports, the change in White House policy is not easing the fears of some. For nearly two decades, Marco Espinosa and his wife have made a life for themselves in Milwaukee. They have two children - a 14 year old daughter and a son who’s 12. To help support his family, Espinosa works as a cook – he won’t say where. But he does say that the only difference between his family and most others is that he and his wife are in the U.S. illegally.

“I don’t feel bad about it,” Espinosa says.

…Because, Espinosa says, he’s never taken a handout or asked for help.

“They say illegal people, they’re coming here because we get benefits and stuff like that. Like I say, I don’t get no benefits. All the benefits I got is a job in this country. This is why I come into this country, I come looking for job. I got a job. I always do the job the best way I can. That’s why I don’t feel bad,” Espinosa says.

Espinosa says outside of being arrested a few years back for driving without a license, he has never been in legal trouble…but did have a scare. He says back in July, police and agents from the FBI and ICE - Immigration and Customers Enforcement- arrested him in front of his home. According to Espinosa, they suspected him of being a gang member.

“If I been involved in a gang member you know, I’ll tell everybody the truth. But I’m not involved in any gang or stuff like that,” Espinosa says.

Espinosa says he was held for nearly a month. He believes authorities targeted him because they know he’s here illegally and want to force him to leave. But he also has a common name, and a few others with the same, do have warrants out for their arrest.

“I’m living here for 18 years, you know. I got two kids, they born over here, they grew up over here, they are American citizens. I don’t see why I should have to leave my kids here or take my kids back to Mexico,” Marco says.

Espinosa is one of 300,000 undocumented immigrants whose deportation case is now on hold, at least temporarily. Primitivo Torres calls the new Obama administration policy ordering reviews of so-called low priority cases, a welcome change. Torres is president of the local immigrant advocacy group, Voces De La Frontera.

“What does that mean, a low priority case? It means you don’t have a criminal background, you have an extended stay here in the United States. If if you have children who are who are citizens of the United States that’s also a factor,” Torres says.

Torres says people have been contacting his organization daily, expressing fears about being forced to leave the U.S., if police pull them over, for say, a traffic violation. He hopes Washington eventually reforms its immigration laws so people who’ve come here to take jobs, can stay if they’ve been decent residents.

Wisconsin state Rep. Donald Pridemore also wants reform, but of a different variety. He’s introduced a bill similar to one in Arizona. The measure gives law enforcement the power to turn people over to immigration officials, if the person has broken the law and cannot provide identification.

“Our particular bill deals with the criminal element. It doesn’t go after employers or anything like that. It’s only about a six-page bill compared to Arizona’s bill which is about 43 pages,” Pridemore says.

Pridemore says his goal is to force the federal government’s hand to deal with people who have entered the country illegally.

“It was introduced in order to hopefully move the federal government toward enforcing the immigration laws we currently have on the books or address the issue from a national standpoint. We want the federal government to stop ignoring the situation,” Pridemore says.

Pridemore hopes legislative leaders schedule his bill for a hearing in upcoming months. Several other proposals may be forthcoming. Bills expected to be introduced in Wisconsin include one requiring proof of citizenship to receive public assistance, and another that would withhold from businesses tax credits, loans and public contracts if those firms hire undocumented workers. Meanwhile, Marco Espinosa awaits a ruling on his case.

“I don’t know. Obama, he make a lot of promises. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Espinosa says.

Espinosa says if he is ordered out of the country, he only hopes he’s given enough time to get things in order and ensure his family will be OK.

http://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/view_news.php?articleid=9193

Paola Ortiz deportation: A Canadian disgrace

2011-09-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Despite public outcry, officials turn blind eye to danger mother of two faces from abusive ex in Mexico
By Isabel Macdonald
Coop média de Montréal
September 24, 2011

On Friday, Sept. 23, Canada deported Paola Ortiz, the mom of two Canadian citizen kids, aged 2 and 4, to Mexico, a country she fled in 2006 to escape sexual abuse and domestic violence at the hands of her then-financé, a federal Mexican police officer.

Since last week, Paola’s case has gathered widespread support, particularly across Quebec, where she had been granted residency. More than 25 groups answered a call from immigrant rights group Solidarity Across Borders (SAB), and joined forces in calling on federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Security Minister Vic Toews to intervene to stop the deportation of the Montreal mom. The Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) issued a statement pointing out that it was “totally delusional” to think Paola “would be protected by the Mexican police authorities once she is returned to Mexico.” The deportation was also denounced publicly by Québec Solidaire and by a near-unanimous vote by the Parti Québecois (the official opposition party in the Quebec parliament), with the péquiste spokesperson on immigration opposing the deportation as inhumane. The immigration critic also denounced the ruling Quebec Liberal’s silence on the issue and urged the provincial government to “intervene energetically” on the issue.

In the federal House of Commons, the Bloc Québécois called for federal intervention and the Member of Parliament representing Paola’s riding in Pointe St. Charles, Montreal, the NDP’s Tyrone Benston, also joined more than 200 of Paola’s neighbours and community members in calling on Kenney to stop the deportation.

Quebec’s former immigration minister, André Boulerice, publicly denounced the silence of the Quebec Liberals, as well as the role of the Harper administration (an “espèce de Tea Party,” as he called the federal authorities responsible for allowing the deportation to go forward).

In the context of this fast-growing opposition to Paola’s expulsion, it seemed possible to hope that sanity might prevail in Canadian immigration, and the Montreal mom be allowed to stay. Particularly given that less than two years ago, a Mexican woman who’d been refused asylum and deported by Canada was murdered by the assailants she’d tried to escape in her efforts to flee to Canada. And on Sept. 22, a family that had sought asylum but been rejected by Canada returned to the country, after their deportation was overturned, drawing attention to the fact that decisions in refugee cases can be flawed.

Paola was originally slated to be deported on Tuesday, Sept. 20. Following orders from Canadian immigration authorities, she presented herself at Trudeau airport, with her luggage. But her deportation was narrowly averted when airport medical staff intervened. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in the wake of the domestic violence she survived, Paola suddenly began shaking, and had difficulty breathing as she waited for Canadian Boarder Services Agency (CBSA) agents to march her onto a Mexico-bound plane. She was hospitalized later that morning, but Canadian authorities instructed her to present herself to Immigration Canada to receive a new deportation date.

On Wednesday morning, Paola’s friends and supporters gathered outside the towering grey building at 1010 Rue St. Antoine West that houses the Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices in downtown Montreal, in a show of support as she presented herself to the immigration authorities.

“There’s no guarantee she’ll come out,” a cop patrolling the demonstration on the sidewalk outside told Paola’s supporters, explaining that this was what Immigration security personnel had told the Montreal police. Paola had recently been incarcerated for a week in an immigrant detention centre in Laval, so it was conceivable that immigration authorities would simply throw her back into a cell at the immigrant jail to await her deportation.

When Paola stepped out of the federal building around noon, her supporters breathed a collective sigh of relief. Until they learned that Canada had ordered her deported in less than 48 hours.

On the night of Thursday, September 22, a vigil was held blocks from the federal immigration offices. Dozens of Paola’s friends and supporters turned out for the all-night event, which was organized by Dignidad Migrante. Attendees included the former immigration minister André Boulerice, as well as the péquiste immigration spokesperson Yves-François Blanchet.

In the centre of the gathering, a sign, lit up by a ring of candles that also formed a heart, proclaimed “Basta de deportaciones” (Stop Deportations!).

The following morning at 5:30 am, several of the supporters who’d kept the vigil, as well as a handful of the journalists who’d been doggedly following Paola’s story, congregated in front of the grey building on Rue St. Antoine.

Canada’s unsuccessful earlier efforts to deport Paola had become a major news story in the Montreal media, with TV, radio and print journalists turning up at Trudeau airport along with Paola’s friends and supporters. This time, though, Paola was to be deported in secret. She had been ordered to appear on Friday not at the airport, where she would again be able to be with her friends, family and supporters, and speak to media, but at the immigration offices at 1010 Rue St. Antoine. A journalist familiar with deportation proceedings predicted that the authorities would transport her directly to an RCMP security gate at Trudeau airport, keeping her out of any public spaces in the airport where she would have access to media.

At 6 am on September 23, two white men wearing white uniforms appeared at the glass doors of the office building at 1010 St. Antoine. Her friends asked if someone could accompany her for support. Without even looking up, the men in uniform brusquely refused. “No,” one of them said firmly, as the glass doors slammed shut behind Paola.

Half a dozen local journalists, along with her friends and supporters, were left to stare at the closed glass doors from the sidewalk, as Paola was whisked into the bowels of the grey building.

She had had to leave behind her two young children--one of whom is autistic, and the other of whom has hearing difficulties. She worried about her kids’ safety (as well as her own) in Mexico, and also wanted the youngsters to continue receiving the special medical services they depend on in Canada, which would not be accessible to them in her home country.

“What did she tell her kids?” one journalist asked, several minutes after Paola disappeared with the men in uniform.

But the question might be better directed at Canada.

How on earth will we explain to those two young Canadian kids why our government has robbed them of their mother?

Follow Isabel Macdonald on twitter at @IsabelMacdo

http://montreal.mediacoop.ca/story/paola-ortiz-deportation-canadian-disgrace/8216

Pide PRI que albergues sean puntos de repatriación

2011-09-24T03:36:00.000-07:00

Fuente Notimex
23 de septiembre de 2011

México, DF.- El Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) en el Senado pidió a la Secretaría de Gobernación (Segob) hacer un censo y registro de los albergues para migrantes, organizados por la sociedad civil, para que sean puntos de repatriación de mexicanos deportados de Estados Unidos.

Solicitó a la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) realizar negociaciones con Estados Unidos para lograr su cooperación y que brinde información sobre los antecedentes criminales de los deportados y repatriados.

La senadora Amira Gómez también requirió a la SRE negociar la firma de un acuerdo entre ambos países en materia de deportaciones y repatriaciones, 'para que haya intercambio de información sobre las personas deportadas'.

Aseguró que en el gobierno del presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, anualmente se han deportado, en promedio, 350 mil personas; Hasta julio de 2011 habían sido expulsados 261 mil 266 individuos.

'La situación se agrava con la decisión de acelerar la deportación de los inmigrantes ilegales con antecedentes criminales, sin que las autoridades mexicanas puedan conocer la información particular sobre esta situación', agregó.

Gómez advirtió que 'el incremento de las deportaciones supera en mucho la capacidad de nuestro sistema de migración por limitaciones presupuestales, de infraestructura y de personal'.

Alertó que son insuficientes las capacidades de atención de los gobiernos estatales y municipales que sufren esta circunstancia, lo que se traduce en problemas económicos para los municipios y de inseguridad para las comunidades.

La senadora por Tamaulipas apuntó que el gobierno de México debe reforzar la política migratoria para evitar que 'la repatriación y las deportaciones sean un fenómeno caótico, que aprovechen las organizaciones delictivas en detrimento de los migrantes'.

Planteó que 'las agrupaciones de la sociedad civil que cuentan con albergues para apoyar a los migrantes deben ser reconocidos y considerados como puntos de entrega de los deportados por las autoridades norteamericanas'.

http://www.aztecanoticias.com.mx/notas/mexico/73351/pide-pri-que-albergues-sean-puntos-de-repatriacion

Report: Federal border agents conducted immigration raid outside Detroit church

2011-09-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

By Michael Wayland
MLive.com
September 22, 2011,

Federal agents are under fire again for the way they conducted an apparent raid in Detroit.

The July 25 raid reportedly involved several U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on the grounds of Ste. Anne Catholic Church, 1000 Ste. Anne.

Sept. 22, the Detroit Free Press: “Border agents handcuffed and detained a Latino man on the church grounds July 25, but he was later released because he was living in the U.S. legally, said Ryan Bates, director of the Michigan office of the Alliance for Immigrants Rights and Reform.”

According to the newspaper, border spokesman Heath Stephens said the agency is working on a response, but could not comment Wednesday.

Bates, along with other immigrant rights officials, previously condemned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Detroit for other raids, including one at a local school.

The accusations were brought to the department’s attention in April, following ICE agents being accused of following parents to Hope of Detroit Academy, a public charter school in Detroit, to carry out an operation in March.

“This is a pattern of abuse,” said Bates, during a media teleconference in April. “It’s systematic and we need action that changes what leadership is doing in the Detroit ICE office.”

While the agents in Detroit were cleared of any wrongdoings in the school case, along with a dozen of others, the department did draft a new policy “that more clearly defines enforcement activities at or near sensitive locations."

According to a recent report released by No More Deaths, an immigrant rights group in Arizona, there have been thousands of accusations against federal authorities in recent years.

The report – “A Culture of Cruelty" – reportedly documents more than 30,000 incidents over the past three years that it said involved abuse and mistreatment of people in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.

“No More Deaths has released a major new report, A Culture of Cruelty, which details rampant U.S. Border Patrol abuse of immigration detainees, deportees and migrants apprehended on the U.S.-Mexico Border,” reads the group’s website.

© 2011 MLive.com. All rights reserved.

Tennessee Latinos Angered Over Alleged ICE Racial Profiling

2011-09-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

Fox News Latino
September 21, 2011

Advocates in Tennessee claim Latinos in Shelbyville were purposely coerced by federal officials during immigration raids.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denies the allegations.

Saturday's raids came five days after a hearing attended by representatives from the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security where Latino residents complained that they are the victims of racial profiling and illegal detention.

ICE agents showed up at the homes and businesses of at least two people involved in organizing the hearing, witnesses said. Neither person was arrested.

Megan Macaraeg, organizing director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, described the way Shelbyville Latinos view the raids like this: "That'll teach you to speak up and say bad things about us and bring the feds in."

ICE spokesman Temple Black said in an email that allegations the raids were retaliatory are "without merit."

"ICE did not attend the meeting, track participants, or target supporters," he wrote. "Rather, wholly apart and distinct from the meeting, ICE identified and arrested three convicted criminals who were living at large in the community."

Regardless of the intention, the raids and a continuous show of force by ICE over the past several days has frightened residents, said TIRRC organizer Leticia Alvarez, who was in the store of one of the hearing organizers when ICE agents circled the parking lot, writing down license plate numbers.

"Everyone is scared," she said. ..."There is serious panic in the community."

A report on last week's hearing -- sponsored by TIRRC, Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville (United Latinos of Shelbyville) and the Washington, D.C.,-based Rights Working Group -- links many of the reported rights abuses to the implementation of Tennessee's "Jailer Bill," which went into effect in January. The bill requires jailers to try to determine whether inmates are legally in the country and alert ICE if they believe someone is an illegal immigrant.

According to the report, that has led some Shelbyville Police officers to deliberately target Latinos in an attempt to find and deport illegal immigrants.

TIRRC found through open records requests on traffic violations for the first quarter of 2011, that just four officers made 62 percent of the arrests of Latinos for traffic violations.

"Since Shelbyville police officers are assigned to patrol throughout the city rather than in a specific area, these statistics suggest that some officers may be intentionally targeting Latino drivers for traffic stops and arrests," the report states.

Shelbyville police Chief Austin Swing said he did not know how TIRRC had compiled its numbers, but he does not believe he has any out-of-control officers on his staff. He said he had not heard any complaints of racial profiling before the release of the report on Monday.

"If anything like that is going on, I'm not aware of it," he said. He added that he would investigate any substantiated accusations of officer misconduct.

The report also claims that, once in jail, Latinos are being held illegally past the time they should be released in order to give ICE more time to decide whether to pick them up for possible deportation proceedings.

Bill Geissler, a member of Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville, said he has been to the jail numerous times over the past year on behalf of immigrants and has seen the abuses firsthand.

Bedford County Sheriff's Capt. Tony Bennett disputed that, saying that jailers only hold inmates for the amount of time they are legally allowed.

“We're doing exactly what the immigration department has asked us to do," he said. And the report claims that ICE's Nashville Fugitive Operations Team asked the Bedford County

Probation Office to prepare a list of people with Hispanic-sounding last names to target for deportation.

"Latino probationers were profiled based on their perceived national origin," the report states.

Macaraeg said the allegations in the report were enough to make TIRRC call for a Justice Department investigation of illegal patterns and practices.

The raids on Saturday and a continuous show of force by immigrations agents since then have prompted them to request a fast-track of that process.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/09/21/tennessee-latinos-angered-over-alleged-ice-racial-profiling/#ixzz1YgxjQRSc

Obama set to outpace Bush on deportations

2011-09-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

Rhetoric vs. reality: President says he backs immigration reform
Reuters
9/20/2011

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he backs immigration reform, announcing last month an initiative to ease deportation policies, but he has sent home more than 1 million illegal immigrants in 2 1/2 years — on pace to deport more in one term than George W. Bush did in two.

The Obama administration had deported about 1.06 million as of Sept. 12, against 1.57 million in Bush's two full presidential terms.

This seeming contradiction between rhetoric and reality is a key element of debate over U.S. immigration policy, and stakes are high for 2012's presidential election as Obama faces criticism from both conservatives and liberals.

In 2008, 67 percent of Hispanics voted for Obama over Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin.

But Obama fell short on his promise to have a comprehensive reform bill in Congress in his first year. And despite his push of the DREAM Act in 2010, that bill failed in the Senate at the end of the Democrat-run 111th Congress.

Clarissa Martinez de Castro, Director of Immigration and National Campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, said because Congress is unlikely to consider immigration reform any time soon, "It has to stay there front and center and in the face of folks that are allowing this issue to fester."

The Administration announced its initiative August 18, a step some analysts say gave up on an uncooperative Congress and aimed to appease advocates of more liberal immigration laws.

Some 11.2 million illegal immigrants live and work in the United States today, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. The initiative is expected to help an estimated two million young people who under the stalled DREAM could have achieved citizenship by pursuing higher education or military service.

Clearing the backlog

Under the move, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice will review and clear out low-priority cases from 300,000 backlogged deportation proceedings.

Continued focus of immigration enforcement on those with criminal records would effectively leave alone those who came at a young age and have spent years in the United States.

Republican critics say directing immigration authorities to use prosecutorial discretion to administratively implement such changes ignores Congress and existing federal law.

A June 17 memo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton defined prosecutorial discretion as an agency's authority "to decide to what degree to enforce the law against a particular individual."

The memo "reiterated and clarified" the priorities on which the new initiative is based, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote August 18 on behalf of Obama in a letter to 21 senators.

An ICE official who declined to be named said, "We have limited resources and if their best use in protecting the American public means exercising discretion, then that's what we're going to do."

House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, calls it a "plot."

"The writers of the U.S. Constitution put Congress in charge of setting our immigration policy ... (President Obama) does not get to pick and choose," Smith said in an email.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, however, said: "The Administration has used its discretion very sparingly ... No one should forget that immigration is critically important to Latinos, a community whose power at the polls continues to grow."

Fastest-growing minority

Hispanics, the largest and fastest-growing U.S. minority group, now number over 50.5 million — 16.3 percent of the population, according to the 2010 Census.

They also face higher unemployment and foreclosure rates, according to the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and NCLR, the largest Hispanic advocacy organization in the country.

It remains to be seen if Hispanic groups pushing for immigration reform will be satisfied by the August initiative, even as Republican critics say it has gone too far.

On September 12, Smith and House Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt sent a letter to Napolitano.

"In addition to our concerns about the administration's apparent abandonment of immigration enforcement, we also have significant concerns about how this new policy was developed."

Martinez said, "(Obama) support was dropping among Latinos ... If at the end of the day what you have is an announcement that is sound from a policy perspective and it is actually good politically -- we should be so lucky to have more of those."

But Martinez said they will watch implementation closely.

"Obviously, you've heard the caveats," she said. "It's a very important announcement -- and just as important (is) that it's implemented robustly and appropriately."

The administration's past deportation policies are a reason some reformers are not yet convinced of Obama's commitment.

Immigration authorities are funded to remove 400,000 people a year, according to the unnamed ICE official.

In fiscal year 2010, the last full year of data, ICE removed nearly 393,000 undocumented immigrants — a record, and almost 24,000 more than in FY2008, Bush's last full fiscal year in office.

Over two-thirds of the non-criminals removed in FY2010 were caught as they crossed the border, were recent arrivals, or were repeat violators previously deported, the White House says.

Criminals are larger chunk of deportees

In FY2010, convicted criminals numbered about 196,000 of those removed, an increase of 71 percent from Bush in FY2008.

Of the the 1.06 million removed so far under Obama, 46 percent have been convicted criminals and 54 percent non-criminals. Bush's removals were 41 percent criminal and 59 non-criminal, according to data provided by ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen.

ICE credits the increased removal of those with criminal records to expansion of the Secure Communities Program, where local authorities automatically send fingerprints of those arrested to ICE. Secure Communities has grown under Obama from 14 jurisdictions to more than 1,300, and to all border areas.

Critics say that despite the administration's rhetorical stress on targeting those with criminal records and a level-off in illegal immigration, programs such as Secure Communities are in practice leading to unjust deportations.

Democratic Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez was arrested at a pro-reform rally at the White House on July 27.

"(Obama's) been arguing that he can't simply go around Congress, that he's not a president who governs by fiat, right?" Gutierrez said later. "It's a little contradiction between 1 million deportations and claiming they use it less than Bush."

With under a month left in FY2011, ICE has reported 368,920 removals -- about half criminals and half non-criminals.

Last week, Gutierrez traveled to Chicago to explain the initiative to constituents after a policy briefing by DHS.

After the DREAM failed, Gutierrez and others have pushed Obama on an immigration initiative like that of August 18 — a "critical foundation," but, he said, "There's more to be done."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44599016/ns/politics-more_politics/

A second chance: Deportation policy changes allow students to stay in U.S.

2011-09-20T01:59:00.000-07:00

By Rachel Brown
The Dalton Daily Citizen
Sep 17, 2011

It all started on Father’s Day.

Pedro Morales, 19, of the Eastside community, got a call from his father asking him for a ride home. Pedro’s father normally doesn’t indulge in alcohol, family members said, but on this occasion he’d had a couple of beers and wasn’t feeling well.

“I had to get him home so he could take his pill, and so I decided to drive,” said Morales, who does not have a driver’s license because he was illegally brought into the country when he was 7 and has lived here ever since.

Morales got stopped at a road block, and when a Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office deputy asked him for his license, he confessed he didn’t have one. He was put into the back of a car, and a friend with a valid license drove his father home.

That was the last time he would see his family until Aug. 23, when he was released from custody. In the intervening two months, he spent five days in the local jail and most of the rest of the time in the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, fighting not to be deported to his native Mexico, which he hasn’t been to since he was little.

Morales said he was depressed and ready to give up hope when a judge finally dismissed his case based on a new enforcement policy from the Obama administration that instructs officials to focus deportation efforts on illegals who have committed violent crimes or been convicted of crimes. The directive excludes most students from being priorities for deportation, particularly those who have lived most of their lives in the United States.

Caught in traffic

Morales and Gordon Central High School student Luis “Ricky” Hernandez, 18, were among the first youths in the nation to benefit from the new policy.

Hernandez also has ties to Dalton and, like Morales, was represented by Atlanta-based immigration attorney Charles Kuck. Hernandez participated in Dalton State College’s Steps to College program for high school students this summer and was in Dalton when he was arrested and nearly deported back to Mexico.

Like Morales, Hernandez had been brought to the United States at a young age — just 2. His only relative who still lives in Mexico is his grandmother, he said. It’s a country he doesn’t know.

Hernandez said it was mid-June when he was on his way to see the movie “Hangover II” with a friend. He was a passenger in the car his friend was driving, and the two were pulled over for a headlights violation. Hernandez said he was booked on a drug possession charge, which was later dropped after authorities found no proof the drugs, which were found in the car, belonged to him. Once officials discovered he was in the country illegally, he too was sent to the Stewart Detention Center.

The two cases are not uncommon.

Morales said he ran into a few Southeast High School and Whitfield Career Academy students at Stewart while he was there. He said they were likewise arrested on traffic violations and awaiting deportation. Southeast Principal Brian Satterfield, who could not be reached to comment on this story, said in a previous interview that the school’s expected graduation rate dropped slightly because five students were deported last year.

“There’s really not a whole lot we can do with that, although we have tried to work with the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Atlanta to see if they can possibly graduate before the deportation,” he said last month.

Hernandez’s principal, Scott McClanahan, said another of the school’s students, an honors student who played football, was in JROTC and planned to enter the military, was deported to his native Guatemala in April.

“This happens all the time,” Kuck said. “You let these kids grow up here, you educate them and then you deport them to a country they don’t know. It’s insane. It’s an insane process.”

Staying in Stewart

The detention center houses anyone set to be deported. Morales said he was placed in a cell with 66 people. The men slept on bunk beds and shared three bathrooms and five showers, he said.

“I had never been in trouble for anything,” Morales said. “They put me with people from prison ... It was pretty awkward at the beginning.”

Morales’ father, who is also Pedro Morales, said he went to see eight lawyers in Atlanta, one of whom he lost $1,000 with. He didn’t want his son to return to the chaotic situation in Mexico where just last week three people were killed in his town and there is extortion, drugs and anarchy from the drug traffickers, he said.

“We took it for fact that my son was going to be deported back to Mexico,” said the father. “There were days of anxiety, not sleeping, not eating. It is something you do not wish on anyone.”

Morales’ mother, Veronica Arredondo, said the experience was “very hard,” and that she’d never been apart from her son for so long before. She said he’d never had problems in school or been in trouble with the law.

In Calhoun, teacher and assistant soccer coach Sean McKenzie said he advocated for Hernandez to be able to stay with his family in the United States, as did several other educators. McKenzie said he invited all his students to participate in Steps to College, a program which helps high school students or recent graduates prepare for high stakes tests and college entrance exams, but Hernandez was the only one who took him up on it.

“When I found out Ricky had been picked up, it was especially upsetting to me,” McKenzie said. “He had been working so hard to try to better himself.”

McKenzie said Hernandez had never been in any trouble.

“That wasn’t his marijuana,” he said. “He didn’t have anything to do with that.”

Hernandez said he always held out hope he would not be deported.

“I had a feeling I would (be released) because I didn’t do anything bad,” he said. “I was just in there wasting time when I could have been with my family.”

For two months, Morales stayed in Stewart as Kuck attempted to get him back home. When told he was getting released, he initially didn’t believe it.

“I was getting everything denied, and everything was getting worse,” Morales said. “My last court (date) was the decision if I was going to be able to stay or if I would have to leave. They told me my case was dropped because of what President Obama said, that people brought here as children or were students and trying to achieve a college degree, that immigration was going to have to leave them alone.”

There’s no guarantee, of course, that Morales or Hernandez can continue to live in the United States. Enforcement is conducted on a case-by-case basis.

“ICE moved to administratively close their case,” Kuck said. “ICE could move to administratively open their case.”

Looking forward

Both young men are working to get permission to stay here legally, they said. Kuck said they’re not eligible to become legal residents, but he will apply next week to allow them to continue to live in the U.S. under ICE supervision and get work visas. It could be months before they learn of the decision, he said.

“It (the appeal) is through ICE, and it’s very informal,” he said, adding he didn’t know how long the work permits would last if granted. “A lot of this is dependent on the current administration’s policies on this, and frankly they are at best vague.”

Morales applied to Georgia Northwestern Technical College last year to begin studying auto engine repair at the college’s Walker County campus. A 2010 graduate at the Whitfield Career Academy, he had planned to be in school this fall.

Instead, he spent his college savings on fighting deportation, he said. He said he’s hoping to begin classes in the spring.

Hernandez said he too hopes to go to college somewhere.

Asked what he learned from the situation, Hernandez said he’ll now be more careful who he hangs around with. He said he wishes he could have his own car so he’ll know what’s in it and what’s not.

Morales said he wishes officials would put more thought into who they’re arresting.

“They should look more into seeing what kind of people they’re arresting because a lot of people are not doing anything bad,” he said. “A lot of these people are honest people. They just want to work and make something out of themselves like I’m trying to do.”

Temple Black, an ICE spokesman based in Louisiana, said that without local sheriff and police departments holding illegal aliens, it would be harder to catch those who have committed crimes.

“The identification and removal of many criminal aliens would not be possible without the cooperation of our state and local law enforcement partners,” Black said in an emailed statement. “ICE detainers are an effective tool to ensure that individuals convicted of criminal charges or who have previously been removed, who are found to be in violation of U.S. immigration law, are not released back into the community to potentially commit more crimes.”

He did say using resources on cases that are no longer deemed high priority hurts the department’s goal of deporting those who are a threat to safety.

Teachers, McKenzie said, often find themselves in a delicate situation when it comes to working with children who, though they may have had no say in the matter, are illegal aliens. Schools are required to serve students regardless of their immigration status, meaning American taxpayers foot the bill for a majority of their education.

McKenzie said he would like lawmakers to create a clear path to legal residency for students like Hernandez. Others say there should be stronger border enforcement or even stronger efforts to deport everyone who is in the country illegally. They point out the difficulty of holding illegals accountable since they often don’t carry car insurance, and they lament the fact many undocumented residents take advantage of taxpayer-funded social service programs that are supposed to be reserved for legal residents.

Still others take a middle-of-the-road approach, supporting enforcement of the law but also advocating for leniency for at least some.

“I do think everybody has got to make up their mind how they handle things, but I certainly see it as my role to stand up for my students and be an advocate for them,” McKenzie said. “Ricky is a great kid, and I was honored to stand up for him.”

El Informador writer Jorge Perez contributed to this story.

http://daltondailycitizen.com/local/x1660695849/A-second-chance

Se mantiene alta repatriación de connacionales por esta frontera

2011-09-19T01:53:00.000-07:00

por Salvador Castro
Norte Digital
2011-09-17

La repatriación de connacionales por esta frontera se mantiene alta al punto que el Servicio Nacional de Empleos (SNE) reportó que hasta la fecha ha dado apoyo a mil personas para que regresen a sus lugares de origen, de las cuales 900 son hombres y 100 mujeres.

La cantidad de personas deportadas en este año por autoridades de los Estados Unidos es mayor si se toma en cuenta que sólo el 50 por ciento solicita apoyo económico para viajar a su estado natal.

Este apoyo que se hace mediante el Programa Repatriados, consiste en el pago del boleto en autobús a sus lugares de origen para reunirse con sus familiares, señaló José Serralta Hernández, titular de la oficina regional del SNE.

Dijo que el costo del boleto en unidades de transporte foráneo varía según la entidad federativa de que se trate, pero se autoriza el pago del transporte hasta por dos mil pesos por persona.

Explicó que primero el Instituto Nacional de Migración identifica a los connacionales al momento de ser deportados por los puentes internacionales, luego los envía a las oficinas del SNE.

Ahí el personal compra los boletos respectivos en la Central Camionera y acompaña a los interesados a este lugar hasta el momento en que suben a la unidad que los conducirá a sus lugares de origen.

Serralta Hernández manifestó que solamente un 50 por ciento de los repatriados solicita el multicitado recurso económico.

Especificó que del total de repatriados el 90 por ciento son hombres y el resto mujeres.

Mencionó que en su mayoría son de los estados de Hidalgo, Estado de México, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Veracruz y Guerrero.

Agregó que esta clase de apoyos a connacionales que regresan del vecino país del norte en condiciones muy precarias se seguirán brindando en lo que resta del presente año.

http://nortedigital.mx/noticias/local/34130

Families, Hispanic leaders upset by raids

2011-09-18T01:56:00.000-07:00

By Hillary Gavan
beloitdailynews.com
September 16, 2011

After Tuesday's roundup of immigrants allegedly tied to crime and gang activity, some members and representatives of the Hispanic community say they are distrustful of law enforcement now and feel reluctant to report crimes or act as witnesses.

Some said the Beloit Police Department should leave immigration enforcement to Homeland Security.

Police said seven people were taken into administrative custody Tuesday during a Beloit roundup of immigrants by federal officials. The federal officials say those taken into custody are tied to crime and gangs. The operation was conducted by federal Homeland Security agents with the help of Beloit police.

During the roundup, Beloit police knocked on the doors where suspects might be living. Capt. Vince Sciame stressed that they were face-to-face meetings and included use of a Spanish speaking officer. He said the roundup was peaceful and simply involved talking to various families. Those the police were targeting were arrested, handcuffed and then processed by Homeland Security investigators.

Sara Dady, an immigration attorney with Dady and Hoffmann in Rockford, said local police shouldn't get involved with civil law enforcement. The Homeland Security officers refused to identify themselves when they came to homes and workplaces, she said.

She added that the seven administrative arrests will cause the Beloit Hispanic population to be distrustful and reluctant to contact police regarding crime.

"There's little information about how truly dangerous these people are. Some of these people they were running with the wrong crowd and had a minor disorderly conduct charge, but have since turned their lives around," Dady said.

Dady said lawful permanent residents were also subject to being removed if they had only minor convictions.

"I'm not sure that this operation is the best use of local resources," she said. "The Beloit Police Department should not be involved. The local police department has its own responsibility to keep community safe. Participating with customs and immigration undermines that ability."

Pastor Neddy Astudillo said the raids were deceptive and police weren't honest about what they were doing when they approached local Hispanic families. Police said they just wanted to talk, and accompanying Homeland Security officers weren't dressed in uniform or properly identified.

Kitzia Colin and her mother Veronica Colin explained what happened to their family during the roundup. The mother and daughter said police came looking for brother and son Nestali Colin, 21. According to the Colins, police assured the family they only wanted to talk to Nestali. The family called him at work at a Fontana hotel and ordered him home to speak with police. They said police assured them that Nestali would be able to return to work after speaking to police. After the conversation, Nestali was immediately taken into custody.

The Colins are upset that they have not been able to speak with Nestali and cannot get any information about his status. He is being held in detention in Dodge County. The family said he only had one legal problem with a fight but had already been to court to address the issue.

"We are not sure about his connection to a gang but he told my parents that he didn't have problems with gangs," Kitzia Colin said. "We are not able to speak to him or anything. My mom's pregnant and it scared her. Police weren't clear about what they were doing."

Nancy Marquez said there was also an arrest in her family of a young man. She said her family was eager to cooperate with police and thought they were going to help police with fighting crime. After taking a shower the young man immediately went down to talk with police. Instead of reporting the crime, the young man was immediately taken into custody and felt tricked by police, the family said.

Dady stressed that deportation isn't as simple as shipping an immigrant back to Mexico. The suspects may spend up to two years in legal proceedings and may eventually return home.

Astudillo acknowledged that police did contact her about the upcoming roundup and encouraged the support of families impacted by the raids. However she said she's still concerned that the roundup bordered on harassment of innocent Hispanics.

"When local police enforcement cooperates with immigration officials there is a deterioration of trust between immigrant community and police. We need to be able to trust the police, if we are going to have a real safe community. People need to know when the immigrant community becomes fearful, it won't report crime," she said. "We need to evaluate how positive this approach is. We lose the population's trust for capturing 7 people who may or may not be a threat. It's not just about gang members. The wave goes farther."

Astudillo said the challenge for Hispanic leaders is getting information to the immigrant community. Many law abiding members are avoiding public places and are scared to even drive their children to school. Without a Spanish newspaper or radio station in Beloit, it's hard to communicate what is going on as part of the roundup activities.

Capt. Vince Sciame stressed that the people taken into custody had some sort of criminal history or gang affiliation.

"Beloit police will continue to work with Homeland Security. We feel obligated to assist federal agencies and are obligated by law to offer mutual aid. For us to deny that would be professional suicide. We are here in a supportive role to the point," he said.

Sciame said police will be happy to speak to any residents about their concerns regarding the roundup, and added that the average law abiding Hispanic living in Beloit has nothing to fear.

http://www.beloitdailynews.com/news/local_news/families-hispanic-leaders-upset-by-raids/article_4b7fe55c-e08a-11e0-b3c9-001cc4c002e0.html

Festejaron deportados Fiestas Patrias en Tijuana

2011-09-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

Por Sonia García Ochoa
El Sol de Tijuana
17 de septiembre de 2011

Tijuana.- Los deportados, esos mexicanos que dejaron su país para buscar oportunidades en el extranjero, nunca dejan de amar su nación y más todavía cuando le abre los brazos como al hijo pródigo que un día se fue, pero que es esperado su regreso, como se apreció en la celebración del 16 de septiembre que hizo Esther Morales Guzmán, mujer que hace un año fue expulsada de Estados Unidos por indocumentada.

A la fiesta que fue más recordando la grandeza de México, nación que se mantiene erguida pese a las sacudidas políticas, económicas y sociales, convocó Morales Guzmán, para recordarle a propios y extraños que la República Mexicana, "no es egoísta, carece de rencor y no se queja cuando es criticada por quienes no encontraron en ella la calidad de vida que se demanda", expuso Esther.

María Trinidad Álvarez Anguiano, Karina Hernández, María Guadalupe Álvarez Anguiano y Lluvia Hernández, fueron las primeras tijuanenses en llegar a la fiesta, a la que luego se le sumaron medios de comunicación, amigos residentes de California y deportados como ahora es Esther Morales Guzmán, quien escribió un poema para la ocasión, que es el siguiente:

"Mexicanos al grito de guerra. Eso dice nuestro Himno Nacional. Hoy mujeres y hombres, celebrando su independencia mexicana. Realmente no importa el lugar si te sientes de colores, y en especial, verde, blanco y rojo".

"Hoy en este día haré un recuerdo a algunas celebridades que han puesto en alto nuestro México lindo, tierra de estrellas, tierra de hombres valientes, por la cual fuimos independizados, tierra de hombres ilustres, poetas y bohemios, tierra de mujeres hermosas".

"Por la cual el poeta se inspiró entonando María Bonita, María del alma, mujer, mujer divina, sin duda estoy recordando al inolvidable Agustín Lara, poniendo siempre en alto su lindo Veracruz".

"Mujer mexicana, inspiración perfecta, por su piel color canela y tus rasgos mestizos, versos, poemas, cartas de amor. Allá por los años 1922, un hombre escribía exitosamente inspirado por la mujer mexicana, sin duda estoy recordando al poeta Amado Nervo, poniendo siempre en alto su Tepic, Nayarit".

"Debo recordar también al bohemio entonando no tengo trono ni reina ni nadie que me comprenda, la vida no vale nada, pero ¿sabes?, sigo siendo el rey, sin duda estoy recordando al inolvidable José Alfredo Jiménez, poniendo siempre en alto su León, Guanajuato".

"México, México lindo no eres presumido y eso que tienes a tu Frida Kahlo y a tu Diego Rivera que dejaron tus colores plasmado en todo el mundo".

"Ilustres hombres ilustres, los llevo orgullosamente en mi corazón. Benito Juárez, quien fue presidente de México, orgullosamente oaxaqueño. México tierra de agave, tequila y mezcal, tierra del mariachi, tierra de la serenata bajo la luna, tierra de mujeres hermosas por la cual el poeta se inspiró y entonó María Bonita, María del Alma, mujeres, mujer divina".

"Sin olvidar la valentía de los hombres que han sabido defender a su patria, a su familia, a su honor. ¡Viva México, porque como México no hay dos!".

sgarcia@elsoldetijuana.com.mx

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldetijuana/notas/n2230393.htm

US Still Working Out Deportation Details

2011-09-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

By Amy Isackson
The World
September 15, 2011

A month ago, the Obama Administration announced a new policy that would suspend the deportation of undocumented immigrants who don’t pose a threat to public safety.

US officials said they’d review 300,000 pending deportation cases. However, they’re still working out the details of how they’ll wade through them and have yet to act on any case.

Across the country, the new policy has given hope to many undocumented immigrants, but has also caused confusion.

Juan, who asked not to use his real name out of fear, came to San Diego from Mexico illegally 24 years ago when he was only sixteen. He had quit school in Mexico and his family sent him to the United States with one of his brothers.

“So, really I never felt like it was my decision to come up here.” Juan tells his story sitting on the couch in his living room. His house is immaculate. So is he. His slacks and dress shirt are perfectly pressed.

Juan says they day after he arrived in San Diego, he began washing dishes at a tony restaurant. Juan says a cute hostess convinced him to enroll in high school. He learned English, moved up to busboy and became a statewide track star. Universities like UCLA courted him with scholarships.

“My goal always was to become a coach and a bilingual math teacher and it never happened,” he says. While Juan had the ability, he didn’t have the legal status to go to college. Juan has worked steadily for the last 25 years. He’s managing an upscale restaurant and raising a family. Juan’s 12-year-old son was recently assigned to the Gifted and Talented Education program at his junior high school.

Last January, Juan was detained at a major Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5. Juan doesn’t have a criminal record but the government began the process of deporting him.

Immigration Attorney Ginger Jacobs sees these kinds of cases all the time. “Folks who, a few years ago, would never be placed into proceedings. They don’t have a criminal record but are placed into proceedings anyway.”

She says the potentially good news for Juan is that it appears his case is just the kind that the federal government will put on hold. During the last two years, President Obama has repeatedly said he was after undocumented immigrants who’d committed crimes – “the worst of the worst,” he called them.

Yet, on Obama’s watch, the federal government has deported a record 800,000 people. Last year, more than half of those deported either had no criminal record or had committed a misdemeanor or traffic violation.

The White House says the new deportation policy’s goal is to target more serious criminals, but immigration attorneys say their phones are ringing off the hook with confused clients.

Jacobs says some ask if they should turn themselves in. Some say they want to apply for the new amnesty law. “Questions for me that indicate that they’ve received some misinformation about the policy. There is no new law,” says Jacobs.

Jacobs, along with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, warn their clients not to be tricked by unscrupulous attorneys or “notarios” who capitalize on the confusion, falsely claiming they can legalize undocumented immigrants.

Critics of the new policy accuse the Obama Administration of acting illegally.

“This is an extra-constitutional act. I mean, I don’t know how else to put it,” says Mark Krikorian, who directs the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors tighter immigration controls.

Krikorian says if President Obama wanted to stay these deportations he should have gone through Congress to make a new law. Instead, Krikorian says Obama did an end-run around Congress because he failed to get it to move in immigration reform. “It’s a bridge amnesty, like a bridge loan to legalize them legalize them long enough until the pro-amnesty people can prevail in Congress.”

Legal analysts say the new deportation policy is not amnesty.

Aarti Kohli, Director of Immigration Policy at the UC Berkeley’s Boalt Law School, says the policy has the potential to affect only a small minority of the undocumented immigrants in the US.

“We’re talking 300,000 people, not the estimated 11 million who are in the country. You don’t actually get legalized. You just don’t get deported.”

At any time, the federal government can re-open the deportation cases it stays.

An official with the Department of Homeland Security says they’ve convened a team of 20 lawyers to determine how the process will proceed. The official would not say when the first case would be put on hold or how long it will take to review 300,000 cases.

Meanwhile, Juan says he’s only heard snipits about the policy. He says he used to spend hours pouring over everything he could about immigration reform, the Dream Act, Obama’s campaign promises.

“And, at the end, everything went back to the same. Good old nothing. So, lately, I been like, you know what? I’d rather sit with my little baby girl and read a book with her even if we have to read it over and over again because that’s what she likes to do, than try to look up what’s going on, who’s saying what. For what? ”

Juan prays that immigration laws will change. He still dreams of going to a US college, teaching bilingual math and coaching track.

http://www.theworld.org/2011/09/immigration-deportation-policy/

Lucha contra deportación

2011-09-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

Por Johanes Rosello
Mundo Hispanico
Miércoles, Septiembre 14, 2011

En el restaurante Cup & Saucer Diner de Loganville se siente la ausencia de su cocinero Antonio Mejía. El mexicano que antes servía a la clientela del local, ahora aguarda su deportación.

A pesar de que las esperanzas de que Mejía se quede en Georgia parecieran nulas, sus compañeros de trabajo, en particular su supervisora, agotan todos los recursos para evitar que sea separado de su familia.

“Antonio ha estado con nosotros por 12 años y toda la gente que come aquí ama a Antonio. Nosotros somos una familia y si él no está aquí, no es lo mismo”, afirmó Susan Kasnic, supervisora de Mejía.

La policía de Lawrenceville detuvo a Mejía este año manejando sin licencia. Un tiempo después tuvo un accidente vial y esta vez fue encarcelado y puesto en proceso de deportación por su estatus de indocumentado.

El hombre salió de la cárcel pagando una fianza y  comenzó el proceso para legalizar su estatus migratorio y solicitó la cancelación de la orden de deportación existente.

“La cancelación de remoción es un alivio migratorio que otorga un juez de inmigración a extranjeros en proceso de ser removidos del país por un juez de inmigración y que no han cometido delito mayor. El juez de inmigración y no el Servicio de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE) es quien toma esta determinación”, explicó Danielle Benett, vocera de ICE.

El pasado 23 de agosto, Mejía se presentó a la corte con la esperanza de que saldría bien de su caso. Sin embargo, el juez dijo que el hombre tenía una orden previa de deportación de 1999 por cruzar de manera ilegal la frontera y por esta razón sería enviado a México.

Benett explicó que cruzar la frontera luego de una deportación podría conllevar una pena máxima de 20 años en prisión. Además, señaló que quien entra al país luego de ser deportado no puede arreglar su estatus.

La familia de Mejía no entiende cómo pudo iniciar todo el proceso para legalizar su estatus y que apareciera esta orden de deportación justo en el momento en que pensaban que podría quedarse a vivir legalmente en el país.

“Ahora que ya estaba a punto de agarrar su tarjeta (permiso de trabajo), le dijeron que tenía una deportación y que no puede calificar para ese permiso y no lo entendemos”, expresó Carmen Zamora, esposa de Mejía con quien tiene tres niños estadounidenses.

Pero Kasnic no se detiene. Ella se ha tomado muy en serio la misión de hacer todo lo que esté en sus manos para que Mejía se quede en Georgia. Con este fin, ha mandado cartas a altos funcionarios del gobierno, incluyendo a Janet Napolitano, secretaria del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, pidiendo que se reconsidere el caso de Mejía.

“Me parece injusto, en especial considerando que tiene tres hijos estadounidenses, que castigando a una persona arruines la vida de otras tres personas que tienen el derecho de estar aquí”, dijo la supervisora de Mejía.

Kasnic se comunicó a la oficina de ICE en Georgia y pudo hablar con un oficial de alto rango a quien no quiso identificar. Al día siguiente de esta conversación, Mejía fue notificado de que tendrá una oportunidad para apelar el caso.

Aaron Ortiz, abogado que trabaja junto a Brennan Bair el caso de Mejía, aclaró que el 22 de octubre es la fecha límite para apelar el caso.

“Una apelación la vamos a perder porque él ya fue deportado previamente en 1999. Lo que vamos a hacer es una petición para reabrir el caso basado en que tiene hijos ciudadanos y que ha pagado los impuestos”, explicó Ortiz

“Si lográramos reabrir el caso, tendríamos una oportunidad para tratar de sacarlo (de la cárcel) y después continuar con el proceso, pero si lo perdemos es porque él ya fue deportado”, aseveró.

http://www.mundohispanico.com/noticias/locales/lucha-contra-deportacion-1857459.html

Canada Set to Deport Mexican Mom and Her Canadian Kids

2011-09-14T06:45:00.001-07:00

Pacific Free Press
September 13, 2011

Solidarity Across Borders denounces the imminent deportation of a Mexican mother and her two Canadian children by Solidarity Across Borders.

Solidarity Across Borders denounces the imminent decision by the Canadian authorities to procede with the deportation of Paola Ortiz and her two Canadian children of two and four years old.

Paola Ortiz arrived in Montreal five years ago after fleeing a situation of sexual and conjugal violence in Mexico, her country or origin. There she was a victim of violent physical, sexual, and psychological abuse by her then-husband, a federal police officer. She has been diagnosed by various specialists with post-traumatic stress and depression. Mrs. Ortiz's children also have health challenges. Her daughter of four years suffers from significant hearing problems, while her son of two years has recently been diagnosed with autism. Both children are receiving treatment and support from various specialists.

In 2006 upon her arrival in Canada, Paola Ortiz requested refugee status from Canada. The Immigration and Refugee Board refused her application one year later, under the pretext that the Mexican state provided adequate protection to women survivors of conjugal violence. However, many sources from the field uncover the situation of violence for women in Mexico, and the almost absolute impunity accorded to its perpetrators.

During the summer of 2011, Ms. Ortiz was detained for one week at the Immigration Detention Centre in Laval, being consequently separated from her children. She is presently in limbo, awaiting a deportation date that could be issued and executed as early as this week. Her lawyer has submitted a request for a stay of her deportation, in her interests and those of her children.

« By constantly threatening Paola and her family with deportation, the Canadian government is acting as an accomplice to the sexist violence that Paola has endured », explains Rosalind Wong, a member of the Solidarity Across Borders network that is supporting Ms. Ortiz. « Moreover, the government is ignoring not only its human rights obligations and its obligations towards refugees, but also its responsibilities towards children born on Canadian territory, children who have the right to live in conditions that are fair, safe, and with dignity. This means to remain in Canada, the country of their birth, with their mother. »

For the other members of Solidarity Across Borders working with Ms. Ortiz, there is no question that Ms. Ortiz and her children will not receive the specialized services that they need should they be deported to Mexico.

« The treatment of Ms. Ortiz in recent weeks displays a worrying tendency on the part of Canada's immigration system, » adds Rosalind Wong. « Mainly, a flat-out denial of the situation of violence and its impunity in countries like Mexico, and the increasing use of repressive tools like detention and precipitated deportation, deliberately overlooking any consideration of the rights of the children or the psychological precarity of women who have experienced trauma and violence.»

In 2009, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney imposed a mandatory visa on all visitors from Mexico, alleging that too many requests for asylum seekers originating from Mexico were false. This gesture is one of several measures recently put into place by the Canadian government that refugee advocates have decried as simply dividing and criminalizing immigrant and refugee communities, in an aim to restrict their access to Canadian territory.

Solidarity Across Borders joins Ms. Ortiz, her family, and many friends and community members of Montreal and Point St. Charles neighborhood, to demand that Ms. Ortiz be given permanent status in Canada.

Soldarity Across Borders is a network of support and struggle for the dignity and justice of migrants without status. Its principal demands are the end of deportations and detentions, the regularization of all non-status people and the abolition of the double punishment.

For more information:

Stewart Istvanffy, legal representative of Paola Ortiz — 514-876-9776
Rosalind Wong, Solidarity Across Borders — 514-759-8346

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/9700-canada-set-to-deport-mexican-mom-and-her-canadian-kids.html]

ICE freezes mistrust

2011-09-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

Phila. police have a special relationship with immigration crackdown.
By Tom Ferrick Jr.
METROPOLIS
Sep. 13, 2011

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has a smart new plan to combat crime that puts Philadelphia police in closer contact with their communities - walking the beat, getting familiar with the neighborhood. It makes sense, except in heavily Latino areas of town.

In those neighborhoods, especially in the Mexican community in South Philadelphia, people cringe when they see the police, and they fear contact with them. Any attempt by the police to gain their trust is doomed.

Why? Because the Police Department has chosen to have a special relationship with the federal agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency - ICE, for short - has been on a tear here and nationally in rounding up illegal immigrants and deporting them. Under the Secure Communities program, the number of deportations has risen dramatically during the Obama administration.

On paper, Secure Communities makes sense. ICE is supposed to target undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Who can disagree with that? Why let Dominican drug dealers or Mexican gang members stay in the country?

In reality, there is a major gap between the stated goals of Secure Communities and its practice. In Philadelphia particularly, the program - which says it targets sharks - has ended up mostly capturing minnows.

Only one out of five illegal immigrants rounded up by ICE agents in Philadelphia in the last two years had been convicted of so-called Level 1 crimes, the most serious offenses (such as murder, kidnapping, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and national security violations). The majority were people who had not been convicted of any crime.

How could this be? Because in Philadelphia, the Police Department allows ICE access to its computer system, which records information about arrests in real time. Officially, it is called the Preliminary Arraignment System (PARS).

To use one example, if a Mexican kid is arrested for being drunk and disorderly, ICE agents know it immediately - often before his parents. We've heard tales of young men arrested on suspicion of theft, with no official charges leveled, being whisked away by ICE and deported to Mexico.

In this particular case, the young man was 25 and had lived in the United States since he was 2. To him, Mexico was a foreign country.

We revealed what was happening with ICE, PARS, and the police in a Metropolis story in June called "The Deportation Machine." (To read it, go to: http://bit.ly/n5bj8L)

Immigrant activists had hoped that the city would end its special relationship with ICE. Most other police jurisdictions do not give ICE agents access to their real-time data. In fact, a number of police departments and local and state officials are unhappy with the whole Secure Communities program, saying it puts them at odds with their local immigrant communities and makes policing more difficult.

Recently, in response to these complaints - and with one eye on reelection - the Obama administration has pulled the throttle back on Secure Communities.

Not in Philadelphia. In this city, as the Spanish-language weekly Al Día has reported, the local officials renewed their contract with ICE to continue to use PARS.

Let's be clear here. This issue is not about where you stand on immigration. ICE has a job to do and if it does capture sharks - people with serious convictions either here or in their home country - they should be deported.

But it shouldn't be the job of the Philadelphia police to de facto become surrogate ICE agents - any more than we should ask ICE agents to combat crime on the streets. Both are enforcement agencies, but each has a different mission.

So far, the Nutter administration has given lip service to critics of the relationship between ICE and the police. The mayor says soothing things about the need for broad immigration reform. Still, he approved renewal of the contract.

That makes him, along with Ramsey, part of the problem.

So, if you are a police officer, don't be surprised if Latinos walk the other way when you walk your beat. Instead of seeing you as a protector of their community, they see you as an arm of ICE.

They fear and distrust you - and the city has earned that distrust.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/129698323.html

Editorial: ICE Age Thaw Results In Improved Deportation Policy

2011-09-12T04:37:00.000-07:00

The Connecticut Law Review
Monday, September 12, 2011

The Editorials on this page are the product of the Editorial Board. The views expressed are not necessarily those of any individual Board Member or of the Law Tribune’s management. The Editorial Board has no role in the management of the Law Tribune.

In the wake of mounting concern over its detention and deportation practices, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) in June announced policy guidelines regarding the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in removal cases. Critics argue that ICE enforcement programs, designed to target and deport illegal immigrants identified as dangerous felons, instead have fostered community insecurity by seizing and deporting thousands of non-citizens with no criminal records or evidence of dangerousness. Indiscriminate enforcement actions are seen as deterring victims, witnesses, and plaintiffs from calling police and pursuing justice for fear of coming to the attention of ICE.

A notable local example occurred early on a June morning in 2007, when armed ICE agents descended on a primarily Latino neighborhood in New Haven. Without warrants or consent and without notice to local authorities, the agents raided numerous private residences and arrested 29 of the occupants. Eleven of those arrested, who were held in custody for days and, in some cases weeks, subsequently sued, alleging that the agents forced their way into their homes illegally, thereby violating their rights under the Fourth, Fifth, and 10th Amendments.

The 11 plaintiffs are represented by Yale Law School’s Jerome Frank Legal Services Organization. The plaintiffs, none of whom are fugitives, argue that the raids were not part of routine immigration enforcement. Instead, citing e-mails between federal officials as evidence, they claim that the raids were in retaliation against the City of New Haven for its decision to issue optional “Elm City Resident Cards” to all residents regardless of their legal status.

Washington Colala is one of those arrested in the 2007 raids. Although he posed no criminal or national security threat, and had a 15-year work history with the community, he was swiftly put into immigration proceedings and a removal order was issued. While he was appealing the removal order, his civil rights case was filed, naming him as one of the 11 plaintiffs. In addition, Colala is the primary witness for his roommate, also a plaintiff. After Colala lost his last appeal and deportation was imminent, his lawyers obtained a temporary stay so they could make their arguments before the federal judge assigned to the civil rights action.

Colala’s bid to stay in the country was denied last December by a sympathetic judge, Judge Stefan Underhill, who could find no basis in the law to forestall deportation orders issued by an immigration court and upheld by an appeals court. Clinic lawyers appealed to ICE Director John Morton to exercise discretion to allow Colala to remain in the country until his civil rights case is concluded. Ultimately, ICE consented to postpone Colala’s deportation for the duration of the lawsuit.

In June of this year, Director Morton issued a new policy regarding the use of prosecutorial discretion in similar situations. In a memo entitled “Certain Victims, Witnesses, and Plaintiffs” he directs that: “Absent special circumstances, it is … against ICE policy to remove individuals in the midst of a legitimate effort to protect their civil rights or liberties.”

A second memo calls on ICE officials to refrain from pursuing non-citizens with close family, educational, military, or other ties to the U.S. and instead focus on persons who pose a serious threat to public safety or national security. It establishes that ICE employees are to consider prosecutorial discretion on a case-by case basis, “without waiting for an alien or alien’s advocate or counsel to request a favorable exercise of discretion.”

Director Morton’s memos make ICE policy clear that prosecutors have, and should exercise, discretion to refrain from pursuing low-priority targets and victims of crime or civil rights violations. However, we note that prosecutorial discretion is a central feature in law enforcement generally, and should not be viewed as extraordinary in the immigration context. Furthermore, the memos establish no guidelines for discretionary review, and include no reporting requirements. At a minimum, ICE employees must be trained to apply the discretionary factors to each case, and to be held accountable when the policies set forth in the memos are not followed.

Unfortunately, even the minimal protections outlined in the Morton memos have already drawn the wrath of some members of Congress. Texas Rep. Lamar Smith immediately introduced a bill titled “Hinder the Administration’s Legalization Temptation Act” (or HALT), which would suspend discretionary enforcement until Jan. 21, 2013 — the day after the first Obama Administration ends.

This type of enforcement-only legislation is exactly the wrong way to address the overwhelming problems in our broken immigration system. We need comprehensive immigration reforms that account for current labor needs, end racial profiling, and provide immigrants with the rights expected under a civilized system of justice. Detaining more immigrants — as would happen if prosecutors had no discretionary authority under the HALT bill — diverts scarce enforcement resources away from the pursuit of dangerous criminals and exacts a needless human toll. A humane and rational system of justice would give eligible undocumented migrants some sort of official status — such as the New Haven Resident Cards and the Dream Act provide — that will bring them out of the shadows, into the workforce, and onto a path towards citizenship.

http://www.ctlawtribune.com/getarticle.aspx?ID=41560

A half-dozen ways in which 9/11 changed the immigration landscape

2011-09-11T05:42:00.000-07:00

By Leslie Berestein Rojas
89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio
September 9, 2011

Last May, after the announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan, I published a short list of some of the most important ways in which the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that he masterminded radically altered the immigration landscape.

The legislative, policy and other changes that have occurred since are almost too numerous to list. Last month, the Migration Policy Institute released a report detailing some of the policy highlights, more than a dozen changes ranging from skyrocketing border and interior immigration enforcement costs to changes in the way we travel (for example, U.S. citizens must now present passports when returning by land, even if it’s from a quick day trip to Tijuana).

Beyond immigration policy, there have been legislative changes such as the still-active Patriot Act, along with less direct but powerful shifts in the nation’s immigration climate that have had led to enforcement-friendly policies and increasingly strict immigration measures at the state level. Less quantifiable, but important still, have been attitudinal changes, particularly toward Muslims, which continue to affect immigrants today.

I’ve updated this list detailing some of the key changes, taking in major post-9/11 shifts in immigration policy, legislation and beyond:

1) The end of INS, the beginning of DHS: The discovery that some of the 9/11 hijackers were in the country on visas that shouldn’t have been granted led to the end of the decades-old Immigration and Naturalization Service in early 2003. Until then, the agency had overseen all immigration functions from visas to border security. It was replaced by the much broader Department of Homeland Security.

Three sub-agencies within DHS were given authority over immigration matters: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (overseeing customs and border security, including the U.S. Border Patrol); U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, overseeing functions such as naturalization and the granting of legal residency; and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which is responsible for immigration enforcement in the United States, oversees immigrant detention and deportation, and is responsible for enforcement policies such as Secure Communities and 287(g).

2) The Patriot Act: Less than two months after the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001,” a controversial measure referred to as the Patriot Act.

This piece of legislation expanded the federal government’s ability to conduct domestic surveillance. Among other things, it allowed law enforcement agents greater ability to conduct wiretaps and to search telephone, e-mail, financial, medical and other records, as well as to conduct property searches without advising the owner. It also made it easier for law enforcement and immigration authorities to detain and deport immigrants suspected of being connected to terrorism and placed greater scrutiny on foreign students. The Patriot Act has long been criticized by civil rights groups, who have alleged misuse and constitutional violations and complain that Middle Eastern immigrants are singled out.

In late May, the Obama administration extended three key provisions of the Patriot Act, including the use of roving wiretaps.

3) The REAL ID Act: This 2005 national security legislation that followed the Patriot Act revolved around establishing national standards for driver’s licenses and identification cards, but it had farther-reaching provisions. The legislation also made it more difficult for immigrants to obtain asylum, and broadened the definition of terrorism-related activities that could lead to detention and deportation. There was also a border security component, most notably a provision that allowed the Department of Homeland Security to waive any laws, environmental or otherwise, and litigation standing in the way of border fence construction.

A precedent was set in the fall of 2005, when then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff exercised the waiver authority in San Diego. This allowed for lawsuits challenging the filling in of a deep canyon with dirt in order to build fencing to be thrown out of court, leading to the costliest stretch of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Other waivers cleared the way for additional U.S.-Mexico border fencing (much more of it, including a failed “virtual fence,” funded under the 2005 Secure Border Initiative); one REAL ID Act waiver authorized a roughly 470 mile stretch of fence. Proponents of border fencing, which was limited before 9/11, say it has helped bring down the number of illegal crossings; immigrant advocates, meanwhile, have long criticized border fencing as driving human smuggling into rougher terrain, leading to border-crossing deaths.

4) Increased immigrant detention and deportations: Under the Obama administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has carried out a record number of deportations. Behind these numbers are a series of ICE policies that kicked in after the agency’s creation in the wake of 9/11, policies that after the attacks focused on weeding out immigrants thought to pose a danger to society. Among these has been a push starting in 2003 to track down “fugitive” immigrants, people who missed an immigration hearing or ignored a deportation order.

The embattled Secure Communities program, also intended to weed out people with criminal records (though many detained have lacked these) is another product of the post-9/11 focus on immigrants believed to present a security threat. In the intervening years, the number of ICE detainees has skyrocketed, as have government contracts with private detention contractors. While detention demand began ticking up in the late 1990s following policy changes, just between 2005 and 2008, the ICE detention budget tripled. In fiscal year 2010, which ended last Sept. 30, ICE deported more than 392,000 people, about half of whom had criminal records.

5) Cooperation between federal immigration officials and local police: The escalating controversy over Secure Communities comes out of a post-9/11 increase in cooperation between federal immigration authorities and state and local agencies. The most public examples of this cooperation are Secure Communities, which allows for the fingerprints of people booked into local jails to be shared with immigration officials. Initiated in 2008, the program is rooted in the post-9/11 drive for national security, but its critics say that while its intent is to net criminals, it lands far too many non-criminals in the deportation net. Cities and states that have tried to back out of the program have not been allowed to; the federal government recently rescinded all state contracts for the program staying participation is mandatory.

Another notable federal-local cooperation is a program known as 287(g), which provides local authorities with ICE training, is used by the county to identify deportable jail inmates. Unlike Secure Communities, agencies’ participation in this program is voluntary. As of late last year, there were 69 law enforcement agencies participating in 24 states; Secure Communities is by now operating in more than 1,500 jurisdictions, according to ICE, whichplans to continue rolling the program out nationwide.

6) Anti-Muslim discrimination: In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes jumped to a record 481 in 2001, according to one news report. The number of hate crimes against Muslims hasn’t been as high since. However, Middle Eastern immigrants in the United States, along with other groups, have since felt targeted for numerous reasons.

Some of the discrimination Muslims in the U.S. have felt since came from institutional sources: In 2002, the federal government launched the since-canceled National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), also referred to as “Special Registration.” Non-citizen men from predominantly Muslim special-interest countries were required to register with their nearest INS office, a program that landed thousands in deportation. Another temporary policy targeting Muslims was Operation Liberty Shield, which required the detention of asylum seekers from nations – again, mostly Muslim countries – where al Qaeda was known to operate. Civil rights advocates have also criticized the surveillance of mosques and Muslim groups by law enforcement officials, including the FBI and, most recently, the New York Police Department.

Overall anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States has spiked more recently, with protests against the building of mosques, from the heated protests that took place in New York City near Ground Zero last year to smaller protests in places like Temecula. Earlier this year, an angry mob shouted “Go back home!” to Muslims attending a fundraising dinner in Yorba Linda. Several non-Muslim Sikhs, who wear turbans, have also been targeted by mistake over the years. This year, two elderly Sikh men died after being shot in March by an unknown assailant as they went for a stroll in their Sacramento suburb.

http://multiamerican.scpr.org/2011/09/a-half-dozen-ways-in-which-911-changed-immigration/

Many deportees unwittingly waive rights, report says

2011-09-10T01:25:00.000-07:00

More than 160,000 immigrants signed so-called stipulated removals, many of them without legal representation or understanding the documents, according to the National Immigration Law Center and legal experts.
By Paloma Esquivel
The Los Angeles Times
September 9, 2011

The U.S. has deported more than 160,000 immigrants, the vast majority of whom had no legal representation — and signed documents they may not have understood — under a program that carries severe penalties should they reenter the country, a report released Thursday said.

According to the National Immigration Law Center and professors at Stanford Law School and Western State University College of Law, immigrants often signed the so-called stipulated removals because they believed it was the only way to avoid prolonged detention. But by agreeing to the removal order, immigrants can be barred from returning to the U.S. and be subject to criminal prosecution for illegal reentry.

"All they hear is that they face more time in detention, often far away from family and friends, unless they agree to their own removal," said Jennifer Lee Koh, an assistant professor at Western State.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Nicole Navas said in a statement that the agency had not had a chance to fully review the study. But, she wrote, "an alien's decision to accept a stipulated removal is strictly voluntary. Before an alien agrees to such an order, ICE procedures require that the process be fully explained to the individual, through an interpreter if necessary."

However Karen Tumlin, managing attorney at the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles, said she interviewed more than a dozen detainees who signed stipulated removal orders at the Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster — none of whom understood what they had agreed to.

"They didn't know what a stipulated order of removal was," she said. "They had absolutely no idea what the legal consequences were."

Some, Tumlin said, thought they were waiting to take their cases before an immigration judge.

The report was based on interviews and a review of more than 20,000 pages of documents made public in a lawsuit filed under the federal Freedom of Information Act. According to those records, nearly 96% of the immigrants selected for stipulated removal in the last decade did not have lawyers. Immigrants who are unrepresented have to rely heavily on information made available to them by officers inside detention facilities.

One document, a two-page script to inform immigrants about stipulated removal, is written in ungrammatical Spanish and says inaccurately that only people who are married to a U.S. resident or citizen, or whose parents or siblings are residents or citizens, can fight deportation.

"Only these three groups can make an application to fix their papers!" the script reads. "You are completely within your right to see the judge but I want you to be aware that this process will take from 6 months to 3 years."

Claudia Valenzuela, an attorney representing an 18-year-old Florida man who recently was deported to Mexico after signing a stipulated removal order, said she was working to get the case reopened and the order rescinded.

The man, who came to the U.S. when he was 4, has a daughter who was born in the U.S. He might have been eligible for some type of relief had he not signed the removal, Valenzuela said.

"From the time he was detained to the time he was ordered removed and physically deported from the country, four days went by," she said. "He did not understand he was waiving away all his rights."

The authors of the report made several recommendations to improve due process protections for immigrants facing stipulated removal, including issuing protocols for using certified interpreters where needed and allowing detainees to attend legal rights presentations before they are offered the removal option.

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Immigration Shift Hasn't Trickled Down to Border Patrol

2011-09-09T01:17:00.000-07:00

By Julian Aguilar
The Texas Tribune
7 September 2011

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in June it was urging prosecutors to use discretion when placing illegal immigrants in deportation proceedings, skeptics urged caution. We’ve heard this before, they claimed.

People like Roxann Lara give them one more reason to say they were right.

Lara, originally from Delicias, Chihuahua, is five months pregnant and the mother of two U.S. citizen children. She is in the country illegally because she overstayed a visa. Her attorney says she’s the “poster child” for leniency under the June directive.

Instead, Lara was detained and processed by immigration authorities in Anthony, N.M., last week after she admitted to having expired documents when local police and U.S. Border Patrol agents came to the door looking for her sister.

It means the “left hand isn’t aware of what the right hand is doing,” said Carlos Spector, Lara’s El Paso-based attorney. "I think it’s important to note that this [directive] has not reached the lowest levels of ICE... because [Border Patrol agents] are still picking up pregnant women."

In the June directive, ICE Director John Morton told prosecutors to evaluate several factors when determining which illegal immigrants to place in deportation proceedings, part of a plan to concentrate ICE’s finite resources on removing the most dangerous criminal aliens. These factors included the immigrant’s health, their children’s immigration status, how long they had been in the country, and whether or not they were “low profile” — the government’s term for non-violent, non-essential deportees. That memo was followed last month by an announcement that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection, would review the cases of the 300,000 people currently in deportation proceedings to determine if any should be released and subsequently allowed to apply for work authorization.

Lara was released from detention, but not until she was hospitalized after becoming panic stricken and physically ill during her stay. She says an agent threatened to deport her to Ciudad Juárez, where drug cartel violence is widespread.

“He said, ‘We have to go get your kids.’ I said ‘No, do what you want with me but leave my kids alone,’” a sobbing Lara told the Tribune by telephone from El Paso. “I told him I was sick and he said it didn’t matter to him.”

Spector said despite Lara's release, she has been issued a notice to appear before a judge. He said he intends to ask the judge to dismiss the case based on the Morton memo.

“The new policy says they shouldn’t pick up pregnant women or sick people," Spector said. "What we want to see and ask is, what does the Border Patrol think of the Morton memo?”

When asked if the Border Patrol has amended it’s policies since the Morton memo was issued, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol El Paso sector told the Tribune agents are required to detain anyone who is unauthorized to be in the country. They can't give out warnings the way police officers can, he said; the immigration courts are the ones that ultimately make the decisions.

In Lara's case, Agent Ramiro Cordero said, Border Patrol "did exactly what we were supposed to do. If the courts grant that person some type of legal document, then the system works." Cordero added that the Morton memo was directed at federal prosecutors, who are overseen by ICE. U.S. Border Patrol, he said, is under the purview of Customs and Border Protection.

"Until there is policy and guidance from DHS, we still do what we have to do," he said.

“Not a revolutionary concept”

By the government’s own admission, internal policy changes can be slow-going. The agency's plan for reviewing deportation cases is still being crafted, so no individual cases have been closed, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesman who asked not to be identified.

Immigration policy experts say they’re not surprised that there hasn’t been an immediate and sweeping change in policy. The Morton memo doesn’t reinvent the system, they say.

“Prosecutorial discretion is not new. It’s not a revolutionary concept," said Muzaffar Chishti, an attorney and director of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University School of Law. "In an immigration context there have been guidelines about discretion for a very long time.”

A prosecutorial discretion memo issued in November 2000 by then-Immigration and Naturalization Services Commissioner Doris Meissner, now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, said the agency had finite resources, and prosecuting all immigration cases was “not possible.” It instructed prosecutors to consider immigrants' criminal history, immigration history, cooperation with authorities, military service and humanitarian concerns, like conditions in the peron's home country and their health.

But when the Morton memo was issued in June, it still caused an uproar among Republican hardliners like U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, who called it “backdoor amnesty” and introduced a still-pending bill to dilute the administration’s immigration enforcement powers.

What's different about the agency's current policy, Chishti said, is that the government has stated it will review pending cases, not just use new standards for future ones. But he said it’s unclear how these policies will be implemented at the local level.

“The most critical part of this policy is going to be how they monitor it in the field,” Chishti said. “How are you going to notify people... and what is the accountability if an officer chooses not to exercise the discretion on the basis of the guidelines?"

Lara’s case indicates that, at least in certain Border Patrol sectors, the jury is still out.

http://www.texastribune.org/immigration-in-texas/immigration/despite-policy-shift-deportations-proceedings-cont/

Destruye deportaciones a EU: sacerdote Baggio

2011-09-08T01:49:00.000-07:00

El Mañana
Lunes, 05 de Septiembre de 2011

El sacerdote reconoció que así como EU ha asumido algunas actitudes injustas
Con las deportaciones masivas que Estados Unidos efectúa, está construyendo su autodestrucción consideró el padre Gianntonio Baggio, coordinador de la Casa del Migrante en Nuevo Laredo.

NUEVO LAREDO.-Al resaltar el trabajo que los migrantes para el desarrollo de Estados Unidos y que ha repercutido en su economía, el sacerdote calificó como un acto criminal el que ahora a los migrantes se les amenace con encarcelarlos por el simple hecho de buscar una vida mejor.

“No se puede determinar que una persona sea criminal solamente por buscar una vida digna y ya sean criminales y sean encarcelados, solamente porque busca un mejor futuro o desarrollo sin hacerle daño a nadie”, comentó.

“Al contrario, la historia prueba especialmente en los Estados Unidos que los migrantes han hecho el bienestar, la potencia, la belleza de Estados Unidos, fueron los migrantes los que lo hicieron.

Ahora decir que los migrantes son criminales es propiamente una contradicción, es criminal decir que los migrantes son criminales”, agregó.

Indicó que aun y cuando los que provienen de países de Centroamérica u otros estados del interior de México han disminuido considerablemente, todo lo contrario sucede con los deportados.

“Lentamente, poco a poco a poco, durante el años se va registrando la cantidad de migrantes que llegan a esta ciudad para cruzar a los Estados Unidos, y vemos que ha disminuido su llegada, esto desde el 2008 y más durante el 2010; en este 2011 van 3 mil 700 los hermanos que hemos atendido en el albergue”, declaró.

“Todo lo contrario sucede con el número de deportaciones, es triste y lamentable que estas se hayan incrementando, simplemente el año pasado fueorn70 mil los deportados por esta frontera de nuevo Laredo; aquí si se está registrando un aumento”, comentó.

BUENAS NOTICIAS

El sacerdote reconoció que así como EU ha asumido algunas actitudes injustas, racistas y discriminatorias como las deportaciones que han ocasionado la desintegración de familias, también algunos estados como California está aplicando un poco el criterio en caso de deportación.

“También por lo migrantes sabemos unas de las últimas noticias que son buenas para los propios migrantes, como son los casos de migrantes que estudian y no tiene papeles, que tiene sentido común por encima de sus leyes”, dijo.

“Las asociaciones que velan por los migrantes en California está dando fondos para aquellos estudiantes que no tienen papeles para estar en California y que están preparándose, son pequeños indicios y es una muestra de que el sentido común está más fuerte que sus leyes”, afirmó.

Otro de los casos dijo, son casos de deportaciones que no se han realizado por lo propios agentes de migración. “Los agentes (migración) han decidido dar menos énfasis en buscar a menos migrantes, sólo en aquellos que cometen una falta, los que consideran peligrosos y no sólo porque no tienen papeles”, agregó.

“Han habido casos de migrantes que tiene su familia allá, que trabajan y que no tiene papeles, los han detectado, pero no los deportan, lo consideran urgente e importante, incluso le dan la oportunidad de arreglar sus papeles, aplican el sentido común; aun y cuando son casos muy aislados, son buenas noticias para los migrantes”, concluyó.

http://www.elmanana.com.mx/notas.asp?id=253421

Mexican farm workers in Vermont fear Secure Communities program

2011-09-07T03:43:00.000-07:00

By LISA RATHKE
Bennington Banner
Monday September 5, 2011

MONTPELIER (AP) -- A federal program intended to identify and deport illegal immigrants is raising fears in Vermont, where Mexican farmhands, many without immigration papers, are a staple of the $560 million dairy industry.

Opponents say aggressive enforcement of the Secure Communities initiative could harm the state's struggling dairy industry and turn many of the 1,200 to 1,500 migrant workers into prisoners of the farms where they work, afraid to venture out because it could lead to arrest and deportation.

"It's not going to do us any good. It can only do us potential harm," said Clark Hinsdale, a dairy farmer and president of the Vermont Farm Bureau.

The program requires state and local law enforcement officials to send criminal suspects' fingerprints to the FBI, where they are run through a database to determine the person's immigration status.

Massachusetts and Illinois are among a handful of states that have defied a U.S. Homeland Security mandate to participate in the program, saying they should not be required to enforce federal laws.

Advocates for the workers say it hurts public safety because immigrants will be afraid to report crimes to police out of fear of deportation.

Over Lopez, 21, has gathered 70 signatures from fellow farm workers who want Vermont to reject the program. The VT Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project also is seeking signatures from farmers and the public.

"I also want the people of Vermont, the governor and Vermont representatives to tell Obama to fulfill his unfulfilled promises to the Latino community that helped elect him by stopping this unjust program that is tearing apart our communities and work for comprehensive and just immigration reform," he said in a written statement.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said last week that the department would focus on deporting illegal immigrants who are criminals or pose a threat to national security or public safety. The move came amid protests from immigrant communities that the Obama administration is too centered on deporting illegal immigrants who have no prior offense or who have been picked up for traffic violations or other minor offenses.

The Department of Homeland Security says Secure Communities is an information sharing program that is focused on criminal offenders.

Between October 2008 and October 2010, the number of convicted criminals that Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed from the United States increased 71 percent, while the number of immigrants removed without criminal convictions dropped by 23 percent. The Secure Communities program is an attributing factor, the department said.

The program is a basic component of immigration enforcement, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which supports it and advocates for tougher immigration laws.

He said the program targets people who've already been arrested for a crime.

"This is not stopping people while they're taking their kids to the ice cream store and asking for their driver's license like the Arizona law opponents were saying," he said. "This is people arrested, booked, their fingerprints are taken."

Some local police agencies in Vermont have taken a hands-off approach, focusing on criminal activity and not immigration status.

"What it means is that they're supposed to be pursuing a federal priority which may be a federal priority in Arizona but it's not a priority in Vermont," Hinsdale said of the federal program.

Many farmers struggle to find workers in rural areas to milk cows and do other hard work and have come to rely on farm workers from Mexico. Because their business is year-round, dairy farms aren't eligible for foreign workers under the H2A temporary visa worker programs used by crop farmers, although Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy has pushed for a change.

"These workers are quality workers, they're valued and they're liked in the farm community," Hinsdale said.

But state Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, who represents the farming community of Orleans County, said he's heard complaints from workers who said they were laid off because a farm wanted to hire less expensive Mexican workers.

Leahy thinks the initiative in practice captures more immigrants than the criminals it purports to target, resulting in a significant number of people with low-level prior offenses being put into deportation proceedings, Carle said.

"In Vermont who this would affect are some of the hardest working people working in some of our most core industries -- like our dairy industry -- and many of our other agriculture industries, and so we think it's a flawed program that should be stopped, and we need real immigration reform," said James Haslam, executive director of the Vermont Workers' Center.

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/business/ci_18831834

Se dispara deportación de migrantes

2011-09-06T01:15:00.000-07:00

Por: OSVALDO RODRÍGUEZ
El Manaña
Sábado, 03 de Septiembre de 2011

Sólo en agosto se incrementó 55%, al registrarse 153 traslados

NUEVO LAREDO.-En agosto se registró un aumento en el número de mexicanos deportados que fueron enviados a sus lugares de origen. Alfredo Benavides Díaz, titular de la Oficina Regional del Servicio Nacional del Empleo (SNE) en Nuevo Laredo, comentó sobre el número que se registró el pasado mes en el programa de Repatriados Desalentados (Redes).

"En agosto se enviaron 153 ciudadanos a sus lugares de origen, en el programa de Redes, que comparado con meses de años anteriores incluso hay una diferencia abismal, supera por mucho", comentó Benavides Díaz.

Afirmó que en lo que va del año se han enviado 280 por lo que los 153 se habla de que es prácticamente el 55% de todo lo registrado en el año.

"Estamos notando que ya hay más gente que se quiere regresar a sus lugares de origen, porque estos son canalizados a través de la encuesta que les hace el Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM)", comentó Benavides Díaz.

Los repatriados en este programa se canalizan gracias a un cuestionario que llena el deportado cuando retorna a territorio nacional y son captados por los oficiales de Migración, en donde al final de su cuestionario se les pregunta respecto a su futuro.

Si intentarán cruzar nuevamente a Estados Unidos, si se quedarán en la frontera o desean retornar a sus lugares de origen, es la última respuesta que deben dar los ciudadanos deportados, y hoy en día ya se detectan más candidatos a Redes.

"Con base en esa encuesta es como se canalizan a los candidatos y se empiezan los trámites para estas personas", comentó. Al llegar a su localidad la Oficina del Servicio Nacional del Empleo, en dicho municipio o población, le proporcionan mil pesos para que pueda trasladarse a los lugares en donde es candidato a trabajar, ya que se le buscan ofertas de empleo.

En este programa se han enviado deportados a 30 estados de la República Mexicana, solamente Baja California y Sinaloa no han tenido repatriados, los más recurrentes; Estado de México, Guanajuato, Veracruz, Guerrero, Chiapas, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí.

http://www.elmanana.com.mx/notas.asp?id=253169

Suman 1,200 deportados en cuatro días por Reynosa

2011-09-05T01:11:00.000-07:00

Por: Juan Carlos Rodríguez Terrazas
MetroNoticias
Fecha: 2011-09-02

* No hay presupuesto para su retorno a casa

* Consideran que un 50% se quedarán aquí

Por Juan Carlos Rodríguez Terrazas/MetroNoticias

Reynosa, Tam.- Una cifra record de connacionales deportados de los Estados Unidos arribaron por esta frontera a México en los últimos cuatro días.

Se trata de 1,200 personas, entre ellos cuando menos 50 menores de edad a quienes diversos albergues no pudieron atender ya que se encuentran saturados, reportó el Presidente de la Fundación “A Corazón Abierto”, Margarito Grajeda López.

El también integrante de la Asociación Nacional para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos y la Vigilancia Permanente de la Ley, señaló que la totalidad de estas personas con lanzados por el puente internacional Reynosa-Hidalgo y son dejados a la deriva por las autoridades migratorias de nuestro país.

Las personas llegan sin dinero, asustadas y algunos hasta golpeados.

Se trata en su mayoría de trabajadores del campo, jardineros, empleadas de casa, plomeros, albañiles y electricistas que tuvieron algunos de ellos largas estadías en el vecino país de donde fueron echados, prácticamente solo con lo que traían puesto.

Sin nada que comer, frustrados y con un gran rencor a su infeliz destino, se trata de gente que en su mayoría estaba en estados como Nueva York, Texas, Distrito de Colombia, Idaho, Illinois, Alabama y demás, inclusive de Canadá, país limítrofe de Estados Unidos situado al norte.

Se calcula que en los últimos días estuvieron siendo expulsados por esta frontera un promedio de 300 personas, que cuando mucho, los que “se avivaron” recibieron algún alimento en los albergues, pero no pudieron quedarse porque no hay espacio.

SIN CONTROL POLICIACO

Grajeda López, dijo que desafortunadamente ni Migración ni la Policía Federal Preventiva, llevan a cabo la revisión de antecedentes de muchas de estas personas entre quienes han llegado ex reos federales del vecino país que llevaban muchos años en presidio, inclusive algunos a quienes sus familiares daban por muertos.

La situación es difícil por el lado que se le vea, dijo el filántropo y defensor de los derechos humanos, ya que la gente que tiene antecedentes penales en un rato de desesperación no mide las consecuencias y pueden reincidir en conductas delictivas con tal de sobrevivir.

Apuntó el dirigente de ”A Corazón Abierto” que es muy probable que un 50 por ciento de estas personas se reintegren a sus hogares en México en los próximos días con sus propios recursos que solicitarán a sus familiares, pero estadísticamente el restante 50 por ciento se va a quedar aquí para intentar regresar a Estados Unidos, mientras que otra gran parte de ellos se quedaran a vivir en los cinturones de miseria, hasta en tanto se aclimaten y encuentren un trabajo.

El municipio, a decir del propio alcalde Everardo Villarreal Salinas, solo dispone de un presupuesto de 1 millón 200 mil pesos anuales para alimentar, hospedar y repatriar a estas personas a sus hogares, mismo que se agotó desde los primeros meses de la presente administración ante el fuerte volumen de deportados que han expulsado a nuestro país las autoridades yanquis.

http://www.metronoticias.com.mx/nota.cgi?id=61414

Acoso contra migrantes termina con ''sueño americano'': Iglesia Nota

2011-09-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

Gobernador.com.mx

El obispo auxiliar del Distrito Federal dice "que en México podemos vivir pobremente pero de una manera más decorosa."

El llamado 'sueño americano' es un mito dado el ambiente hostil que se ha creado en EU contra los migrantes.

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (03/SEP/2011).- El llamado 'sueño americano' es un mito dado el ambiente hostil, de zozobra y marginación que se ha creado en Estados Unidos contra los migrantes durante los últimos años, aseveró el obispo auxiliar del Distrito Federal, Armando Colín Cruz.

Al comentar la experiencia de la segunda visita pastoral que realizó a comunidades de migrantes hispanos de las Diócesis de Gaylord y Kalamazoo, en Michigan, indicó que esa situación sólo confirma 'que en México podemos vivir pobremente pero de una manera más decorosa'.

Armando Colín describió el ambiente de zozobra, incertidumbre, marginación, pobreza relativa, además del acoso de las autoridades migratorias, cada vez más intenso, que se ha manifestado en la separación de muchas familias de migrantes en el país vecino.

Planteó que al margen de los innumerables estudios económicos que demuestran la contribución de ese sector a la economía estadunidense al tomar trabajos que nadie más está dispuesto a ocupar, lo cierto es que los propios migrantes deberían poner en la balanza los y contras de su situación.

'Algunos sienten que son afortunados porque lograron cruzar, encontraron trabajo y un rincón donde dormir y porque envían dólares a su familia, pero siguen siendo migrantes e ilegales, obligados a desplazarse en busca de trabajo y siempre con el temor de que ese sueño termine trágicamente', externó.

Mencionó que las diócesis visitadas se ubican casi en la frontera con Canadá, donde los migrantes viven mayoritariamente en viejas y deterioradas casas rodantes y cuando llega el invierno a la región de los grandes lagos norteamericanos el trabajo del campo se extingue.

El obispo puso como ejemplo lo que llamó un 'ciclo desalmado' con la cosecha del blueberry (mora azul) en Kalamazoo: 'es un trabajo difícil, los árboles son muy pequeños y sólo se puede recolectar el fruto en horas muy específicas pues si aquel está húmedo no se puede pizcar'.

Comentó que la gente vive atada a los vaivenes del temporal, atenta a la orden para poder pizcar, trabajar muy rápido para poder sacar el día y esperar en el desasosiego que la niebla pueda darles oportunidad de obtener alguna paga.

Mientras, contó, viven expectantes y a salto de mata de las autoridades migratorias y cuando la labor termina recorren el país en el miedo intranquilo por hallar trabajo y no ser deportados.

Colín Cruz señaló que allí se puede observar de primera mano la situación muy compleja de los migrantes, sus tragedias, los peligros de la deportación y las injusticias; todo en medio del arduo trabajo cotidiano.

Subrayó que aun cuando familias enteras lleven más de diez años viviendo allá si los detienen las autoridades migratorias las deportan.

Aseguró que, incluso, entre los proyectos de defensa y protección de migrantes en Estados Unidos hay uno que consiste en difundir entre los familiares de los migrantes que permanecen en sus países de origen que 'el sueño americano no es tal sueño'.

De igual forma, aumenta de manera constante el número de migrantes que regresan a sus lugares de origen más pobres de lo que estaban cuando partieron.

'Allá para vivir cuesta mucho. Algunos logran salir adelante o tener un trabajo medianamente estable, pero son muy pocos, la mayoría no lo logra', recalcó el prelado.

http://www.informador.com.mx/mexico/2011/319578/6/acoso-contra-migrantes-termina-con-sueno-americano-iglesia.htm