By Burt Constable
Daily Herald
21 June 2011
A month ago, the Robles brothers of Palatine were designated for deportation and in danger of being plucked from promising college careers and sent back to their native Mexico as illegal immigrants.
Now, with the support of our U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and the Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center, Carlos and Rafael Robles have won a temporary reprieve from Homeland Security.
“We want them to stay. We want them to be part of the future of this country,” Durbin said while speaking alongside the Robles brothers during this month’s National Immigrant Justice Center’s annual human rights award luncheon. Praising the Robles’ outstanding academic and athletic careers at Palatine High School and including them “among the brightest, most successful and hardworking young people in our nation,” Durbin said the brothers are the type of immigrants who would benefit from the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors bill he sponsors. Commonly called the DREAM Act, the legislation would grant deserving immigrant students who attend college or join the military an opportunity to become lawful residents.
“We didn’t know he was going to mention us,” says Rafael Robles, 20, who has completed two years at Harper College in Palatine and will study architecture this fall at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Carlos, 21, is a junior at Loyola University and wants to be a teacher.
“We’re really, really happy,” Rafael Robles says, noting all the work done on their behalf will allow the brothers to get jobs, apply for student loans and continue their education. “The summer got a lot better.”
The Robles are using their story to lobby on behalf of the DREAM Act and immigration reform.
“The DREAM Act’s purpose is to help introduce quality citizens to a country founded by immigrants,” reads a letter Carlos and Rafael Robles wrote last week at Durbin’s request.
“Thousands of people like us who want to dedicate our lives for this country are deprived of the means by which to do so,” the Robles write. “We are referred to as many things, but lately have achieved the label of ‘Dreamers.’ Dreamers are students who came to the United States at a young age, who had no say in the decision of immigrating to this country.”
The Robles family left their home and upper-middle-class life in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in 2004 when Carlos was 14 and Rafael was 13. The family came to the Chicago area on visitor visas that allowed them to be tourists for six months. But the parents got jobs, rented a home in Palatine and set up lives while the brothers excelled in school and sports, winning awards for both.
During their college springs breaks in 2010, the brothers were taking a train to Harvard University to visit a friend, who, like the Robleses had been captain of the Palatine High School tennis team. During a stop in Buffalo, N.Y., U.S. Border Patrol officers conducted a routine search and asked the brothers if they were U.S. citizens.
“We didn’t want to lie,” Carlos said. They gave their information to the officers, who locked the brothers in a local jail for the weekend and then began the process to deport them.
“When people do meet Rafael and Carlos or hear them speak, this is the best argument as to why they should become full-fledged members of our society and the United States,” says Claudia Valenzuela, who has been one of their attorneys through the National Immigrant Justice Center (immigrantjustice.org). “Obviously, the Robles brothers are not the only ‘dreamers.’ We believe these young men and women deserve to be fully integrated into our society.”
Their “deferred” deportation proceeding could be reinstated, and Valenzuela says the Robles will continue to have “this uncertainty looming over their heads” unless the DREAM Act is passed. Durbin plans to read the Robles’ letter into the Senate record and use them as an example of why this country needs the DREAM Act, says Christina Angarola, a Durbin spokeswoman.
While voicing their thanks and appreciation for being in this country, the Robleses close their letter to Congress by asking members to “reward the values of hard work and diligence, values that made America the most beautiful and prosperous country in the world.”
“These are values we have come to admire and respect in the American people,” the brothers conclude. “We will continue to uphold these values until the last of our days — we hope, eventually, as citizens of the United States, a country we now see as home.”
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110621/news/706219989/
Showing posts with label Expulsion in IL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expulsion in IL. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Life after deportation: Young citizens left behind when Mom and Dad leave country Children try to carry on with American lifestyles as best as they ca
By V. Ortiz
The Chicago Tribune
April 06, 2011
In the two years since her father was deported, 13-year-old Elisabeth and her three younger siblings have settled into an after-school routine while their mother, Maria Lourdes, works long hours at a beauty salon.
The family shares a cramped bedroom in a Waukegan apartment. When school friends wonder why her father is no longer in the picture, Elisabeth has learned to change the subject.
"I don't answer," she said. "It's such a long story."
After Elisabeth's father was deported, the family moved briefly to Mexico. But domestic discord led Maria Lourdes to return to Waukegan with her children, who were born here and are U.S. citizens. She, like her husband, is undocumented, but has applied for a visa to remain in the country.
Now, the four children carry on in America as best as they can, just like a growing number of young people who were born in this country and have seen one or both parents deported.
Those who work with such children say they've seen an increase in the cases locally. As a result, churches, schools and advocacy groups are left scrambling to help once-stable households deal with poverty, foreclosures, academic failure and other problems that come when so-called mixed immigration status families are split up.
The separation creates an "angry generation" of children who feel traumatized and disaffected but still choose to stay in the U.S. rather than face potential poverty, violence, and cultural and language barriers abroad. For some, advocates say, life in America is all they know.
"It's a horrific situation," said Josh Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "Given that we have this vastly increased number of deportations … we're trying to create infrastructure or support, specifically for people that have done nothing criminal other than come here to work, many who have U.S. citizen children."
But those who favor stricter enforcement of immigration laws assert that the struggles of families with a loved one deported highlight the need to keep people from entering the U.S. illegally.
"Issues surrounding U.S.-born children (with undocumented parents) remind us that the longer you don't enforce your immigration laws, the harder it becomes to do so," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.
In an estimate published by the Urban Institute in 2010, more than 100,000 immigrant parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported in the last 10 years.
At the same time, deportations have increased dramatically nationwide, from 122,000 in 2002 to 392,000 in 2010, with an emphasis on criminal deportations.
Locally, 12,000 people were deported from the detention center in Broadview in 2010, according to data from the Illinois coalition and the Archdiocese of Chicago.
After seeing such cases rise in recent years, Bill Bautista, a social worker at Community High School in West Chicago, has come to recognize the signs of teens dealing with a deportation at home.
These students often come to him seeking advice on how to get a job that earns money quickly. When he checks their academic records, it's not unusual to see an increase in absences, or a drop in grades, he said.
"There's a lot of privacy with this," he said. "They don't always share that with the school, and I wish they would because there are a lot of resources out there."
In Elgin, Maggie Dempsey has worked with as many as 10 students this school year with one or both parents deported. As liaison to the homeless for District U-46, she helped them get transportation to school after they moved in with a relative, encouraged them to stay involved in extracurricular activities, and even provided school uniforms and field trip money when they couldn't pay for them.
"They're just kids," she said. "They have no control over what their parents have done, and we may as well support them so that they can succeed and be contributing members of society and be able to make a difference."
Advocates such as Elena Segura try to provide solutions, or at least assistance, to families caught up in these situations.
Segura carries a notebook each week to the detention center in Broadview, where immigrants are deported every Friday. Whenever she sees children crying as they say goodbye to a loved one, she jots down their names. Later, she tries to connect them with a program she began in 2009 as director for immigrant affairs and immigration education for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Called Pastoral Migratoria, it was developed to help the growing number of families dealing with immigration issues and life after deportation.
"I cry every Friday when I hear the stories," she said. "It's not just a moral issue here. To me, it's basic human rights."
In Cicero, Arturo Gonzalez juggles a list of families struggling with deportation. A community organizer for the Interfaith Leadership Project, he makes sure parents leaving the country have their U.S. citizen children registered, so the kids can visit them abroad without having trouble re-entering.
He also gives "Know Your Rights" presentations, informing families about what to expect from deportation proceedings.
Camarota, whose group advocates tougher immigration controls, notes that immigration law grants legal status each year to several thousand undocumented immigrants who argue hardship, including the presence of a U.S.-born child.
More than 3,200 people were granted so-called cancellation of removal in 2009, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Families are making the choice to separate after deportation, not the U.S. government, Camarota said.
"My sense of these things is we are going to have to start enforcing the law first," he said. "Some will have to go home in significant and large numbers."
Immigration advocates, however, contend that such solutions are oversimplified and come too little, too late.
Meanwhile, children such as a 15-year-old girl who attends Elgin High School try to cope with wrenching situations.
One day seven months ago, the teen grew worried when her mother didn't return home from work.
The girl, who asked not to be named, finally got a call from her mother at 9 p.m. that night confirming her fears. Her mom, she said, was arrested at work and taken into custody for being an undocumented immigrant.
Within hours, an aunt moved in with her own three children to help look after the teen and her two younger sisters. But the high school sophomore quickly inherited new responsibilities. She now had to do the laundry, make dinner and clean the house.
Although they haven't seen their mother since that day last summer, the teen said she and her sisters are resigned to their new life.
"My mom is over there, but I just want to graduate and go to college here," she said. "For kids, it's pretty sad and hard."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-06/news/ct-met-deported-parents-children-20110331_1_citizen-children-immigration-laws-immigrant-parents
The Chicago Tribune
April 06, 2011
In the two years since her father was deported, 13-year-old Elisabeth and her three younger siblings have settled into an after-school routine while their mother, Maria Lourdes, works long hours at a beauty salon.
The family shares a cramped bedroom in a Waukegan apartment. When school friends wonder why her father is no longer in the picture, Elisabeth has learned to change the subject.
"I don't answer," she said. "It's such a long story."
After Elisabeth's father was deported, the family moved briefly to Mexico. But domestic discord led Maria Lourdes to return to Waukegan with her children, who were born here and are U.S. citizens. She, like her husband, is undocumented, but has applied for a visa to remain in the country.
Now, the four children carry on in America as best as they can, just like a growing number of young people who were born in this country and have seen one or both parents deported.
Those who work with such children say they've seen an increase in the cases locally. As a result, churches, schools and advocacy groups are left scrambling to help once-stable households deal with poverty, foreclosures, academic failure and other problems that come when so-called mixed immigration status families are split up.
The separation creates an "angry generation" of children who feel traumatized and disaffected but still choose to stay in the U.S. rather than face potential poverty, violence, and cultural and language barriers abroad. For some, advocates say, life in America is all they know.
"It's a horrific situation," said Josh Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "Given that we have this vastly increased number of deportations … we're trying to create infrastructure or support, specifically for people that have done nothing criminal other than come here to work, many who have U.S. citizen children."
But those who favor stricter enforcement of immigration laws assert that the struggles of families with a loved one deported highlight the need to keep people from entering the U.S. illegally.
"Issues surrounding U.S.-born children (with undocumented parents) remind us that the longer you don't enforce your immigration laws, the harder it becomes to do so," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.
In an estimate published by the Urban Institute in 2010, more than 100,000 immigrant parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported in the last 10 years.
At the same time, deportations have increased dramatically nationwide, from 122,000 in 2002 to 392,000 in 2010, with an emphasis on criminal deportations.
Locally, 12,000 people were deported from the detention center in Broadview in 2010, according to data from the Illinois coalition and the Archdiocese of Chicago.
After seeing such cases rise in recent years, Bill Bautista, a social worker at Community High School in West Chicago, has come to recognize the signs of teens dealing with a deportation at home.
These students often come to him seeking advice on how to get a job that earns money quickly. When he checks their academic records, it's not unusual to see an increase in absences, or a drop in grades, he said.
"There's a lot of privacy with this," he said. "They don't always share that with the school, and I wish they would because there are a lot of resources out there."
In Elgin, Maggie Dempsey has worked with as many as 10 students this school year with one or both parents deported. As liaison to the homeless for District U-46, she helped them get transportation to school after they moved in with a relative, encouraged them to stay involved in extracurricular activities, and even provided school uniforms and field trip money when they couldn't pay for them.
"They're just kids," she said. "They have no control over what their parents have done, and we may as well support them so that they can succeed and be contributing members of society and be able to make a difference."
Advocates such as Elena Segura try to provide solutions, or at least assistance, to families caught up in these situations.
Segura carries a notebook each week to the detention center in Broadview, where immigrants are deported every Friday. Whenever she sees children crying as they say goodbye to a loved one, she jots down their names. Later, she tries to connect them with a program she began in 2009 as director for immigrant affairs and immigration education for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Called Pastoral Migratoria, it was developed to help the growing number of families dealing with immigration issues and life after deportation.
"I cry every Friday when I hear the stories," she said. "It's not just a moral issue here. To me, it's basic human rights."
In Cicero, Arturo Gonzalez juggles a list of families struggling with deportation. A community organizer for the Interfaith Leadership Project, he makes sure parents leaving the country have their U.S. citizen children registered, so the kids can visit them abroad without having trouble re-entering.
He also gives "Know Your Rights" presentations, informing families about what to expect from deportation proceedings.
Camarota, whose group advocates tougher immigration controls, notes that immigration law grants legal status each year to several thousand undocumented immigrants who argue hardship, including the presence of a U.S.-born child.
More than 3,200 people were granted so-called cancellation of removal in 2009, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Families are making the choice to separate after deportation, not the U.S. government, Camarota said.
"My sense of these things is we are going to have to start enforcing the law first," he said. "Some will have to go home in significant and large numbers."
Immigration advocates, however, contend that such solutions are oversimplified and come too little, too late.
Meanwhile, children such as a 15-year-old girl who attends Elgin High School try to cope with wrenching situations.
One day seven months ago, the teen grew worried when her mother didn't return home from work.
The girl, who asked not to be named, finally got a call from her mother at 9 p.m. that night confirming her fears. Her mom, she said, was arrested at work and taken into custody for being an undocumented immigrant.
Within hours, an aunt moved in with her own three children to help look after the teen and her two younger sisters. But the high school sophomore quickly inherited new responsibilities. She now had to do the laundry, make dinner and clean the house.
Although they haven't seen their mother since that day last summer, the teen said she and her sisters are resigned to their new life.
"My mom is over there, but I just want to graduate and go to college here," she said. "For kids, it's pretty sad and hard."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-06/news/ct-met-deported-parents-children-20110331_1_citizen-children-immigration-laws-immigrant-parents
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Cook County, an immigrant sanctuary at risk
By Ana-Maria Udrica
Medill School of Journalism
March 02, 2011
Medill School of Journalism
March 02, 2011
These U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics are cumulative and were calculated from the date Illinois activated Secure Communities on Nov. 24, 2009. They can be found in ICE’s online FOIA Reading Room.
Significant numbers of non-criminal immigrants are being arrested and deported from Illinois through a federal program designed to identify and remove convicted criminal aliens from the United States.
According to the most recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics, 78 percent of immigrants arrested between November 2009 and October 2010 through Illinois’ Secure Communities program had no criminal convictions. Of those deported, 53 percent were not criminals.
The statistics are based on the 26 counties that participate in Secure Communities. Cook County is not one of them and, in the face of mounting pressure from ICE, immigration advocates who highlight the program’s failures are working to keep it that way.
“It’s catching the wrong people,” said Fred Tsao, policy director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “ICE should be focusing on convicted criminals. Instead, they’re just catching speeders.”
SECURE COMMUNITIES
ICE spokeswoman Cori Bassett described Secure Communities as “a comprehensive initiative to modernize the criminal alien enforcement process.”
According to the agreement between ICE and state police, the goal of Secure Communities is to identify aliens in custody who are charged with or convicted of a serious criminal offense, and prioritize their removal.
“Instead, what they’re doing is catching people on the front end,” Tsao said. “They’re catching people after they’ve just been arrested.”
Those who work with the undocumented said many are stopped for minor infractions such as front window obstruction caused by a rosary hanging over their rearview mirror. They are subsequently arrested for driving without a license and taken to police stations to be fingerprinted.
Fingerprints are normally run through the FBI’s criminal database. Under Secure Communities, they are also scanned by ICE’s immigration database, which instructs local law enforcement agencies if the individual should be turned over to ICE.
Generally, the database flags people with prior convictions and those not in the database, who are presumed to be undocumented.
The Department of Homeland Security fingerprints and keeps track of people who enter the U.S. legally.
Tsao said the database also includes people arrested at the border, people who had their charges dropped and people who posted bond or were acquitted, in addition to those who are convicted.
“And then convicted of what? It could be shoplifting. It could be a simple battery, it could be any minor traffic violation ranging all the way up to rape and murder, but there’s no distinction,” Tsao said. “Here in Illinois a traffic violation combined with driving without a license can get escalated to a felony.”
Immigrant advocacy groups criticize Secure Communities for deporting both these people and those who are undocumented.
“The number of deportations is increasing,” said Yesenia Sanchez from the West Suburban Action Project.
“Last year [the U.S.] had the highest rate of deportations. Almost 400,000 people were deported. That means 400,000 families were impacted, destroyed and uprooted from the communities they’re helping bring up,” Sanchez said.
“We’re fighting for those who have no criminal records,” she added.
But an ICE official said the program “has yielded historic results – including the removal of more convicted criminal aliens for the fiscal year 2010 than ever before” and arrested “more than 62,000 convicted criminal aliens, including more than 23,000 convicted of major violent offenses like murder, rape, and the sexual abuse of children.”
In relation to undocumented immigrants, the official said that “while non-criminal aliens identified through Secure Communities may have no recorded criminal conviction, they may have one or more immigration violations that make them subject to removal.”
WHEN IS A NON-CRIMINAL A CRIMINAL?
Immigration Attorney Matthew Kriezelman said, “It is not specifically made a crime to be here illegally.”
“However, if you enter illegally, you can be fined or imprisoned for up to six months and for up to two years if it is a repeat offense.”
Overstaying a non-immigrant visa such as a student or tourist visa is also not a crime, but violators “are technically subject to removal the day after their visa runs out,” Kriezelman said.
Although being undocumented does not lead to automatic deportation, and different circumstances can influence the outcome, “you can definitely be deported for being undocumented. It’s as plain as it can get in immigration law,” said Diego Bonesatti, a former Board of Immigration-accredited appeals representative.
Through Secure Communities, Tsao said, “It is somewhat safe to assume that people who are deported for non-criminal reasons are being deported for the most part for not having lawful status.”
Legally, undocumented immigrants can be deported with or without the program, but Bonesatti said Secure Communities “is not an issue so much of the law as the policy.”
“In general most pro-immigrant groups would have less of a problem if ICE is going to focus most of its resources going after people who have committed serious crimes.”
Instead, Tara Tidwell Cullen, communications coordinator at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said, “ICE continues to say they’re going after the most dangerous criminals, but, over and over, statistics just don’t show that that’s who they’re targeting in reality.”
For ICE, even though non-criminals may not have committed a crime, their immigration violations “make them subject to removal and are priorities for ICE to remove due to reasons such as visa overstay, illegal entry, illegal re-entry after removal, fugitive from a final order of removal issued and known documented gang affiliation.”
IS COOK COUNTY NEXT?
By 2013, ICE plans to implement Secure Communities nationwide.
“One of our greatest challenges in identifying criminal aliens is access to timely and accurate information about foreign nationals who commit dangerous crimes when they are arrested and in the custody of a state or local law enforcement agency,” ICE spokeswoman Cori Bassett said.
“Full implementation of Secure Communities will ensure a ‘virtual ICE presence’ in every jail and prison in the country [and] this will enable ICE to identify and remove those criminal aliens who pose the greatest threat to our communities.”
Nine entire states have signed on as of March 1, but in Illinois, only 25 percent of counties participate.
According to an internal document dated Jan. 2, ICE recommends dealing with jurisdictions that do not wish to participate by creating a “ring of interoperability” around the resistant site.
This is the case for Cook County, the largest county in Illinois and home to 600,000 non-citizens, according to ICIRR’s statistics. All the counties surrounding Cook participate in the program.
“Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has so far resisted pressure to sign up for Secure Communities,” Tsao said, “but that pressure is going to continue.”
Chicago and Cook County both have sanctuary ordinances that prevent police officers from inquiring about immigration status and working with ICE on investigating or pursuing anyone about their immigration status.
Despite this, a Dart spokesman confirmed ICE has an office on the first floor of the criminal courts building in Cook County. He said it “is not our building and we were not involved in that placement.”
The Cook County Board President’s office did not respond to the Medill News Service’s inquiries about the ICE office, but immigration groups say ICE agents operate between the Cook County courthouse and Cook County jail, and sometimes don’t distinguish themselves from local law enforcement.
Although there are no ICE agents in the jail proper, the complex at 26th and California is public and, Tsao said, “There is a somewhat large holding area between the jail and the courthouse where ICE agents roam fairly freely. It seems like they are somehow able to identify individuals by name who they want to question further. We’re not sure how they get that information. We just don’t know.”
ICIRR is investigating the matter because they said there appears to be cooperation between ICE and the state’s attorney’s office. The state’s attorney’s office did not return calls.
Dart declined to comment about Secure Communities and ICE, but his office has posted signs throughout the jail holding areas alerting people to the immigration rights they have.
“It’s not that Cook County isn’t in Secure Communities,” Bonesatti said. “It’s that the agents are there themselves and they’re questioning people who have been detained,” making the sanctuary provision, he said, “irrelevant.”
It is unclear whether municipalities such as Chicago can sign up for Secure Communities on their own. According to ICIRR, the decision involves the county and state police. The state police could decide to make the program statewide, but have so far respected Cook County’s resistance.
In addition to investigating the ICE presence in Cook County, immigration advocates are working toward a Smart Enforcement policy at the state, county and municipal level.
ICIRR’s report states that this policy would bring Secure Communities in line with its original intention of identifying convicted criminals, so that ICE and local law enforcement can focus on the truly harmful, instead of those immigrants who pose no threat and contribute to their communities.
Ana-Maria Udrica/MEDILL
As of March 1, 25 percent of Illinois counties participate in Secure Communities. Cook County is not one of them, but every county around Cook participates and, according to ICE documents, creates a “ring of interoperability” around a “resistant site” is part of a tactical approach for dealing with jurisdictions that do not wish to participate. (State-by-state report from ICE)
By Ana-Maria Udrica/MEDILL
ICE states that previous data they publish is subject to change based on a short list of potential factors, but when ICIRR saw the cumulative numbers drop in the days leading up the release of their report, they began to question ICE’s accuracy.
The cumulative total for non-criminals arrested in and deported from Illinois dropped from October to November.
“ICE is clearly playing with the numbers in Illinois,” an addendum to their report states.
“Either its previous numbers were faulty, or the most recent numbers (November 2010) are. In either case, the noncriminal share of arrests and removals in Illinois still far exceed the national figures, and the program remains deeply flawed.”
Courtesy of the Cook County Sheriff's office
Posters with the following information are posted throughout the Cook County Jail holding areas in English, Polish and Spanish to alert immigrants of the rights they have.
By Ana-Maria Udrica/MEDILL
Rachel Heuman, an immigration activist from Evanston, said unofficial estimates suggest that 20 percent of people who are deported could have been saved from deportation had they known their rights. In this video, Heuman discusses the Miranda rights and difficulty she has earning the trust of the immigrant community she is trying to inform through the Know Your Rights campaign. For further information please contact her at jrheuman@aol.com or watch the official “Know Your Rights” video from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
The effect of Secure Communities on local communities and police
“If the police are occupied in being part of this infrastructure for detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants who don’t have criminal records, it’s taking away from their time and their jail space,” said Diego Bonasetti, a former Board of Immigration-accredited appeals representative. “It’s diminishing their resources for criminal investigations.”
ICIRR and immigration advocates agree. They also argue that Secure Communities imposes unfunded mandates on municipalities and taxpayers who pay for the costs associated with detaining, guarding and providing food and health care to detainees, often beyond the allotted 48 hours ICE has to pick up people from local jails.
Additionally, Bonasetti said the way Secure Communities operates creates mistrust between the police and immigrant communities. He said those who work with the undocumented find that they are reluctant to come forward about crimes, whether as witnesses or victims.
Responding to the above, an official at the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement office said:
“ICE’s use of the federal biometric information-sharing capability requires no change to law enforcement agencies’ customary booking process. And, law enforcement agencies that use digital fingerprint scanners incur no additional cost. State and local law enforcement officers’ role is to continue enforcing their state or local law in the same manner in which they have always performed. They do not take a federal immigration enforcement role with Secure Communities. In fact, Secure Communities does not authorize, nor permit, state or local law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law. ICE retains that authority.”
This is where immigration activists say there is a divide between reality and the program’s intent.
“What ICE is doing is going county by county, asking if they can put this database into their system. We want to catch criminals and terrorists. And the counties are saying, 'Yes, of course, put it in.' What they’re not telling them is how much it’s going to cost and who it’s detaining. Some of the counties, some of the sheriffs, from the conversations that we’ve had, said they don’t support this. But they already have it [and can’t opt out],” said Yesenia Sanchez from the West Suburban Action Project.
“They tell them this is going to mean more money for your community and police force, it’s going to help keep peace in your community, and it all sounds very lovely, but this is why Evanston Chief of Police Eddington and I had a talk last week. I just wanted to make sure he knew what Secure Communities was and how it worked, and to be aware of it and be informed when and if he were to be approached,” said Rachel Heuman, an immigration activist.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Immigration reform vigil near Obamas' home
WLS
Sunday, May 30, 2010
May 30, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A group calling for immigration reform held a vigil Sunday night near Pres. Barack Obama's South Side home.
Many of those taking part were immigrants who have loved ones in the military.
They called on the president to stop deportations saying they separate families.
The protestors say their contributions to this country and the military go unnoticed.
One of the participants in Sunday night's vigil was a young woman who is undocumented and also married to an American in the military.
"He's worried... Husband comes back," said Fanny Martinez.
" The main message... Deported themselves," Sonny Garcia said.
Members of the group said they planned to be out all night Sunday and that they would hold another prayer vigil Monday morning.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7470473
Sunday, May 30, 2010
May 30, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A group calling for immigration reform held a vigil Sunday night near Pres. Barack Obama's South Side home.
Many of those taking part were immigrants who have loved ones in the military.
They called on the president to stop deportations saying they separate families.
The protestors say their contributions to this country and the military go unnoticed.
One of the participants in Sunday night's vigil was a young woman who is undocumented and also married to an American in the military.
"He's worried... Husband comes back," said Fanny Martinez.
" The main message... Deported themselves," Sonny Garcia said.
Members of the group said they planned to be out all night Sunday and that they would hold another prayer vigil Monday morning.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7470473
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Deportation Nightmare: Eduardo Caraballo, US Citizen Born In Puerto Rico, Detained As Illegal Immigrant
The Huffington Post
May 25, 2010
Eduardo Caraballo, a U.S. citizen born in the United States, was detained for over three days on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.
Despite presenting identifying documents and even his birth certificate, Caraballo was held by federal immigration authorities over the weekend and threatened with deportation, according to an NBC Chicago report. He was only released when his congressman, Luis Gutierrez -- a vocal supporter of immigration reform -- intervened on his behalf.
Caraballo was born in Puerto Rico, making him a natural-born citizen of the United States. He moved to the mainland as an infant, and now lives in Chicago.
Last week, NBC reports that he was arrested in connection with a stolen car in Berwyn. Caraballo maintains his innocence. In any case, when his mother posted bail on Friday, he was not freed.
"Instead of being released, he was told by authorities that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was detaining him because he was an illegal immigrant," NBC reports.
Caraballo spent the weekend in the custody of federal immigration agents. When he presented them with ID and his birth certificate, he says officials were skeptical: "Because of the way I look, I have Mexican features, they pretty much assumed that my papers were fake."
Only after his congressman interceded was Caraballo set free.
Rep. Gutierrez, a Chicagoan who is himself of Puerto Rican descent, is a long-time advocate of immigration reform. He was one of the first and loudest voices on the Hill to speak out against the Arizona immigration law, and he was recently arrested at a protest demanding fairer treatment for immigrants and their families.
"It gets worse," Gutierrez said in an interview. "We know of instances in which young people in his same situation are actually taken to the border and deported from the United States.
Not surprisingly, the nine-term Democratic congressman saw a disturbing connection to the situation in the Grand Canyon State.
"In Arizona, they want everybody to be able to prove they're legally in the country. They want everybody to prove that they're an American citizen. Here we had an American citizen, that the federal government... could not determine, for more than three days, his status as an American citizen. It's very, very, very dangerous ground to tread."
According to NBC Chicago, Caraballo "is considering legal action." Meanwhile, he and his congressman hope the incident will open people's eyes to the dangers of profiling.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/deportation-nightmare-edu_n_588788.html
May 25, 2010
Eduardo Caraballo, a U.S. citizen born in the United States, was detained for over three days on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.
Despite presenting identifying documents and even his birth certificate, Caraballo was held by federal immigration authorities over the weekend and threatened with deportation, according to an NBC Chicago report. He was only released when his congressman, Luis Gutierrez -- a vocal supporter of immigration reform -- intervened on his behalf.
Caraballo was born in Puerto Rico, making him a natural-born citizen of the United States. He moved to the mainland as an infant, and now lives in Chicago.
Last week, NBC reports that he was arrested in connection with a stolen car in Berwyn. Caraballo maintains his innocence. In any case, when his mother posted bail on Friday, he was not freed.
"Instead of being released, he was told by authorities that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was detaining him because he was an illegal immigrant," NBC reports.
Caraballo spent the weekend in the custody of federal immigration agents. When he presented them with ID and his birth certificate, he says officials were skeptical: "Because of the way I look, I have Mexican features, they pretty much assumed that my papers were fake."
Only after his congressman interceded was Caraballo set free.
Rep. Gutierrez, a Chicagoan who is himself of Puerto Rican descent, is a long-time advocate of immigration reform. He was one of the first and loudest voices on the Hill to speak out against the Arizona immigration law, and he was recently arrested at a protest demanding fairer treatment for immigrants and their families.
"It gets worse," Gutierrez said in an interview. "We know of instances in which young people in his same situation are actually taken to the border and deported from the United States.
Not surprisingly, the nine-term Democratic congressman saw a disturbing connection to the situation in the Grand Canyon State.
"In Arizona, they want everybody to be able to prove they're legally in the country. They want everybody to prove that they're an American citizen. Here we had an American citizen, that the federal government... could not determine, for more than three days, his status as an American citizen. It's very, very, very dangerous ground to tread."
According to NBC Chicago, Caraballo "is considering legal action." Meanwhile, he and his congressman hope the incident will open people's eyes to the dangers of profiling.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/deportation-nightmare-edu_n_588788.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
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