By MARY SWIFT
The Daily Record
March 21, 2011
Tess Maczis believes every person can make a difference.
It’s a big part of the reason the 16-year-old Ellensburg High School junior, co-president of the school’s Peace Club and a student body officer, is one of the high school students now volunteering with APOYO, a not-for-profit organization that provides food and other assistance to the Hispanic community.
“What got me was it was something that happened at our school with people we knew,” she says. “Everybody wanted to do something to help and not just stand by.”
Tess would find a kindred spirit in Dianne Aid. Aid, who now lives in Kent, came to Ellensburg to attend Central Washington University and stayed 20 years. Along the way she met a young Mexican couple, Ramon and Angelica Gonzalez, at church. They were undocumented immigrants struggling to forge a new life. When their second child, Ricardo, was born 17 years ago, they asked Aid to be his godmother.
Time passed.
Eventually, Aid lost touch with the Gonzalez family.
Then in the early morning hours of Thursday, Jan. 20, agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid in Ellensburg and arrested 34 members of the Hispanic community.
Fifteen had criminal arrest warrants. Nineteen were detained on administrative charges (being in the county illegally). The numbers are based on information provided to the Ellensburg Coalition for Humanity by the offices of U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, who met with ICE officials following the raid.
On the west side of the state, Aid, who serves on the national steering committee of what is termed the New Sanctuary Movement, was monitoring what had happened. Aid is a member of St. Matthew’s/San Mateo Episcopal Church in Auburn, the most diverse congregation in the Diocese of Olympia. Fifty percent of its congregation is Latino and its English-speaking members include immigrants from the Fiji Islands, First Nations people, African Americans and Japanese Americans. Aid serves as director of the church’s Jubilee Ministries program, a ministry that focuses on immigration grassroots organizing, legal services and sanctuary.
Names on list
After the raid, an organizer from the United Farmworkers Union went to Ellensburg to compile a list of people detained or not accounted for. The Rev. Ernie Harrelson, pastor of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Yakima, passed the list on to Aid.
Two names leaped out at her: Ramon and Angelica Gonzalez.
On Tuesday after the raid, Aid was attending a meeting of the Washington Immigration Reform Coalition watching a film clip KIRO had done on a rally in Yakima.
“Here was this 17-year-old kid talking about ICE coming into his home. His name is Ricardo. He looks a lot like his mom. I knew then I had to find them,” Aid says. She asked Harrelson to ask Ricardo to contact her.
Ricardo, now a junior at Ellensburg High School, did.
“Are you my godmother?” he asked.
Yes, Aid said.
“I really didn’t know her,” Ricardo says now in a soft voice. “I was so little when she knew us. But my mom had talked about her. I didn’t have an attorney. She said she was going to help me.”
It was one week to the day that Ricardo had watched helplessly as his parents were arrested.
Angelica, facing charges of using false documents, was being held in Yakima. Ramon had been taken directly to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma on administrative charges (being in the country illegally) and was awaiting deportation.
“When Ramon got to the detention center, he’d done what a lot of people unwittingly do,” Aid says. “He signed papers for voluntary departure. They ship people out once a week from there. Ramon would have been deported that Saturday (just two days after she and Ricardo spoke).
“So I got hold of an immigration attorney friend of mine,” Aid says. “I said, ‘I don’t care what it takes. Can you stop this?’”
Bond reduced
On Friday, the attorney went to the detention center and talked with Ramon who withdrew his voluntary departure request. A few days later, Angelica was transferred to the detention center. Angelica’s bond had been set at $15,000. No bond had been set for Ramon.
The following Wednesday, a bond hearing took place in the tiny courtroom at the detention center. Aid said supporters were present, including Ricardo who showed up armed with letters of support and character references, including one from Aid.
Angelica’s bond was reduced to $3,000. Ramon’s was set at $1,500.
Ricardo paid their bond with donations from family and friends. The immigration fund at St. Matthews is paying the costs for the bond hearing. “The attorney charged half his usual fee for one person to take them both,” a grateful Aid says.
Released at around 6 that evening, Ramon and Angelica returned home with a relieved Ricardo.
“At first I couldn’t believe it,” he says now. “I called my brothers. I felt really happy. When we got to our house, family and friends were at our house. We ate some cake. People brought flowers and food.”
Angelica and Ramon are now waiting for what happens next.
“They cannot work,” Ricardo says. “My mom has a hearing in October.” As for his father, “they haven’t given him one yet.”
Ricardo, an honor student who had perfect attendance since middle school until his parents were arrested, is trying to refocus on normal high school life.
But it’s a challenge.
“I have to behave now like an adult,” he says. “It’s kind of sad. It’s a hard struggle to pass through and a really hard struggle when your family gets separated.”
Aid says an effort is under way to try to help Ricardo’s parents gain legal status.
“People who have more than 10 years present in the U.S. and have relatives who are United States citizens, if they can prove hardship on that citizen from deportation then they may be granted relief from deportation,” she says. If that fails, Aid says it’s possible that Ricardo himself, a U.S.-born citizen, could petition to have them come back to this country when he is 21.
“They’re getting by. I talk with them a lot now,” Aid says. “We won’t lose contact any more. My thoughts, when Ricardo called me that night were, ‘I have not been here for this child all these years and at this critical juncture, I can do it.’”
http://dailyrecordnews.com/top_story/reunion-after-ice-raid/article_3036524c-53e3-11e0-80d5-001cc4c03286.html
Showing posts with label Expulsions in WA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expulsions in WA. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
ICE raid shakes Latinos
By Philip Ferolito and Mark Morey
Yakima Herald-Republic
January 21, 2011
YAKIMA -- A day after immigration authorities descended on Ellensburg in a sweep that netted 30 arrests, local groups are trying to settle a shaken Latino community.
Local churches are providing food and money to affected families and have brought in immigration attorneys to offer free legal advice, said Robert Siler, chancellor of the Diocese of Yakima.
"We don't have a tremendous amount of money to do that, but there are some funds available," he said. "We certainly want to support the families as much as we can."
Others are trying to find families that are either hiding or have left home out of fear of another sweep.
"We're trying to locate them now," said Philip Garrison, president of APOYO, a local nonprofit agency that runs a food bank and provides other services for Latino families. "So you've got a lot of terrified people fleeing or hiding."
Early Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carried out 11 search warrants at 22 locations in and around Ellensburg. The agency said the raids, which were mostly directed at homes, are part of a larger investigation into the manufacturing of counterfeit identity and employment documents.
On Friday, 14 of those arrested -- mostly women -- made preliminary appearances in U.S. District Court in Yakima, where innocent pleas were entered for all and bail hearings set for next week.
Nine of the defendants were indicted on a single count of using counterfeit Social Security or permanent resident "green cards" for pre-employment checks of their immigration status. The alleged violations happened as far back as 2006, according to the indictments.
Three more were charged with the same crime, plus an additional count of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.
One was charged with being in the United States after having been deported from a California port of entry in 2002.
Court documents available Friday did not explain what led authorities to the suspects. The indictments were filed under seal earlier this month to protect the ongoing investigation.
The most detailed report was filed against a man who was arrested after agents served a search warrant Wednesday at 905 W. Cascade Court, where the defendant lived.
Investigators said they found counterfeit Social Security and green cards that the man had used to get work. The man was granted a Washington driver's license in 2008 using a Mexican birth certificate, according to charging documents.
He had been deported from Los Angeles in 2000 after showing a counterfeit visa stamp in a Mexican passport, investigators said.
The 16 others arrested Thursday remain in custody but have yet to appear in court.
None of the 30 people arrested is facing charges of manufacturing false documents, U.S. Assistant Attorney Tom Rice in Spokane said Friday during a telephone interview.
The investigation is intended to uproot the manufacturer, he said.
Standing in the lobby of the courthouse Friday, Francisco Cuevas, 17, said his 20-year-old cousin Mireya Colazo-Muguia, an assistant to an orthodontist in Ellensburg, was arrested at work.
And he said his friend, Ana Catalina Ruiz Roque, was taken from her home. Now her mother-in-law is caring for her 3-year-old son and her 14-year-old daughter, he said.
"She doesn't have a criminal record or anything," Cuevas said.
The sweep sparked fear in some parts of Ellensburg, a university and farm town of 17,230 residents. Many employees at two local hotels and a hay pressing plant didn't show up for work Friday, Garrison said.
Garrison, who is in contact with some of the families, said he's been told that during the raid, handcuffed children were left outside for a long period of time.
He also said he was told that many children had been left without supervision.
Since the raid, there have been several community meetings to assist families. During the first meeting Thursday night, mostly non-Latino residents upset about "the way their neighbors were being carted off" attended, Garrison said.
But ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said the raid has prompted a flurry of false rumors.
Because she was not present at the raid, Dankers said she didn't know whether anyone was forced to wait outside while their home was being searched.
But no children were left unattended, she said.
"We interview (suspects), we find out if they have children," she said. "We identify if they have family or friends that can take care of the children. It's a very deliberative process where we make sure that no child is left without a guardian."
Ellensburg High School counselors were kept busy Thursday with about 50 students affected by the sweep, said Principal Jeff Ellersick.
On Friday, 16 of those students failed to show up for school, he said.
"Some of them saw their mother or their father or their aunt or uncle get arrested and were not sure of the circumstances surrounding that," he said.
After learning of the sweep from students that morning, school officials had to track down ICE officials at their command station in town to find out if a plan was in place for students whose parents were arrested.
"We're here to help support these kids any way we can," he said.
http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2011/01/21/ice-raid-shakes-latinos
Yakima Herald-Republic
January 21, 2011
YAKIMA -- A day after immigration authorities descended on Ellensburg in a sweep that netted 30 arrests, local groups are trying to settle a shaken Latino community.
Local churches are providing food and money to affected families and have brought in immigration attorneys to offer free legal advice, said Robert Siler, chancellor of the Diocese of Yakima.
"We don't have a tremendous amount of money to do that, but there are some funds available," he said. "We certainly want to support the families as much as we can."
Others are trying to find families that are either hiding or have left home out of fear of another sweep.
"We're trying to locate them now," said Philip Garrison, president of APOYO, a local nonprofit agency that runs a food bank and provides other services for Latino families. "So you've got a lot of terrified people fleeing or hiding."
Early Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carried out 11 search warrants at 22 locations in and around Ellensburg. The agency said the raids, which were mostly directed at homes, are part of a larger investigation into the manufacturing of counterfeit identity and employment documents.
On Friday, 14 of those arrested -- mostly women -- made preliminary appearances in U.S. District Court in Yakima, where innocent pleas were entered for all and bail hearings set for next week.
Nine of the defendants were indicted on a single count of using counterfeit Social Security or permanent resident "green cards" for pre-employment checks of their immigration status. The alleged violations happened as far back as 2006, according to the indictments.
Three more were charged with the same crime, plus an additional count of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.
One was charged with being in the United States after having been deported from a California port of entry in 2002.
Court documents available Friday did not explain what led authorities to the suspects. The indictments were filed under seal earlier this month to protect the ongoing investigation.
The most detailed report was filed against a man who was arrested after agents served a search warrant Wednesday at 905 W. Cascade Court, where the defendant lived.
Investigators said they found counterfeit Social Security and green cards that the man had used to get work. The man was granted a Washington driver's license in 2008 using a Mexican birth certificate, according to charging documents.
He had been deported from Los Angeles in 2000 after showing a counterfeit visa stamp in a Mexican passport, investigators said.
The 16 others arrested Thursday remain in custody but have yet to appear in court.
None of the 30 people arrested is facing charges of manufacturing false documents, U.S. Assistant Attorney Tom Rice in Spokane said Friday during a telephone interview.
The investigation is intended to uproot the manufacturer, he said.
Standing in the lobby of the courthouse Friday, Francisco Cuevas, 17, said his 20-year-old cousin Mireya Colazo-Muguia, an assistant to an orthodontist in Ellensburg, was arrested at work.
And he said his friend, Ana Catalina Ruiz Roque, was taken from her home. Now her mother-in-law is caring for her 3-year-old son and her 14-year-old daughter, he said.
"She doesn't have a criminal record or anything," Cuevas said.
The sweep sparked fear in some parts of Ellensburg, a university and farm town of 17,230 residents. Many employees at two local hotels and a hay pressing plant didn't show up for work Friday, Garrison said.
Garrison, who is in contact with some of the families, said he's been told that during the raid, handcuffed children were left outside for a long period of time.
He also said he was told that many children had been left without supervision.
Since the raid, there have been several community meetings to assist families. During the first meeting Thursday night, mostly non-Latino residents upset about "the way their neighbors were being carted off" attended, Garrison said.
But ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said the raid has prompted a flurry of false rumors.
Because she was not present at the raid, Dankers said she didn't know whether anyone was forced to wait outside while their home was being searched.
But no children were left unattended, she said.
"We interview (suspects), we find out if they have children," she said. "We identify if they have family or friends that can take care of the children. It's a very deliberative process where we make sure that no child is left without a guardian."
Ellensburg High School counselors were kept busy Thursday with about 50 students affected by the sweep, said Principal Jeff Ellersick.
On Friday, 16 of those students failed to show up for school, he said.
"Some of them saw their mother or their father or their aunt or uncle get arrested and were not sure of the circumstances surrounding that," he said.
After learning of the sweep from students that morning, school officials had to track down ICE officials at their command station in town to find out if a plan was in place for students whose parents were arrested.
"We're here to help support these kids any way we can," he said.
http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2011/01/21/ice-raid-shakes-latinos
Thursday, November 11, 2010
U.S. steps up deportation of criminal immigrants nationwide, in Northwest
By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times
November 10, 2010
The United States has continued to step up removal of criminal immigrants from across the nation and this region, even as its deportation of noncriminals declined.
The trend appears to support what has long been a stated goal of the Obama administration — to focus on removing criminal immigrants from the U.S. over noncriminals who are also deportable.
During the fiscal year that ended in September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expelled nearly 400,000 people from the country — the most since the government began its current method of record keeping.
The number of convicted criminals in that group was up 43 percent from the previous year, while noncriminal removals were down 22 percent.
The pattern was similar in the Northwest region, which includes Washington, Alaska and Oregon and where the number of convicted criminals sent home rose 6 percent to 4,700 people.
At the same time, the total number of deportations overall, as well as that for noncriminals, has declined steadily over the past two years.
"ICE is really prioritizing our enforcement and removal to target dangerous criminals and those who present the greatest risk to our communities," said spokeswoman Lorie Dankers.
Additionally, under the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security essentially has ended large-scale raids on employers, replacing them with employment-document audits that result in thousands of illegal immigrants quietly losing their jobs, while their employers occasionally are fined.
There's a growing focus on new initiatives such as Secure Communities, a federal enforcement strategy in which the fingerprints of everyone arrested are checked against immigration records.
Secure Communities, designed to find and deport undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes such as murder, kidnapping and threats to national security, is expected to be in every jail nationwide by late 2012. While it's in place in many parts of Oregon and across California, it does not yet exist anywhere in Washington state.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013389519_deported10m.html
Seattle Times
November 10, 2010
The United States has continued to step up removal of criminal immigrants from across the nation and this region, even as its deportation of noncriminals declined.
The trend appears to support what has long been a stated goal of the Obama administration — to focus on removing criminal immigrants from the U.S. over noncriminals who are also deportable.
During the fiscal year that ended in September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expelled nearly 400,000 people from the country — the most since the government began its current method of record keeping.
The number of convicted criminals in that group was up 43 percent from the previous year, while noncriminal removals were down 22 percent.
The pattern was similar in the Northwest region, which includes Washington, Alaska and Oregon and where the number of convicted criminals sent home rose 6 percent to 4,700 people.
At the same time, the total number of deportations overall, as well as that for noncriminals, has declined steadily over the past two years.
"ICE is really prioritizing our enforcement and removal to target dangerous criminals and those who present the greatest risk to our communities," said spokeswoman Lorie Dankers.
Additionally, under the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security essentially has ended large-scale raids on employers, replacing them with employment-document audits that result in thousands of illegal immigrants quietly losing their jobs, while their employers occasionally are fined.
There's a growing focus on new initiatives such as Secure Communities, a federal enforcement strategy in which the fingerprints of everyone arrested are checked against immigration records.
Secure Communities, designed to find and deport undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes such as murder, kidnapping and threats to national security, is expected to be in every jail nationwide by late 2012. While it's in place in many parts of Oregon and across California, it does not yet exist anywhere in Washington state.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013389519_deported10m.html
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Illegal Workers Swept From Jobs in ‘Silent Raids’
By JULIA PRESTON
The New York Times
July 9, 2010
BREWSTER, Wash. — The Obama administration has replaced immigration raids at factories and farms with a quieter enforcement strategy: sending federal agents to scour companies’ records for illegal immigrant workers.
While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported.
Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies. The agency has levied a record $3 million in civil fines so far this year on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures. Thousands of those workers have been fired, immigrant groups estimate.
Employers say the audits reach more companies than the work-site roundups of the administration of President George W. Bush. The audits force businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant on the payroll— not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of a raid — and make it much harder to hire other unauthorized workers as replacements. Auditing is “a far more effective enforcement tool,” said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League, which includes many worried fruit growers.
Immigration inspectors who pored over the records of one of those growers, Gebbers Farms, found evidence that more than 500 of its workers, mostly immigrants from Mexico, were in the country illegally. In December, Gebbers Farms, based in this Washington orchard town, fired the workers.
“Instead of hundreds of agents going after one company, now one agent can go after hundreds of companies,” said Mark K. Reed, president of Border Management Strategies, a consulting firm in Tucson that advises companies across the country on immigration law. “And there is no drama, no trauma, no families being torn apart, no handcuffs.”
President Obama, in a speech last week, explained a two-step immigration policy. He promised tough enforcement against illegal immigration, in workplaces and at the border, saying it would prepare the way for a legislative overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. White House officials say the enforcement is under way, but they acknowledge the overhaul is unlikely to happen this year.
In another shift, the immigration agency has moved away from bringing criminal charges against immigrant workers who lack legal status but have otherwise clean records.
Republican lawmakers say Mr. Obama is talking tough, but in practice is lightening up.
“Even if discovered, illegal aliens are allowed to walk free and seek employment elsewhere” said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “This lax approach is particularly troubling,” he said, “at a time when so many American citizens are struggling to find jobs.”
Employers say the Obama administration is leaving them short of labor for some low-wage work, conducting silent raids but offering no new legal immigrant laborers in occupations, like farm work, that Americans continue to shun despite the recession. Federal labor officials estimate that more than 60 percent of farm workers in the United States are illegal immigrants.
John Morton, the head of the immigration agency, known as ICE, said the goal of the audits is to create “a culture of compliance” among employers, so that verifying new hires would be as routine as paying taxes. ICE leaves it up to employers to fire workers whose documents cannot be validated. But an employer who fails to do so risks prosecution.
ICE is looking primarily for “egregious employers” who commit both labor abuses and immigration violations, Mr. Morton said, and the agency is ramping up penalties against them.
In April, Michel Malecot, the chef of a popular bakery in San Diego, was indicted on 12 criminal counts of harboring illegal immigrants. The government is seeking to seize his bakery. He has pleaded not guilty. In Maryland, the owner of two restaurants, George Anagnostou, pleaded guilty last month to criminal charges of harboring at least 24 illegal immigrants. He agreed to forfeit more than $734,000.
But the firings at Gebbers Farms shocked this village of orchard laborers (population 2,100) by the Columbia River among sere brown foothills in eastern Washington. Six months after the firings, the silence still prevails, with both the company and the illegal immigrants reluctant to discuss them.
Farm worker advocates said the family-owned company, one of the biggest apple growers in the country, did not fit Mr. Morton’s description of an exploiter.
“The general reputation for Gebbers Farms was that they were doing right by their employees,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
The Gebbers packing house is the center of this company town, amid more than 5,000 acres of well-tended orchards, where the lingua franca is Spanish. Officials said public school enrollment is more than 90 percent Hispanic.
Throughout last year, ICE auditors examined forms known as I-9’s, which all new hires in the country must fill out. ICE then advised Gebbers Farms of Social Security and immigration numbers that did not check out with federal databases.
Just before Christmas, managers summoned the workers in groups. In often emotional exchanges, managers immediately fired those without valid documents.
“No comment,” said Jay Johnson, a lawyer for Gebbers Farms, expressing the company’s only statement.
Many workers lived in houses they rented from the company; they were given three months to move out. In Brewster, truck payments stopped, televisions were returned, mobile homes were sold, mortgages defaulted.
Many immigrants purchased new false documents and went looking for jobs in more distant orchards, former Gebbers Farms workers said. But the word is out among growers in the region to avoid hiring immigrants from the company because ICE knows they are unauthorized.
“Many people are still crying because this is really hard,” said M. García, 41, a former Gebbers packing house worker who has been out of a job since January.
There was no wave of deportations and few families left on their own for Mexico. “They are saying, what’s going to happen to their kids?” said Mario Camacho, an administrator in the Brewster school district. “To those kids, this is their country.”
After the firings, Gebbers Farms advertised hundreds of jobs for orchard workers. But there were few takers in the state.
“Show me one American —just one — climbing a picker’s ladder,” said María Cervantes, 33, a former Gebbers Farms worker from Mexico who gave her name because she was recently approved as a legal immigrant.
After completing a federally mandated local labor search, Gebbers Farms applied to the federal guest worker program to import about 1,200 legal temporary workers — most from Mexico. The guest workers, who can stay for up to six months, also included about 300 from Jamaica.
“They are bringing people from outside,” Ms. Cervantes said, perplexed. “What will happen to those of us who are already here?”
Immigrant advocates said they are surprised and frustrated with Mr. Obama, after seeing an increase in enforcement activity since he took office. “It would be easier to fight if it was a big raid,” said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a group in Seattle. “But this is happening everywhere and often.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/us/10enforce.html?_r=3&hp=&pagewanted=all
The New York Times
July 9, 2010
BREWSTER, Wash. — The Obama administration has replaced immigration raids at factories and farms with a quieter enforcement strategy: sending federal agents to scour companies’ records for illegal immigrant workers.
While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported.
Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies. The agency has levied a record $3 million in civil fines so far this year on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures. Thousands of those workers have been fired, immigrant groups estimate.
Employers say the audits reach more companies than the work-site roundups of the administration of President George W. Bush. The audits force businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant on the payroll— not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of a raid — and make it much harder to hire other unauthorized workers as replacements. Auditing is “a far more effective enforcement tool,” said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League, which includes many worried fruit growers.
Immigration inspectors who pored over the records of one of those growers, Gebbers Farms, found evidence that more than 500 of its workers, mostly immigrants from Mexico, were in the country illegally. In December, Gebbers Farms, based in this Washington orchard town, fired the workers.
“Instead of hundreds of agents going after one company, now one agent can go after hundreds of companies,” said Mark K. Reed, president of Border Management Strategies, a consulting firm in Tucson that advises companies across the country on immigration law. “And there is no drama, no trauma, no families being torn apart, no handcuffs.”
President Obama, in a speech last week, explained a two-step immigration policy. He promised tough enforcement against illegal immigration, in workplaces and at the border, saying it would prepare the way for a legislative overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. White House officials say the enforcement is under way, but they acknowledge the overhaul is unlikely to happen this year.
In another shift, the immigration agency has moved away from bringing criminal charges against immigrant workers who lack legal status but have otherwise clean records.
Republican lawmakers say Mr. Obama is talking tough, but in practice is lightening up.
“Even if discovered, illegal aliens are allowed to walk free and seek employment elsewhere” said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “This lax approach is particularly troubling,” he said, “at a time when so many American citizens are struggling to find jobs.”
Employers say the Obama administration is leaving them short of labor for some low-wage work, conducting silent raids but offering no new legal immigrant laborers in occupations, like farm work, that Americans continue to shun despite the recession. Federal labor officials estimate that more than 60 percent of farm workers in the United States are illegal immigrants.
John Morton, the head of the immigration agency, known as ICE, said the goal of the audits is to create “a culture of compliance” among employers, so that verifying new hires would be as routine as paying taxes. ICE leaves it up to employers to fire workers whose documents cannot be validated. But an employer who fails to do so risks prosecution.
ICE is looking primarily for “egregious employers” who commit both labor abuses and immigration violations, Mr. Morton said, and the agency is ramping up penalties against them.
In April, Michel Malecot, the chef of a popular bakery in San Diego, was indicted on 12 criminal counts of harboring illegal immigrants. The government is seeking to seize his bakery. He has pleaded not guilty. In Maryland, the owner of two restaurants, George Anagnostou, pleaded guilty last month to criminal charges of harboring at least 24 illegal immigrants. He agreed to forfeit more than $734,000.
But the firings at Gebbers Farms shocked this village of orchard laborers (population 2,100) by the Columbia River among sere brown foothills in eastern Washington. Six months after the firings, the silence still prevails, with both the company and the illegal immigrants reluctant to discuss them.
Farm worker advocates said the family-owned company, one of the biggest apple growers in the country, did not fit Mr. Morton’s description of an exploiter.
“The general reputation for Gebbers Farms was that they were doing right by their employees,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
The Gebbers packing house is the center of this company town, amid more than 5,000 acres of well-tended orchards, where the lingua franca is Spanish. Officials said public school enrollment is more than 90 percent Hispanic.
Throughout last year, ICE auditors examined forms known as I-9’s, which all new hires in the country must fill out. ICE then advised Gebbers Farms of Social Security and immigration numbers that did not check out with federal databases.
Just before Christmas, managers summoned the workers in groups. In often emotional exchanges, managers immediately fired those without valid documents.
“No comment,” said Jay Johnson, a lawyer for Gebbers Farms, expressing the company’s only statement.
Many workers lived in houses they rented from the company; they were given three months to move out. In Brewster, truck payments stopped, televisions were returned, mobile homes were sold, mortgages defaulted.
Many immigrants purchased new false documents and went looking for jobs in more distant orchards, former Gebbers Farms workers said. But the word is out among growers in the region to avoid hiring immigrants from the company because ICE knows they are unauthorized.
“Many people are still crying because this is really hard,” said M. García, 41, a former Gebbers packing house worker who has been out of a job since January.
There was no wave of deportations and few families left on their own for Mexico. “They are saying, what’s going to happen to their kids?” said Mario Camacho, an administrator in the Brewster school district. “To those kids, this is their country.”
After the firings, Gebbers Farms advertised hundreds of jobs for orchard workers. But there were few takers in the state.
“Show me one American —just one — climbing a picker’s ladder,” said María Cervantes, 33, a former Gebbers Farms worker from Mexico who gave her name because she was recently approved as a legal immigrant.
After completing a federally mandated local labor search, Gebbers Farms applied to the federal guest worker program to import about 1,200 legal temporary workers — most from Mexico. The guest workers, who can stay for up to six months, also included about 300 from Jamaica.
“They are bringing people from outside,” Ms. Cervantes said, perplexed. “What will happen to those of us who are already here?”
Immigrant advocates said they are surprised and frustrated with Mr. Obama, after seeing an increase in enforcement activity since he took office. “It would be easier to fight if it was a big raid,” said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a group in Seattle. “But this is happening everywhere and often.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/us/10enforce.html?_r=3&hp=&pagewanted=all
Monday, March 1, 2010
Washington raid brings deportations, mixed signals
Months later, Bellingham raid ends in deportations, mixed signals from administration
The Associated Press
February 27, 2010
First they were arrested and faced deportation under what has proven to be the Obama administration's only workplace raid. Then they were given work permits, and told they could stay in the United States while their employer was being prosecuted.
Now, the more than two dozen undocumented workers arrested during the February raid here at Yamato Engine Specialists Ltd. are again facing deportation.
"Well, what can you do? You can't run, that'd be worse," Gerardo Arreola Gonzalez, one of the 28 workers arrested, said about the raid. "I had to face it. Yes, I felt fear, thinking, 'The dream is over.'"
Gonzalez's unusual journey through the immigration system symbolizes just how much immigration policy has changed under President Barack Obama – and how it's still a work in progress.
The deportations and likely removals are a conclusion to a case that displeased both advocates for illegal immigrants and those who lobby for stricter immigration enforcement.
In this case, the company, the workers, and even the Seattle U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office that conducted the raid came in for some sort of punishment or special scrutiny.
Two days after the raid, ICE officials traded urgent e-mails going over answers to questions sent by an apparently miffed White House, according to e-mails obtained by the Associated Press through a federal records request.
In all, 28 men and women – mostly from Mexico – were arrested that February morning. One man opted to leave the country shortly after the raid. The 27 who remained were given work permits until the case against Yamato ended.
Now, five of the 27 workers have been deported. Seven have been allowed to leave the country voluntarily and 15 await court dates with an immigration judge, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lorie Dankers.
Dankers declined to comment further on the case.
"We're disappointed. We really did think that things would be different under the Obama administration," said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a Seattle-based immigration advocacy group. "It's very mixed signals ... we thought we were getting an administration that was supportive."
Immigration advocates were elated when Obama took office, thinking he'd bring immigrant-friendly enforcement policies. The raid shocked them, and they protested loudly.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano then ordered an internal review of the raid. The workers arrested were given work permits, and the company became the focus of the investigation.
But those who favor strict immigration enforcement saw Napolitano's review as a signal for lax enforcement, and a rebuke to the Bush administration's immigration policy.
For William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, Obama's approach to targeting involved employers is no better than the Bush administration's targeting of those here illegally. Both are incomplete policies, he said.
"I am for the actual enforcement against all parties involved in illegal immigration," Gheen said. "Obama is an arbitrary enforcer, just like Bush, on immigration."
The Obama administration's approach became clearer in the months after the raid: a focus on employers. Hundreds of audit forms were sent out to businesses nationwide, notifying employers to certify that their workers have valid Social Security numbers and other forms of identification proving eligibility to work in the U.S. The administration has also sought to maintain workable enforcement agreements between ICE and local police agencies, and has sought to improve conditions for immigrants detained by the government.
The government's audits of employment status have led to significant job losses. In Los Angeles, American Apparel fired 1,500 workers in September. In Minneapolis, another 1,200 janitors were cut in November.
In order to level charges against employers who hire illegal immigrants, federal prosecutors need the testimony of those workers, and that requires the arrest, confinement and questioning of employees to obtain evidence.
"The most convincing part of that proof comes from illegal aliens," Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Reno said after the Yamato case. "It's going to be just as disruptive to the illegal aliens. That's not going to change."
That new reality doesn't sit well with either side of the immigration debate.
"How could you trust their testimony if you bribed them for it? These people will say anything you want them to say," Gheen said.
"They're saying they're not actively going after the worker, but the workers are a casualty when they have lost their jobs," Jayapal said.
Meanwhile, ICE officials were heartened by some of the response they received to the raid, according to the e-mails obtained by the AP.
Seattle-based Special Agent in Charge Leigh Winchell forwarded an e-mail to his staff from Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, a vocal immigration enforcement advocate, who said Napolitano's call for a review was "backwards."
"I cannot control the politics that take place with these types of situations, but I can remind you that you are great servants of this country and this agency," Winchell wrote to his troops.
Days after the raid, Winchell told his office to convey that ICE is going after the employer, not the workers, according to the e-mails.
The case against Yamato concluded in September with a $100,000 fine being leveled. Members of the immigrant family that owns the company issued a public apology. Yamoto's owners fled Uganda four decades ago when dictator Idi Amin's regime drove out the country's entrepreneurial Indian minority.
Messages left with Yamato management for this story were not returned.
With the case wrapped up, notices of court appearances for the workers began to appear. ICE agents had warned the workers of it.
Gonzalez, who is from Mexico, had entered the country in 1998 at the age of 19, first living in Arizona, where he started his family. He came to Washington seeking a better job, becoming a welder at Yamato, making $10 an hour. For now, a local lawyer is helping him but he knows he could face deportation.
"If I have to go to my country, I have to go to my country," Gonzalez said. "...it'll be a challenge for (my family)."
At Yamato, under a basket of employment applications, a poster now warns that Yamato is a company that uses E-verify – the federal program that checks a worker's eligibility to work in the United States.
http://inform.com/politics/washington-raid-brings-deportations-mixed-signals-766697a
The Associated Press
February 27, 2010
First they were arrested and faced deportation under what has proven to be the Obama administration's only workplace raid. Then they were given work permits, and told they could stay in the United States while their employer was being prosecuted.
Now, the more than two dozen undocumented workers arrested during the February raid here at Yamato Engine Specialists Ltd. are again facing deportation.
"Well, what can you do? You can't run, that'd be worse," Gerardo Arreola Gonzalez, one of the 28 workers arrested, said about the raid. "I had to face it. Yes, I felt fear, thinking, 'The dream is over.'"
Gonzalez's unusual journey through the immigration system symbolizes just how much immigration policy has changed under President Barack Obama – and how it's still a work in progress.
The deportations and likely removals are a conclusion to a case that displeased both advocates for illegal immigrants and those who lobby for stricter immigration enforcement.
In this case, the company, the workers, and even the Seattle U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office that conducted the raid came in for some sort of punishment or special scrutiny.
Two days after the raid, ICE officials traded urgent e-mails going over answers to questions sent by an apparently miffed White House, according to e-mails obtained by the Associated Press through a federal records request.
In all, 28 men and women – mostly from Mexico – were arrested that February morning. One man opted to leave the country shortly after the raid. The 27 who remained were given work permits until the case against Yamato ended.
Now, five of the 27 workers have been deported. Seven have been allowed to leave the country voluntarily and 15 await court dates with an immigration judge, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lorie Dankers.
Dankers declined to comment further on the case.
"We're disappointed. We really did think that things would be different under the Obama administration," said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a Seattle-based immigration advocacy group. "It's very mixed signals ... we thought we were getting an administration that was supportive."
Immigration advocates were elated when Obama took office, thinking he'd bring immigrant-friendly enforcement policies. The raid shocked them, and they protested loudly.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano then ordered an internal review of the raid. The workers arrested were given work permits, and the company became the focus of the investigation.
But those who favor strict immigration enforcement saw Napolitano's review as a signal for lax enforcement, and a rebuke to the Bush administration's immigration policy.
For William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, Obama's approach to targeting involved employers is no better than the Bush administration's targeting of those here illegally. Both are incomplete policies, he said.
"I am for the actual enforcement against all parties involved in illegal immigration," Gheen said. "Obama is an arbitrary enforcer, just like Bush, on immigration."
The Obama administration's approach became clearer in the months after the raid: a focus on employers. Hundreds of audit forms were sent out to businesses nationwide, notifying employers to certify that their workers have valid Social Security numbers and other forms of identification proving eligibility to work in the U.S. The administration has also sought to maintain workable enforcement agreements between ICE and local police agencies, and has sought to improve conditions for immigrants detained by the government.
The government's audits of employment status have led to significant job losses. In Los Angeles, American Apparel fired 1,500 workers in September. In Minneapolis, another 1,200 janitors were cut in November.
In order to level charges against employers who hire illegal immigrants, federal prosecutors need the testimony of those workers, and that requires the arrest, confinement and questioning of employees to obtain evidence.
"The most convincing part of that proof comes from illegal aliens," Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Reno said after the Yamato case. "It's going to be just as disruptive to the illegal aliens. That's not going to change."
That new reality doesn't sit well with either side of the immigration debate.
"How could you trust their testimony if you bribed them for it? These people will say anything you want them to say," Gheen said.
"They're saying they're not actively going after the worker, but the workers are a casualty when they have lost their jobs," Jayapal said.
Meanwhile, ICE officials were heartened by some of the response they received to the raid, according to the e-mails obtained by the AP.
Seattle-based Special Agent in Charge Leigh Winchell forwarded an e-mail to his staff from Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, a vocal immigration enforcement advocate, who said Napolitano's call for a review was "backwards."
"I cannot control the politics that take place with these types of situations, but I can remind you that you are great servants of this country and this agency," Winchell wrote to his troops.
Days after the raid, Winchell told his office to convey that ICE is going after the employer, not the workers, according to the e-mails.
The case against Yamato concluded in September with a $100,000 fine being leveled. Members of the immigrant family that owns the company issued a public apology. Yamoto's owners fled Uganda four decades ago when dictator Idi Amin's regime drove out the country's entrepreneurial Indian minority.
Messages left with Yamato management for this story were not returned.
With the case wrapped up, notices of court appearances for the workers began to appear. ICE agents had warned the workers of it.
Gonzalez, who is from Mexico, had entered the country in 1998 at the age of 19, first living in Arizona, where he started his family. He came to Washington seeking a better job, becoming a welder at Yamato, making $10 an hour. For now, a local lawyer is helping him but he knows he could face deportation.
"If I have to go to my country, I have to go to my country," Gonzalez said. "...it'll be a challenge for (my family)."
At Yamato, under a basket of employment applications, a poster now warns that Yamato is a company that uses E-verify – the federal program that checks a worker's eligibility to work in the United States.
http://inform.com/politics/washington-raid-brings-deportations-mixed-signals-766697a
Monday, February 22, 2010
After the Raid: Bellingham Immigration Raid Highlights Change In Obama Policy
By Liz Jones
KUOW News
February 22, 2010
What's turned out to be the only worksite immigration raid under Obama's watch happened in Bellingham, Washington. A year has passed since then, but effects of this raid still linger in the community. Federal officials say the goal of this type of raid is to make employers comply with the law. But what other consequences do raids have on the community, employers and workers? KUOW's Liz Jones went to Bellingham to find out, and to examine how federal immigration enforcement has shifted under the new administration.
Yamato Engine Specialists occupies a sprawling warehouse, on the outskirts of Bellingham. It's a family–owned and operated business that remanufactures car engines.
Dhanani: "Our specialty is imports, but we do domestics too. A lot of them."
Shirin Dhanani works here with her parents, her two brothers and about 120 other employees. One of her brothers flashes an uneasy look as we pass by. Since federal immigration agents raided the company last year, they've tried to move past the bad publicity.
Dhanani: "Oh it's been difficult, extremely difficult. Your reputation, your credibility, your confidence. It's been tough with banks. It's been tough with customers."
The raid last February was the second time federal immigration officials investigated Yamato. An investigation in 2005 ended with the company quietly dismissing several undocumented workers.
This time, things weren't so quiet.
Dhanani: "When I got here there were cars everywhere, ice agents everywhere. Everybody was gathered in the lunchroom and then they were going through people's paperwork. And then they took them on the busses with chains and I asked why the women had to go. I was pretty verbal. I was very, very upset because these are people that work for me."
In the end, agents arrested 28 workers and two Yamato corporate directors.
Before the raid, Dhanani and her family cooperated with federal officials for several months. If someone had slipped through the hiring process using fake papers she wanted to know about it. Dhanani figured officials would give her a list of employees to terminate whose documents didn't check out, like the time before.
Then, the agent working with Dhanani told her they'd found several undocumented workers at Yamato; some who were possibly gang members. After that, the strategy seemed to shift.
Dhanani: "There was some discussion about coming and taking them away, and I went well, you would do that? Just come here and take them away? And he said, yeah, that's how it's normally done."
Raids are how it was normally done before, but not so much under Obama.
In the 2008 fiscal year, agents with Immigration Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrested more than 6,000 people during workplace raids. Last year that number was about 2,000. Almost two–thirds lower than the year before.
Matt Chandler is a spokesman with the Department of Homeland Security, in Washington D.C. He acknowledges the government's tactics have shifted away from military style raids where workers are rounded up and put in detention centers.
Instead, more emphasis is now on I–9 audits, which require businesses to verify employee social security numbers and other documents. Undocumented workers are then dismissed. Chandler says employers can also face civil fines or criminal charges.
Chandler: "We feel that by focusing on employers who are knowingly hiring illegal workers, we can begin to target the cycle that is a draw for illegal immigration in the first place. So we are focused currently on building strong cases against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers and go around the tenets of our law to get ahead unfairly."
But raids are still an option.
Chandler: "When you're saying raid, yes, we may still enter the workplace, but the objective is to go after the employer, not to go after the employees."
In 2009, ICE tripled the number I–9 audits across the country, compared the year before. That includes a few dozen audits in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In December, a fruit grower in Eastern Washington reportedly laid off hundreds of workers in response to an audit.
Back in Bellingham, immigration advocate Rosalina Guillen says audits and raids both have the same negative outcomes. Employers become more fearful about who they hire, and workers lose jobs. That unemployment can put extra strain on community services.
Guillen: "For a lot of social service agencies, it is overwhelming. I know many times for us we feel it's overwhelming. The need is overwhelming because you're not just talking adult males, you're talking entire families with children that are in our schools."
Guillen heads an organization called Community to Community Development. It helped support several families affected by the Yamato raid. Many families have since left the community, while other workers are still waiting for court hearings about their immigration status.
Reporter: "Honestly, what do you think happens to these workers down the road. They don't have jobs. They don't have documents to get jobs. Do they go home?"
Guillen: "I think a lot of them do go home, or just continue to move around. It creates a transient community in the United States."
As for workplace enforcement, Guillan admits the audits are more humane than the raids. But she did see one positive outcome from the raid. It seemed to renew community efforts to fight for comprehensive immigration reform, one that would provide a path to legalization for undocumented workers.
On the other side of the debate, many who favor tougher immigration laws are unsatisfied with Obama's approach so far.
William Gheen heads the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC.
Gheen: "We want comprehensive immigration enforcement. We want the raids. We want the I–9 forms checked. We want employers that hire illegal immigrants fined. And we want the border secured and our local police enforcing immigration law."
That's an agenda Gheen thinks President Bush also failed to enforce. But he rates Obama worse, because he's halted the workplace raids.
At Yamato, the machines are still running but the business has downsized. The cuts were planned before the raid, though that added another big setback.
The case cost them about $100,000 in fines, plus 500,000 in attorney fees and steep losses in productivity and business. Some think Yamato got off easy. But Dhanani believes they paid a high price for the government to make a point.
Dhanani: "What was the point of the government? They wanted to pull us out of business? They wanted to shut us down? What was the agenda? The agenda was to make a point that employers should follow the letter of the law. And this is what happens if you don't."
Dhanani says Yamato pled guilty to the charges, because the investigation uncovered that an HR employee did know some workers were undocumented.
Dhanani now personally handles HR for Yamato. And the company has enrolled in E–verify, a federal program that checks workers' documentation.
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=19492
KUOW News
February 22, 2010
What's turned out to be the only worksite immigration raid under Obama's watch happened in Bellingham, Washington. A year has passed since then, but effects of this raid still linger in the community. Federal officials say the goal of this type of raid is to make employers comply with the law. But what other consequences do raids have on the community, employers and workers? KUOW's Liz Jones went to Bellingham to find out, and to examine how federal immigration enforcement has shifted under the new administration.
Yamato Engine Specialists occupies a sprawling warehouse, on the outskirts of Bellingham. It's a family–owned and operated business that remanufactures car engines.
Dhanani: "Our specialty is imports, but we do domestics too. A lot of them."
Shirin Dhanani works here with her parents, her two brothers and about 120 other employees. One of her brothers flashes an uneasy look as we pass by. Since federal immigration agents raided the company last year, they've tried to move past the bad publicity.
Dhanani: "Oh it's been difficult, extremely difficult. Your reputation, your credibility, your confidence. It's been tough with banks. It's been tough with customers."
The raid last February was the second time federal immigration officials investigated Yamato. An investigation in 2005 ended with the company quietly dismissing several undocumented workers.
This time, things weren't so quiet.
Dhanani: "When I got here there were cars everywhere, ice agents everywhere. Everybody was gathered in the lunchroom and then they were going through people's paperwork. And then they took them on the busses with chains and I asked why the women had to go. I was pretty verbal. I was very, very upset because these are people that work for me."
In the end, agents arrested 28 workers and two Yamato corporate directors.
Before the raid, Dhanani and her family cooperated with federal officials for several months. If someone had slipped through the hiring process using fake papers she wanted to know about it. Dhanani figured officials would give her a list of employees to terminate whose documents didn't check out, like the time before.
Then, the agent working with Dhanani told her they'd found several undocumented workers at Yamato; some who were possibly gang members. After that, the strategy seemed to shift.
Dhanani: "There was some discussion about coming and taking them away, and I went well, you would do that? Just come here and take them away? And he said, yeah, that's how it's normally done."
Raids are how it was normally done before, but not so much under Obama.
In the 2008 fiscal year, agents with Immigration Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrested more than 6,000 people during workplace raids. Last year that number was about 2,000. Almost two–thirds lower than the year before.
Matt Chandler is a spokesman with the Department of Homeland Security, in Washington D.C. He acknowledges the government's tactics have shifted away from military style raids where workers are rounded up and put in detention centers.
Instead, more emphasis is now on I–9 audits, which require businesses to verify employee social security numbers and other documents. Undocumented workers are then dismissed. Chandler says employers can also face civil fines or criminal charges.
Chandler: "We feel that by focusing on employers who are knowingly hiring illegal workers, we can begin to target the cycle that is a draw for illegal immigration in the first place. So we are focused currently on building strong cases against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers and go around the tenets of our law to get ahead unfairly."
But raids are still an option.
Chandler: "When you're saying raid, yes, we may still enter the workplace, but the objective is to go after the employer, not to go after the employees."
In 2009, ICE tripled the number I–9 audits across the country, compared the year before. That includes a few dozen audits in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In December, a fruit grower in Eastern Washington reportedly laid off hundreds of workers in response to an audit.
Back in Bellingham, immigration advocate Rosalina Guillen says audits and raids both have the same negative outcomes. Employers become more fearful about who they hire, and workers lose jobs. That unemployment can put extra strain on community services.
Guillen: "For a lot of social service agencies, it is overwhelming. I know many times for us we feel it's overwhelming. The need is overwhelming because you're not just talking adult males, you're talking entire families with children that are in our schools."
Guillen heads an organization called Community to Community Development. It helped support several families affected by the Yamato raid. Many families have since left the community, while other workers are still waiting for court hearings about their immigration status.
Reporter: "Honestly, what do you think happens to these workers down the road. They don't have jobs. They don't have documents to get jobs. Do they go home?"
Guillen: "I think a lot of them do go home, or just continue to move around. It creates a transient community in the United States."
As for workplace enforcement, Guillan admits the audits are more humane than the raids. But she did see one positive outcome from the raid. It seemed to renew community efforts to fight for comprehensive immigration reform, one that would provide a path to legalization for undocumented workers.
On the other side of the debate, many who favor tougher immigration laws are unsatisfied with Obama's approach so far.
William Gheen heads the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC.
Gheen: "We want comprehensive immigration enforcement. We want the raids. We want the I–9 forms checked. We want employers that hire illegal immigrants fined. And we want the border secured and our local police enforcing immigration law."
That's an agenda Gheen thinks President Bush also failed to enforce. But he rates Obama worse, because he's halted the workplace raids.
At Yamato, the machines are still running but the business has downsized. The cuts were planned before the raid, though that added another big setback.
The case cost them about $100,000 in fines, plus 500,000 in attorney fees and steep losses in productivity and business. Some think Yamato got off easy. But Dhanani believes they paid a high price for the government to make a point.
Dhanani: "What was the point of the government? They wanted to pull us out of business? They wanted to shut us down? What was the agenda? The agenda was to make a point that employers should follow the letter of the law. And this is what happens if you don't."
Dhanani says Yamato pled guilty to the charges, because the investigation uncovered that an HR employee did know some workers were undocumented.
Dhanani now personally handles HR for Yamato. And the company has enrolled in E–verify, a federal program that checks workers' documentation.
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=19492
Friday, April 17, 2009
Illegal immigrants detained, then freed to work
CNN
April 17, 2009
BELLINGHAM, Washington (CNN) -- After 11 years of living illegally in the United States, it was not until Gerardo Arreola Gonzalez was nearly deported that he finally received permission to work here.
Arreola was one of 28 illegal immigrant workers arrested in February after agents from U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement raided a car engine repair business.
According to the immigrants, a small army of federal agents surrounded Yamato Engine Specialists in Bellingham Washington, and began searching for workers who could not show they had authorization to work in the United States.
"My blood ran cold," Arreola said in Spanish. "We went to the back door, but they were waiting for us. There was a bus already there, and they put us on it."
As he was being taken to an immigration detention center, Arreola said he thought of his wife and the five children they have had while living here and who are U.S. citizens by birth. He expected to be deported back to Mexico, Arreola said, and he was doubtful about when he would see his family again.
"I would have been there and they would have been here," he said. "I would have had to come back. I couldn't take them there. My children don't know anything about Mexico. They go to school here."
Typically, cases like Arreola's end in deportation. According to ICE, some 5,173 people were arrested last year in similar worksite raids.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/17/immigration.raid/?iref=mpstoryview
April 17, 2009
BELLINGHAM, Washington (CNN) -- After 11 years of living illegally in the United States, it was not until Gerardo Arreola Gonzalez was nearly deported that he finally received permission to work here.
Arreola was one of 28 illegal immigrant workers arrested in February after agents from U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement raided a car engine repair business.
According to the immigrants, a small army of federal agents surrounded Yamato Engine Specialists in Bellingham Washington, and began searching for workers who could not show they had authorization to work in the United States.
"My blood ran cold," Arreola said in Spanish. "We went to the back door, but they were waiting for us. There was a bus already there, and they put us on it."
As he was being taken to an immigration detention center, Arreola said he thought of his wife and the five children they have had while living here and who are U.S. citizens by birth. He expected to be deported back to Mexico, Arreola said, and he was doubtful about when he would see his family again.
"I would have been there and they would have been here," he said. "I would have had to come back. I couldn't take them there. My children don't know anything about Mexico. They go to school here."
Typically, cases like Arreola's end in deportation. According to ICE, some 5,173 people were arrested last year in similar worksite raids.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/17/immigration.raid/?iref=mpstoryview
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Undocumented students fear deportation
By Selah Prather
Friday, April 10, 2009
Western Front (Student Newspaper)
Western Washington University
Being a college student can be mentally stressful and financially challenging. But imagine being a college student who is ineligible to receive financial aid, apply for loans or even get a job in the United States.
Tom Nerini, director of Western’s Student Outreach Center, said many immigrant Western students who do not have the proper documentation necessary to become legal residents often encounter similar problems.
“There are approximately 25 to 30 undocumented students on Western’s campus who face difficult issues, such as fear of deportation, ability to pay for college and whether or not they will be able to get a job once they graduate,” Nerini said.
Currently, no federal or state laws prohibit undocumented immigrants from being admitted to U.S. colleges or universities. Furthermore, U.S. law does not mandate proof of citizenship in order to be accepted to a higher education institution. Although, according to the College Board Web site, a non-profit organization that facilitates college success and opportunities for students individual institutions can create their own policies.
On Feb. 24, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided Yamato Engine Specialists, a local business. According to the ICE Web site, 28 undocumented immigrant employees were arrested and taken to Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma where they awaited deportation. Since then, most of the detainees have been released, with at least one immigrant who has been deported.
Nerini said the recent ICE raid has increased the fear level of undocumented students on campus. He said he began studying issues surrounding undocumented immigrants in 2005 while working on a thesis for his doctorate in education.
“[Undocumented students are] really nervous about going out or doing anything,” Nerini said. “I’ve gotten e-mails and calls from students wondering if they should be worried.”
Nerini said many immigrants flee from countries such as Mexico for economic and safety concerns. Alex, a Western senior and undocumented student whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is no exception.
“We come here to get a better life because we know that back at home we don’t have anything. I mean, we’re freaking dying from hunger,” Alex said. “So it doesn’t matter what it takes, just as long as we get food in our system.”
Two years ago, Alex’s worst fears became a reality. He was at the Fairhaven Greyhound station waiting to catch a bus to Seattle, when a Border Patrol agent overheard Alex speaking Spanish on his cell phone and asked where he was from. Alex told the agent he was from Mexico, and when he could not provide proper documentation, he was taken into custody and eventually deported to Mexico. Remarkably, Alex made his way back to the U.S.
“It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me,” Alex said.
Supervisory Border Patrol agent Mike Bermudez said agents often patrol airports, bus stations and other transportation hubs.
Bermudez said these places are where individuals who have violated U.S. laws usually can be found.
Bermudez said Border Patrol Agents do not racially profile. However, Bermudez said agents are allowed to strike up a conversation with any person they choose. If that person volunteers any information regarding his or her country of origin, it provides agents legal grounds to demand documentation of legal U.S. residency or citizenship.
Nerini said Western needs to take a closer look at its policy regarding hardship withdrawals, which allow students to withdraw from a class due to unforeseen illness or personal emergency, for students affected by deportation issues and whether the university would allow ICE to come on campus.
“As it stands now, if ICE comes to campus they have the power to investigate anyone,” Nerini said.
University Police Chief Randy Stegmeier said his department has not had to deal with any issues regarding undocumented students so far.
“We have not detained any [undocumented students] or referred any to other agencies,” Stegmeier said.
Stegmeier said Western police officers have the ability to report anyone who may have questionable identification to custom agencies. However, he said officers are mainly concerned about protecting students, regardless of their legal status.
“We want anyone to feel that if they are a victim of a crime, or if they are in danger, they could come to us for assistance without worrying whether or not we would question their status,” Stegmeier said.
Western junior Abraham Rodriguez is co-chair of Western’s chapter of El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan (M.E.C.H.A.), a national organization dedicated to confronting educational and social justice issues facing Latino, Chicano and Mexican Americans.
“We are currently focusing on supporting minority high school students who want to enter college and educating people about the Dream Act and how it benefits immigrants,” Rodriguez said.
According to the National Immigration Law Center Web site, the Dream Act, which has presidential support, would grant permanent resident status to certain immigrants who came to the U.S. before the age of 16 and at least five years before the Dream Act passed.
However, the Dream Act is riddled with restrictions. For instance, undocumented immigrants would be required to graduate from a U.S. high school or obtain a GED and have no criminal record to be eligible for permanent residency.
During the first six years of the process, applicants would be granted conditional permanent resident status, giving them the ability to live and work freely in the U.S. without fear of being deported.
Within that time, they would be required to obtain a two-year college degree, serve in the military for two years or perform at least 910 hours of community service. After the 6-year conditional period, eligible immigrants would be granted permanent resident status.
“[The Dream Act] is the most likely and best case scenario,” Nerini said. “But even with the Dream Act, [immigrants] still aren’t eligible for financial aid. They can get loans but they still can’t get gift aid like the Pell grants.”
Although U.S. colleges can admit undocumented students, it is difficult for colleges to provide these students with protection from potential deportation once they are on campus.
Paul Cocke, director of Western’s communication and relations department, said Western abides by all state and federal regulations, including the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA). This act states that if any person or federal agents come to campus seeking information regarding a particular student, they can only obtain directory information, unless particular students have “opted out” of making their directory information available.
According to the FERPA, directory information consists of a student’s name, telephone number, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, participation in sports activities and the most recent educational institution attended.
“If someone contacts us with a subpoena, we have to abide by it,” Cocke said. “It’s really a question of law.”
ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said ICE does not have a particular policy regarding raiding colleges for undocumented students. Donkers said she is not aware of any college raids in the Northwest.
“We have the authority to enforce the law anywhere at any time,” Dankers said. “But we enforce the law at the appropriate time and the appropriate place."
http://westernfrontonline.net/2009041010853/news/undocumented-students-fear-deportation/
Friday, April 10, 2009
Western Front (Student Newspaper)
Western Washington University
Being a college student can be mentally stressful and financially challenging. But imagine being a college student who is ineligible to receive financial aid, apply for loans or even get a job in the United States.
Tom Nerini, director of Western’s Student Outreach Center, said many immigrant Western students who do not have the proper documentation necessary to become legal residents often encounter similar problems.
“There are approximately 25 to 30 undocumented students on Western’s campus who face difficult issues, such as fear of deportation, ability to pay for college and whether or not they will be able to get a job once they graduate,” Nerini said.
Currently, no federal or state laws prohibit undocumented immigrants from being admitted to U.S. colleges or universities. Furthermore, U.S. law does not mandate proof of citizenship in order to be accepted to a higher education institution. Although, according to the College Board Web site, a non-profit organization that facilitates college success and opportunities for students individual institutions can create their own policies.
On Feb. 24, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers raided Yamato Engine Specialists, a local business. According to the ICE Web site, 28 undocumented immigrant employees were arrested and taken to Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma where they awaited deportation. Since then, most of the detainees have been released, with at least one immigrant who has been deported.
Nerini said the recent ICE raid has increased the fear level of undocumented students on campus. He said he began studying issues surrounding undocumented immigrants in 2005 while working on a thesis for his doctorate in education.
“[Undocumented students are] really nervous about going out or doing anything,” Nerini said. “I’ve gotten e-mails and calls from students wondering if they should be worried.”
Nerini said many immigrants flee from countries such as Mexico for economic and safety concerns. Alex, a Western senior and undocumented student whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is no exception.
“We come here to get a better life because we know that back at home we don’t have anything. I mean, we’re freaking dying from hunger,” Alex said. “So it doesn’t matter what it takes, just as long as we get food in our system.”
Two years ago, Alex’s worst fears became a reality. He was at the Fairhaven Greyhound station waiting to catch a bus to Seattle, when a Border Patrol agent overheard Alex speaking Spanish on his cell phone and asked where he was from. Alex told the agent he was from Mexico, and when he could not provide proper documentation, he was taken into custody and eventually deported to Mexico. Remarkably, Alex made his way back to the U.S.
“It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me,” Alex said.
Supervisory Border Patrol agent Mike Bermudez said agents often patrol airports, bus stations and other transportation hubs.
Bermudez said these places are where individuals who have violated U.S. laws usually can be found.
Bermudez said Border Patrol Agents do not racially profile. However, Bermudez said agents are allowed to strike up a conversation with any person they choose. If that person volunteers any information regarding his or her country of origin, it provides agents legal grounds to demand documentation of legal U.S. residency or citizenship.
Nerini said Western needs to take a closer look at its policy regarding hardship withdrawals, which allow students to withdraw from a class due to unforeseen illness or personal emergency, for students affected by deportation issues and whether the university would allow ICE to come on campus.
“As it stands now, if ICE comes to campus they have the power to investigate anyone,” Nerini said.
University Police Chief Randy Stegmeier said his department has not had to deal with any issues regarding undocumented students so far.
“We have not detained any [undocumented students] or referred any to other agencies,” Stegmeier said.
Stegmeier said Western police officers have the ability to report anyone who may have questionable identification to custom agencies. However, he said officers are mainly concerned about protecting students, regardless of their legal status.
“We want anyone to feel that if they are a victim of a crime, or if they are in danger, they could come to us for assistance without worrying whether or not we would question their status,” Stegmeier said.
Western junior Abraham Rodriguez is co-chair of Western’s chapter of El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan (M.E.C.H.A.), a national organization dedicated to confronting educational and social justice issues facing Latino, Chicano and Mexican Americans.
“We are currently focusing on supporting minority high school students who want to enter college and educating people about the Dream Act and how it benefits immigrants,” Rodriguez said.
According to the National Immigration Law Center Web site, the Dream Act, which has presidential support, would grant permanent resident status to certain immigrants who came to the U.S. before the age of 16 and at least five years before the Dream Act passed.
However, the Dream Act is riddled with restrictions. For instance, undocumented immigrants would be required to graduate from a U.S. high school or obtain a GED and have no criminal record to be eligible for permanent residency.
During the first six years of the process, applicants would be granted conditional permanent resident status, giving them the ability to live and work freely in the U.S. without fear of being deported.
Within that time, they would be required to obtain a two-year college degree, serve in the military for two years or perform at least 910 hours of community service. After the 6-year conditional period, eligible immigrants would be granted permanent resident status.
“[The Dream Act] is the most likely and best case scenario,” Nerini said. “But even with the Dream Act, [immigrants] still aren’t eligible for financial aid. They can get loans but they still can’t get gift aid like the Pell grants.”
Although U.S. colleges can admit undocumented students, it is difficult for colleges to provide these students with protection from potential deportation once they are on campus.
Paul Cocke, director of Western’s communication and relations department, said Western abides by all state and federal regulations, including the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA). This act states that if any person or federal agents come to campus seeking information regarding a particular student, they can only obtain directory information, unless particular students have “opted out” of making their directory information available.
According to the FERPA, directory information consists of a student’s name, telephone number, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, participation in sports activities and the most recent educational institution attended.
“If someone contacts us with a subpoena, we have to abide by it,” Cocke said. “It’s really a question of law.”
ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said ICE does not have a particular policy regarding raiding colleges for undocumented students. Donkers said she is not aware of any college raids in the Northwest.
“We have the authority to enforce the law anywhere at any time,” Dankers said. “But we enforce the law at the appropriate time and the appropriate place."
http://westernfrontonline.net/2009041010853/news/undocumented-students-fear-deportation/
Monday, April 6, 2009
Employers May Face More Immigration Scrutiny
Employers May Face More Immigration Scrutiny
by Martin Kaste
National Public Radio
All Things Considered, April 3, 2009 · The Obama administration's approach to immigration enforcement is still something of a mystery. The Department of Homeland Security is issuing new guidelines for field agents on how to deal with illegal immigrants in the workforce, and so far, those guidelines are being kept secret. But a recent incident in Washington state may provide some clues.
On Feb. 24, when armed immigration agents raided Yamato Engine Specialists, a small company that rebuilds car engines in Bellingham, Wash., 28 workers were led away in handcuffs. They were illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico, and they faced quick deportation. It was the first big immigration raid under President Obama, and it came as a shock to many in the Hispanic community.
On Spanish radio, shock quickly turned to anger. "Let's give the Obama administration one month to stop all this," warns one caller, "otherwise, the Democratic Party and Obama will suffer the consequences!"
But the White House seemed almost as surprised by the raid as the workers. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told Congress she hadn't known about the raid ahead of time, and she ordered a review of it.
Now, one month later, 27 of the 28 workers have been released. One of them — Luis Ramos — says he can't get over how nice the immigration agents have become.
"They treat us wonderfully," Ramos says. "They even say, 'do you want a soda from the machine?'"
The government is offering them temporary work permits, and immigration agents are even giving the Mexicans free rides to Seattle to file the paperwork. Now the anger at Obama is coming from the other side of the immigration debate.
"Not only is this immigration non-enforcement that's going on, he is providing a policy amnesty for illegal aliens that is not supported by the American public and that has not been passed by Congress," says William Gheen, who represents a group called Americans for Legal Immigration.
The Obama administration isn't saying what the policy is yet — officially, it's still under review. But during the campaign, Obama said he'd like to shift the enforcement emphasis to the employers, and that philosophy now seems to be on display at Yamato Engine Specialists.
Raiding, This Time, For Data
On Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came back, but this time, it wasn't after workers — the blue-jacketed immigration officials had a warrant to search the company's files. They set up special gear to copy the contents of Yamato's computers, and company manager Shirin Makalai watched the process with an air of strained cordiality.
But moving out into Yamato Engine's production floor, Makalai could barely contain her frustration.
"You know, I don't want to say and antagonize the investigation and put us in a worse situation — it's just — it seems there's a very big picture here, and we're in the middle of it," Makalai says.
If the administration is trying to make an example of companies like Yamato, it has its work cut out. Deporting workers is relatively easy; making a criminal case against an employer is harder. Current law makes it relatively easy for managers to claim they didn't know their employees were illegal, so investigators may start looking for other kinds of offenses.
Edgar Rebollar, one of the released Mexicans, says the agents have been questioning him about all aspects of their experience at Yamato.
"They asked us if there was racism," he says, "or if they paid some people more than others." Questions like that suggest the government might go beyond immigration violations and try to prosecute Yamato under labor laws.
Rebollar says he thinks Yamato treated him well, but he and his colleagues say they'll provide the government with evidence, if necessary. They have good reason to cooperate. Their work permits are valid only as long as there's a case against Yamato. Once they're no longer useful to investigators, they again face deportation.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102723012
by Martin Kaste
National Public Radio
All Things Considered, April 3, 2009 · The Obama administration's approach to immigration enforcement is still something of a mystery. The Department of Homeland Security is issuing new guidelines for field agents on how to deal with illegal immigrants in the workforce, and so far, those guidelines are being kept secret. But a recent incident in Washington state may provide some clues.
On Feb. 24, when armed immigration agents raided Yamato Engine Specialists, a small company that rebuilds car engines in Bellingham, Wash., 28 workers were led away in handcuffs. They were illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico, and they faced quick deportation. It was the first big immigration raid under President Obama, and it came as a shock to many in the Hispanic community.
On Spanish radio, shock quickly turned to anger. "Let's give the Obama administration one month to stop all this," warns one caller, "otherwise, the Democratic Party and Obama will suffer the consequences!"
But the White House seemed almost as surprised by the raid as the workers. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told Congress she hadn't known about the raid ahead of time, and she ordered a review of it.
Now, one month later, 27 of the 28 workers have been released. One of them — Luis Ramos — says he can't get over how nice the immigration agents have become.
"They treat us wonderfully," Ramos says. "They even say, 'do you want a soda from the machine?'"
The government is offering them temporary work permits, and immigration agents are even giving the Mexicans free rides to Seattle to file the paperwork. Now the anger at Obama is coming from the other side of the immigration debate.
"Not only is this immigration non-enforcement that's going on, he is providing a policy amnesty for illegal aliens that is not supported by the American public and that has not been passed by Congress," says William Gheen, who represents a group called Americans for Legal Immigration.
The Obama administration isn't saying what the policy is yet — officially, it's still under review. But during the campaign, Obama said he'd like to shift the enforcement emphasis to the employers, and that philosophy now seems to be on display at Yamato Engine Specialists.
Raiding, This Time, For Data
On Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came back, but this time, it wasn't after workers — the blue-jacketed immigration officials had a warrant to search the company's files. They set up special gear to copy the contents of Yamato's computers, and company manager Shirin Makalai watched the process with an air of strained cordiality.
But moving out into Yamato Engine's production floor, Makalai could barely contain her frustration.
"You know, I don't want to say and antagonize the investigation and put us in a worse situation — it's just — it seems there's a very big picture here, and we're in the middle of it," Makalai says.
If the administration is trying to make an example of companies like Yamato, it has its work cut out. Deporting workers is relatively easy; making a criminal case against an employer is harder. Current law makes it relatively easy for managers to claim they didn't know their employees were illegal, so investigators may start looking for other kinds of offenses.
Edgar Rebollar, one of the released Mexicans, says the agents have been questioning him about all aspects of their experience at Yamato.
"They asked us if there was racism," he says, "or if they paid some people more than others." Questions like that suggest the government might go beyond immigration violations and try to prosecute Yamato under labor laws.
Rebollar says he thinks Yamato treated him well, but he and his colleagues say they'll provide the government with evidence, if necessary. They have good reason to cooperate. Their work permits are valid only as long as there's a case against Yamato. Once they're no longer useful to investigators, they again face deportation.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102723012
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Claims dismissed in Worthington immigration raid
Claims dismissed in Worthington immigration raid
Associated Press
March 31, 2009
A federal judge has dismissed all claims against the Department of Homeland Security over an immigration raid at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Worthington.
The U.S. attorney's office says Judge Joan Ericksen dismissed the claims last Friday.
The lawsuit was filed by 10 people who claimed their constitutional rights were violated during the Dec. 12, 2006, enforcement action dubbed Operation Wagon Train. The raid followed a 10-month investigation into the alleged use and distribution of fraudulent identity documents by Swift employees in six states.
Immigration agents arrested 239 people on immigration violations in Worthington, out of a total of more than 1,200. Twenty of them were also charged with identity theft or related counts.
Ericksen ruled that the government's search warrant established a sufficient basis for questioning the workers about their citizenship, and that the agents were entitled to detain people who were present there.
http://www.startribune.com/local/42243397.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUZ
Associated Press
March 31, 2009
A federal judge has dismissed all claims against the Department of Homeland Security over an immigration raid at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Worthington.
The U.S. attorney's office says Judge Joan Ericksen dismissed the claims last Friday.
The lawsuit was filed by 10 people who claimed their constitutional rights were violated during the Dec. 12, 2006, enforcement action dubbed Operation Wagon Train. The raid followed a 10-month investigation into the alleged use and distribution of fraudulent identity documents by Swift employees in six states.
Immigration agents arrested 239 people on immigration violations in Worthington, out of a total of more than 1,200. Twenty of them were also charged with identity theft or related counts.
Ericksen ruled that the government's search warrant established a sufficient basis for questioning the workers about their citizenship, and that the agents were entitled to detain people who were present there.
http://www.startribune.com/local/42243397.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUZ
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Un-American
Political officials, human rights advocates and others have plenty to say about immigration and the Northwest Detention Center, but most of it doesn't make any sense.
Mar 26, 2009
By Paul Schrag
The Weekly Volcano
Immigration policy in America is downright un-American. And confusing. Not just for people who come to America seeking asylum, work, or opportunity. For everybody. People arriving in America with hopes of becoming citizens face a dire challenge, say local immigrant rights advocates such as Colleen Waterhouse, who volunteers with legal advocacy group Court Watch.
“It’s an incredibly complicated process,” says Waterhouse. “Most people who were born here couldn’t pass the citizenship test.”
To put this all in perspective, imagine Emma Lazarus writing an update to The New Colossus, an almost universally recognized verse, part of which adorns the Statue of Liberty. You know, the simple verse about arriving in America when it was a haven for people from other countries.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I will lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
That is, if they can get past the gunboats, border checkpoints, government contracted, gun-toting hillbillies in pickup trucks, random highway stops, aerial surveillance, and electric fences. Also, prepare the tired and poor to wade through a complex and varied series of applications if they want to be allowed to stay. The application process can take years to complete in many cases. That is, if there are any applications available. America has only so much room these days. Also, try and quell their fears about being imprisoned and exiled if their applications aren’t approved.
Some may be welcomed if they have a particular professional background or large amounts of money to invest.
Less-skilled workers might be allowed to enter temporarily if labor markets are short on less-skilled workers, but they should know that they’ll be booted out once they’re no longer needed.
For those seeking political asylum, we may not have room. Tell them to go ahead and try, but also tell them that the likelihood of being sent back to a country where they face execution, torture and/or death is significant.
For those who think they can just show up, think again. America now spends billions of dollars per year hunting down immigrants who slip through the net of security that chokes our borders.
For those who are desperate, the U.S. labor market will probably find some use for them. If they can find work, they can join the undocumented droves that collectively contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and its tax base. Tell them that the construction, manufacturing and restaurant industries will probably make good use of them — documented or not. America needs to keep those labor costs down. Profit margins are shrinking. But you should probably warn them that at any moment their doors could be kicked in and they could be dragged away with black bags over their heads.
Honestly, huddled masses, it’s a crapshoot at best. The lamp went out. The golden door is now only slightly ajar. Welcome to America anyway.
That’s right. We’re going to talk about immigration some more. Apparently the private prison on the Tacoma Tideflats is still there. The Northwest Detention Center, currently expanding to make room for another 500 prisoners, opened the thousand-bed version in 2004 with strong support from city of Tacoma officials. It’s a way station for undocumented immigrants from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and other states. The facility is one of hundreds, and its owners are cashing in on a federal effort called Operation End Game, which aims to deport all undocumented immigrants from the United States by 2012. It’s part of one of the largest police operations in U.S. history.
http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/2009-03-26/cover/3583/
Mar 26, 2009
By Paul Schrag
The Weekly Volcano
Immigration policy in America is downright un-American. And confusing. Not just for people who come to America seeking asylum, work, or opportunity. For everybody. People arriving in America with hopes of becoming citizens face a dire challenge, say local immigrant rights advocates such as Colleen Waterhouse, who volunteers with legal advocacy group Court Watch.
“It’s an incredibly complicated process,” says Waterhouse. “Most people who were born here couldn’t pass the citizenship test.”
To put this all in perspective, imagine Emma Lazarus writing an update to The New Colossus, an almost universally recognized verse, part of which adorns the Statue of Liberty. You know, the simple verse about arriving in America when it was a haven for people from other countries.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I will lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
That is, if they can get past the gunboats, border checkpoints, government contracted, gun-toting hillbillies in pickup trucks, random highway stops, aerial surveillance, and electric fences. Also, prepare the tired and poor to wade through a complex and varied series of applications if they want to be allowed to stay. The application process can take years to complete in many cases. That is, if there are any applications available. America has only so much room these days. Also, try and quell their fears about being imprisoned and exiled if their applications aren’t approved.
Some may be welcomed if they have a particular professional background or large amounts of money to invest.
Less-skilled workers might be allowed to enter temporarily if labor markets are short on less-skilled workers, but they should know that they’ll be booted out once they’re no longer needed.
For those seeking political asylum, we may not have room. Tell them to go ahead and try, but also tell them that the likelihood of being sent back to a country where they face execution, torture and/or death is significant.
For those who think they can just show up, think again. America now spends billions of dollars per year hunting down immigrants who slip through the net of security that chokes our borders.
For those who are desperate, the U.S. labor market will probably find some use for them. If they can find work, they can join the undocumented droves that collectively contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and its tax base. Tell them that the construction, manufacturing and restaurant industries will probably make good use of them — documented or not. America needs to keep those labor costs down. Profit margins are shrinking. But you should probably warn them that at any moment their doors could be kicked in and they could be dragged away with black bags over their heads.
Honestly, huddled masses, it’s a crapshoot at best. The lamp went out. The golden door is now only slightly ajar. Welcome to America anyway.
That’s right. We’re going to talk about immigration some more. Apparently the private prison on the Tacoma Tideflats is still there. The Northwest Detention Center, currently expanding to make room for another 500 prisoners, opened the thousand-bed version in 2004 with strong support from city of Tacoma officials. It’s a way station for undocumented immigrants from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and other states. The facility is one of hundreds, and its owners are cashing in on a federal effort called Operation End Game, which aims to deport all undocumented immigrants from the United States by 2012. It’s part of one of the largest police operations in U.S. history.
http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/2009-03-26/cover/3583/
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Language, laws a challenge for indigenous migrants
Language, laws a challenge for indigenous migrants
MANUEL VALDES, Associated Press
March 13, 2009
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) - When immigration agents arrested 16 farmworkers in a mass arrest of illegal immigrants early this year, legal advocates raced to find interpreters for the men, who spoke only a language called Mixtec.
But by the time an interpreter was found, most of the men were on their way out of the country after signing away their rights to contest deportation - a procedure they might not have understood.
The deportations alarmed immigrant advocates in this agricultural city 60 miles north of Seattle. It also raised questions about the deportation proceedings for people who speak little Spanish or English.
"There is no way they knew what they were signing. No way," said Rev. Jo Beecher of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Mount Vernon, one of the advocates who tried to help the men.
Although federal courts have ruled that immigration proceedings must be translated into the language of the detainee, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no interpreters in the area who speak Mixtec - a tonal language with several dialects - Beecher said.
The case of the Mount Vernon men also highlights some of the clashes that are becoming more common as the growing community of indigenous peoples from Latin America meets the American legal system.
Indigenous peoples are the direct descendants of the inhabitants who lived in the region before colonial times. They have a distinct culture, languages and history than those of their Latino counterparts.
Some observers believe the migration of indigenous Latin Americans to the U.S. is increasing even as the flow of Spanish-speaking immigrants eases.
There are about 500,000 indigenous people in the U.S., according to the Bi-national Center for the Development of the Oaxacan Indigenous Communities, based in Fresno, Calif. That's only counting people from Mexico, not other countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras.
Between 10 and 30 percent of the farm workers in California are now estimated to be indigenous, a recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found. Similar growth has occurred in Washington, Oregon and Florida.
"It's been until recently that the immigration has grown to a point that the government has become aware of the language diversity," said Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, a project director at the Center for Labor Research and Education of the University of California Los Angeles. "As more and more immigrants arrive ... authorities are not very well prepared."
Hundreds of indigenous languages and dialects are spoken in Mexico and Central America, and some of those dialects are drastically different from each other, said Rufino Dominguez-Santos of the Bi-national Center for the Development of the Oaxacan Indigenous Communities.
In Oaxaca alone - the Mexican state where the bulk of indigenous workers in Mount Vernon have come from - twelve different languages are spoken, Dominguez-Santos said. Fourteen percent of Oaxacans who speak an indigenous language don't speak Spanish, according to Mexican census figures. Mexico's government recognizes 162 living languages, plus some 300 dialects.
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?sectionID=94&SubSectionID=801&ArticleID=49613&TM=66042.68
MANUEL VALDES, Associated Press
March 13, 2009
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) - When immigration agents arrested 16 farmworkers in a mass arrest of illegal immigrants early this year, legal advocates raced to find interpreters for the men, who spoke only a language called Mixtec.
But by the time an interpreter was found, most of the men were on their way out of the country after signing away their rights to contest deportation - a procedure they might not have understood.
The deportations alarmed immigrant advocates in this agricultural city 60 miles north of Seattle. It also raised questions about the deportation proceedings for people who speak little Spanish or English.
"There is no way they knew what they were signing. No way," said Rev. Jo Beecher of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Mount Vernon, one of the advocates who tried to help the men.
Although federal courts have ruled that immigration proceedings must be translated into the language of the detainee, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no interpreters in the area who speak Mixtec - a tonal language with several dialects - Beecher said.
The case of the Mount Vernon men also highlights some of the clashes that are becoming more common as the growing community of indigenous peoples from Latin America meets the American legal system.
Indigenous peoples are the direct descendants of the inhabitants who lived in the region before colonial times. They have a distinct culture, languages and history than those of their Latino counterparts.
Some observers believe the migration of indigenous Latin Americans to the U.S. is increasing even as the flow of Spanish-speaking immigrants eases.
There are about 500,000 indigenous people in the U.S., according to the Bi-national Center for the Development of the Oaxacan Indigenous Communities, based in Fresno, Calif. That's only counting people from Mexico, not other countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras.
Between 10 and 30 percent of the farm workers in California are now estimated to be indigenous, a recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found. Similar growth has occurred in Washington, Oregon and Florida.
"It's been until recently that the immigration has grown to a point that the government has become aware of the language diversity," said Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, a project director at the Center for Labor Research and Education of the University of California Los Angeles. "As more and more immigrants arrive ... authorities are not very well prepared."
Hundreds of indigenous languages and dialects are spoken in Mexico and Central America, and some of those dialects are drastically different from each other, said Rufino Dominguez-Santos of the Bi-national Center for the Development of the Oaxacan Indigenous Communities.
In Oaxaca alone - the Mexican state where the bulk of indigenous workers in Mount Vernon have come from - twelve different languages are spoken, Dominguez-Santos said. Fourteen percent of Oaxacans who speak an indigenous language don't speak Spanish, according to Mexican census figures. Mexico's government recognizes 162 living languages, plus some 300 dialects.
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?sectionID=94&SubSectionID=801&ArticleID=49613&TM=66042.68
Monday, March 2, 2009
ICE Raid Renews Questions About Obama Plans on Immigration Reform
ICE Raid Renews Questions About Obama Plans on Immigration Reform
By Daphne Eviatar
The Washington Independent
3/2/09
Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided an engine factory in Bellingham, Washington and arrested 28 people for allegedly using fake i.d.’s to get jobs.
Though it was reportedly the first worksite immigration raid since President Obama took office, Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, afterwards said she didn’t know anything about it. She then ordered a review of the action.
The raid and mass arrests raise some curious questions about the Obama administration’s immigration policy. First, who’s in charge here? Both Napolitano and Obama have said they’ll crack down on employers who violate the immigration laws and exploit immigrant workers, not on the workers themselves. Last week’s raid suggests that either that message didn’t get out to ICE’s field offices, or the new leaders in charge aren’t truly committed to that plan. (In the past, ICE has been found to have conducted raids and arrests to meet quotas, according to an internal ICE report about a 2007 raid obtained recently by Casa de Maryland in a FOIA request.)
Last week’s raid also highlighted the need for comprehensive immigration reform, which Obama pledged to take on when he spoke on Spanish language radio stations the week before. The economic crisis has understandably taken precedence, but a coherent immigration policy laying out exactly who gets to live and work here and participate in the economy and pay taxes on their earnings is all necessary to development of a viable long-term economic policy. (This recent Brookings Institution study makes a case for allowing more of certain kinds of foreign energy scientists to work in the U.S., for example, and the blog Immigrant Power offers other interesting suggestions.)
In any event, the workplace raid last week shook up immigrants’ advocates.
“The President is clear about his plans for the economy, health care, education, Iraq and Afghanistan; we expect nothing less than a clear, consistent statement of his plan for immigration,” said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, in a statement.
“Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and the rest of the Obama Administration should continue the top-to-bottom review they are conducting into enforcement priorities and resource allocation, but that may not be enough. At a very minimum, until the new ICE Director who was named Monday is in place and an oversight procedure is working, these types of workplace raids should be put on hold.”
Another point worth noting is that while last month Napolitano ordered an internal review immigration enforcement initiatives within DHS, with a report due on February 20, that report has not been made public.
This morning, Amy Kubwa, a spokesperson for the agency, said that Napolitano is in the process of reviewing those reports. Although they are “predecisional documents” that won’t ever be fully released, “in the interest of transparency we will produce some public materials in the next days and weeks.”
We’ll report back on those public materials as soon as we get our hands on them.
http://washingtonindependent.com/31943/ice-raid-renews-questions-about-obama-plans-on-immigration-reform
By Daphne Eviatar
The Washington Independent
3/2/09
Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided an engine factory in Bellingham, Washington and arrested 28 people for allegedly using fake i.d.’s to get jobs.
Though it was reportedly the first worksite immigration raid since President Obama took office, Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, afterwards said she didn’t know anything about it. She then ordered a review of the action.
The raid and mass arrests raise some curious questions about the Obama administration’s immigration policy. First, who’s in charge here? Both Napolitano and Obama have said they’ll crack down on employers who violate the immigration laws and exploit immigrant workers, not on the workers themselves. Last week’s raid suggests that either that message didn’t get out to ICE’s field offices, or the new leaders in charge aren’t truly committed to that plan. (In the past, ICE has been found to have conducted raids and arrests to meet quotas, according to an internal ICE report about a 2007 raid obtained recently by Casa de Maryland in a FOIA request.)
Last week’s raid also highlighted the need for comprehensive immigration reform, which Obama pledged to take on when he spoke on Spanish language radio stations the week before. The economic crisis has understandably taken precedence, but a coherent immigration policy laying out exactly who gets to live and work here and participate in the economy and pay taxes on their earnings is all necessary to development of a viable long-term economic policy. (This recent Brookings Institution study makes a case for allowing more of certain kinds of foreign energy scientists to work in the U.S., for example, and the blog Immigrant Power offers other interesting suggestions.)
In any event, the workplace raid last week shook up immigrants’ advocates.
“The President is clear about his plans for the economy, health care, education, Iraq and Afghanistan; we expect nothing less than a clear, consistent statement of his plan for immigration,” said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, in a statement.
“Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and the rest of the Obama Administration should continue the top-to-bottom review they are conducting into enforcement priorities and resource allocation, but that may not be enough. At a very minimum, until the new ICE Director who was named Monday is in place and an oversight procedure is working, these types of workplace raids should be put on hold.”
Another point worth noting is that while last month Napolitano ordered an internal review immigration enforcement initiatives within DHS, with a report due on February 20, that report has not been made public.
This morning, Amy Kubwa, a spokesperson for the agency, said that Napolitano is in the process of reviewing those reports. Although they are “predecisional documents” that won’t ever be fully released, “in the interest of transparency we will produce some public materials in the next days and weeks.”
We’ll report back on those public materials as soon as we get our hands on them.
http://washingtonindependent.com/31943/ice-raid-renews-questions-about-obama-plans-on-immigration-reform
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Supreme Court Hears Identity Theft Case, ICE Conducts First Raid Under Obama
Supreme Court Hears Identity Theft Case, ICE Conducts First Raid Under Obama
La Opinión, News Report, Maribel Hastings, Translated by Elena Shore
February 26, 2009
Editor's Note: As immigrant rights groups condemn the first immigration raid to be carried out under the Obama administration in Washington state, the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., is hearing a case that could have national repercussions on future immigration raids and deportation proceedings.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on a case that seeks to establish whether undocumented immigrants who use false documents should be accused of aggravated identity theft, which carries up to two years in jail, even if they don’t know if they are violating the privacy of real individuals.
The arguments were presented in the context of the first immigration raid to take place under the Barack Obama administration. The raid was carried out in Bellingham, Washington state, and resulted in the arrest of 28 workers. The move generated criticism from immigrant rights groups.
Even the New York Times said in an editorial that the federal government is abusing the 2004 law for the sole purpose of pressuring the undocumented into expedited deportation.
The high court is seeking to determine whether, in order to prove that there was aggravated identity theft, the government must prove that the accused knew that the fake ID belonged to another person.
Legal representatives of Mexican Carlos Flores Figueroa, who is at the center of this case, along with immigrant rights groups, are arguing that in carrying out immigration raids, authorities are seeking the federal charge of aggravated identity theft in order to expedite the deportation of detainees found guilty of minor immigration offenses.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, groups such as the National Immigration Forum and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) pointed out that Obama had promised a more humane and fair immigration policy. Although the president did not mention immigration reform in his speech to the country Tuesday night, they hope that he keeps his campaign promise.
"What must Latino and immigrant voters think? They went to the polls in record numbers and voted for change, but apparently this 'change' seems to be 'more than same,'" said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.
"At a time when there are many messages of change and hope, you have to wondered how change will come through these failed policies," said Janet Murguia, president of NCLR.
"We need immediate action to support the personal promise that President Obama made to the electorate, including the more than 10.5 million Latino voters, that just and humane immigration reform would be a priority," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
The Associated Press reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a review of the raid in Bellingham. Napolitano and Obama have talked about promoting an immigration policy that puts more emphasis on employers that hire undocumented immigrants, rather than the employees.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court just heard arguments in the case of Mexican immigrant Ignacio Flores Carlos Figueroa, who after years of working with forged documents under a false name, decided to use his real name, but with forged documents that belonged to a real person.
Most of the false Social Security cards used by undocumented immigrants in order to work use numbers that don’t belong to anyone. But there are some instances where the Social Security number belongs to a real person.
In the case of Figueroa Flores, his former employer became suspicious when he changed documents, and while investigating he found that they in fact belonged to another person.
Flores Figueroa was charged with aggravated identity theft under the 2004 law of the same name. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction.
But lawyers argue that the Mexican immigrant, while guilty of using forged documents, is not guilty of aggravated identity theft because he did not know that the documents actually belonged to another person, and did not use them for credit cards or to steal the person’s savings.
Kevin Russell, Flores Figueroa's lawyer, argues that the 2004 law of aggravated identity theft was established to increase punishment against those who knowingly invade someone’s privacy in order to steal their money or put them in debt.
But that's not the case with many undocumented immigrants, he said.
However, Toby Heytens, attorney for the Department of Justice, argued that one must look at it from the perspective of the victim whose identity is being violated, whether knowingly or not.
Tara Tidwell Cullen, counsel for the National Immigrant Justice Center, told La Opinión that she could not provide an estimate of how many immigrants could be affected by the Supreme Court’s decision this spring, but the charge of aggravated identity theft has been used in numerous immigration raids across the country.
"If the Supreme Court decides to accept the government’s interpretation of the statute [on identity theft] as we saw in the raids in Postville, Iowa, the government will use the tactic to force immigrants to plead guilty of other charges that speed up their deportation," said the lawyer.
In the case of Postville, she said, of the approximately 400 people who were arrested, 300 were charged with aggravated identity theft.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=fe0aa7dee2f20d702416ce93afc67dfc
La Opinión, News Report, Maribel Hastings, Translated by Elena Shore
February 26, 2009
Editor's Note: As immigrant rights groups condemn the first immigration raid to be carried out under the Obama administration in Washington state, the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., is hearing a case that could have national repercussions on future immigration raids and deportation proceedings.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on a case that seeks to establish whether undocumented immigrants who use false documents should be accused of aggravated identity theft, which carries up to two years in jail, even if they don’t know if they are violating the privacy of real individuals.
The arguments were presented in the context of the first immigration raid to take place under the Barack Obama administration. The raid was carried out in Bellingham, Washington state, and resulted in the arrest of 28 workers. The move generated criticism from immigrant rights groups.
Even the New York Times said in an editorial that the federal government is abusing the 2004 law for the sole purpose of pressuring the undocumented into expedited deportation.
The high court is seeking to determine whether, in order to prove that there was aggravated identity theft, the government must prove that the accused knew that the fake ID belonged to another person.
Legal representatives of Mexican Carlos Flores Figueroa, who is at the center of this case, along with immigrant rights groups, are arguing that in carrying out immigration raids, authorities are seeking the federal charge of aggravated identity theft in order to expedite the deportation of detainees found guilty of minor immigration offenses.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, groups such as the National Immigration Forum and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) pointed out that Obama had promised a more humane and fair immigration policy. Although the president did not mention immigration reform in his speech to the country Tuesday night, they hope that he keeps his campaign promise.
"What must Latino and immigrant voters think? They went to the polls in record numbers and voted for change, but apparently this 'change' seems to be 'more than same,'" said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.
"At a time when there are many messages of change and hope, you have to wondered how change will come through these failed policies," said Janet Murguia, president of NCLR.
"We need immediate action to support the personal promise that President Obama made to the electorate, including the more than 10.5 million Latino voters, that just and humane immigration reform would be a priority," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesperson for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
The Associated Press reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a review of the raid in Bellingham. Napolitano and Obama have talked about promoting an immigration policy that puts more emphasis on employers that hire undocumented immigrants, rather than the employees.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court just heard arguments in the case of Mexican immigrant Ignacio Flores Carlos Figueroa, who after years of working with forged documents under a false name, decided to use his real name, but with forged documents that belonged to a real person.
Most of the false Social Security cards used by undocumented immigrants in order to work use numbers that don’t belong to anyone. But there are some instances where the Social Security number belongs to a real person.
In the case of Figueroa Flores, his former employer became suspicious when he changed documents, and while investigating he found that they in fact belonged to another person.
Flores Figueroa was charged with aggravated identity theft under the 2004 law of the same name. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction.
But lawyers argue that the Mexican immigrant, while guilty of using forged documents, is not guilty of aggravated identity theft because he did not know that the documents actually belonged to another person, and did not use them for credit cards or to steal the person’s savings.
Kevin Russell, Flores Figueroa's lawyer, argues that the 2004 law of aggravated identity theft was established to increase punishment against those who knowingly invade someone’s privacy in order to steal their money or put them in debt.
But that's not the case with many undocumented immigrants, he said.
However, Toby Heytens, attorney for the Department of Justice, argued that one must look at it from the perspective of the victim whose identity is being violated, whether knowingly or not.
Tara Tidwell Cullen, counsel for the National Immigrant Justice Center, told La Opinión that she could not provide an estimate of how many immigrants could be affected by the Supreme Court’s decision this spring, but the charge of aggravated identity theft has been used in numerous immigration raids across the country.
"If the Supreme Court decides to accept the government’s interpretation of the statute [on identity theft] as we saw in the raids in Postville, Iowa, the government will use the tactic to force immigrants to plead guilty of other charges that speed up their deportation," said the lawyer.
In the case of Postville, she said, of the approximately 400 people who were arrested, 300 were charged with aggravated identity theft.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=fe0aa7dee2f20d702416ce93afc67dfc
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Napolitano orders review of WA raid
Napolitano orders review of WA raid
By MANUEL VALDES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
February 25, 2009
SEATTLE -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a review of a raid earlier this week at a Bellingham, Wash., manufacturing plant that ended with the arrests of 28 illegal immigrants.
Napolitano told lawmakers during a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that she did not know about the raid before it happened and was briefed on it early Wednesday morning. She has asked U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which conducted the raid, for answers.
"I want to get to the bottom of this as well," she said. She said work-site enforcement needs to be focused on the employers.
Sean Smith, a spokesman at Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., said that Napolitano is demanding answers.
The raid at the Yamato Engine Specialists, Smith said, was the first work-site action that ICE has taken since President Barack Obama took office.
Obama, who appointed Napolitano, has signaled for a shift in immigration policy that would rely less on work site enforcement, focusing instead on employers who hire illegal immigrants and overall immigration reform.
ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers in Seattle declined to comment.
On Tuesday morning, ICE agents descended on the shop and rounded up 25 men and three women. Most of the people arrested are in custody at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where they will await deportation proceedings. Three of the 28 were not taken to the detention center on humanitarian grounds.
Of the 28, agents found 25 Mexican nationals and one person each from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
In a statement Tuesday, ICE officials said many of the people obtained the jobs using fake Social Security numbers and other counterfeit documents.
Shirin Dhanani Makalai, whose family owns the business, said the raid came after months of cooperating with ICE on an audit, which included providing employee rosters to federal authorities. He said his business does not advocate hiring illegal immigrants.
"We try to stay within the guidelines, within the law," Makalai said Tuesday.
Makalai added the company did not knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and that employers have no clear way of checking an employee's legal status.
On Wednesday, immigrant advocates in Seattle called on Obama to place a moratorium on raids until there's an immigration reform from Congress. For many advocates, Obama's election gave hope that work-site raids would end.
"Our immigration system is broken," said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, an advocacy group. "We need comprehensive reform that recognizes the crucial contributions immigrants make to out nation, considers demand for labor and enables employers to legally hire needed immigrants workers."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_work_site_raid_napolitano.html
By MANUEL VALDES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
February 25, 2009
SEATTLE -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a review of a raid earlier this week at a Bellingham, Wash., manufacturing plant that ended with the arrests of 28 illegal immigrants.
Napolitano told lawmakers during a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that she did not know about the raid before it happened and was briefed on it early Wednesday morning. She has asked U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which conducted the raid, for answers.
"I want to get to the bottom of this as well," she said. She said work-site enforcement needs to be focused on the employers.
Sean Smith, a spokesman at Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., said that Napolitano is demanding answers.
The raid at the Yamato Engine Specialists, Smith said, was the first work-site action that ICE has taken since President Barack Obama took office.
Obama, who appointed Napolitano, has signaled for a shift in immigration policy that would rely less on work site enforcement, focusing instead on employers who hire illegal immigrants and overall immigration reform.
ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers in Seattle declined to comment.
On Tuesday morning, ICE agents descended on the shop and rounded up 25 men and three women. Most of the people arrested are in custody at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where they will await deportation proceedings. Three of the 28 were not taken to the detention center on humanitarian grounds.
Of the 28, agents found 25 Mexican nationals and one person each from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
In a statement Tuesday, ICE officials said many of the people obtained the jobs using fake Social Security numbers and other counterfeit documents.
Shirin Dhanani Makalai, whose family owns the business, said the raid came after months of cooperating with ICE on an audit, which included providing employee rosters to federal authorities. He said his business does not advocate hiring illegal immigrants.
"We try to stay within the guidelines, within the law," Makalai said Tuesday.
Makalai added the company did not knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and that employers have no clear way of checking an employee's legal status.
On Wednesday, immigrant advocates in Seattle called on Obama to place a moratorium on raids until there's an immigration reform from Congress. For many advocates, Obama's election gave hope that work-site raids would end.
"Our immigration system is broken," said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, an advocacy group. "We need comprehensive reform that recognizes the crucial contributions immigrants make to out nation, considers demand for labor and enables employers to legally hire needed immigrants workers."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_work_site_raid_napolitano.html
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Immigration officials raid Bellingham plant
Immigration officials raid Bellingham plant
By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times
February 24, 2009
Immigration officers today raided an engine remanufacturing plant in Bellingham, arrested 28 illegal immigrant workers and began processing them for deportation.
The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at Yamato Engine Specialists in Bellingham.
ICE officials say the 25 men and three women — most of them from Mexico — may have gained employment at Yamato using phony social security numbers and other counterfeit identity documents.
Yamato officials, who said they had been cooperating with ICE since last fall when investigators began looking at employment documents, were shocked by today's raid.
In fact, three of the workers arrested today had been cleared as having legitimate documents during an employment records audit by ICE in 2005, said Yamato spokeswoman Shirin Dhanani Makalai.
We have been audited before so we do due diligence to get the proper paperwork," Makalai said. "People bring you paperwork that by law you are required to accept. You can't always tell if it's not correct."
With about 100 workers, Yamato specializes in rebuilding Japanese car engines and transmissions.
ICE investigators began looking into its employment records following the arrest of a criminal illegal immigrant who had previously worked there.
After being processed earlier today, officials released three of the immigrants on humanitarian grounds. The others are being held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.
"The lure of jobs in the United States continues to be one of the primary factors fueling illegal immigration," said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Seattle.
"ICE remains committed to investigating cases where the evidence shows employment laws are being violated."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008781541_webraid24m.html
By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times
February 24, 2009
Immigration officers today raided an engine remanufacturing plant in Bellingham, arrested 28 illegal immigrant workers and began processing them for deportation.
The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at Yamato Engine Specialists in Bellingham.
ICE officials say the 25 men and three women — most of them from Mexico — may have gained employment at Yamato using phony social security numbers and other counterfeit identity documents.
Yamato officials, who said they had been cooperating with ICE since last fall when investigators began looking at employment documents, were shocked by today's raid.
In fact, three of the workers arrested today had been cleared as having legitimate documents during an employment records audit by ICE in 2005, said Yamato spokeswoman Shirin Dhanani Makalai.
We have been audited before so we do due diligence to get the proper paperwork," Makalai said. "People bring you paperwork that by law you are required to accept. You can't always tell if it's not correct."
With about 100 workers, Yamato specializes in rebuilding Japanese car engines and transmissions.
ICE investigators began looking into its employment records following the arrest of a criminal illegal immigrant who had previously worked there.
After being processed earlier today, officials released three of the immigrants on humanitarian grounds. The others are being held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.
"The lure of jobs in the United States continues to be one of the primary factors fueling illegal immigration," said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Seattle.
"ICE remains committed to investigating cases where the evidence shows employment laws are being violated."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008781541_webraid24m.html
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Gov calls for deportation of jailed illegal aliens
Gov calls for deportation of jailed illegal aliens
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press Writer
The Seattle Times
To save money, Gov. Chris Gregoire wants illegal aliens serving time in state prisons deported.
Her proposal estimates that deporting illegal aliens - who are serving or would serve time for drug or property crime convictions - will save the state more than $9 million in the next two-year budget.
The state faces a $5.7 billion budget deficit over the next 2 1/2 years, and Gregoire has proposed a no new-taxes budget proposal laden with cuts, including about $200 million from the Department of Corrections, the attorney general's office, and other public safety programs.
The deportation proposal is modeled after a program in Arizona that has saved the state more than $18.5 million since 2005, said Eldon Vail, secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections.
"It's not an ideal choice, if revenue was there, I'd say have them do their time," Vail said. "Is justice better served? It's a tough question to wrestle with when you don't have resources."
The proposal would call for the state to come to an agreement with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which would carry out the deportations. In Washington, there are about 350 prisoners who would be eligible to be transferred to ICE. On average, it costs the state $90 a day to imprison an inmate, Vail said.
It also includes allowing state workers to act as immigration agents in some instances, assisting ICE in processing illegal aliens under a version of the so-called 287(g) agreements, which are contentious among immigrant advocates.
"Generally, we are always concerned with any attempt by local, state officials to try to enforce immigration law," said Jorge Baron, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a legal aid organization for immigrants.
"It's a field of law that's very complex. In our experience, any time local, state agencies get involved, it leads to problems," Baron said.
Baron said people, even with criminal convictions, can still be eligible for citizenship under U.S. law in some cases, and others can qualify for asylum.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008574652_apwagregoiredeportations.html
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press Writer
The Seattle Times
To save money, Gov. Chris Gregoire wants illegal aliens serving time in state prisons deported.
Her proposal estimates that deporting illegal aliens - who are serving or would serve time for drug or property crime convictions - will save the state more than $9 million in the next two-year budget.
The state faces a $5.7 billion budget deficit over the next 2 1/2 years, and Gregoire has proposed a no new-taxes budget proposal laden with cuts, including about $200 million from the Department of Corrections, the attorney general's office, and other public safety programs.
The deportation proposal is modeled after a program in Arizona that has saved the state more than $18.5 million since 2005, said Eldon Vail, secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections.
"It's not an ideal choice, if revenue was there, I'd say have them do their time," Vail said. "Is justice better served? It's a tough question to wrestle with when you don't have resources."
The proposal would call for the state to come to an agreement with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which would carry out the deportations. In Washington, there are about 350 prisoners who would be eligible to be transferred to ICE. On average, it costs the state $90 a day to imprison an inmate, Vail said.
It also includes allowing state workers to act as immigration agents in some instances, assisting ICE in processing illegal aliens under a version of the so-called 287(g) agreements, which are contentious among immigrant advocates.
"Generally, we are always concerned with any attempt by local, state officials to try to enforce immigration law," said Jorge Baron, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a legal aid organization for immigrants.
"It's a field of law that's very complex. In our experience, any time local, state agencies get involved, it leads to problems," Baron said.
Baron said people, even with criminal convictions, can still be eligible for citizenship under U.S. law in some cases, and others can qualify for asylum.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008574652_apwagregoiredeportations.html
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