The Reno Gazette Journal
November 19, 2010
During a recent sweep targeting illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, 16 arrests were made in the Reno-area by Immigration and Customs Enforcement a
The 12 men and four women booked into the Washoe County Jail were from Mexico and El Salvador, said ICE’s Fugitive Operations Program in a statement. The four-day operation ended Friday morning, where agents from ICE office Las Vegas and local parole and probation officers assisted.
So far in 2010, sweeps like these have caused 195,772 convicted criminal illegal immigrants to be deported from the United States, authorities said.
ICE Director John Morton said the operation is a tool used to reduce crime at the street level, making communities safer.
Of the 16 Reno arrests:
*One person had a final deportation order, and was not a convicted criminal.
* Fifteen had prior criminal convictions.
* A 40-year-old Mexican woman was arrested after a judge deported her earlier this year based upon a 2003 conviction of willfully endangering a child.
* One man arrested was a member of a local Mexican street gang and had previous felony convictions of robbery and stalking.
Authorities said two of the 16 arrested have already been deported.
Agents used information from the ICE Fugitive Operations Support Center, which does database checks to help ensure the accuracy of leads on suspects and criminal histories. Since it began in 2006, the support center has given agents more than 550,000 leads nationwide on criminal illegal immigrants in the country.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20101119/NEWS01/101119034/1321/news
Showing posts with label Expulsions in NV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expulsions in NV. Show all posts
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
"THEY TARGETED US FOR...OUR SKIN COLOR": Meeting to address raids; Immigration officials to be at town hall
By LYNNETTE CURTIS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
September 14, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Federal immigration officials will be in town tonight to answer questions about recent raids at valley bus stations that angered some in the Hispanic community.
Representatives from U.S. Customs and Border Protection -- which conducted the July 29 raids -- and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will participate in a 6 p.m. town hall meeting at the East Las Vegas Community Center, 250 N. Eastern Ave., near Stewart Avenue.
"We have a lot of questions and I'm hoping we can get some answers," said Michael Flores, an immigrant rights activist with ProgressNow Nevada.
The office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., organized the meeting after hearing concerns from community members about tactics used during the raids.
Witnesses said Border Patrol agents didn't promptly identify themselves and refused to answer questions from owners and managers of the bus stations that were targeted.
Emmanuel Corrales, owner of Las Vegas Shuttles, said he and other U.S. citizens who were his clients were harassed by agents because of their ethnicity. The agents arrested one person from Corrales' business.
"I'm not upset about them taking illegal aliens," he told the Review-Journal earlier this month. "I'm upset I have to prove I'm a U.S. citizen in my own office. They targeted us for only one thing, our skin color."
Agents arrested a total of 31 suspected illegal immigrants during the raids, which began at the same time immigration rights groups had gathered at a local church to celebrate a judge's decision to block the most controversial sections of a new Arizona immigration law.
Twelve of those arrested had criminal histories that included charges of theft, prostitution and burglary, or immigration-related offenses, a Border Patrol spokesman said. Some of the 31 were taken to a Border Patrol station for processing. Others were released pending upcoming immigration hearing dates or were deported.
Agents were in Las Vegas as part of an operation "aimed at disrupting human smuggling activities at transportation sites that are used as a means to further illegal trafficking into the interior of the United States," the federal agency said.
Las Vegas has become a hub increasingly used by smuggling organizations to transport people and drugs, the agency said. Such organizations have been forced by stepped-up identification requirements at airports to use bus lines instead.
ICE also is participating to answer any questions that might arise about its own procedures, agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
"Any time issues relating to immigration enforcement come up, there are related questions about our policies and procedures," she said.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/meeting-to-address-raids-102842764.html
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
September 14, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Federal immigration officials will be in town tonight to answer questions about recent raids at valley bus stations that angered some in the Hispanic community.
Representatives from U.S. Customs and Border Protection -- which conducted the July 29 raids -- and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will participate in a 6 p.m. town hall meeting at the East Las Vegas Community Center, 250 N. Eastern Ave., near Stewart Avenue.
"We have a lot of questions and I'm hoping we can get some answers," said Michael Flores, an immigrant rights activist with ProgressNow Nevada.
The office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., organized the meeting after hearing concerns from community members about tactics used during the raids.
Witnesses said Border Patrol agents didn't promptly identify themselves and refused to answer questions from owners and managers of the bus stations that were targeted.
Emmanuel Corrales, owner of Las Vegas Shuttles, said he and other U.S. citizens who were his clients were harassed by agents because of their ethnicity. The agents arrested one person from Corrales' business.
"I'm not upset about them taking illegal aliens," he told the Review-Journal earlier this month. "I'm upset I have to prove I'm a U.S. citizen in my own office. They targeted us for only one thing, our skin color."
Agents arrested a total of 31 suspected illegal immigrants during the raids, which began at the same time immigration rights groups had gathered at a local church to celebrate a judge's decision to block the most controversial sections of a new Arizona immigration law.
Twelve of those arrested had criminal histories that included charges of theft, prostitution and burglary, or immigration-related offenses, a Border Patrol spokesman said. Some of the 31 were taken to a Border Patrol station for processing. Others were released pending upcoming immigration hearing dates or were deported.
Agents were in Las Vegas as part of an operation "aimed at disrupting human smuggling activities at transportation sites that are used as a means to further illegal trafficking into the interior of the United States," the federal agency said.
Las Vegas has become a hub increasingly used by smuggling organizations to transport people and drugs, the agency said. Such organizations have been forced by stepped-up identification requirements at airports to use bus lines instead.
ICE also is participating to answer any questions that might arise about its own procedures, agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
"Any time issues relating to immigration enforcement come up, there are related questions about our policies and procedures," she said.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/meeting-to-address-raids-102842764.html
Monday, July 5, 2010
ACLU: Minor arrests leading to Vegas deportations
By The Associated Press
July 4, 2010
LAS VEGAS (AP) — American Civil Liberties Union officials are raising concerns that jail screenings by Las Vegas police under a federal immigration program are leading to deportations of people nabbed for only minor infractions.
Records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal show that about one-third of the more than 3,300 Clark County jail inmates held for deportation in the first 18 months of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program were arrested on misdemeanor charges.
Some charges included jaywalking, fishing without a license, sleeping in public, possessing an unregistered animal and “walking on side of road.”
“Police officers should be focused on keeping the community safe, not enforcing petty crimes in the hopes that their target may be deportable,” said Maggie McLetchie, an ACLU of Nevada attorney in Las Vegas. “Some of these are arrests for things that shouldn’t even be crimes.”
Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, the elected head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said he supports the 287(g) partnership because it targets violent criminals and because federal officials aren’t adequately enforcing immigration laws.
The program began in Las Vegas in November 2008.
An inmate’s immigration status is checked only after he or she is arrested on other charges, Gillespie said.
Officials say police agencies in 26 states take part in the program, named for the federal Immigration and Nationality Act section authorizing it. It lets jailers hold deportable inmates until immigration officials take custody of them.
Peter Ashman, a Las Vegas immigration attorney and ACLU board member, said programs like 287(g) tend to damage relationships between police and immigrants. But Ashman acknowledged there was no evidence Las Vegas police were abusing what he termed “an inside-the-station enforcement tool.”
“If somebody has been convicted of a serious crime and should have been deported before, it’s kind of hard to argue that they shouldn’t get deported now,” he said.
Of the inmates police in Las Vegas have referred to ICE, 17 percent had prior deportations, according to police records. The majority were from Mexico, but others were from the United Kingdom, Poland, Russia, Italy, China, Vietnam and other countries.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported deporting 1,897 inmates referred by Las Vegas police between November 2008 and May 2010. Officials said other inmates may still be awaiting final decisions in immigration court proceedings.
“You may have a guy who got arrested for jaywalking, but it wasn’t jaywalking that got him deported,” said Officer Jacinto Rivera, a department spokesman. “It was his prior history of robbery and kidnapping.”
Las Vegas police run the nearly 3,000-bed jail in downtown Las Vegas, and spend about $1.3 million a year to staff the 287(g) program. Officials say the program lets police trained in ICE regulations identify for deportation illegal immigrants who commit violent and dangerous crimes.
Before the agreement, local officers had to rely on ICE to investigate and place deportation holds on potential immigration violators.
Rivera said officers have no interest in arresting illegal immigrants who have committed no other crimes. He denied police target for arrest just because they are Hispanic or might be illegal immigrants.
“Cops want to catch guys who are preying on people,” he said.
The police spokesman noted that jail officers chose not to place immigration holds on at least 2,300 inmates found to be in the country illegally during the first 18 months of the program because they had no prior criminal history and had been booked on only minor charges.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20100704/NEWS18/100704012/1321/NEWS
July 4, 2010
LAS VEGAS (AP) — American Civil Liberties Union officials are raising concerns that jail screenings by Las Vegas police under a federal immigration program are leading to deportations of people nabbed for only minor infractions.
Records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal show that about one-third of the more than 3,300 Clark County jail inmates held for deportation in the first 18 months of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program were arrested on misdemeanor charges.
Some charges included jaywalking, fishing without a license, sleeping in public, possessing an unregistered animal and “walking on side of road.”
“Police officers should be focused on keeping the community safe, not enforcing petty crimes in the hopes that their target may be deportable,” said Maggie McLetchie, an ACLU of Nevada attorney in Las Vegas. “Some of these are arrests for things that shouldn’t even be crimes.”
Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, the elected head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said he supports the 287(g) partnership because it targets violent criminals and because federal officials aren’t adequately enforcing immigration laws.
The program began in Las Vegas in November 2008.
An inmate’s immigration status is checked only after he or she is arrested on other charges, Gillespie said.
Officials say police agencies in 26 states take part in the program, named for the federal Immigration and Nationality Act section authorizing it. It lets jailers hold deportable inmates until immigration officials take custody of them.
Peter Ashman, a Las Vegas immigration attorney and ACLU board member, said programs like 287(g) tend to damage relationships between police and immigrants. But Ashman acknowledged there was no evidence Las Vegas police were abusing what he termed “an inside-the-station enforcement tool.”
“If somebody has been convicted of a serious crime and should have been deported before, it’s kind of hard to argue that they shouldn’t get deported now,” he said.
Of the inmates police in Las Vegas have referred to ICE, 17 percent had prior deportations, according to police records. The majority were from Mexico, but others were from the United Kingdom, Poland, Russia, Italy, China, Vietnam and other countries.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported deporting 1,897 inmates referred by Las Vegas police between November 2008 and May 2010. Officials said other inmates may still be awaiting final decisions in immigration court proceedings.
“You may have a guy who got arrested for jaywalking, but it wasn’t jaywalking that got him deported,” said Officer Jacinto Rivera, a department spokesman. “It was his prior history of robbery and kidnapping.”
Las Vegas police run the nearly 3,000-bed jail in downtown Las Vegas, and spend about $1.3 million a year to staff the 287(g) program. Officials say the program lets police trained in ICE regulations identify for deportation illegal immigrants who commit violent and dangerous crimes.
Before the agreement, local officers had to rely on ICE to investigate and place deportation holds on potential immigration violators.
Rivera said officers have no interest in arresting illegal immigrants who have committed no other crimes. He denied police target for arrest just because they are Hispanic or might be illegal immigrants.
“Cops want to catch guys who are preying on people,” he said.
The police spokesman noted that jail officers chose not to place immigration holds on at least 2,300 inmates found to be in the country illegally during the first 18 months of the program because they had no prior criminal history and had been booked on only minor charges.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20100704/NEWS18/100704012/1321/NEWS
Monday, May 31, 2010
Case backlog postponing deportations
Proceedings increase 26 percent, but immigration judges swamped
By LYNNETTE CURTIS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
May. 30, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
The young Salvadoran, shackled at the wrists and ankles, had only one question for the judge.
"Am I going to be deported?" he asked through an interpreter.
"Not today, sir," Immigration Judge Harry Gastley told him. "Not tomorrow."
"Maybe never," the Salvadoran's attorney chimed in.
But chances are the young man who appeared for the first time Tuesday in Las Vegas Immigration Court will be deported, eventually. Once you enter removal proceedings through the federal Executive Office for Immigration Review , the odds are stacked against you.
And as the contentious debate over immigration reform and enforcement raged on, the number of people undergoing such proceedings locally shot up more than 26 percent last year, according to the review office.
Meanwhile, the local backlog in immigration cases has grown substantially. The Las Vegas court had among the steepest increases in the nation in backlogged cases between October 2009 and March 2010, according to an analysis released Monday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse , a nonprofit group at Syracuse University that tracks federal law enforcement activities.
The local court, housed in several rooms on the second floor of a nondescript building near the airport, has been busier than ever lately.
■ ■ ■
Las Vegas Immigration Court is not your typical courthouse. You won't find a single bailiff, for example. Security consists of a solitary security guard who mans the X-ray machine and metal detector at the top of a narrow flight of stairs that leads to the court. Cameras are not permitted inside.
There are no court reporters, either. Proceedings are digitally recorded and transcribed later only if there happens to be an appeal of a given case.
The building's four small courtrooms -- only two of which are in use at any given time -- contain a small number of wooden benches like pews, sometimes not enough seating to accommodate family members who want to be there for their loved ones' deportation proceedings.
More than half of those who appear in the nation's immigration courts go unrepresented. Typically, if you cannot afford a lawyer in immigration court, you are on your own.
Court officials don't always stand on ceremony. In order to begin court on Tuesday afternoon, Gastley had to shush chatting attorneys and inmates by shouting at them.
"Order in the court," the judge yelled while standing behind his bench. "I can't hear myself think."
Earlier, Gastley had told an immigration attorney not to bother donning a suit jacket for court.
"You don't have to get your jacket for me," he said. "You know how informal I am. It's why some of my colleagues don't like me."
Longtime immigration attorney Rolando Velasquez, who often appears before Gastley, described the judge as "cantankerous but very intelligent."
"He won't mince words," said Velasquez, who is advocacy director for the local chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association .
As a rule, the Executive Office for Immigration Review bars its judges from speaking to the media, so the Review-Journal couldn't ask Gastley or fellow Immigration Judge Ronald Mullins their thoughts on increasing caseloads and backlogs.
But a study published last year based on surveys of 96 U.S. immigration judges found their burnout level to be higher than that of hospital physicians and prison wardens.
The study, which appeared in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, noted that judges expressed frustration over being "extremely overburdened." Its lead author was an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
The judges, who also completed psychological testing as part of their surveys, showed signs of "compassion fatigue" and "secondary traumatic stress" stemming from working with trauma victims such as immigrants who are seeking asylum in the United States because of violence or persecution in their homelands. Immigration asylum cases typically are closed to the public and the media.
The study recommended additional resources for the nation's immigration courts, including more law clerks, bailiffs and interpreters and giving judges more administrative time.
The number of immigration matters received by the nation's 57 immigration courts grew by 11 percent last year, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review. The number of matters awaiting resolution reached a new all-time high of 242,776 at the end of March .
Las Vegas Immigration Court dealt with 4,397 immigration matters in 2009, compared to 3,493 in 2008. Its backlog reached 1,583 in March, a 38 percent increase over what it was 18 months before and the second highest growth in backlogged cases nationally.
Those familiar with the workings of immigration courts blame the increases in part on changes in enforcement strategies of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Las Vegas in late 2008 became one of more than 70 law enforcement agencies nationwide to have forged a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which falls under Homeland Security's umbrella.
The local partnership, dubbed "287(g)" after the corresponding section of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, allows specially trained officers at the Clark County Detention Center to identify immigration violators and place "immigration detainers" on them.
The detainers let local law enforcement hold deportable inmates after they otherwise would be released so immigration officials can take custody of them.
Critics say such partnerships target Hispanics and could lead to racial profiling.
Las Vegas corrections officers placed immigration detainers on 2,722 inmates between November 2008 and May 2010. During the same time, ICE deported nearly 1,900 inmates referred from the county jail. Others still may be undergoing immigration proceedings.
Velasquez said he has noticed a marked increase in local immigration court traffic since the start of the partnership.
Experts also say backlogs have grown because of a dearth of immigration judges nationwide. A third Las Vegas immigration judge retired in December and the Justice Department has yet to replace her.
Still, traffic through Las Vegas Immigration Court has continued moving along relatively smoothly, Velasquez said, because the caseload is still comparatively small.
"It's not like it is in L.A. or New York," which in 2009 dealt with caseloads of 20,387 and 23,386, respectively.
■ ■ ■
During a typical day in immigration court, a judge might deal with dozens of people seeking "relief from removal." Most have landed in deportation proceedings after being arrested on unrelated charges. Their options include accepting "voluntary departure" from the United States and fighting for asylum or an adjustment in immigration status. The former cases usually are dispatched relatively quickly; the latter cases can drag on for months or even years.
Tuesday afternoon, federal ICE agents led about two dozen shackled men and one woman into Gastley's courtroom for their "initial removal proceedings." They had been taken to court from the North Las Vegas Detention Center, where ICE rents beds for $105.96 per inmate per day.
The inmates ranged in age from about 18 to 60. Most were Hispanic, and about half required an interpreter.
As part of a new program through AILA, Velasquez volunteered to provide pro bono representation for the day for those who didn't have attorneys.
Some of the men requested voluntary departures. Others asked for bond hearings so they wouldn't have to stay in jail while fighting deportation. Many of the cases were continued.
"I don't have time to do a hearing today," Gastley told an inmate's attorneys.
To another he said, "I haven't read anything you submitted. I haven't had time to read it."
The judge gave the young Salvadoran a date and time for a bond hearing. The man indicated plans to fight deportation on the grounds that he was "in danger in El Salvador."
One of the last removal proceedings of the day involved a man in his mid-20s with a crew cut, whose case was continued to give him time to hire an attorney.
The young man slowly shuffled in his ankle shackles to the front of the courtroom, where the court's interpreter addressed him.
"I don't speak Spanish," the man told her. "I'm from Canada."
That appeared to delight Gastley, who began telling the young man about his many "ski trips up there until I got older and wised up."
"You know what my favorite place in Canada is?" the judge asked before describing a site in Montreal. "Next time you go back to Canada, look it up."
"Hopefully I won't be going back there soon," the man said with a smile.
"You're in the right place," Gastley said. "What is Las Vegas famous for? Gambling."
http://www.lvrj.com/news/case-backlog-postponing-deportations-95211529.html
By LYNNETTE CURTIS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
May. 30, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
The young Salvadoran, shackled at the wrists and ankles, had only one question for the judge.
"Am I going to be deported?" he asked through an interpreter.
"Not today, sir," Immigration Judge Harry Gastley told him. "Not tomorrow."
"Maybe never," the Salvadoran's attorney chimed in.
But chances are the young man who appeared for the first time Tuesday in Las Vegas Immigration Court will be deported, eventually. Once you enter removal proceedings through the federal Executive Office for Immigration Review , the odds are stacked against you.
And as the contentious debate over immigration reform and enforcement raged on, the number of people undergoing such proceedings locally shot up more than 26 percent last year, according to the review office.
Meanwhile, the local backlog in immigration cases has grown substantially. The Las Vegas court had among the steepest increases in the nation in backlogged cases between October 2009 and March 2010, according to an analysis released Monday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse , a nonprofit group at Syracuse University that tracks federal law enforcement activities.
The local court, housed in several rooms on the second floor of a nondescript building near the airport, has been busier than ever lately.
■ ■ ■
Las Vegas Immigration Court is not your typical courthouse. You won't find a single bailiff, for example. Security consists of a solitary security guard who mans the X-ray machine and metal detector at the top of a narrow flight of stairs that leads to the court. Cameras are not permitted inside.
There are no court reporters, either. Proceedings are digitally recorded and transcribed later only if there happens to be an appeal of a given case.
The building's four small courtrooms -- only two of which are in use at any given time -- contain a small number of wooden benches like pews, sometimes not enough seating to accommodate family members who want to be there for their loved ones' deportation proceedings.
More than half of those who appear in the nation's immigration courts go unrepresented. Typically, if you cannot afford a lawyer in immigration court, you are on your own.
Court officials don't always stand on ceremony. In order to begin court on Tuesday afternoon, Gastley had to shush chatting attorneys and inmates by shouting at them.
"Order in the court," the judge yelled while standing behind his bench. "I can't hear myself think."
Earlier, Gastley had told an immigration attorney not to bother donning a suit jacket for court.
"You don't have to get your jacket for me," he said. "You know how informal I am. It's why some of my colleagues don't like me."
Longtime immigration attorney Rolando Velasquez, who often appears before Gastley, described the judge as "cantankerous but very intelligent."
"He won't mince words," said Velasquez, who is advocacy director for the local chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association .
As a rule, the Executive Office for Immigration Review bars its judges from speaking to the media, so the Review-Journal couldn't ask Gastley or fellow Immigration Judge Ronald Mullins their thoughts on increasing caseloads and backlogs.
But a study published last year based on surveys of 96 U.S. immigration judges found their burnout level to be higher than that of hospital physicians and prison wardens.
The study, which appeared in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, noted that judges expressed frustration over being "extremely overburdened." Its lead author was an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
The judges, who also completed psychological testing as part of their surveys, showed signs of "compassion fatigue" and "secondary traumatic stress" stemming from working with trauma victims such as immigrants who are seeking asylum in the United States because of violence or persecution in their homelands. Immigration asylum cases typically are closed to the public and the media.
The study recommended additional resources for the nation's immigration courts, including more law clerks, bailiffs and interpreters and giving judges more administrative time.
The number of immigration matters received by the nation's 57 immigration courts grew by 11 percent last year, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review. The number of matters awaiting resolution reached a new all-time high of 242,776 at the end of March .
Las Vegas Immigration Court dealt with 4,397 immigration matters in 2009, compared to 3,493 in 2008. Its backlog reached 1,583 in March, a 38 percent increase over what it was 18 months before and the second highest growth in backlogged cases nationally.
Those familiar with the workings of immigration courts blame the increases in part on changes in enforcement strategies of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Las Vegas in late 2008 became one of more than 70 law enforcement agencies nationwide to have forged a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which falls under Homeland Security's umbrella.
The local partnership, dubbed "287(g)" after the corresponding section of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, allows specially trained officers at the Clark County Detention Center to identify immigration violators and place "immigration detainers" on them.
The detainers let local law enforcement hold deportable inmates after they otherwise would be released so immigration officials can take custody of them.
Critics say such partnerships target Hispanics and could lead to racial profiling.
Las Vegas corrections officers placed immigration detainers on 2,722 inmates between November 2008 and May 2010. During the same time, ICE deported nearly 1,900 inmates referred from the county jail. Others still may be undergoing immigration proceedings.
Velasquez said he has noticed a marked increase in local immigration court traffic since the start of the partnership.
Experts also say backlogs have grown because of a dearth of immigration judges nationwide. A third Las Vegas immigration judge retired in December and the Justice Department has yet to replace her.
Still, traffic through Las Vegas Immigration Court has continued moving along relatively smoothly, Velasquez said, because the caseload is still comparatively small.
"It's not like it is in L.A. or New York," which in 2009 dealt with caseloads of 20,387 and 23,386, respectively.
■ ■ ■
During a typical day in immigration court, a judge might deal with dozens of people seeking "relief from removal." Most have landed in deportation proceedings after being arrested on unrelated charges. Their options include accepting "voluntary departure" from the United States and fighting for asylum or an adjustment in immigration status. The former cases usually are dispatched relatively quickly; the latter cases can drag on for months or even years.
Tuesday afternoon, federal ICE agents led about two dozen shackled men and one woman into Gastley's courtroom for their "initial removal proceedings." They had been taken to court from the North Las Vegas Detention Center, where ICE rents beds for $105.96 per inmate per day.
The inmates ranged in age from about 18 to 60. Most were Hispanic, and about half required an interpreter.
As part of a new program through AILA, Velasquez volunteered to provide pro bono representation for the day for those who didn't have attorneys.
Some of the men requested voluntary departures. Others asked for bond hearings so they wouldn't have to stay in jail while fighting deportation. Many of the cases were continued.
"I don't have time to do a hearing today," Gastley told an inmate's attorneys.
To another he said, "I haven't read anything you submitted. I haven't had time to read it."
The judge gave the young Salvadoran a date and time for a bond hearing. The man indicated plans to fight deportation on the grounds that he was "in danger in El Salvador."
One of the last removal proceedings of the day involved a man in his mid-20s with a crew cut, whose case was continued to give him time to hire an attorney.
The young man slowly shuffled in his ankle shackles to the front of the courtroom, where the court's interpreter addressed him.
"I don't speak Spanish," the man told her. "I'm from Canada."
That appeared to delight Gastley, who began telling the young man about his many "ski trips up there until I got older and wised up."
"You know what my favorite place in Canada is?" the judge asked before describing a site in Montreal. "Next time you go back to Canada, look it up."
"Hopefully I won't be going back there soon," the man said with a smile.
"You're in the right place," Gastley said. "What is Las Vegas famous for? Gambling."
http://www.lvrj.com/news/case-backlog-postponing-deportations-95211529.html
Monday, May 17, 2010
ICE accord resulted in deportation of 1,897
By LYNNETTE CURTIS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
May. 16, 2010
Federal officials have deported almost 1,900 illegal immigrants under a partnership with the Metropolitan Police Department, according to recently released figures.
The partnership, which allows specially trained officers at the Clark County Detention Center to identify immigration violators and place "immigration detainers" on them, began in November 2008.
The detainers let local law enforcement hold deportable inmates after they otherwise would be released so immigration officials can take custody of them.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 1,487 inmates referred from the county jail between November 2008 and October 2009. ICE deported another 410 from the jail between October 2009 and May 2010.
Las Vegas corrections officers have placed immigration detainers on 2,722 inmates since the partnership began.
"The final determination about deportability is made by the nation's immigration courts," ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in explaining the difference between the number of detainers and deportations. "Some individuals may not have been deported because the courts ultimately ruled that they were not deportable or granted them some form of legal relief. Others may still be in immigration proceedings."
Those proceedings can continue for months or even years.
ICE has long said deportation totals under such partnerships -- dubbed "287(g)" agreements after the corresponding section of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act -- were unavailable because people referred to the agency by local law enforcement simply became part of ICE's larger caseload.
"We didn't originally track this data," Kice said Wednesday.
But ICE recently began breaking out the local deportation numbers and compiled results from previous years, Kice said.
The agency has 71 such partnerships with law enforcement agencies in 26 states. Las Vegas has the only 287(g) agreement in Nevada.
Civil rights leaders and others have criticized the partnerships, saying they target Hispanics, could lead to racial profiling and make people afraid to report crimes.
But supporters, including Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, say the agreements target violent criminals and that federal officials aren't adequately enforcing immigration laws.
Gillespie has emphasized that a person's immigration status will be checked locally only after that person is arrested on other charges. His department does not place immigration detainers on illegal immigrants who have no criminal records and have been arrested on only minor charges, he said.
His department spends $1.3 million a year to staff the 287(g) program. So, Clark County has spent $1,027 to staff the program for each prisoner who has been deported so far under the program.
Gillespie has said the program's cost weighs heavily on him in these tough economic times.
But, "I've got to balance the community safety aspect with that," he said earlier this month. "I have to know who is being booked into our jail."
Before the agreement, local officers did not have the ability to check the immigration status of inmates and had to rely on ICE officials to investigate and place detainers on potential immigration violators.
ICE did so only sporadically, and many deportable inmates would be released in the meantime, said Lt. Rich Forbus, who oversees the local 287(g) program.
Nationally, 53,238 people have been deported under ICE's 287(g) partnerships since October 2008. Those deportations included 9,913 people who were referred to ICE from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in the Phoenix area; 9,020 from the Harris County Sheriff's Office around Houston and 2,971 from the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Southern California.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2008
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
May. 16, 2010
Federal officials have deported almost 1,900 illegal immigrants under a partnership with the Metropolitan Police Department, according to recently released figures.
The partnership, which allows specially trained officers at the Clark County Detention Center to identify immigration violators and place "immigration detainers" on them, began in November 2008.
The detainers let local law enforcement hold deportable inmates after they otherwise would be released so immigration officials can take custody of them.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 1,487 inmates referred from the county jail between November 2008 and October 2009. ICE deported another 410 from the jail between October 2009 and May 2010.
Las Vegas corrections officers have placed immigration detainers on 2,722 inmates since the partnership began.
"The final determination about deportability is made by the nation's immigration courts," ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in explaining the difference between the number of detainers and deportations. "Some individuals may not have been deported because the courts ultimately ruled that they were not deportable or granted them some form of legal relief. Others may still be in immigration proceedings."
Those proceedings can continue for months or even years.
ICE has long said deportation totals under such partnerships -- dubbed "287(g)" agreements after the corresponding section of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act -- were unavailable because people referred to the agency by local law enforcement simply became part of ICE's larger caseload.
"We didn't originally track this data," Kice said Wednesday.
But ICE recently began breaking out the local deportation numbers and compiled results from previous years, Kice said.
The agency has 71 such partnerships with law enforcement agencies in 26 states. Las Vegas has the only 287(g) agreement in Nevada.
Civil rights leaders and others have criticized the partnerships, saying they target Hispanics, could lead to racial profiling and make people afraid to report crimes.
But supporters, including Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, say the agreements target violent criminals and that federal officials aren't adequately enforcing immigration laws.
Gillespie has emphasized that a person's immigration status will be checked locally only after that person is arrested on other charges. His department does not place immigration detainers on illegal immigrants who have no criminal records and have been arrested on only minor charges, he said.
His department spends $1.3 million a year to staff the 287(g) program. So, Clark County has spent $1,027 to staff the program for each prisoner who has been deported so far under the program.
Gillespie has said the program's cost weighs heavily on him in these tough economic times.
But, "I've got to balance the community safety aspect with that," he said earlier this month. "I have to know who is being booked into our jail."
Before the agreement, local officers did not have the ability to check the immigration status of inmates and had to rely on ICE officials to investigate and place detainers on potential immigration violators.
ICE did so only sporadically, and many deportable inmates would be released in the meantime, said Lt. Rich Forbus, who oversees the local 287(g) program.
Nationally, 53,238 people have been deported under ICE's 287(g) partnerships since October 2008. Those deportations included 9,913 people who were referred to ICE from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in the Phoenix area; 9,020 from the Harris County Sheriff's Office around Houston and 2,971 from the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Southern California.
Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2008
Thursday, September 10, 2009
CHP: Feds arrest 12 in immigration raid at Lake Tahoe
By Kyle Magin
Tahoe Daily Tribune
September 3, 2009
KINGS BEACH, Calif. — Federal immigration officers arrested 12 suspected illegal immigrants after stationing near a recent DUI checkpoint on Lake Tahoe's North Shore, a California Highway Patrol officer said Thursday.
Sgt. Steve Bryan of California Highway Patrol said federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stood by a highway patrol DUI checkpoint Friday, Aug. 28, in Kings Beach, arresting those who didn't have proper identification.
Calls to ICE weren't immediately returned Thursday to ascertain the status of those arrested.
CHP conducted the checkpoint — on State Highway 28 just east of the intersection with State Highway 267 — solely to look for drunken drivers and ensure people were driving with valid licenses, Bryan said. He said ICE worked independently at the checkpoint to search for suspected illegals.
The highway patrol arrested three drivers for DUI, issued nine driver's license-related citations and impounded four vehicles which weren't properly registered.
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20090903/NEWS/909039997/1056/NONE&parentprofile=1056
Tahoe Daily Tribune
September 3, 2009
KINGS BEACH, Calif. — Federal immigration officers arrested 12 suspected illegal immigrants after stationing near a recent DUI checkpoint on Lake Tahoe's North Shore, a California Highway Patrol officer said Thursday.
Sgt. Steve Bryan of California Highway Patrol said federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers stood by a highway patrol DUI checkpoint Friday, Aug. 28, in Kings Beach, arresting those who didn't have proper identification.
Calls to ICE weren't immediately returned Thursday to ascertain the status of those arrested.
CHP conducted the checkpoint — on State Highway 28 just east of the intersection with State Highway 267 — solely to look for drunken drivers and ensure people were driving with valid licenses, Bryan said. He said ICE worked independently at the checkpoint to search for suspected illegals.
The highway patrol arrested three drivers for DUI, issued nine driver's license-related citations and impounded four vehicles which weren't properly registered.
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20090903/NEWS/909039997/1056/NONE&parentprofile=1056
Friday, August 14, 2009
Monday, September 22, 2008
Some arrested in Nevada raids deported
Some arrested in Nev. raids deported
USA Today
September 22, 2008
RENO, Nev. (AP) — More than half of the undocumented workers arrested in immigration raids on McDonald's restaurants were released Friday for "humanitarian purposes" while they await an appearance in immigration court, a federal official said Friday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revised the number of people arrested the day before to 54, down from 56. Seven were being deported to Mexico because of pervious immigration violations, and 17 remained in custody, ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said.
Humanitarian purposes can include such things as a medical condition or being the sole caregiver to children, he said, stressing that no children were left unattended as a result of the arrests.
The investigation began five months ago and was sparked by an identity theft complaint. A local law enforcement agency then gave ICE information that illegal immigrants were working at specific McDonald's restaurants, he said.
Luther Mack, who owns the raided restaurants, insisted that his businesses require employees to provide documentation.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
USA Today
September 22, 2008
RENO, Nev. (AP) — More than half of the undocumented workers arrested in immigration raids on McDonald's restaurants were released Friday for "humanitarian purposes" while they await an appearance in immigration court, a federal official said Friday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revised the number of people arrested the day before to 54, down from 56. Seven were being deported to Mexico because of pervious immigration violations, and 17 remained in custody, ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said.
Humanitarian purposes can include such things as a medical condition or being the sole caregiver to children, he said, stressing that no children were left unattended as a result of the arrests.
The investigation began five months ago and was sparked by an identity theft complaint. A local law enforcement agency then gave ICE information that illegal immigrants were working at specific McDonald's restaurants, he said.
Luther Mack, who owns the raided restaurants, insisted that his businesses require employees to provide documentation.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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