By Patric Hedlund
The Mountain Enterprise
December 24, 2010
Officials have confirmed that five people were seized Friday, Dec. 3 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Rumors alleging that 30 people were taken into custody appear to be untrue.
ICE officers with the Fugitive Operations Team based in Bakersfield “arrested five males in the Frazier Park area on December 3,” according to ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice. “The subjects included a Mexican national with an outstanding order of deportation. He was arrested at a residence where officers located two additional Mexican nationals who were also determined to be in the country illegally. One of the two had a prior DUI conviction. All three of these individuals have since been repatriated to Mexico,” she said.
The other subjects taken into custody, according to Kice, include a naturalized French citizen of Lebanese descent who overstayed his visa and a Syrian national who was determined to have entered the country illegally.
“Both of these men have been placed in removal proceedings and remain in ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge,” Kice said.
The two still detained pending hearings are said to be in the Lerdo Corrections Facility. Both were employees of Sam’s Liquor Market in Lebec, friends have confirmed.
A family member said they have an attorney’s assistance and “they are being treated very well.”
In the early morning action that began at 4:30 a.m., the five were taken from Frazier Park and Lebec, according to a call that went through Kern County Sheriff’s dispatch. The Bakersfield ICE office originally told The Mountain Enterprise that the only way to officially confirm the number of people seized from the Mountain Communities would be through a Freedom of Information Act filing in Washington D.C. By Friday, Dec. 17 the ICE offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles began providing factual information.
Meanwhile, rumors were running wild in the affected neighborhoods of the Frazier Mountain Communities.
Rumors that mothers and fathers were seized, leaving children at the El Tejon School are not true, according to Principal Dena Kiouses. She said she is positive that reports circulating in the community of “agents in black uniforms visiting the school to tell children their parents are in custody and that they would be going into foster care” are not true.
“This is a time of year when parents do tend to move, and we sometimes do not know why,” Kiouses said, adding that if children go into foster care the school is typically not notified. One kindergarten-age child enrolled at Frazier Park School is said to have gone back to Mexico with his father.
Parents have reported to The Mountain Enterprise that children and families are fearful of going outside or answering the door.
The popular Lebec man known as “Nathan,” (his last name is not confirmed) who reportedly managed Sam’s Liquor for seven years, had been a frequent donor to children’s sports activities in the Mountain Communities. He is well-known in the region for generosity to families in need, friends say. Some children are said to be confused regarding his disappearance. Children have been reported to have heard the word “visa” was in the newspaper, and told their parents: “Nathan is being deported because he didn’t pay his visa bill.” More than one parent reported this confusion to reporters.
Although The Mountain Enterprise was unable to obtain immediate official confirmation of the facts, two preliminary stories were published on December 10 and 17. Because of the delicacy of personal and legal issues, community sources have been slow to allow their names to be used. The national ICE office spokespersons were also slow to respond. Retired ICE agents and a former immigration judge have been helpful in providing details about ICE procedures.
Joseph Whalen of Buffalo, New York, a retired adjudication officer, who worked making decisions on citizenship, explained that information about a person in ICE custody—and communication with the prisoner— is available only to “an accredited representative, as designated on form G-28, from the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review and signed by the alien.”
Whalen warned that he has seen some people known as “notarios” exploit families with immigration status problems. Sometimes they represent themselves as lawyers (abogados), but they are not,” he said.
Whalen added that the League of United Latin American Citizens (http:// lulac.org) is a resource for Latinos seeking accurate immigrant rights information.
http://mountainenterprise.com/atf.php?sid=7961¤t_edition=2010-12-24
Showing posts with label Deportation Raids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deportation Raids. Show all posts
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
ICE Raids Throughout Imperial County
KYMA News
June 20, 2010
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents raided homes in the Imperial Valley today.
This was a special section of ICE -- the Violent Criminal Alien Section of the Criminal Alien Program.
The Agents began the early morning with a 5:30 a.m. briefing. They reviewed each fugitive and possible challenges.
The first raid was in Calexico. The suspect was convicted of battery. No one answers the door. A neighbor tells Agents' the family went to Mexicali.
Agent Miguel Munoz explains to News 11 that they send a "lookout" to the Port of Entry officials. This way, they will be detained on their way back into the United States.
But at the second home, Agents had better luck. Truck driver Joaquin Leon Urquiza is there. Urquiza was convicted of negligent discharge of a homemade firearm.
With the suspect's permission, Agents enter the apartment. They take extra precaution because a child is home.
Agents don't enter with their weapons drawn. To the contrary, they do their best to keep the situation calm.
The Agents went to two more homes in Brawley, but the suspects were not home. However, the Agents gave the person home a business card -- a last effort for the suspects to turn themselves in.
The final stop is in Westmorland. It's for a 62 year old man who was convicted of possession of marijuana in 1985. He was also arrested for drug trafficking in 1991, but those charges were dismissed.
For more than 20 years, Anadeto Angulo has been trying to fight the courts and stay in the United States instead of return to Mexico.
However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave him a final notice to leave the U.S. or else he would be arrested.
That's exactly what happened.
Angulo and Urquiza were processed. They will be given a notice to appear in court and/or be deported.
http://www.kyma.com/slp.php?idN=3667
June 20, 2010
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents raided homes in the Imperial Valley today.
This was a special section of ICE -- the Violent Criminal Alien Section of the Criminal Alien Program.
The Agents began the early morning with a 5:30 a.m. briefing. They reviewed each fugitive and possible challenges.
The first raid was in Calexico. The suspect was convicted of battery. No one answers the door. A neighbor tells Agents' the family went to Mexicali.
Agent Miguel Munoz explains to News 11 that they send a "lookout" to the Port of Entry officials. This way, they will be detained on their way back into the United States.
But at the second home, Agents had better luck. Truck driver Joaquin Leon Urquiza is there. Urquiza was convicted of negligent discharge of a homemade firearm.
With the suspect's permission, Agents enter the apartment. They take extra precaution because a child is home.
Agents don't enter with their weapons drawn. To the contrary, they do their best to keep the situation calm.
The Agents went to two more homes in Brawley, but the suspects were not home. However, the Agents gave the person home a business card -- a last effort for the suspects to turn themselves in.
The final stop is in Westmorland. It's for a 62 year old man who was convicted of possession of marijuana in 1985. He was also arrested for drug trafficking in 1991, but those charges were dismissed.
For more than 20 years, Anadeto Angulo has been trying to fight the courts and stay in the United States instead of return to Mexico.
However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave him a final notice to leave the U.S. or else he would be arrested.
That's exactly what happened.
Angulo and Urquiza were processed. They will be given a notice to appear in court and/or be deported.
http://www.kyma.com/slp.php?idN=3667
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Cockfighting suspects could be deported
By Tom Collins
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The News Tribune
Ten men charged in a cockfighting ring broken up Saturday north of Meriden and northeast of Mendota could face deportation as well as prison time.
Rudolfo Villanueva, 51, of 4729 E. Sixth Road, Earlville was charged with animal fighting for entertainment, a Class 4 felony carrying a possible punishment of 1-3 years in prison.
Villanueva is the owner of the property where police from several agencies discovered a cockfighting operation in which participants allegedly agreed to pay $1,000 to enter five gamecocks into the fight.
Nine other men, mostly spectators who paid admission, also were charged with animal fighting for entertainment. They are Jose D. Ulloa, 28, of Joliet; Jose M. Alicea Reyes, 36, of Oswego; Juan Galvan, 34, of Joliet; Jorge Ramirez, 33, of Montgomery; Ramon M. Magana, 37, of Aurora; Luis Lopez Ceja, 41, of Pino Suarez, Guadalajara, Mexico; and Luis P. Lopez, 39, Luis Perez, 35, and Jacobo Perez Lopez, 37, all of Milwaukee, Wis.
All appeared Thursday in La Salle County Circuit Court. There, Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. set new court dates for Jan. 8 and admonished each man that he could face deportation, though the immigration status of the men was not immediately clear. All appeared with a Spanish-speaking interpreter.
The cockfighting raid was the culmination of a two-month investigation begun in Cook County and which led agents to the La Salle County farm. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said the cockfighting ring had been in operation for at least five years and generated thousands of dollars in illegal cash, some of which may have been used to fund illegal gun and drug purchases.
All birds were euthanized at the scene.
http://www.newstrib.com/articles/news/local/default.asp?article=506947C7CDAE12E2C792D487C43F878B82A20B5BE348FD88
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The News Tribune
Ten men charged in a cockfighting ring broken up Saturday north of Meriden and northeast of Mendota could face deportation as well as prison time.
Rudolfo Villanueva, 51, of 4729 E. Sixth Road, Earlville was charged with animal fighting for entertainment, a Class 4 felony carrying a possible punishment of 1-3 years in prison.
Villanueva is the owner of the property where police from several agencies discovered a cockfighting operation in which participants allegedly agreed to pay $1,000 to enter five gamecocks into the fight.
Nine other men, mostly spectators who paid admission, also were charged with animal fighting for entertainment. They are Jose D. Ulloa, 28, of Joliet; Jose M. Alicea Reyes, 36, of Oswego; Juan Galvan, 34, of Joliet; Jorge Ramirez, 33, of Montgomery; Ramon M. Magana, 37, of Aurora; Luis Lopez Ceja, 41, of Pino Suarez, Guadalajara, Mexico; and Luis P. Lopez, 39, Luis Perez, 35, and Jacobo Perez Lopez, 37, all of Milwaukee, Wis.
All appeared Thursday in La Salle County Circuit Court. There, Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. set new court dates for Jan. 8 and admonished each man that he could face deportation, though the immigration status of the men was not immediately clear. All appeared with a Spanish-speaking interpreter.
The cockfighting raid was the culmination of a two-month investigation begun in Cook County and which led agents to the La Salle County farm. The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said the cockfighting ring had been in operation for at least five years and generated thousands of dollars in illegal cash, some of which may have been used to fund illegal gun and drug purchases.
All birds were euthanized at the scene.
http://www.newstrib.com/articles/news/local/default.asp?article=506947C7CDAE12E2C792D487C43F878B82A20B5BE348FD88
Monday, August 17, 2009
SCO: Deputies raid Phoenix business, make 44 arrests
Reported by: Brent Roulier
Reported by: MaryEllen Resendez
ABC15.com
8/14/2009
PHOENIX – The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office announced Friday that 10 to 15 employees called in sick for work Thursday morning, the same day their south Phoenix business was raided.
Deputies arrested 44 people during the raid at the Royal Paper Converting Company located near 17th Avenue and Fillmore Street.
According to Friday's MCSO news release, the employees who called in sick were scheduled to work later in the day at a second location on Lower Buckeye Road and that business was investigated hours after the initial search.
MCSO did not release any information about the second raid.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the managers at Royal Paper Converting Company knowingly hired undocumented immigrants who were using false identification documents to get hired.
But the Sheriff also admitted to reporters he has no evidence against the company.
The search warrant was granted on evidence gathered with social security numbers used by 39 of the workers.
Arpaio said this is the second time in two years his deputies received information that the company was hiring undocumented immigrants. The first raid occurred in March of 2008 and resulted in the arrest of four employees accused of identity theft, according to a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office news release.
"So they're still coming, they're still arrogant, they're still being hired and they're still working," Arpaio said during a news conference Thursday. "So, nothing has really changed since we cracked down on this situation."
But according to Virginia Reyna, who waited anxiously outside for her 19-year-old niece, many of the workers held were legal.
"I'm upset with the stuff they're doing with the innocent people inside, " said Reyna. He's (Arpaio) cruel. He should get other people who are doing harm, instead of innocent people like this."
During Thursday's incident, about 100 deputies and posse members surrounded the business. According to the news release, "Several employees attempted to flee but were found and detained by deputies."
MCSO stated that 102 people were targeted during the investigation. Of those, so far 44 have been arrested. Thirty-five of those arrested face state felony charges of identity theft.
Angela Aspericueta, whose family member is legally working at the paper plant, worried about the female workers being detained.
"They're doing everything wrong, cause the people who have kids in school," said Aspericueta. "What if they take their moms? What are they gonna do?"
According to the release, the remaining employees will be sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) where they'll face deportation.
During the raid, deputies removed computers, employment records, payroll records, and other documents from the premises.
Arpaio said deputies are still searching for 60 suspects involved with the Royal Paper Converting Company and the investigation into the company's alleged illegal practices will continue.
"This investigation is far from over," said Arpaio. I would hope that this Phoenix-based company concentrates on hiring people who are legal to work in the country in light of the current economic situation."
According to Friday's news release, "As information of the Sheriff's Office raid hit local news broadcasts, people began showing up at Royal Paper looking for jobs."
"This proves again that people in thie country legally are willing to do jobs that many politicians claim they will not do," said Arpaio. "President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano feel that law enforcement should concentrate their enforcement efforts on employers, not employees. I feel that we need to enforce all immigration laws."
Of the employees who reportedly called in sick, one was arrested at her home near 75th Avenue and Camelback Road. She was booked into jail on forgery and identity theft charges, according to MCSO.
Thursday's arrests were the result of a yearlong investigation, according to Deputy Lindsey Smith with MCSO.
MCSO says Thursday's raid marked the 23rd investigation that has resulted in the arrests of 311 undocumented immigrants.
"We have potentially created over 300 jobs for legal residents of this country because of these types of investigations," said Arpaio. "Those are real numbers, not like the estimates that you get out of Washington D.C. when attempting to justify claims on the success of the recent stimulus bill."
During Thursday's news conference, Arpaio added that during the past two weeks alone deputies have arrested 168 undocumented immigrants during several investigations.
"I'm pleased to see that local ICE authorities apparently may have changed their position about accepting people for possible deportation who we determined during today's operation are in the country illegally but with no state violations of the law," said Arpaio.
Arpaio said that only three weeks ago, ICE officials ordered his office to release 10 undocumented immigrants from custody.
"Today, they are accepting our arrests with no apparent interference from the Department of Homeland Security. That's a good sign," said Arpaio.
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/MSCO-Deputies-raid-Phoenix-business-make-44/6ijeFwQivkGjUDfj99i6Mg.cspx
Reported by: MaryEllen Resendez
ABC15.com
8/14/2009
PHOENIX – The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office announced Friday that 10 to 15 employees called in sick for work Thursday morning, the same day their south Phoenix business was raided.
Deputies arrested 44 people during the raid at the Royal Paper Converting Company located near 17th Avenue and Fillmore Street.
According to Friday's MCSO news release, the employees who called in sick were scheduled to work later in the day at a second location on Lower Buckeye Road and that business was investigated hours after the initial search.
MCSO did not release any information about the second raid.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the managers at Royal Paper Converting Company knowingly hired undocumented immigrants who were using false identification documents to get hired.
But the Sheriff also admitted to reporters he has no evidence against the company.
The search warrant was granted on evidence gathered with social security numbers used by 39 of the workers.
Arpaio said this is the second time in two years his deputies received information that the company was hiring undocumented immigrants. The first raid occurred in March of 2008 and resulted in the arrest of four employees accused of identity theft, according to a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office news release.
"So they're still coming, they're still arrogant, they're still being hired and they're still working," Arpaio said during a news conference Thursday. "So, nothing has really changed since we cracked down on this situation."
But according to Virginia Reyna, who waited anxiously outside for her 19-year-old niece, many of the workers held were legal.
"I'm upset with the stuff they're doing with the innocent people inside, " said Reyna. He's (Arpaio) cruel. He should get other people who are doing harm, instead of innocent people like this."
During Thursday's incident, about 100 deputies and posse members surrounded the business. According to the news release, "Several employees attempted to flee but were found and detained by deputies."
MCSO stated that 102 people were targeted during the investigation. Of those, so far 44 have been arrested. Thirty-five of those arrested face state felony charges of identity theft.
Angela Aspericueta, whose family member is legally working at the paper plant, worried about the female workers being detained.
"They're doing everything wrong, cause the people who have kids in school," said Aspericueta. "What if they take their moms? What are they gonna do?"
According to the release, the remaining employees will be sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) where they'll face deportation.
During the raid, deputies removed computers, employment records, payroll records, and other documents from the premises.
Arpaio said deputies are still searching for 60 suspects involved with the Royal Paper Converting Company and the investigation into the company's alleged illegal practices will continue.
"This investigation is far from over," said Arpaio. I would hope that this Phoenix-based company concentrates on hiring people who are legal to work in the country in light of the current economic situation."
According to Friday's news release, "As information of the Sheriff's Office raid hit local news broadcasts, people began showing up at Royal Paper looking for jobs."
"This proves again that people in thie country legally are willing to do jobs that many politicians claim they will not do," said Arpaio. "President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano feel that law enforcement should concentrate their enforcement efforts on employers, not employees. I feel that we need to enforce all immigration laws."
Of the employees who reportedly called in sick, one was arrested at her home near 75th Avenue and Camelback Road. She was booked into jail on forgery and identity theft charges, according to MCSO.
Thursday's arrests were the result of a yearlong investigation, according to Deputy Lindsey Smith with MCSO.
MCSO says Thursday's raid marked the 23rd investigation that has resulted in the arrests of 311 undocumented immigrants.
"We have potentially created over 300 jobs for legal residents of this country because of these types of investigations," said Arpaio. "Those are real numbers, not like the estimates that you get out of Washington D.C. when attempting to justify claims on the success of the recent stimulus bill."
During Thursday's news conference, Arpaio added that during the past two weeks alone deputies have arrested 168 undocumented immigrants during several investigations.
"I'm pleased to see that local ICE authorities apparently may have changed their position about accepting people for possible deportation who we determined during today's operation are in the country illegally but with no state violations of the law," said Arpaio.
Arpaio said that only three weeks ago, ICE officials ordered his office to release 10 undocumented immigrants from custody.
"Today, they are accepting our arrests with no apparent interference from the Department of Homeland Security. That's a good sign," said Arpaio.
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/MSCO-Deputies-raid-Phoenix-business-make-44/6ijeFwQivkGjUDfj99i6Mg.cspx
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Study shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids leave dissenters cold
By Albor Ruiz
The New York Daily News
July 23rd 2009
Heavily armed men in uniforms, breaking into private homes before dawn, seizing people without probable cause.
This has become the routine behavior of immigration agents during raids - without warrants or other authorization - on the homes of the undocumented, says a new report released Wednesday.
"Constitution on ICE: A Report on Immigration Home Raid Operations" was conducted by the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. The study found that it is not uncommon for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to seize residents without legal basis.
This practice, which smacks of racial profiling, is not new. Many people have known about it for a long time. But the study makes clear that it is more widespread than anybody suspected.
"This report reveals an alarming pattern of federal immigration officials breaking into people's homes and bedrooms in the predawn hours in flagrant violation of the Constitution," said Peter Markowitz, the Immigration Justice Clinic director and co-author of the report.
One has to wonder if those who keep repeating, "We are a country of laws" in order to demand the harshest possible treatment for undocumented immigrants will now ask with similar fervor for ICE home raids to cease in the name of the Constitution.
Imagine the terror of children and parents who wake up at dawn to find their homes invaded by seven-person teams of armed ICE agents. The display of force is such that one would think agents were about to confront dangerous terrorists, not detain poor, powerless immigrants.
"When communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel, when all that is happening, the system just isn't working, and we need to change it," then-candidate Barack Obama eloquently told the National Council of La Raza last July during his presidential run.
He was right, of course. The system is indeed broken and in need of repair. Scrapping the raids would be a great first step.
Although the ICE home raids are intended to target dangerous criminals, as many as two-thirds of those arrested are civil immigration violators who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the report found.
Similar results have been found with the 287(g) program that turns local police into surrogate immigration agents. Although 287(g) is under intense scrutiny for blatant racial profiling and human rights violations, Washington, inexplicably, is expanding it.
The study also reveals that there is "a pattern of ICE agents physically pushing and breaking their way into private homes in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution."
"There is an established pattern of misconduct by ICE agents in the New York and New Jersey Field Offices," the report concludes. It may very well be a national problem, the study says.
In its response to the report, ICE said in a statement, "We do our job professionally and humanely," adding that the agency recognizes the impact its actions have on people.
Jaya Vasandani, a co-author of the report, points out what may be the crux of the problem.
"If the government were engaged in these types of systematic and widespread constitutional violations toward any other group in society, there would be a national outcry," Vasandani said. "Because these abuses have targeted the most vulnerable segments of our population they have gone largely unnoticed."
Ours is a country of laws. Where is the outrage?
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2009/07/23/2009-07-23_study_shows_immigration_and_customs_enforcement_raids_leave_dissenters_cold.html
The New York Daily News
July 23rd 2009
Heavily armed men in uniforms, breaking into private homes before dawn, seizing people without probable cause.
This has become the routine behavior of immigration agents during raids - without warrants or other authorization - on the homes of the undocumented, says a new report released Wednesday.
"Constitution on ICE: A Report on Immigration Home Raid Operations" was conducted by the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. The study found that it is not uncommon for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to seize residents without legal basis.
This practice, which smacks of racial profiling, is not new. Many people have known about it for a long time. But the study makes clear that it is more widespread than anybody suspected.
"This report reveals an alarming pattern of federal immigration officials breaking into people's homes and bedrooms in the predawn hours in flagrant violation of the Constitution," said Peter Markowitz, the Immigration Justice Clinic director and co-author of the report.
One has to wonder if those who keep repeating, "We are a country of laws" in order to demand the harshest possible treatment for undocumented immigrants will now ask with similar fervor for ICE home raids to cease in the name of the Constitution.
Imagine the terror of children and parents who wake up at dawn to find their homes invaded by seven-person teams of armed ICE agents. The display of force is such that one would think agents were about to confront dangerous terrorists, not detain poor, powerless immigrants.
"When communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel, when all that is happening, the system just isn't working, and we need to change it," then-candidate Barack Obama eloquently told the National Council of La Raza last July during his presidential run.
He was right, of course. The system is indeed broken and in need of repair. Scrapping the raids would be a great first step.
Although the ICE home raids are intended to target dangerous criminals, as many as two-thirds of those arrested are civil immigration violators who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the report found.
Similar results have been found with the 287(g) program that turns local police into surrogate immigration agents. Although 287(g) is under intense scrutiny for blatant racial profiling and human rights violations, Washington, inexplicably, is expanding it.
The study also reveals that there is "a pattern of ICE agents physically pushing and breaking their way into private homes in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution."
"There is an established pattern of misconduct by ICE agents in the New York and New Jersey Field Offices," the report concludes. It may very well be a national problem, the study says.
In its response to the report, ICE said in a statement, "We do our job professionally and humanely," adding that the agency recognizes the impact its actions have on people.
Jaya Vasandani, a co-author of the report, points out what may be the crux of the problem.
"If the government were engaged in these types of systematic and widespread constitutional violations toward any other group in society, there would be a national outcry," Vasandani said. "Because these abuses have targeted the most vulnerable segments of our population they have gone largely unnoticed."
Ours is a country of laws. Where is the outrage?
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2009/07/23/2009-07-23_study_shows_immigration_and_customs_enforcement_raids_leave_dissenters_cold.html
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Man charged with human trafficking in Alton
Jared Taylor
The Monitor
July 8, 2009
ALTON — A Houston man was arrested following a Sunday morning raid at a house that held more than a dozen illegal immigrants, police said.
Alton police officers raided the house at Moorefield and 6 1/2 Mile roads about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, said Alton Police Chief Baldemar Flores.
The raid netted 18 people who lacked proper immigration documentation, Flores said.
An undercover officer who continued to survey the area after the raid saw a man in a pickup truck pull up to the house and go inside Sunday afternoon.
A patrol officer pulled over Victor Campuzano, 23, during a traffic stop after he left the house, Flores said. Four other illegal immigrants were inside the truck with him, police said.
All 22 undocumented immigrants were transferred to federal authorities pending deportation, Flores said.
Authorities seized three pickups during the raid and traffic stop that were registered to a rental company at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, police said.
Campuzano, of Houston, was arraigned Tuesday in Alton Municipal Court and given a $10,000 bond.
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/alton-28342-charged-human.html
The Monitor
July 8, 2009
ALTON — A Houston man was arrested following a Sunday morning raid at a house that held more than a dozen illegal immigrants, police said.
Alton police officers raided the house at Moorefield and 6 1/2 Mile roads about 9:30 a.m. Sunday, said Alton Police Chief Baldemar Flores.
The raid netted 18 people who lacked proper immigration documentation, Flores said.
An undercover officer who continued to survey the area after the raid saw a man in a pickup truck pull up to the house and go inside Sunday afternoon.
A patrol officer pulled over Victor Campuzano, 23, during a traffic stop after he left the house, Flores said. Four other illegal immigrants were inside the truck with him, police said.
All 22 undocumented immigrants were transferred to federal authorities pending deportation, Flores said.
Authorities seized three pickups during the raid and traffic stop that were registered to a rental company at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, police said.
Campuzano, of Houston, was arraigned Tuesday in Alton Municipal Court and given a $10,000 bond.
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/alton-28342-charged-human.html
Sunday, February 8, 2009
One year later, immigration raid at factory leaves lives in limbo
One year later, immigration raid at factory leaves lives in limbo
Contracosta Times
By Jerry Berrios, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/08/2009
A year ago, Gregorio Perez Cruz stood at his work station at a Van Nuys factory dismantling printer cartridges, as he had done for the previous two years.
Forty-five minutes into his shift, he walked to a nearby water fountain for a drink and spotted law enforcement officers with weapons strapped to their legs and waists. What happened next turned his tranquil life upside down.
"They came in shouting, `Everybody out. Stop doing what you are doing,"' Perez Cruz recalled.
He said he was ushered into a hallway, where he saw anxious co-workers trying to steady trembling hands. That's when he heard the word "immigration."
That moment was the beginning of an ordeal that continues today for Perez Cruz and more than 100 others arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a raid at Micro Solutions Enterprises in Van Nuys on Feb. 7, 2008.
In the year that has passed, no resolution has been reached in the cases of Perez Cruz and the bulk of other arrested workers accused of being in the country illegally. Some have returned voluntarily to their homelands; others, like Perez Cruz, wait to see if they may be deported.
Of eight workers facing criminal charges, such as identity theft, 2010 trial dates have been set for four.
And so the debate rages over what, if anything, was gained by the raid at the printer cartridge factory.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_11654445
Contracosta Times
By Jerry Berrios, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/08/2009
A year ago, Gregorio Perez Cruz stood at his work station at a Van Nuys factory dismantling printer cartridges, as he had done for the previous two years.
Forty-five minutes into his shift, he walked to a nearby water fountain for a drink and spotted law enforcement officers with weapons strapped to their legs and waists. What happened next turned his tranquil life upside down.
"They came in shouting, `Everybody out. Stop doing what you are doing,"' Perez Cruz recalled.
He said he was ushered into a hallway, where he saw anxious co-workers trying to steady trembling hands. That's when he heard the word "immigration."
That moment was the beginning of an ordeal that continues today for Perez Cruz and more than 100 others arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a raid at Micro Solutions Enterprises in Van Nuys on Feb. 7, 2008.
In the year that has passed, no resolution has been reached in the cases of Perez Cruz and the bulk of other arrested workers accused of being in the country illegally. Some have returned voluntarily to their homelands; others, like Perez Cruz, wait to see if they may be deported.
Of eight workers facing criminal charges, such as identity theft, 2010 trial dates have been set for four.
And so the debate rages over what, if anything, was gained by the raid at the printer cartridge factory.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_11654445
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Families scattered after raid
Families scattered after raid
By EMMA JAMES • January 11, 2009
Hattiesburg American (Miss)
In less than 24 hours, Mendoza, 27, lost her husband, her job on an assembly line and a secure future as officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement swept through Howard Industries in Laurel that day, looking for illegal workers.
They ended up arresting 592 workers, about 14 percent of Howard's work force of 4,200.
"It's very bad," Mendoza said as Socorro Leos, community organizer with the Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance, translated. "Because of one day, it changed my entire life 360 degrees."
Now almost five months later, Mendoza plays with her daughters and thinks of her husband, Malegando.
Malegando was deported after a brief stay at LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, La., while Mendoza remains in alternative detention, ordered to appear before a court in New Orleans in February to determine whether she can obtain a voluntary departure to Mexico to join her husband.
Mendoza said that the departure of their father has devastated daughters Allari, 4, and Shala, 2.
"They ask where their daddy is and then they cry because he isn't here," Mendoza said "Sometimes I tell them that their daddy comes when they are sleeping and kisses them while they are asleep and then leaves again so they know he loves them."
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20090111/NEWS01/901110303/1002
By EMMA JAMES • January 11, 2009
Hattiesburg American (Miss)
In less than 24 hours, Mendoza, 27, lost her husband, her job on an assembly line and a secure future as officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement swept through Howard Industries in Laurel that day, looking for illegal workers.
They ended up arresting 592 workers, about 14 percent of Howard's work force of 4,200.
"It's very bad," Mendoza said as Socorro Leos, community organizer with the Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance, translated. "Because of one day, it changed my entire life 360 degrees."
Now almost five months later, Mendoza plays with her daughters and thinks of her husband, Malegando.
Malegando was deported after a brief stay at LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, La., while Mendoza remains in alternative detention, ordered to appear before a court in New Orleans in February to determine whether she can obtain a voluntary departure to Mexico to join her husband.
Mendoza said that the departure of their father has devastated daughters Allari, 4, and Shala, 2.
"They ask where their daddy is and then they cry because he isn't here," Mendoza said "Sometimes I tell them that their daddy comes when they are sleeping and kisses them while they are asleep and then leaves again so they know he loves them."
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20090111/NEWS01/901110303/1002
Monday, January 5, 2009
Border Patrol raid targets undocumented workers
LAKE ELSINORE: Border Patrol raid targets undocumented workers
By MICHAEL J. WILLIAMS - Staff Writer
January 1, 2009
The Californian
LAKE ELSINORE ---- A Border Patrol raid this week on a downtown street scattered immigrant workers and apparently resulted in the detention of at least a couple of suspected illegal immigrants, witnesses said.
The owners of a cell phone shop on Graham Street between Spring and Main streets captured video of a U.S. Border Patrol officer chasing a man into their store at 10:25 a.m. Wednesday and capturing him. The manager of a nearby supermarket catering to Latinos said a Border Patrol officer entered that store about 10:15 a.m. that day and detained a man.
The raid apparently targeted a cluster of workers, mostly from Guatemala and Mexico, most of whom authorities presume to be in the country illegally. The workers gather daily on Spring between Graham and Franklin streets near Ibarra's Market while waiting to be hired for odd jobs.
Calls made Wednesday afternoon to the U.S. Border Patrol were referred to the service's public information office in San Diego, but the office had shut down in advance of New Year's Eve. Referrals to media representatives were only available for major incidents, officials said.
Based on a description of the Lake Elsinore incident, a Border Patrol official said it appeared to be routine enforcement activity. Wednesday's arrests came about four months after a group of activists staged protests downtown and at a City Council meeting against stepped-up Border Patrol enforcement, which they contended was provoking widespread fear among Latino immigrants and breaking up families.
http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/01/01/news/californian/lake_elsinore/z78e36886c55ab1388825753100049d87.txt
By MICHAEL J. WILLIAMS - Staff Writer
January 1, 2009
The Californian
LAKE ELSINORE ---- A Border Patrol raid this week on a downtown street scattered immigrant workers and apparently resulted in the detention of at least a couple of suspected illegal immigrants, witnesses said.
The owners of a cell phone shop on Graham Street between Spring and Main streets captured video of a U.S. Border Patrol officer chasing a man into their store at 10:25 a.m. Wednesday and capturing him. The manager of a nearby supermarket catering to Latinos said a Border Patrol officer entered that store about 10:15 a.m. that day and detained a man.
The raid apparently targeted a cluster of workers, mostly from Guatemala and Mexico, most of whom authorities presume to be in the country illegally. The workers gather daily on Spring between Graham and Franklin streets near Ibarra's Market while waiting to be hired for odd jobs.
Calls made Wednesday afternoon to the U.S. Border Patrol were referred to the service's public information office in San Diego, but the office had shut down in advance of New Year's Eve. Referrals to media representatives were only available for major incidents, officials said.
Based on a description of the Lake Elsinore incident, a Border Patrol official said it appeared to be routine enforcement activity. Wednesday's arrests came about four months after a group of activists staged protests downtown and at a City Council meeting against stepped-up Border Patrol enforcement, which they contended was provoking widespread fear among Latino immigrants and breaking up families.
http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/01/01/news/californian/lake_elsinore/z78e36886c55ab1388825753100049d87.txt
Friday, December 26, 2008
US deports 46 percent more Mexicans and Central Americans
US deports 46 percent more Mexicans and Central Americans
Dec 18, 2008
AFP News
MCALLEN, Texas (AFP) — The United States deported more than 154,000 Mexicans and Central Americans in the 2008 fiscal year, in a 46 percent rise on the previous year, an official statement said here Thursday.
More than 212,000 were deported altogether, with almost three quarters from Mexico and Central America, according to the statement released by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the border town of McAllen, Texas.
Most -- 82,000 -- were Mexicans, many who had crossed their country's 2,000-mile (3170-kilometer) land border with the southern United States.
All countries saw a rise apart from Nicaragua, which had a slight drop to just over 2,000 deportations.
The United States deported immigrants to 190 countries, and carried out more than 4,000 deportation flights, compared with almost 3,000 in the previous US fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30.
The number of illegal immigrants has fallen drastically due to a string of measures including an expanding border fence -- currently 500-miles-long -- along the southern border, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday in Washington.
"We've seen a collapse in the number of people who tried to cross our border illegally," Cheftoff told reporters in a review of his department's actions since it was created seven years ago.
The fence has been controversial and has faced several lawsuits, none successful so far.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h4Hn2vCI_z_TCgtSV-hTeJr1d8Jw
Dec 18, 2008
AFP News
MCALLEN, Texas (AFP) — The United States deported more than 154,000 Mexicans and Central Americans in the 2008 fiscal year, in a 46 percent rise on the previous year, an official statement said here Thursday.
More than 212,000 were deported altogether, with almost three quarters from Mexico and Central America, according to the statement released by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the border town of McAllen, Texas.
Most -- 82,000 -- were Mexicans, many who had crossed their country's 2,000-mile (3170-kilometer) land border with the southern United States.
All countries saw a rise apart from Nicaragua, which had a slight drop to just over 2,000 deportations.
The United States deported immigrants to 190 countries, and carried out more than 4,000 deportation flights, compared with almost 3,000 in the previous US fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30.
The number of illegal immigrants has fallen drastically due to a string of measures including an expanding border fence -- currently 500-miles-long -- along the southern border, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday in Washington.
"We've seen a collapse in the number of people who tried to cross our border illegally," Cheftoff told reporters in a review of his department's actions since it was created seven years ago.
The fence has been controversial and has faced several lawsuits, none successful so far.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h4Hn2vCI_z_TCgtSV-hTeJr1d8Jw
Friday, December 19, 2008
Roundups of illegals treat children unfairly
Roundups of illegals treat children unfairly
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008
By RAUL REYES
HISPANIC LINK
Earlier this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents burst into a factory in New Bedford, Mass., and rounded up more than 300 undocumented immigrants for detention and deportation. In the ensuing chaos, many parents were afraid to give information about their children, fearing that they would be arrested, too.
Some children literally were left behind, including a breast-feeding baby who refused a bottle and had to be hospitalized for dehydration.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick termed the aftermath of the raid "a humanitarian crisis.
"ICE statistics show that such roundups are on the rise. The number of workplace arrests rose from fewer than 500 in 2002 to more than 3,600 in 2006. By a huge margin, these were mostly administrative arrests, aimed at people lacking proper documentation, as opposed to those who had committed a crime.
Now a study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research center, has documented the raids' negative impact on children. It found that the number of children separated from their parents was significant. For every two undocumented workers arrested, one child was left behind. In the wake of ICE raids, children were found to suffer from health disorders, psychological trauma and economic instability.
Most of these children are U.S. citizens or legal residents, the institute reported.
According to the Pew Center, there are 5 million children with at least one undocumented parent. In 2005, two-thirds of these (64 percent) were U.S. citizens, 37 percent were 5 and younger, and 65 percent were 10 and younger. So it follows that the immigration raids are directly affecting some of the youngest and most vulnerable.
The ICE raids seem especially harsh considering that the public favors a path to legalization for the 12 million undocumented workers already here. In separate polls taken this year by ABC, CBS, Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, Fox and Pew, a majority consistently have supported the idea of allowing undocumented workers to obtain citizenship.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/359/story/600009.html
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008
By RAUL REYES
HISPANIC LINK
Earlier this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents burst into a factory in New Bedford, Mass., and rounded up more than 300 undocumented immigrants for detention and deportation. In the ensuing chaos, many parents were afraid to give information about their children, fearing that they would be arrested, too.
Some children literally were left behind, including a breast-feeding baby who refused a bottle and had to be hospitalized for dehydration.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick termed the aftermath of the raid "a humanitarian crisis.
"ICE statistics show that such roundups are on the rise. The number of workplace arrests rose from fewer than 500 in 2002 to more than 3,600 in 2006. By a huge margin, these were mostly administrative arrests, aimed at people lacking proper documentation, as opposed to those who had committed a crime.
Now a study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research center, has documented the raids' negative impact on children. It found that the number of children separated from their parents was significant. For every two undocumented workers arrested, one child was left behind. In the wake of ICE raids, children were found to suffer from health disorders, psychological trauma and economic instability.
Most of these children are U.S. citizens or legal residents, the institute reported.
According to the Pew Center, there are 5 million children with at least one undocumented parent. In 2005, two-thirds of these (64 percent) were U.S. citizens, 37 percent were 5 and younger, and 65 percent were 10 and younger. So it follows that the immigration raids are directly affecting some of the youngest and most vulnerable.
The ICE raids seem especially harsh considering that the public favors a path to legalization for the 12 million undocumented workers already here. In separate polls taken this year by ABC, CBS, Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, Fox and Pew, a majority consistently have supported the idea of allowing undocumented workers to obtain citizenship.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/359/story/600009.html
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
15 workers arrested in BP raid
15 workers arrested in BP raid
December 10, 2008
By Andy Grimm
Post-Tribune staff writer
WHITING - Immigration authorities arrested 15 janitorial workers in an early morning raid at the BP plant.
The raid came after at two-year investigation of United Building Maintenance, a Carol Stream, Ill.,-based cleaning company that had been hired by BP. The cleaning crews had access to sensitive areas of the refinery, said Gary Hartwig, special agent-in-charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Investigations in Chicago.
"There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens, who are not authorized to work in the country legally, are working in secure areas of one of our nation's largest oil refineries," said Hartwig in a press release.
"While there is no reason to believe that these individuals had ill intent against our country, their illegal status represents a significant vulnerability in our national security."
The 15 arrested Wednesday, including four men and 11 women, were taken into custody and will be subject to deportation. They will remain in federal custody unless it is determined they are caregivers or children or other relatives and should be released pending the outcome of the deportation process.
All of those arrested were Mexican nationals, except one man who is Guatemalan.
Two UBM employees who were illegal, Herminia Najera-Flores and Ramon Aviles-Cano workers, were arrested last year. Of the 15 people arrested, 14 were from Mexico and one from Guatemala.
The Rev. Steve Gibson of St. Mary's Catholic Church, a predominantly Hispanic Roman Catholic parish just south of refinery in East Chicago, said the church was reaching out to help the families of those arrested. He condemned what he called "arbitrary" enforcement of immigration law.
"Basic human rights have been violated, and families have been divided through this sad occurrence," Gibson said. "If raids like this were to take place throughout our region and the Midwest, entire factories and businesses would have to shut down, many of the essential services of our infrastructure would come to a halt, and thousands of families would immediately be thrown further into the spiral of poverty."
http://www.post-trib.com/news/1323837,IMMIGRAID.article
December 10, 2008
By Andy Grimm
Post-Tribune staff writer
WHITING - Immigration authorities arrested 15 janitorial workers in an early morning raid at the BP plant.
The raid came after at two-year investigation of United Building Maintenance, a Carol Stream, Ill.,-based cleaning company that had been hired by BP. The cleaning crews had access to sensitive areas of the refinery, said Gary Hartwig, special agent-in-charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Investigations in Chicago.
"There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens, who are not authorized to work in the country legally, are working in secure areas of one of our nation's largest oil refineries," said Hartwig in a press release.
"While there is no reason to believe that these individuals had ill intent against our country, their illegal status represents a significant vulnerability in our national security."
The 15 arrested Wednesday, including four men and 11 women, were taken into custody and will be subject to deportation. They will remain in federal custody unless it is determined they are caregivers or children or other relatives and should be released pending the outcome of the deportation process.
All of those arrested were Mexican nationals, except one man who is Guatemalan.
Two UBM employees who were illegal, Herminia Najera-Flores and Ramon Aviles-Cano workers, were arrested last year. Of the 15 people arrested, 14 were from Mexico and one from Guatemala.
The Rev. Steve Gibson of St. Mary's Catholic Church, a predominantly Hispanic Roman Catholic parish just south of refinery in East Chicago, said the church was reaching out to help the families of those arrested. He condemned what he called "arbitrary" enforcement of immigration law.
"Basic human rights have been violated, and families have been divided through this sad occurrence," Gibson said. "If raids like this were to take place throughout our region and the Midwest, entire factories and businesses would have to shut down, many of the essential services of our infrastructure would come to a halt, and thousands of families would immediately be thrown further into the spiral of poverty."
http://www.post-trib.com/news/1323837,IMMIGRAID.article
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Protesting raids in Mississippi
Protesting raids in Jackson Mississippi
December 05, 2008
Laurel Leader Call Newspaper
— A get-tough Mississippi anti-immigration law that goes into effect next month drew dozens of advocates to the state Capitol on Thursday to protest the legislation they say targets Latino workers.
The business community also is concerned about the legislation because employers could face sanctions for failing to verify the citizenship of workers they hire.
The bill, which becomes law Jan. 1, requires employers to use the U.S. Homeland Security electronic verification system to check whether new hires are legal residents. Employers who hire illegal immigrants could lose their business license for a year and any state contract work for up to three years.
Any illegal immigrant found working in the state could face a one-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $10,000.
“It’s intended to scare Latinos out of the state,” said Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance.
http://www.leadercall.com/local/local_story_340094237.html
December 05, 2008
Laurel Leader Call Newspaper
— A get-tough Mississippi anti-immigration law that goes into effect next month drew dozens of advocates to the state Capitol on Thursday to protest the legislation they say targets Latino workers.
The business community also is concerned about the legislation because employers could face sanctions for failing to verify the citizenship of workers they hire.
The bill, which becomes law Jan. 1, requires employers to use the U.S. Homeland Security electronic verification system to check whether new hires are legal residents. Employers who hire illegal immigrants could lose their business license for a year and any state contract work for up to three years.
Any illegal immigrant found working in the state could face a one-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $10,000.
“It’s intended to scare Latinos out of the state,” said Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance.
http://www.leadercall.com/local/local_story_340094237.html
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
ICE "fugitive" raids across U.S.
ICE "fugitive" raids across U.S.
Submitted by WW4 Report
12/02/2008
In a five-day operation that ended Nov. 21, ICE agents arrested 104 people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Among those arrested were 94 "fugitives" who had failed to comply with deportation orders. Of the 104 people arrested, 23 had prior criminal convictions. (ICE news release, Nov. 25)
In Florida, ICE arrested 71 immigrants in a five-day operation that ended Nov. 21. Sixty were "fugitives"; 18 had criminal histories. ICE agents arrested 33 people in Miami-Dade; 17 in Broward; five in Palm Beach; seven in Orlando and nine in Tampa. ICE released 21 people under supervision as part of the Alternatives to Detention Program because they were verified to be sole caregivers or had medical concerns. The other 49 people were being detained by ICE. Those arrested came from countries including Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Peru, Cuba, Honduras, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Jamaica, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Uruguay, and Belgium. (ICE news release, Nov. 26)
Between Nov. 19 and 22, ICE agents worked with federal, state and local officials to arrest 80 people in the Prescott, Sedona and Flagstaff areas of north central Arizona. Only 14 of the 80 people arrested were "fugitives" who had ignored final deportation orders or who had returned to the US after being deported. Two of the 80 people arrested had criminal records. Most of those arrested were from Mexico; some were from Guatemala. The sweep was carried out by an interagency task force led by ICE. The other agencies participating in the raids were the US Marshals Service, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office and the Prescott Valley, Sedona and Prescott police departments. [News release from ICE & Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, Nov. 24)
From Oct. 14 to Oct. 26, ICE fugitive operations teams based in Philadelphia arrested 99 immigrants in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Only 37 of those arrested were "fugitives" who had failed to comply with deportation; 14 of them had criminal records. The other 62 people were picked up for being out of status; 27 of them had criminal records. In New Jersey during the same Oct. 14-26 period, ICE arrested 145 "fugitives" (including 65 with criminal records) and 44 out-of-status immigrants (including 22 with criminal histories). In New York City, ICE agents arrested 90 "fugitives" (including 46 with criminal histories) and six other out-of-status immigrants (all with criminal histories) over the same period. (ICE news release, Oct. 27)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6435
Submitted by WW4 Report
12/02/2008
In a five-day operation that ended Nov. 21, ICE agents arrested 104 people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Among those arrested were 94 "fugitives" who had failed to comply with deportation orders. Of the 104 people arrested, 23 had prior criminal convictions. (ICE news release, Nov. 25)
In Florida, ICE arrested 71 immigrants in a five-day operation that ended Nov. 21. Sixty were "fugitives"; 18 had criminal histories. ICE agents arrested 33 people in Miami-Dade; 17 in Broward; five in Palm Beach; seven in Orlando and nine in Tampa. ICE released 21 people under supervision as part of the Alternatives to Detention Program because they were verified to be sole caregivers or had medical concerns. The other 49 people were being detained by ICE. Those arrested came from countries including Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Peru, Cuba, Honduras, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Jamaica, El Salvador, Bangladesh, Uruguay, and Belgium. (ICE news release, Nov. 26)
Between Nov. 19 and 22, ICE agents worked with federal, state and local officials to arrest 80 people in the Prescott, Sedona and Flagstaff areas of north central Arizona. Only 14 of the 80 people arrested were "fugitives" who had ignored final deportation orders or who had returned to the US after being deported. Two of the 80 people arrested had criminal records. Most of those arrested were from Mexico; some were from Guatemala. The sweep was carried out by an interagency task force led by ICE. The other agencies participating in the raids were the US Marshals Service, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office and the Prescott Valley, Sedona and Prescott police departments. [News release from ICE & Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, Nov. 24)
From Oct. 14 to Oct. 26, ICE fugitive operations teams based in Philadelphia arrested 99 immigrants in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Only 37 of those arrested were "fugitives" who had failed to comply with deportation; 14 of them had criminal records. The other 62 people were picked up for being out of status; 27 of them had criminal records. In New Jersey during the same Oct. 14-26 period, ICE arrested 145 "fugitives" (including 65 with criminal records) and 44 out-of-status immigrants (including 22 with criminal histories). In New York City, ICE agents arrested 90 "fugitives" (including 46 with criminal histories) and six other out-of-status immigrants (all with criminal histories) over the same period. (ICE news release, Oct. 27)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6435
Monday, December 1, 2008
Hiding in Plain Sight
Hiding in Plain Sight
For an undocumented family, life in a sanctuary city is feeling less safe all the time.
By Jeff Coplon
Published Nov 30, 2008
The New York Magazine
Sitting in his fluorescent-lit kitchen in Sunset Park, Alberto heard the bulletin over Univision: Four days after Barack Obama’s triumph, seven Suffolk County high-school students drove off on a ritual they called “beaner jumping.” Toward midnight by the Patchogue train station they found their man: Marcelo Lucero, 38, a soft-eyed Ecuadoran who worked at a dry cleaner’s, sent pay home to his sick mother, and draped an American flag around his TV set. The teenagers circled Lucero (“like a lynch mob,” a prosecutor said), punched him in the face, stabbed him in the chest, and left him to die in a driveway.
Sixty miles west, Alberto’s thick brows narrowed as he absorbed the news. “It’s like they’re taking target practice. Like they’re hunting an animal.” He winced at the thought of it. “You always think that this could happen to you,” he said. “It could happen anywhere.”
Alberto came to Brooklyn nine years ago from Puebla, followed soon after by his wife, Luisa, and their two children: Berto, a tall and stocky 11-year-old, and Juliana, a year younger and half her brother’s size. In their experience, New York had borne out its reputation as a so-called sanctuary city; diversity made it easy to blend in here. Mexicans accounted for only 21 percent of the half-million or so undocumented immigrants in New York (as compared with 56 percent nationally), according to Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center, with the balance divided mainly among South and East Asians (23 percent), Caribbeans (22 percent), other Latin Americans (19 percent), and Europeans (8 percent). Embedded in multiethnic neighborhoods like Bushwick and Astoria, these newcomers paid taxes and joined church groups; they went out on their senior proms. And city officials recognized their value better than most. “Although they broke the law,” Mayor Bloomberg told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, “our city’s economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported.”
Of late, though, a storm surge has lapped at the sanctuary’s door. Within the last fourteen months, Eliot Spitzer’s plan to issue driver’s licenses to the undocumented unraveled in a frenzy of xenophobia. Eight miles north of Patchogue, in Farmingville, a hit-and-run driver hopped a sidewalk and struck a day laborer. In September, the sixth Guatemalan in eight years turned up dead in woodsy Mount Kisco—three of them confirmed homicides, and one involving a town cop acquitted of manslaughter. Meanwhile, Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly blame the “alien invasion” for a grab bag of crises: failing schools, fantasy crime waves, outbreaks of leprosy, looming terrorist attacks. Hard-line politicians—like Suffolk County executive Steve Levy—match them stride for stride.
Raids have spiked in suburb and city alike since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched Operation Return to Sender two years ago. In October 2007, in a sting involving the Queens D.A.’s office and the NYPD, a dragnet was thrown over Roosevelt Avenue in polyglot Jackson Heights. Witnesses saw ICE agents scoop up dozens of fenced-in bystanders who looked Latino. Two months later, a unionization vote failed at the Fresh Direct warehouse in Long Island City after a suspiciously timed ICE audit drove hundreds from their jobs.
http://nymag.com/news/features/52589/
For an undocumented family, life in a sanctuary city is feeling less safe all the time.
By Jeff Coplon
Published Nov 30, 2008
The New York Magazine
Sitting in his fluorescent-lit kitchen in Sunset Park, Alberto heard the bulletin over Univision: Four days after Barack Obama’s triumph, seven Suffolk County high-school students drove off on a ritual they called “beaner jumping.” Toward midnight by the Patchogue train station they found their man: Marcelo Lucero, 38, a soft-eyed Ecuadoran who worked at a dry cleaner’s, sent pay home to his sick mother, and draped an American flag around his TV set. The teenagers circled Lucero (“like a lynch mob,” a prosecutor said), punched him in the face, stabbed him in the chest, and left him to die in a driveway.
Sixty miles west, Alberto’s thick brows narrowed as he absorbed the news. “It’s like they’re taking target practice. Like they’re hunting an animal.” He winced at the thought of it. “You always think that this could happen to you,” he said. “It could happen anywhere.”
Alberto came to Brooklyn nine years ago from Puebla, followed soon after by his wife, Luisa, and their two children: Berto, a tall and stocky 11-year-old, and Juliana, a year younger and half her brother’s size. In their experience, New York had borne out its reputation as a so-called sanctuary city; diversity made it easy to blend in here. Mexicans accounted for only 21 percent of the half-million or so undocumented immigrants in New York (as compared with 56 percent nationally), according to Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center, with the balance divided mainly among South and East Asians (23 percent), Caribbeans (22 percent), other Latin Americans (19 percent), and Europeans (8 percent). Embedded in multiethnic neighborhoods like Bushwick and Astoria, these newcomers paid taxes and joined church groups; they went out on their senior proms. And city officials recognized their value better than most. “Although they broke the law,” Mayor Bloomberg told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, “our city’s economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported.”
Of late, though, a storm surge has lapped at the sanctuary’s door. Within the last fourteen months, Eliot Spitzer’s plan to issue driver’s licenses to the undocumented unraveled in a frenzy of xenophobia. Eight miles north of Patchogue, in Farmingville, a hit-and-run driver hopped a sidewalk and struck a day laborer. In September, the sixth Guatemalan in eight years turned up dead in woodsy Mount Kisco—three of them confirmed homicides, and one involving a town cop acquitted of manslaughter. Meanwhile, Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly blame the “alien invasion” for a grab bag of crises: failing schools, fantasy crime waves, outbreaks of leprosy, looming terrorist attacks. Hard-line politicians—like Suffolk County executive Steve Levy—match them stride for stride.
Raids have spiked in suburb and city alike since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched Operation Return to Sender two years ago. In October 2007, in a sting involving the Queens D.A.’s office and the NYPD, a dragnet was thrown over Roosevelt Avenue in polyglot Jackson Heights. Witnesses saw ICE agents scoop up dozens of fenced-in bystanders who looked Latino. Two months later, a unionization vote failed at the Fresh Direct warehouse in Long Island City after a suspiciously timed ICE audit drove hundreds from their jobs.
http://nymag.com/news/features/52589/
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
ICE raids take 16 Flagstaff residents
ICE raids take 16 Flagstaff residents
November 26th, 2008
by Sarah Pickering
Jack Central News
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrived in Flagstaff on Wednesday, Nov. 19 to arrest undocumented citizens with criminal records, sparking an impromptu protest by various immigrant rights and activist groups.
On Nov. 20, the Repeal Coalition, a group dedicated to the repeal of all anti-immigration legislation in Arizona, organized various efforts to warn the community that members of ICE would be conducting raids in target neighborhoods. ICE is a governmental agency responsible for identifying and investigating illegal activity with regards to the United States border.
The Repeal Coalition gathered a group of approxminately two dozen people at Killip Elementary School in Sunnyside to escort children to their homes. In the evening, the group, including members from CopWatch, ASWI, NAU Peace and Justice, MEChA and Save the Peaks protested numbers of arrests already made by ICE.
Approximately 70 people stood near the county jail on Butler Avenue chanting, “ICE is on thin ice” and “No more body snatching.”
Joel Olson, a member of the Repeal Coalition and assistant professor
in the NAU Department of Political Science, said ICE’s raids are a violation of civil rights.
http://www.jackcentral.com/news/2008/11/ice-raids-take-16-flagstaff-residents/
November 26th, 2008
by Sarah Pickering
Jack Central News
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrived in Flagstaff on Wednesday, Nov. 19 to arrest undocumented citizens with criminal records, sparking an impromptu protest by various immigrant rights and activist groups.
On Nov. 20, the Repeal Coalition, a group dedicated to the repeal of all anti-immigration legislation in Arizona, organized various efforts to warn the community that members of ICE would be conducting raids in target neighborhoods. ICE is a governmental agency responsible for identifying and investigating illegal activity with regards to the United States border.
The Repeal Coalition gathered a group of approxminately two dozen people at Killip Elementary School in Sunnyside to escort children to their homes. In the evening, the group, including members from CopWatch, ASWI, NAU Peace and Justice, MEChA and Save the Peaks protested numbers of arrests already made by ICE.
Approximately 70 people stood near the county jail on Butler Avenue chanting, “ICE is on thin ice” and “No more body snatching.”
Joel Olson, a member of the Repeal Coalition and assistant professor
in the NAU Department of Political Science, said ICE’s raids are a violation of civil rights.
http://www.jackcentral.com/news/2008/11/ice-raids-take-16-flagstaff-residents/
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Immigration Raid At SD Dairy Farm
Immigration Raid At SD Dairy Farm
11/24/2008
Keloland Television
Four dairy farm workers were arrested and one was taken into custody after an immigration raid on a farm near Castlewood Friday.
The Hamlin County Sheriff and federal immigration officials say four Hispanic workers face criminal identity theft charges for using social security numbers that were not their own to get jobs at the farm.
Another worker was taken into custody. She awaits a hearing in front of a federal immigration judge, who will decide if she will be deported.
http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=0,76908
11/24/2008
Keloland Television
Four dairy farm workers were arrested and one was taken into custody after an immigration raid on a farm near Castlewood Friday.
The Hamlin County Sheriff and federal immigration officials say four Hispanic workers face criminal identity theft charges for using social security numbers that were not their own to get jobs at the farm.
Another worker was taken into custody. She awaits a hearing in front of a federal immigration judge, who will decide if she will be deported.
http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=0,76908
Sunday, November 23, 2008
ICE makes arrests in Flagstaff sweep
ICE makes arrests in Flagstaff sweep
Associated Press
November 22, 2008
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have made more than a dozen arrests in Flagstaff in recent days.
ICE officials say the raids began Wednesday and should wrap up Saturday. Agents are targeting non-citizens who have ignored orders to leave the country.
Officials at the Coconino County sheriff's jail say 16 people had been booked by Friday and most had already been sent to either Phoenix or Tucson to be deported.
Flagstaff police aren't taking part in the raids. The department has a policy that they will only ask immigration status of a person upon a criminal arrest.
http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=9397912
Associated Press
November 22, 2008
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have made more than a dozen arrests in Flagstaff in recent days.
ICE officials say the raids began Wednesday and should wrap up Saturday. Agents are targeting non-citizens who have ignored orders to leave the country.
Officials at the Coconino County sheriff's jail say 16 people had been booked by Friday and most had already been sent to either Phoenix or Tucson to be deported.
Flagstaff police aren't taking part in the raids. The department has a policy that they will only ask immigration status of a person upon a criminal arrest.
http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=9397912
Friday, November 21, 2008
Group forms in response to Lansing-area ICE raids
Group forms in response to Lansing-area ICE raids
Members hope to raise awareness, funds for families
Kevin Grasha, kgrasha@lsj.com
November 21, 2008
Lansing State Journal
EAST LANSING - During four days last month, federal officers conducted raids in the Lansing area, arresting 64 people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
A group calling itself the No Human Is Illegal Network formed after the raids in part to help the families affected.
That group wants more people to know what's happening, and that families of undocumented workers are being torn apart.
"They come here because they just want to work," said Maximo Anguiano, a retired Lansing firefighter and member of the No Human Is Illegal Network. "And most of them pay taxes."
Anguiano was one of about 25 people who gathered Thursday at the East Lansing Public Library night for an event partly intended to raise money for the families.
"A lot of times, the main breadwinner of the family is arrested," said Nikhil Sonnad, who heads Amplifx, a social change advocacy organization that helped put together Thursday night's event. "The rest of the family, even if they are legal, they rely on that money."
Organizers showed "Crossing Arizona," which depicts how people risk their lives to find work in this country.
During last month's raids, authorities said 40 of the total arrested were fugitives, meaning a judge had ordered that they be returned to their home country, but they fled. They now are being detained and awaiting deportation, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Mike Gilhooly.
The other 24 are believed to be in the U.S. illegally, Gilhooly said.
Anguiano described how one of the 64 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last month was taken as he played with his 12-year-old son. Anguiano said the man, who was reportedly working, was arrested on suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant.
He is still being held in a detention facility in Detroit, Anguiano said.
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20081121/NEWS01/811210325/1001/NEWS
Members hope to raise awareness, funds for families
Kevin Grasha, kgrasha@lsj.com
November 21, 2008
Lansing State Journal
EAST LANSING - During four days last month, federal officers conducted raids in the Lansing area, arresting 64 people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
A group calling itself the No Human Is Illegal Network formed after the raids in part to help the families affected.
That group wants more people to know what's happening, and that families of undocumented workers are being torn apart.
"They come here because they just want to work," said Maximo Anguiano, a retired Lansing firefighter and member of the No Human Is Illegal Network. "And most of them pay taxes."
Anguiano was one of about 25 people who gathered Thursday at the East Lansing Public Library night for an event partly intended to raise money for the families.
"A lot of times, the main breadwinner of the family is arrested," said Nikhil Sonnad, who heads Amplifx, a social change advocacy organization that helped put together Thursday night's event. "The rest of the family, even if they are legal, they rely on that money."
Organizers showed "Crossing Arizona," which depicts how people risk their lives to find work in this country.
During last month's raids, authorities said 40 of the total arrested were fugitives, meaning a judge had ordered that they be returned to their home country, but they fled. They now are being detained and awaiting deportation, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Mike Gilhooly.
The other 24 are believed to be in the U.S. illegally, Gilhooly said.
Anguiano described how one of the 64 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last month was taken as he played with his 12-year-old son. Anguiano said the man, who was reportedly working, was arrested on suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant.
He is still being held in a detention facility in Detroit, Anguiano said.
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20081121/NEWS01/811210325/1001/NEWS
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
ICE official confirms raid in Vinton, Toledo
ICE official confirms raid in Vinton, Toledo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 18, 2008
Immigration agents are investigating two Chinese restaurants in eastern Iowa.
Tim Counts, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says restaurants in Vinton and Toledo were being investigated on Tuesday.
Both restaurants are called the Peony Chinese Restaurant.
Counts did not say what prompted the investigation. Counts says no arrests had been made by early Tuesday afternoon.
Counts said ICE had summoned Iowa State Patrol officers to the restaurant for security, but they were not directly involved in the enforcement operation. The raid, he said, is much smaller than the May 12 operation at Agriprocessors Inc. that led to the arrest of 389 illegal immigrant workers.
A spokeswoman for the Iowa State Patrol said she did not yet have details about the action. Vinton’s police chief was out of the office.
Peony Chinese Restaurant is located in downtown Vinton and serves Mandarin and Cantonese style Chinese food, according to online ads.
Vinton, an eastern Iowa town of 5,100, is the county seat of Benton County.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081118/NEWS03/81118020/-1/NEWS04
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 18, 2008
Immigration agents are investigating two Chinese restaurants in eastern Iowa.
Tim Counts, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says restaurants in Vinton and Toledo were being investigated on Tuesday.
Both restaurants are called the Peony Chinese Restaurant.
Counts did not say what prompted the investigation. Counts says no arrests had been made by early Tuesday afternoon.
Counts said ICE had summoned Iowa State Patrol officers to the restaurant for security, but they were not directly involved in the enforcement operation. The raid, he said, is much smaller than the May 12 operation at Agriprocessors Inc. that led to the arrest of 389 illegal immigrant workers.
A spokeswoman for the Iowa State Patrol said she did not yet have details about the action. Vinton’s police chief was out of the office.
Peony Chinese Restaurant is located in downtown Vinton and serves Mandarin and Cantonese style Chinese food, according to online ads.
Vinton, an eastern Iowa town of 5,100, is the county seat of Benton County.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081118/NEWS03/81118020/-1/NEWS04
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