Families, Hispanic leaders upset by raids

By Hillary Gavan
beloitdailynews.com
September 16, 2011

After Tuesday's roundup of immigrants allegedly tied to crime and gang activity, some members and representatives of the Hispanic community say they are distrustful of law enforcement now and feel reluctant to report crimes or act as witnesses.

Some said the Beloit Police Department should leave immigration enforcement to Homeland Security.

Police said seven people were taken into administrative custody Tuesday during a Beloit roundup of immigrants by federal officials. The federal officials say those taken into custody are tied to crime and gangs. The operation was conducted by federal Homeland Security agents with the help of Beloit police.

During the roundup, Beloit police knocked on the doors where suspects might be living. Capt. Vince Sciame stressed that they were face-to-face meetings and included use of a Spanish speaking officer. He said the roundup was peaceful and simply involved talking to various families. Those the police were targeting were arrested, handcuffed and then processed by Homeland Security investigators.

Sara Dady, an immigration attorney with Dady and Hoffmann in Rockford, said local police shouldn't get involved with civil law enforcement. The Homeland Security officers refused to identify themselves when they came to homes and workplaces, she said.

She added that the seven administrative arrests will cause the Beloit Hispanic population to be distrustful and reluctant to contact police regarding crime.

"There's little information about how truly dangerous these people are. Some of these people they were running with the wrong crowd and had a minor disorderly conduct charge, but have since turned their lives around," Dady said.

Dady said lawful permanent residents were also subject to being removed if they had only minor convictions.

"I'm not sure that this operation is the best use of local resources," she said. "The Beloit Police Department should not be involved. The local police department has its own responsibility to keep community safe. Participating with customs and immigration undermines that ability."

Pastor Neddy Astudillo said the raids were deceptive and police weren't honest about what they were doing when they approached local Hispanic families. Police said they just wanted to talk, and accompanying Homeland Security officers weren't dressed in uniform or properly identified.

Kitzia Colin and her mother Veronica Colin explained what happened to their family during the roundup. The mother and daughter said police came looking for brother and son Nestali Colin, 21. According to the Colins, police assured the family they only wanted to talk to Nestali. The family called him at work at a Fontana hotel and ordered him home to speak with police. They said police assured them that Nestali would be able to return to work after speaking to police. After the conversation, Nestali was immediately taken into custody.

The Colins are upset that they have not been able to speak with Nestali and cannot get any information about his status. He is being held in detention in Dodge County. The family said he only had one legal problem with a fight but had already been to court to address the issue.

"We are not sure about his connection to a gang but he told my parents that he didn't have problems with gangs," Kitzia Colin said. "We are not able to speak to him or anything. My mom's pregnant and it scared her. Police weren't clear about what they were doing."

Nancy Marquez said there was also an arrest in her family of a young man. She said her family was eager to cooperate with police and thought they were going to help police with fighting crime. After taking a shower the young man immediately went down to talk with police. Instead of reporting the crime, the young man was immediately taken into custody and felt tricked by police, the family said.

Dady stressed that deportation isn't as simple as shipping an immigrant back to Mexico. The suspects may spend up to two years in legal proceedings and may eventually return home.

Astudillo acknowledged that police did contact her about the upcoming roundup and encouraged the support of families impacted by the raids. However she said she's still concerned that the roundup bordered on harassment of innocent Hispanics.

"When local police enforcement cooperates with immigration officials there is a deterioration of trust between immigrant community and police. We need to be able to trust the police, if we are going to have a real safe community. People need to know when the immigrant community becomes fearful, it won't report crime," she said. "We need to evaluate how positive this approach is. We lose the population's trust for capturing 7 people who may or may not be a threat. It's not just about gang members. The wave goes farther."

Astudillo said the challenge for Hispanic leaders is getting information to the immigrant community. Many law abiding members are avoiding public places and are scared to even drive their children to school. Without a Spanish newspaper or radio station in Beloit, it's hard to communicate what is going on as part of the roundup activities.

Capt. Vince Sciame stressed that the people taken into custody had some sort of criminal history or gang affiliation.

"Beloit police will continue to work with Homeland Security. We feel obligated to assist federal agencies and are obligated by law to offer mutual aid. For us to deny that would be professional suicide. We are here in a supportive role to the point," he said.

Sciame said police will be happy to speak to any residents about their concerns regarding the roundup, and added that the average law abiding Hispanic living in Beloit has nothing to fear.

http://www.beloitdailynews.com/news/local_news/families-hispanic-leaders-upset-by-raids/article_4b7fe55c-e08a-11e0-b3c9-001cc4c002e0.html

Lucha contra deportación

Por Johanes Rosello
Mundo Hispanico
Miércoles, Septiembre 14, 2011

En el restaurante Cup & Saucer Diner de Loganville se siente la ausencia de su cocinero Antonio Mejía. El mexicano que antes servía a la clientela del local, ahora aguarda su deportación.

A pesar de que las esperanzas de que Mejía se quede en Georgia parecieran nulas, sus compañeros de trabajo, en particular su supervisora, agotan todos los recursos para evitar que sea separado de su familia.

“Antonio ha estado con nosotros por 12 años y toda la gente que come aquí ama a Antonio. Nosotros somos una familia y si él no está aquí, no es lo mismo”, afirmó Susan Kasnic, supervisora de Mejía.

La policía de Lawrenceville detuvo a Mejía este año manejando sin licencia. Un tiempo después tuvo un accidente vial y esta vez fue encarcelado y puesto en proceso de deportación por su estatus de indocumentado.

El hombre salió de la cárcel pagando una fianza y 
comenzó el proceso para legalizar su estatus migratorio y solicitó la cancelación de la orden de deportación existente.

“La cancelación de remoción es un alivio migratorio que otorga un juez de inmigración a extranjeros en proceso de ser removidos del país por un juez de inmigración y que no han cometido delito mayor. El juez de inmigración y no el Servicio de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE) es quien toma esta determinación”, explicó Danielle Benett, vocera de ICE.

El pasado 23 de agosto, Mejía se presentó a la corte con la esperanza de que saldría bien de su caso. Sin embargo, el juez dijo que el hombre tenía una orden previa de deportación de 1999 por cruzar de manera ilegal la frontera y por esta razón sería enviado a México.

Benett explicó que cruzar la frontera luego de una deportación podría conllevar una pena máxima de 20 años en prisión. Además, señaló que quien entra al país luego de ser deportado no puede arreglar su estatus.

La familia de Mejía no entiende cómo pudo iniciar todo el proceso para legalizar su estatus y que apareciera esta orden de deportación justo en el momento en que pensaban que podría quedarse a vivir legalmente en el país.

“Ahora que ya estaba a punto de agarrar su tarjeta (permiso de trabajo), le dijeron que tenía una deportación y que no puede calificar para ese permiso y no lo entendemos”, expresó Carmen Zamora, esposa de Mejía con quien tiene tres niños estadounidenses.

Pero Kasnic no se detiene. Ella se ha tomado muy en serio la misión de hacer todo lo que esté en sus manos para que Mejía se quede en Georgia. Con este fin, ha mandado cartas a altos funcionarios del gobierno, incluyendo a Janet Napolitano, secretaria del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, pidiendo que se reconsidere el caso de Mejía.

“Me parece injusto, en especial considerando que tiene tres hijos estadounidenses, que castigando a una persona arruines la vida de otras tres personas que tienen el derecho de estar aquí”, dijo la supervisora de Mejía.

Kasnic se comunicó a la oficina de ICE en Georgia y pudo hablar con un oficial de alto rango a quien no quiso identificar. Al día siguiente de esta conversación, Mejía fue notificado de que tendrá una oportunidad para apelar el caso.

Aaron Ortiz, abogado que trabaja junto a Brennan Bair el caso de Mejía, aclaró que el 22 de octubre es la fecha límite para apelar el caso.

“Una apelación la vamos a perder porque él ya fue deportado previamente en 1999. Lo que vamos a hacer es una petición para reabrir el caso basado en que tiene hijos ciudadanos y que ha pagado los impuestos”, explicó Ortiz

“Si lográramos reabrir el caso, tendríamos una oportunidad para tratar de sacarlo (de la cárcel) y después continuar con el proceso, pero si lo perdemos es porque él ya fue deportado”, aseveró.

http://www.mundohispanico.com/noticias/locales/lucha-contra-deportacion-1857459.html

Sheriff's office won't resist deportation program

Some law officers nationwide say illegal immigrant effort is flawed.
By PATRICK MALONE
Chieftain.Com
Thursday, May 26, 2011

DENVER — A tide of backlash nationally against the federal Secure Communities program has not deterred the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office from plans to participate in it.

Two sheriffs from other states expressed doubts Wednesday about participating in the program because they worry it is snaring low-level offenders and deporting people whose criminal cases have not been adjudicated.

They join the governor of Illinois and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in questioning whether Secure Communities is accomplishing its objectives or doing more harm than good.

The Pueblo sheriff’s office sees little difference between Secure Communities and its current practice of providing inmates’ fingerprints to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which in turn forwards them to federal agencies, according to Capt. Dave Lucero.

He said the fingerprint comparison does little to affect the jail. Of the 606 inmates held there on Wednesday, just two were being detained on immigration holds.

Secure Communities creates a computer pipeline for jails to send fingerprints of people booked there to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI.

The program’s aim is to target for deportation those who have committed the most serious crimes, such as rape, murder and felony drug offenses. But the Los Angeles Times reported last week that only about 35 percent of those who have been deported to date fit that description.

One-fourth of the deportations associated with Secure Communities so far have involved people awaiting resolution of their cases who have not been convicted, according to Bridget Kessler of Benjamin Cardoza School of Law.

“It’s a flawed program,” said Sheriff Patrick Perez of Kane County, Ill., where Gov. Patrick Quinn recently terminated the state’s participation in Secure Communities over concerns that it was not catching its intended targets and was eroding trust between law enforcement and the immigrant community.

Perez praised Quinn’s decision.

“People have been deported for minor traffic violations or no criminal activity at all,” Perez said.

Earlier this month the Congressional Hispanic Caucus submitted a letter to President Barack Obama urging an immediate freeze of Secure Communities in order to review whether it is truly prioritizing serious offenders for deportation, or simply casting a dragnet.

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok emphasized the scope of Secure Communities is limited to those in the country illegally who have been arrested for violating state laws.

“Secure Communities has been deployed quickly to support the administration’s efforts to prioritize criminal aliens for removal, and DHS is committed to working with all partners to address questions about the program,” Rusnok said.

He said ICE is reviewing statistics to assure Secure Communities is not a vehicle for misconduct, and if any is found corrective actions will be taken.

Sheriff Ed Prieto of Yolo County, Calif., acknowledged that many people, including some in his own command staff, have no objections to deporting anyone who is discovered to be in the country illegally. But he is instructing his department to notify ICE only of prisoners in the country illegally who are known to have committed serious offenses.

In a conference call with reporters, Perez and Prieto also voiced confusion over whether participation in the program is mandatory and what the consequences might be if they reject joining.

They said early correspondence with the DHS and ICE suggested participation was voluntary, but since then those agencies have made it abundantly clear that every jurisdiction in the nation is expected to be on board by 2013. Rusnok said the only aspect of the program that jails can block is a return report from ICE about whether anyone in a jail is subject to deportation. But refusing to accept those results has no bearing on whether ICE — which has the ultimate authority to do so — will deport inmates from a jail.

Gov. Bill Ritter approved Colorado’s participation in the program shortly before he left office. Denver, Arapahoe and El Paso counties currently are Colorado’s pilot jurisdictions for Secure Communities. Pueblo County also will join to comply with the mandate.

“It’s not up to us to dictate their policies,” said Lucero of the Pueblo sheriff's office. “They make the rules. We just follow them.”

http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/sheriff-s-office-won-t-resist-deportation-program/article_aacb74b4-875b-11e0-92ed-001cc4c002e0.html

Immigrant Rights Group Wants Probe Of Deportation Program

CBS Chicago
January 15, 2011 4:55 PM

CHICAGO (CBS) – The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is asking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to investigate its own Secure Communities program for deporting illegal aliens after encounters with local police.

John Hoyt, Executive Director of the Coalition, says the deportation program has been cooking its books to justify its mission. Federal immigration authorities say they’re just improving the accuracy of their data.

Hoyt says original Homeland Security numbers showed that 78% of all those stopped by local police and handed over to feds for deportation were non-criminals — had no prior criminal record.

But Hoyt says when asked about those numbers, Homeland Security revised its figures to show that only 44% were non-criminal.

Hoyt says either way, it still looks bad and should be investigated by the Inspector General of the Homeland Security Department.

Meantime, mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel’s suggestion to provide a local DREAM Act scholarship for children of undocumented immigrants in Chicago was drawing fire from his rivals and Hispanic leaders as too little, too late.

U.S. Rep. Luis Guiterrez said the scholarship idea is fine with him, but claimed Emanuel should have done more to prevent deportations in the first place while he was White House chief of staff and, before that, one of the top Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun said Chicago should be doing more to aid children of undocumented immigrants.

“When you talk about the DREAM Act and when you talk about the fate of children who are separated from their parents, I have to reflect back on the fact that this belies and this stands in stark contracts to the higher traditions of Americans,” Braun said.

And mayoral rival Gery Chico blasted the Secure Communities program – an Obama administration initiative begun while Emanuel was White House chief of staff. The deportation program is designed to remove dangerous criminals from the country, but critics said many people who have been targeted by the program are simply motorists stopped for traffic violations.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/01/15/immigrant-rights-group-wants-probe-of-deportation-program/

Chicago aldermen urge moratorium on ‘cruel deportations’

By FRAN SPIELMAN
Chicago Sun Times
Jan 14, 2011

The Chicago City Council on Thursday turned up the heat on President Obama on the volatile issue of immigration reform that Illinois’ native son promised — but so far has failed — to deliver.

Aldermen unanimously approved a resolution urging Obama to use his executive powers to call an immediate halt to deportation of undocumented workers that separate them from families that include either a U.S. citizen or a child who would be covered by the so-called “DREAM Act.”

The DREAM Act would have established a path to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, but it fell two votes short of passage in the frenzied hours before Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Now, aldermen want Obama to take matters into his own hands to stop a deportation policy they called “inhumane” and said is separating 1,100 families each day.

The resolution was championed by Hispanic aldermen and by Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th), who represents a majority Hispanic ward.

Burke noted that in the 1850s, the City Council voted to prohibit law enforcement officials from cooperating with U.S. marshals then tracking down fugitive slaves. The immigration issue is a similar issue of “compassion and morality,” Burke said.

“It is just unfathomable that the federal government persists in this cruel and unusual punishment to innocent members of our society,” Burke said at a City Hall news conference Thursday. “If Illinois can have a moratorium on the death penalty, the U.S. ought to have a moratorium on these cruel deportations.”

Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th) noted that the pace of deportations during the Bush administration has more than doubled under Obama.

“And this is supposed to be a friend of the Latino community?” Maldonado said. “This is the president [who] promised the Latino community and the immigrant community that he was gonna send a bill for immigration reform within the first 90 days of his administration. He’s just about to embark on his re-election campaign for his second term, and we’re still waiting.”

The City Council has been a frequent champion of immigration issues to appease Chicago’s fast-growing Hispanic population. In 2006, aldermen demanded a moratorium on immigration raids while Congress debates immigration reform, calling federal sweeps a “scare tactic” designed to intimidate “the new civil rights movement.”

Three years later, the council voted to champion the cause of Rigo Padilla, a straight-A student facing imminent deportation. The resulting news coverage helped Padilla win a temporary reprieve.

On Thursday, activist-pastor Emma Lozano held mayoral challenger Rahm Emanuel responsible for blocking immigration reform during his nearly two-year stint at White House chief of staff.

“He was recommending to the president not to move on this issue. . . . [Emanuel] said that we would not even attempt to look at this issue until the second term of a Democratic president. That is telling us that every day, 1,100 families are gonna continue to be destroyed, mostly Latino families,” Lozano said.

In an apparent attempt to counter allegations that he was a roadblock to immigration reform, Emanuel on Thursday proposed a local version of the DREAM Act. He vowed to work with business and civic leaders to launch a so-called, “DREAM of College Fund” that would offer low-interest loans to children with DREAM status.

To qualify, students would be required to: be between the ages of 12 and 25; have moved to Chicago before age 16; lived in the city for at least five straight years before application; be a student in good standing at a public or private elementary or high school in Chicago and be a law-abiding Chicagoan.

Pressed on why immigration reform didn’t happen under his watch as chief of staff, Emanuel told the Chicago Sun-Times last fall, “I don’t deserve all the credit for children’s health care. I don’t deserve the credit single-handedly on universal health care happening. Nor does any one individual deserve the blame if something didn’t happen.”

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/3295280-418/immigration-aldermen-obama-reform-chicago.html

Brief stop on forced journey home;Families wait in Broadview for chance to see deportees

By Georgia Garvey
The Chicago Tribune
November 14, 2010

On both sides of the barbed wire at the federal detention center in Broadview, people wait.

There's a bite in the early morning air, and men and women sit in cars, windows cracked and engines running. What they're awaiting — dreading, often — can be the culmination of years' worth of court hearings and bureaucracy: the deportation of their loved ones.

"I wanted him to see his son before he left," Jessica Vargas said as she rocked 7-week-old Abel, her son with Luis Diaz Flores, a 19-year-old man on his way to be deported to Mexico.

Tears streamed down her face. She had been told to arrive from 6 to 8 a.m., she said, to visit briefly with her boyfriend. But when she arrived at 5:45 a.m., Vargas was told she was too late. "People who are here (illegally), they shouldn't be here. I understand that they don't have papers and stuff, but he's doing something. He has a family here. He's working. He's not doing anything wrong."

Sometimes, the soon-to-be deported are leaving the facility, 20 minutes outside of Chicago, to go to far-away nations, places where they don't know many people and barely speak the language. Other times, they're going home, to family they just recently left.

But in every Illinois case, the deportees will visit the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Broadview, a staging house that will be their last stop before boarding a plane at O'Hare International Airport out of the U.S. With the immigration debate boiling over, and the federal government recently deciding to challenge a hot-button Arizona law, plenty of action takes place practically in Chicago's backyard at Broadview, a short drive from the Loop.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently announced a record-breaking year for deportations in the country — 392,000 in fiscal year 2010. The previous year also set a record, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

Napolitano said the increase in deportations is evidence that the Obama administration "takes very seriously the responsibility to enforce the borders and ... immigration laws."

All Chicago-area deportees will make their way through that small, brick building in Broadview, a detention and staging facility that serves a four-state enforcement region that includes Illinois.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 62 percent of those living in the country without legal status are from Mexico and reports that the majority of deportations are of Mexicans. At Broadview, some are returning to Jordan, Guatemala, Honduras and even Cuba.

Vargas brought to the detention center a packet of money and a handwritten letter to give her boyfriend, Flores, before he returned to Mexico, a country he hadn't visited since he was 5, she said. Vargas, 20, said Flores didn't know anyone in the country other than grandparents he hadn't seen since he had left.

"It's been so hard," she said, sobbing, as she described last seeing her boyfriend as he left their Elgin home for his job one morning. He was picked up in a traffic stop, she said, and found not to have a driver's license. "He had told me that he wanted to get married."

Sister JoAnn Persch, a nun who is a member of the Sisters of Mercy, hears tales like Vargas' often and sees many aspects of the deportation process. Persch visits immigration detainees in the McHenry County Jail, one of the three locations in the state where those accused of being in the country illegally are held, and helps spearhead a prayer vigil Friday mornings as the deported are bused away.

"You can't help but (be) caught up in their story," Persch said one recent morning on the sidewalk in front of Broadview, the American flag flying overhead.

It can be tough to find the detention center. Right off Interstate Highway 290, it's tucked away in an industrial park, with no number or name on the front of the building. But a few key hints betray its purpose: the barbed wire atop a fence blacked out with plastic covering, the roving cameras fixed on entrances and exits. The occasional sedan with tinted windows that zips in and out of the gate, which seems to open just for the perfect amount of time to admit the car, closing quickly behind it.

Inside, the atmosphere is more institutional, like a secure hospital ward. In rooms, behind lock and key, men peek out from windows. Sometimes they are shackled, two by two, at foot and hand, facing one of the walls in a corridor. Other times, they lie on molded plastic chairs, covered in gray felt blankets.

More often than not, they are waiting to get their one free three-minute phone call or to contact the consulate of their country of origin.

They wait, ultimately, to step onto the white bus with blackened windows that will take them to O'Hare.

Overwhelmingly, the detainees at the facility are men, said Sylvia Bonaccorsi-Manno, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. But they rarely cause trouble, she said.

Sometimes, they are convicted criminals, nabbed when law enforcement officials checked their immigration status while they were in prison. Other times they were picked up on minor traffic issues. They can be fugitives from Immigration and Customs Enforcement or legal residents whose status is being challenged by the government.

"This is the last stop before (the detainees) go home and they're free," Bonaccorsi-Manno said. "It's the end of their journey, not the beginning."

ggarvey@tribune.com

Illegal immigrants down, but not in Illinois

State's population stable despite national trend
By Dahleen Glanton
The Chicago Tribune
September 01, 2010

The number of illegal immigrants in Illinois has remained stable in the midst of the recession, bucking a national trend in which the number living in the U.S. declined as jobs dwindled, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Illinois ranked No. 5 with an estimated 525,000 illegal immigrants in 2009, more than the approximately 475,000 in the state in 2008. The Pew analysts cautioned that their figures were based on a range of estimates, meaning that it is safer to say the Illinois illegal immigrant population was stable rather than to say it actually increased.

Nationwide, the total number of illegal immigrants has declined by about 1 million since 2007, to 11.1 million in 2009, representing about 4 percent of the U.S. population.

While Illinois has long been attractive to illegal immigrants, the population has fluctuated over the last two decades. Unlike many states that have experienced a clear peak and decline, Illinois grew from 200,000 to 475,000 from 1990 to 2000 and then dropped to 350,000 in 2005.

"Illinois seems to have dropped in the first half of the decade when everyone else was growing and now seems to have turned around and is going back up," said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer who conducted the survey based on U.S. census data.

The gap between Illinois and Florida and New York has tightened, Passel said, as those two states lost large illegal immigrant populations last year and Illinois gained over the last five years.

Nationwide, the study found that the most marked decline was among illegal immigrants from Latin American countries other than Mexico. From 2007 to 2009, immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America and South America decreased 22 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico, which accounts for about 60 percent of all illegal immigrants, leveled off after reaching a peak of 7 million in 2007, the study found.

"The people are drawn here by the abundance of work," said Tim Bell, an organizer for the Chicago Workers Collaborative, which advocates workers rights for immigrants. "Over the last 15 to 20 years, the immigrant population has exploded in the suburbs, where they do most of the service work."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-09-01/news/ct-met-illinois-illegal-immigration-020100901_1_illegal-immigrants-jeffrey-passel-chicago-workers-collaborative

24 Arrested in Chicago for Blocking Migrant Deportations

Latin American Herald Tribune
April 28, 2010

CHICAGO – Twenty-four pro-immigrant activists were arrested Tuesday in Chicago for blocking undocumented immigrants from being taken away for deportation for almost two hours.

The act of civil disobedience was organized by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, or ICIRR, and other groups as a protest against deportations and in solidarity with undocumented aliens in Arizona, where a new law makes being in the country illegally a misdemeanor.

“We’re tired of the federal government’s inaction,” Tania Unzueta, of the Immigrant Youth Justice League, told Efe.

Among those arrested outside the Broadview Detention Center in suburban Chicago were ICIRR Executive Director Joshua Hoyt, several members of the clergy, and students, according to Unzueta.

She said that around 6:00 a.m. they sat down in two rows in the street in front of the main entrance to the center where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processes undocumented immigrants, and blocked several vans from taking people to where they would be deported.

“They were there almost two hours until the police arrived and moved them without violence,” Unzueta said.

Those in custody were to be fined and then released several hours later.

The activist said that the protest was the first step in a national civil disobedience movement to protest against the government policy of arrests and deportations for undocumented immigrants “without there being a path to legalization.”

Several hours before, a vigil of some 250 people was held in front of the Broadview Detention Center to demand that President Barack Obama issue an executive order putting an end to raids and deportations.

The ICIRR said Tuesday’s action was also a gesture of solidarity with immigrants in Arizona and a response to the recently passed SB1070 law that “criminalizes undocumented immigrants.”

Arizona’s move is a direct consequence of the Obama administration’s failure to push for immigration reform, the ICIRR said.

In a separate act, the Rev. Jose Landaverde, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Episcopal Church in Chicago’s La Villita neighborhood, said that “stopping this bad example of racial profiling in Arizona” is an urgent matter.

“We will come out in protest, without worrying about whether we end up in jail, to show that the resistance movement is growing,” he said.

The ICIRR insisted that by April 30 the U.S. Senate must begin debating an immigration reform bill, which must be voted on by June 15, under threat of more street protests and civil disobedience.

On Saturday, May 1, there will be a march and rally in the square in front of Chicago city hall, together with the May Day celebrations, with participants carrying photos and other mementos of family members who have been deported.

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=356082&CategoryId=12395

Recent restaurant raids show immigration agency's new strategy

By CHRIS DETTRO
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Mar 22, 2010

The filing of federal criminal charges against six Springfield restaurant employees on March 10 reflects a change in workplace enforcement strategy by the government agency charged with fighting illegal immigration.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement determined that the men — five of whom were employees of Texas Roadhouse restaurant and the other an employee of Chili’s and Chipotle restaurants — had obtained their jobs by presenting fraudulent resident alien and Social Security cards to the restaurants.

ICE agents served a notice of inspection to verify employment eligibility on Texas Roadhouse Nov. 19. Six days later, the agency received 110 form I-9s for the restaurant’s workers.

ICE review and database checks allegedly uncovered the fraud.

“Since ICE’s work force enforcement strategy changed in April 2009, we’ve been focusing more on the audits process as opposed to large operations,” said ICE spokesman Gail Montenegro. “We’re now looking more at the paperwork or documents.”

More than 1,000 I-9 inspections have been done across the country since last April, compared to only 503 in all of fiscal 2008, she said. So far, 142 notices of intent to fine have been sent to businesses as a result of those inspections compared to 32 the previous year. The fine notices amount to almost $15.9 million.

The auditing process “is sending a message that the integrity of employment records is just as important as other records,” as well as promoting compliance, Montenegro said.

ICE is seeing a pattern of immigrants moving to smaller metropolitan areas, such as Springfield, she added.

“It’s a factor of where jobs are available,” she said.

The Chicago ICE office is responsible for enforcing immigration laws in six states. The Springfield office is a sub-office of Chicago.

ICE conducts enforcement actions not at random, but based on specific evidence or intelligence that it receives, Montenegro said.

Previous arrests of illegal workers at Springfield restaurants took place because of information developed after a shoplifting arrest and a minor traffic stop.

Part of the new “targeted enforcement” initiative is to serve businesses with audit notices based on information ICE receives. Montenegro said she couldn’t say what prompted the Texas Roadhouse notice of inspection because the file remains open.

“In the process of auditing, the employer can be found to be completely in compliance,” she said. “Or there can be civil penalties and even criminal charges.”

In a 2006 immigration case in Springfield, the co-owner of the Buffet City restaurant was convicted in federal court of knowingly recruiting illegal aliens and hiring them to work at his restaurant.

“Our goal is to protect employment opportunities for the nation’s legal workforce,” Montenegro said. “One of our priorities is going after employers who are egregiously circumventing laws for financial benefit. Another is attacking recidivism by targeting people who previously have been deported and re-enter the country illegally.”

One of the six men arrested March 10 had been previously deported and is charged with a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Chris Dettro can be reached at 788-1510.

Springfield restaurant raids

* June 2000 — Eight people are arrested at Cancun restaurant, 2849 S. Sixth St. The restaurant doesn’t reopen.

The arrests are the result of a shoplifting charge against one of the men, who is found to be in this country illegally and tells police others are, too.

A few days later, two illegal workers are taken into custody at Xochimilco on West Iles Avenue and another at The Grand Buffet, 2753 Veterans Parkway.

* November 2000 — Six workers at the Cancun restaurant in Sherman are deported after it is found they are in the country illegally. A traffic stop in Southern View led to their arrest.

* September 2006 — Fifteen workers and a co-owner are taken into custody at Buffet City, 1774 Wabash Ave., and the restaurant is closed. The co-owner is charged with recruiting illegal aliens for employment and the workers — all from China or Mexico — are deported.

Another restaurant, New Buffet City, opens the following year at the same location with a new owner.

* March 2010 — Six Springfield restaurant workers are charged in federal court with using false documents to get work in the United States. Five of the men worked at Texas Roadhouse, another at both Chili’s and Chipotle restaurants.

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

Groups try to delay deportations of illegal students

By Emily Bazar
USA TODAY

Rigoberto Padilla, 21, came to the USA from Mexico when he was 6.
He went to school in Chicago, joined the honor society and dreamed of becoming a lawyer — all while living here illegally.

Padilla's status wasn't a problem until he applied for college and couldn't qualify for financial aid without a Social Security number, he says.

In January, the University of Illinois-Chicago junior was charged with drunken driving. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, paid a fine and got court supervision, but that brought him to the attention of immigration officials and triggered deportation proceedings. "It was one mistake in my life," he says.

Padilla's impending deportation, originally set for today, catapulted him into a campaign to stop the deportation of college students and recent graduates. Lawmakers, students, members of the clergy and other activists hope to buy the students time and use their stories to push for laws that would allow them, and perhaps millions of other illegal immigrants, to earn legal status, says Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agreed last week to delay Padilla's deportation for a year, making him one of at least seven young illegal immigrants who have had their deportations delayed since June, according to DreamActivist, one of the groups spearheading the campaign. Family ties and community standing are among the factors ICE considers when asked to delay a deportation, says ICE spokesman Richard Rocha.

"I want to graduate college and give back to this country," Padilla says.

His supporters flooded the Department of Homeland Security with thousands of faxes and designed a Facebook page telling 2,800 members how to help. The Chicago City Council passed a resolution in his behalf, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., introduced a bill specifically for him that would allow him to stay. "Why would we deprive ourselves of outstanding students and future leaders?" she asks. "They had no part in the decision to come here."

Efforts toward overhaul

There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the USA. Activists call for an overhaul of immigration law that would offer them a way to earn legal status. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., introduced a bill Tuesday that would give illegal immigrants who pay fines, pass background checks and meet other requirements a path toward legal residency.

College students who are illegal immigrants fall under a separate proposal called the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act — the DREAM Act. Requirements would include arrival in the USA at 15 or younger, a five-year residency or more, and at least two years of college or military service. Versions of the act have been introduced since 2001 without success.

Each year, 65,000 illegal immigrants who have been here at least five years graduate from high school, says Jeffrey Passel of the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center.

Deportation delays are rare, Rocha says; 400 were granted last year.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates less immigration, calls the DREAM Act amnesty, or "rewarding people who have broken the law with immigration benefits."

People in the country illegally "should be held responsible for the consequences to their children," he says.

Flexibility in the law is important, says Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which also calls for reduced immigration. "But delaying everybody's deportation because you hope the DREAM Act is going to happen does not make sense."

Other cases

Padilla and others hope for passage:

•Herta Llusho, 20, of Detroit came to the USA from Albania on a tourist visa when she was 11. Her mother applied for asylum, she says, but it was denied, leaving them both with a deportation date of Aug. 19.

After supporters faxed more than 5,000 letters to ICE, she says, the University of Detroit Mercy sophomore and her mother won two delays. Their deportation was set for Feb. 1. Llusho hopes for another delay or for a lawmaker to introduce a bill on her behalf. "All we want is to work hard and keep at it and give back to the country that we believe has given so much to us," she says.

•Alonso Chehade, 22, of Poulsbo, Wash., arrived from Peru with his family on a tourist visa when he was 14. They stayed after it expired, he says. He was detained at the Canadian border in March when he says he crossed into Canada after going the wrong direction on the freeway.

Chehade, who received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Washington this year, faced deportation on Sept. 25. He created a website and Facebook page to gather support. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., introduced a bill on his behalf, and his deportation was pushed to Jan. 5. Chehade hopes for another delay or a special bill. "My life is here, my family is here, my friends are here," he says.

In Chicago, Padilla, who came to the USA illegally with family, is trying to figure out how to pay for his next semester of college and competing with his sister for a title: He says, "I want to be the first one in my family to graduate from college."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-12-15-deport_N.htm

Massive FBI Raid on Islamic Slaughterhouse Mystifies Tiny Illinois Town

By Joseph Abrams
Foxnews
October 22, 2009

At 8 a.m. Sunday the population of Kinsman, Ill., stood at 109. An hour later it nearly doubled, as upwards of 100 federal agents and police swooped in on the tiny, rural community. And no one seems to know why.

The law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, immigration officials and state police, surrounded an Islamic meat plant in Kinsman, cordoning off the area and briefly detaining the plant's handful of employees.

The FBI isn't saying much, and the county sheriff is mum too, leaving Kinsman's residents mystified. The bust, in a town that has no local police force, involved dozens of vehicles, a pair of snipers and a helicopter flying overhead, witnesses said — but it ended without even a single arrest.

"We're all baffled," Mayor Mark Harlow said. "You know, stuff like this doesn't happen in a small community."

The unusual show of force has residents spooked and has left the mayor searching for answers.

"The public reaction is ... are they safe? We don't know," Harlow said. "What are they doing? We don't know. Are they making bombs? We don't know."

Harlow said residents of the town rarely see the five or six employees of the First World Management butcher shop, which provides ritually slaughtered and processed lamb and goat meat for Muslims living in Chicago, 50 miles to the northeast.

Some of the workers were handcuffed during the raid, but they were eventually released, Harlow said. He said the workers are foreign-born and live in a trailer on the property behind the plant's meat locker, and they have never harmed anyone in town.

"I've never seen them do anything out of the ordinary," he told Foxnews.com. The workers' residency status is unknown.

Kinsman is a sleepy town carved out of a patchwork landscape of farms in the heart of the Grain Belt. Its few square blocks are home to a post office, church and bar, and there isn't a restaurant or gas station in sight.

But the two men listed as the proprietors of the business appear to be under scrutiny. A staff member at the First World Management office in Chicago identified Syed Hamid, 51, as an employee, and confirmed that Tahawara Hussain Rana, 48, is the owner of the business.

Residents believe Hamid lives in a house adjoining the shop in Kinsman and runs the slaughterhouse. Hamid, a doctor, has been in talks with a Chicago lawyer, George Jackson III, who told Foxnews.com he doesn't anticipate Hamid will be charged with a crime. Jackson said he and Hamid had spoken to investigators since the raid.

Rana's case isn't so clear. Jackson said he could not comment, and phone calls to the Rana household in Chicago went unanswered.

Law enforcement officials declined to comment on whether the massive raid was connected to a series of high-profile arrests orchestrated by the FBI in recent weeks that focused on terror suspects.

"No one is in custody, no charges have been filed," said Cynthia Yates, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Chicago office. "There's not much to say."

The sheriff of Grundy County, Ill., where Kinsman is located, said he was informed of the impending raid about two weeks ago, but his officers did not play a tactical role.

"The only thing I can tell you is that it's an ongoing criminal investigation, and basically everything that's being done is through the FBI," Sheriff Terry Marketti said.

Though Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were present at the raid, it's unclear what role they were playing. The Department of Homeland Security has recently refocused its efforts on employers who hire illegal immigrants, rather than on the immigrants themselves.

And unlike the targets of similar sweeps that were the norm in the Bush administration, the Kinsman shop employed only a handful of workers, a fraction of the size of other plants that have drawn the attention of ICE officials. Also, unlike in past immigration raids, no workers were brought into custody.

"It was crazy," said Grundy County Board Chairman Francis Halpin, who lives in nearby Morris, Ill. "I never thought I'd see anything like this in Kinsman."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569185,00.html

Pelosi Tells Illegal Immigrants That Work Site Raids are Un-American

Pelosi Tells Illegal Immigrants That Work Site Raids are Un-American
By William Lajeunesse
FOXNews.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants and their families that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced, is "un-American."

The speaker, condemning raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, referred to the immigrants she was addressing as "very, very patriotic."

"Who in this country would not want to change a policy of kicking in doors in the middle of the night and sending a parent away from their families?" Pelosi told a mostly Hispanic gathering at St. Anthony's Church in San Francisco.

"It must be stopped....What value system is that? I think it's un-American. I think it's un-American."

Pelosi said she was invited to the church by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., as part of his 17-city, cross-country tour called United Families, which he says is intended to put a human face on the immigration debate.

"We think that families are the cornerstone of our society and our nation, and an immigration system should preserve those families, not destroy them," Gutierrez told FOX News Capitol Hill Producer Chad Pergram on Tuesday.

The congressman is collecting petitions that ask President Obama to "stop the immigration raids and deportations that are tearing our marriages, families and children apart." He is expected to present those petitions when Hispanic members of Congress meet with the President Wednesday.

On Saturday night, Pelosi joined Gutierrez before a cheering crowd at St. Anthony's chanting, "Si se puede," or "Yes we can."

Referring to work site enforcement actions by ICE agents, Pelosi said, "We have to have a change in policy and practice and again ... I can't say enough, the raids must end. The raids must end.

"You are special people. You're here on a Saturday night to take responsibility for our country's future. That makes you very, very patriotic."

"I was embarrassed by what she said," said Rick Oltman, with Californians for Population Stabilization, an anti-illegal immigrant group. "Exhorting illegal aliens for taking responsibility for our country's future.... In fact, sitting there in the audience.... I really resented that comment."

"I think it was pandering to the crowd but also insulting to American citizens who consider themselves to be patriotic, who obey the rule of law," said Oltman, who shot a video of the rally.

For more on this story, watch Special Report With Bret Baier at 6 p.m. EDT on FOX News Channel.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/18/pelosi-tells-illegal-immigrants-work-site-raids-american/

Joliet rally seeks end to deportations

Joliet rally seeks end to deportations
March 18, 2009
By BOB OKON
The Heralds News

JOLIET — Churches and organizations advocating an end to deportations based on immigration status expect about 1,000 people for a rally and prayers Saturday in Joliet.

The United Families tour will gather at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to tell stories about families broken up by deportations and advocate in favor of changes in immigration laws.

Similar tours have been held across the country. The movement is led by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, who will be in Joliet and at a similar rally earlier on Saturday in Chicago.

Gutierrez is calling on President Barack Obama to push for changes in immigration laws and end deportation raids on workplaces.

"President Obama promised to pass immigration reform in his first term," said Ashley Moy-Wooten, suburban organizer for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The organization is based in Chicago, but Moy-Wooten works out of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel will be the destination point for three marches from other Joliet churches, Moy-Wooten said.

Those churches are St. John's Catholic Church on Hickory Street, Santa Cruz Lutheran Church on Benton Street, and My House of Prayer on Columbia Street.

The marches start at 6:30 p.m., and the event begins at 7 p.m.

There have already been 10 similar stops on the United Families tour since Feb. 27 in Rhode Island, Georgia, New Mexico, California, Arizona and Texas. Four more are planned through April 4.

All the events are held at churches and include prayers as well as stories of families broken up when relatives are deported because of their immigration status, Moy-Wooten said.

"These are stories of citizens who are affected by the lack of immigration reform," she said. The rallies at some locations have met with opposition protests from members of the Minuteman Project, which advocates stricter immigration laws.

The Chicago Minuteman Project will be at the rally in Chicago but has not decided whether to protest in Joliet as well, said Rick Biesada, director of the organization.

That group is opposed to more lenient policies on deportation, Biesada said.

"Deportation is a remedy for a person entering our country illegally," he said. "Deportation is not a penalty. We return them to their country of origin."

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/1481575,Joliet-rally-end-deportations-jo031709.article?plckCurrentPage=1&sid=sitelife.suburbanchicagonews.com

Mexican immigrants moving back home amid sour economy

Mexican immigrants moving back home amid sour economy
Many leaving Chicago, hit by job losses
chicagotribune.com
By Oscar Avila, Tribune correspondent
December 24, 2008

ZINAPECUARO, Mexico — Once again, the immigrants are returning to this town in their Pathfinders and Escalades with the Illinois license plates, trunks full of Christmas presents.

Their annual December homecoming has always been a victory lap of sorts, a testimonial to the success they enjoy in the U.S. and want to share with relatives who welcome them with open arms.

Rafael Garcia is back from Chicago too, but not for a vacation. He's back for good.

In a sign of how the American dream has lost its luster this Christmas season, the stream of Mexicans making holiday visits has been joined by a trickle of citizens returning permanently to towns like Zinapecuaro as jobs disappear in Chicago and other U.S. cities.

Garcia arrived Sunday in a battered Ford van jammed not only with gifts but with every scrap of the life he built during 12 years as a construction worker on Chicago's North Side. In a gravel parking lot a block from his mother's home, Garcia's life in the Lincoln Square neighborhood was unspooled with each box he unpacked.

DVDs of " Spider-Man" and bullfighting. A power drill. A framed family portrait. A half-consumed bottle of House of Stuart whiskey.

As Garcia secured his van, his brother-in-law offered advice as if he were a tourist. "No need to worry. No one steals things around here," he said cheerily.

In some respects, Garcia was pushed out of Chicago, where he was working illegally. All but six of the 18 laborers at his construction company lost their jobs with the real estate bust. Garcia survived, but his hours were cut to the point that he and his wife barely covered rent and child care.

But the 41-year-old Garcia was also pulled home, to the mother who is already preparing the Christmas menu of lamb stew, chicken mole, tamales and punch.

"Do I regret leaving Chicago? I regret nothing," said Garcia, still looking flustered after four days on the road. "Best decision I ever made."

These personal dramas will shape the stalled debate over how to treat the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Although Barack Obama's election has revived hopes of a legalization plan, most experts are skeptical, given that the same economic crisis is battering U.S.-born workers.

Mexican officials, meanwhile, are bracing for more Rafael Garcias and the strains that might be felt on villages accustomed to sending immigrants and receiving a share of their paychecks in the U.S., a figure that topped $25 billion last year.

The cracks in the system had already been felt in Zinapecuaro, a town in northeast Michoacan, the state that by many estimates sends the most immigrants to Chicago.

The state of Michoacan has seen remittances falling steadily since 2006, a danger because it receives about $2.5 billion a year—about one-sixth of its total revenues—from workers in the U.S.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-mexico-dream_aviladec25,0,6633115.story

Immigrants from raid to stay in jail

Immigrants from raid to stay in jail
December 23, 2008
By Andy Grimm
Post-Tribune staff writer

HAMMOND -- Five illegal immigrants facing criminal charges after a workplace raid at the BP?refinery in Whiting two weeks ago will spend the holidays in jail, either awaiting trial or detention hearings.

Attorneys requested delay of detention hearings for three of the defendants while awaiting information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and two others pleaded innocent and will await trial dates in 2009.

Across from the courthouse, supporters marched and chanted at passing cars, including the children of Hammond resident Roman Torrano-Ramirez, who carried a sign that read "FREE MY DAD."

Kathy Quezada, a 17-year-old student at Hammond's Clark High?School and the oldest of defendant Maria Patricia Areja-Cali's four children, said her mother's arrest has put a strain on her family.

"It's really hard not having my mom at home," Quezada said. "We have a lot of family helping us out, but the kids keep asking when she's coming home, especially the 3-year-old."

During the Dec. 10 raid, immigration officials arrested 15 people -- one Guatemalan, the rest Mexican -- and have released 10 to home detention. Only five of those arrested face criminal charges.

The raid stemmed from a two-year investigation of United Building Maintenance, an Illinois janitorial company hired by BP. Authorities began investigating after receiving a tip that undocumented workers were employed by UBM and had access to sensitive areas of the plant, which Homeland Security officials see as a potential threat to public safety.

Authorities have said none of those indicted posed a threat to the plant or to national security.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/lake/1344593,lcimmigrants.article

ICE conducts "enforcement action" in Quad-Cities

ICE conducts "enforcement action" in Quad-Cities
By Dustin Lemmon
Friday, October 17, 2008
Quad-City Times

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was conducting an “enforcement action” in the Quad-Cities area Friday, but no arrests were immediately reported.

Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago, confirmed that an investigation was ongoing and would not release further details.

“ICE is conducting an ongoing enforcement action in (the Quad-City) area,” she said. “I want to emphasize that we are targeting specific individuals and that ICE does not conduct random immigration sweeps. No more details are available at this time due to the ongoing nature of the operation.”

Montenegro said more details will be released when the investigation is finished.

A Moline city official said ICE was performing a door-to-door search Friday at a housing project near the intersection of 41st Street and 12th Avenue. No further information was available.

Moline Police Chief Gary Francque said he had not received any information about the enforcement action.

Lt. William Kauzlarich of the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Department said the department received no information about ICE’s investigation Friday and did not receive any ICE detainees.

“I would think if they were going to bring a bunch of people down, we would know about it,” he said.

Rock Island County Sheriff Mike Huff said federal authorities are pre-authorized to bring up to 15 inmates to the jail. Any more than that requires prior notice.

ICE opened an office at the U.S. District Courthouse in Rock Island earlier this year. A man who answered the phone there Friday would not comment.

Two years ago, ICE arrested 17 people in a sting in the Illinois Quad-Cities. Several were transported to Springfield for deportation proceedings.

Several of those immigrants who were arrested were permanent U.S. residents, but under the law, they could be deported after being convicted of various crimes.

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/10/17/news/local/doc48f91138c4466662323465.txt?sPos=3

Undocumented immigrant in coma set to be returned to Mexico

Undocumented immigrant in coma set to be returned to Mexico

Triage blog: Sending sick undocumented immigrants back home
By Judith Graham and Deanese Williams-Harris
Chicago Tribune reporter
August 20, 2008

A 30-year-old Mexican man in a coma at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago has ignited a dispute over a little-known practice at hospitals—sending medically needy undocumented immigrants back to their countries of origin.

The disagreement revolves around Francisco Pantaleon, who arrived in the U.S. 11 years ago and suffered a severe brain hemorrhage in mid-July, according to his sister Socorro. A father of two, Pantaleon worked at a carwash and has no health insurance, she said.

The medical center believes there is "little hope for recovery," according to a statement released Tuesday, and officials arranged for Pantaleon to be transferred to a hospital in Acapulco at UIC's expense. An official said his immediate family consented to the move.

But Pantaleon's sister and cousin are protesting that arrangement and have retained lawyers in hopes of preventing it. "This is an injustice," said his sister, who worries that Pantaleon won't survive the trip or find adequate care in Mexico.

The dispute touches on two hot-button issues, Immigration and health care. With the exception of pregnant women some children and people in medical emergencies, illegal immigrants generally have no right to health care in the U.S. But access to long-term care—the kind of services Pantaleon appears to need—is not guaranteed even if the patients are U.S. citizens, with the exception of the very poor.

www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-patient-deportaug20,0,1937823.story