Editorial
The Washington Post
February 19, 2011
EDGAR LUIS CABRERA, a lawful, permanent resident of Loudoun County, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of petty larceny in 2005 and was sentenced to 12 months in jail. He never served time behind bars because the sentence was suspended. He went about his life without other run-ins with the law until last fall, when he was notified that he would be deported. The reason: his guilty plea to the misdemeanor.
The news came as a shock to Mr. Cabrera, who claims that his lawyer never told him about the risk of removal linked to the plea. Had Mr. Cabrera been sentenced to less than one year - or pleaded guilty to a charge that carried a lesser sentence - it's likely he would have avoided deportation.
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that lawful immigrants who unwittingly entered guilty pleas that marked them for deportation should be given a chance to reopen their cases if their lawyers failed to advise them of the possible deportation consequences. In New York and Massachusetts, where state law is relatively flexible, such challenges have been raised, and some have prevailed.
Not so in Virginia, where Mr. Cabrera lives - and where the rules governing challenges to convictions are among the harshest in the country. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled in December that Mr. Cabrera and others like him could not bring such challenges.
Chief Judge Dean S. Worcester, presiding over Mr. Cabrera's case in Loudoun County, has refused to abide by the Virginia court's decree, arguing that the high court's decision is unnecessarily narrow and wrong. As a matter of justice, Judge Worcester is correct; as Virginia law stands, his position is weaker. He recently ordered new proceedings for Mr. Cabrera, but chances are slim that his decision will be allowed to stand.
There are two other possibilities. Virginia legislators could broaden state law; they would not be inventing a right but giving meaning to one that the U.S. Supreme Court has said exists. Or the U.S. attorney general could step in to review cases in which immigrants have been barred from challenging plea-induced deportations. The attorney general does not have the authority to reopen a state criminal case, but he does have some discretion over final orders of deportation. He should use that discretion to determine whether justice is being served by deporting nonviolent legal residents who have been prohibited from exercising their constitutional rights.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/19/AR2011021903359.html
Showing posts with label Explusions in VA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Explusions in VA. Show all posts
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Friday, November 26, 2010
Immigration crackdown in Prince William is a cautionary tale
Editorial
The Washington Post
November 24, 2010
The Washington Post
November 24, 2010
AFTER 31/2 YEARS and some $3 million in public spending, Prince William County's crusade against illegal immigrants - launched almost single-handedly by an ambitious local politician who has made nativism his stock in trade - has confirmed the county's reputation as a national symbol of intolerance. Now, a study by scholars at the University of Virginia has exposed just what was achieved, and wasn't, when Virginia's second-largest locality undertook its campaign against undocumented workers.
Prince William citizens had been much less concerned with illegal immigration than with traffic and development, but in 2007 Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) put the issue center stage and pushed through a policy that turned out to be a precursor to the one adopted this year in Arizona. Implemented in 2008, it authorized police to check the immigration status of anyone they detained who they suspected might be in the country illegally. After a public uproar, the county watered down the policy - immigration checks are now done only after arrest, and for everyone taken into custody - but the damage to the county's name was done.
The study, paid for by the county, concludes that the crackdown did succeed in driving away - though in many cases probably not very far away - a few thousand illegal immigrants, along with some legal ones. That's unsurprising given that illegal immigrants were the targets of such overheated debate.
But the price of that "success" was to cement Prince William's image of hostility toward immigrants, specifically Hispanic ones. While the (largely legal) Hispanic population continued to boom in most area jurisdictions, it stagnated in Prince William after 2007.
Politicians promised that the county's enforcement efforts would save money by slashing public programs benefiting undocumented immigrants. It did no such thing, since illegal immigrants aren't eligible for most such programs. They suggested it would do away with loitering by migrant workers seeking day jobs. In fact, day-worker sites continue to operate today much as they did before.
Politicians also said the campaign would decrease crime overall. But, the report concludes, illegal immigrants constituted a small portion of those arrested, and the crackdown had little effect on most kinds of crime - though it may have contributed somewhat to reductions in aggravated assault and hit-and-run accidents.
The report also blames the crusade for stoking tensions between Prince William police officers and Hispanics, who make up 20 percent of the county's residents. Relations have now improved, but only thanks to an intensive and sustained repair job by the county's well-regarded police department and an enlightened police chief.
Mr. Stewart is now urging other Virginia localities to follow Prince William's lead. He misleadingly portrays the U-Va. report as vindication of the county's crackdown, which it clearly is not. In fact, it is a cautionary tale, and other local officials in the state would be wise to read the report before they embrace the Prince William model.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112406335.html
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Destined for deportation?
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 2, 2010; B01
Last Christmas Eve, Maria Bolanos made a decision she would later regret: During a fight with her partner, she called the Prince George's County police and sought their protection.
The call for help had disastrous consequences for Bolanos, a 28-year-old undocumented immigrant from El Salvador. Within months, she found herself involved in an increasingly controversial immigration enforcement program designed to deport undocumented criminals.
Bolanos now faces deportation and possible separation from her 21-month-old daughter, who was born here and is a U.S. citizen.
Her case illustrates what immigrant-rights advocates and some local officials consider the shortcomings of Secure Communities, the centerpiece of the Obama administration's immigration enforcement efforts and a program that has helped generate a record number of deportations.
Secure Communities, which operates in the District, Maryland, Virginia and soon will be running nationwide, relies on fingerprints collected by local authorities when a person is charged with anything from a traffic violation to murder.
In Bolanos's case, the officer who responded to the domestic dispute at her apartment in Hyattsville later charged her with illegally selling a $10 phone card to a neighbor - an allegation she denies. The charge was eventually dropped, but by then Bolanos had been been fingerprinted and found to be in the country illegally by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
She has been told she probably will be deported after a Wednesday hearing before an immigration judge in Baltimore.
Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said removals during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 included more than 1,000 murderers, nearly 6,000 sex offenders, 45,000 drug offenders and 28,000 drunk drivers. The number fell short of the agency expectation of 400,000 deportations but still surpassed the 2009 total of 387,790, the previous record.
Although ICE officials have touted the large numbers of criminals who are being deported via Secure Communities, they are unapologetic about the significant number of non-criminals being removed as well. In the past year, more than half of the 392,000 immigrants deported were convicted criminals; the rest had overstayed their visas or entered the country without authorization.
"ICE cannot and will not turn a blind eye to those who violate federal immigration law," said ICE spokesman Brian Hale. "While ICE's enforcement efforts prioritize convicted criminal aliens, ICE maintains the discretion to take action on any alien it encounters."
Not surprisingly, immigrant-rights groups have been critical of the administration's efforts to ratchet up deportations without delivering on the president's campaign promise to create a path to citizenship for the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants.
But Secure Communities also has come under attack in Arlington County, the District and other jurisdictions, where local officials worry that it is discouraging undocumented immigrants who are crime victims and witnesses from coming forward.
Those concerns are well justified, said Bolanos, speaking through a translator.
"You would have to be crazy to call the police," she said. "I would never call the police again."
Detained and desperate
Maria Bolanos works two jobs to pay her bills. She does janitorial work at an apartment complex Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and pulls a 6 p.m.-to-3 a.m. shift at a restaurant Thursday through Sunday.
"Dora the Explorer" plays endlessly on the TV in her second-floor apartment, in deference to the wishes of her daughter, Melisa Arellano-Bolanos.
Framed pictures of "The Last Supper" and of Jesus and Mary hang above the dining table. A photo of Bolanos's partner, Fernando Arellano, hugging Melisa is tucked into a corner of one of the frames.
Bolanos said she came to the United States in 2004 in search of a better life. She paid $7,000 to "coyotes" to help her cross the border via the Arizona desert.
The first time, her party was caught, she said. She was released in the desert across the Arizona border from Mexico after being fingerprinted and photographed by authorities - and almost immediately crossed the border again.
She found her way to the Washington area and met Arellano at a restaurant where she worked. Arellano, now 34, was also undocumented and from Mexico. They fell in love and moved in together. Melisa was born in January 2008 at Washington Hospital Center.
The couple's fight began when Arellano came home late on Christmas Eve, Bolanos said, and it quickly escalated into a shouting match.
By the time police arrived, Arellano had left the apartment.
Police charged Arellano with assault. That charge was dropped when neither Bolanos nor the police officer showed up in court, according to a spokesman for the Prince George's states attorney's office.
Months later, the fight forgotten, Bolanos found an arrest warrant waiting for her on the charge that she was selling phone cards without a license.
The charge eventually was thrown out, but not before she was fingerprinted and the prints were shared with ICE through Secure Communities.
Authorities determined that she was in the country illegally and ordered her detained. Her ankles and wrists were shackled, she said, and she was moved to a detention facility in Upper Marlboro.
Bolanos said she told authorities she was still breastfeeding her daughter, but that they initially disregarded her plea to be released. After a doctor found that her breasts were engorged with milk, she was fitted with a locator ankle bracelet and sent home, pending the deportation hearing Wednesday.
Parents in jeopardy
In August, Arellano was booked by police for making an illegal traffic turn. Police found he did not have a driver's license and arrested him. His fingerprints went to ICE, too - and he was detained. Now he is also facing deportation.
"In both of these cases, Secure Communities functioned exactly as it was designed to, allowing ICE to identify individuals booked into jail for a state crime and who were also present in the country unlawfully," said ICE spokesman Hale.
But that's not how immigrant-rights group see it.
ICE is misrepresenting the program in order to implement a nationwide deportation instrument, said Gustavo Andrade, organizing director at CASA of Maryland, which has been trying to help Bolanos. "Even one family destroyed because of this kind of program makes it unacceptable."
Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey also expressed concern about a phone card charge leading to a deportation proceeding.
"We should target our limited state and federal law enforcement dollars on killers, rapists, child molesters, human traffickers and violent gang members," Ivey said in a statement. "This kind of defendant should not be a high priority."
If Bolanos and Arellano are both deported, he would have to go to Mexico and she to El Salvador, meaning Melisa would be left without at least one of her parents. In El Salvador, Bolanos said, her family has faced death threats from gangs, and her brother was killed a year ago.
As she talked, Melisa played with the charger attached to her mother's ankle bracelet. Bolanos spends two hours every day charging the device, which looks like a BlackBerry attached to her leg with a thick band of black rubber. It hurts when she walks.
Bolanos wears long jeans to cover the ankle bracelet.
"I'm really ashamed to show it in public," she said. "People see it and think I'm a murderer. I try to keep it covered at all times."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/01/AR2010110106661.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 2, 2010; B01
Last Christmas Eve, Maria Bolanos made a decision she would later regret: During a fight with her partner, she called the Prince George's County police and sought their protection.
The call for help had disastrous consequences for Bolanos, a 28-year-old undocumented immigrant from El Salvador. Within months, she found herself involved in an increasingly controversial immigration enforcement program designed to deport undocumented criminals.
Bolanos now faces deportation and possible separation from her 21-month-old daughter, who was born here and is a U.S. citizen.
Her case illustrates what immigrant-rights advocates and some local officials consider the shortcomings of Secure Communities, the centerpiece of the Obama administration's immigration enforcement efforts and a program that has helped generate a record number of deportations.
Secure Communities, which operates in the District, Maryland, Virginia and soon will be running nationwide, relies on fingerprints collected by local authorities when a person is charged with anything from a traffic violation to murder.
In Bolanos's case, the officer who responded to the domestic dispute at her apartment in Hyattsville later charged her with illegally selling a $10 phone card to a neighbor - an allegation she denies. The charge was eventually dropped, but by then Bolanos had been been fingerprinted and found to be in the country illegally by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
She has been told she probably will be deported after a Wednesday hearing before an immigration judge in Baltimore.
Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said removals during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 included more than 1,000 murderers, nearly 6,000 sex offenders, 45,000 drug offenders and 28,000 drunk drivers. The number fell short of the agency expectation of 400,000 deportations but still surpassed the 2009 total of 387,790, the previous record.
Although ICE officials have touted the large numbers of criminals who are being deported via Secure Communities, they are unapologetic about the significant number of non-criminals being removed as well. In the past year, more than half of the 392,000 immigrants deported were convicted criminals; the rest had overstayed their visas or entered the country without authorization.
"ICE cannot and will not turn a blind eye to those who violate federal immigration law," said ICE spokesman Brian Hale. "While ICE's enforcement efforts prioritize convicted criminal aliens, ICE maintains the discretion to take action on any alien it encounters."
Not surprisingly, immigrant-rights groups have been critical of the administration's efforts to ratchet up deportations without delivering on the president's campaign promise to create a path to citizenship for the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants.
But Secure Communities also has come under attack in Arlington County, the District and other jurisdictions, where local officials worry that it is discouraging undocumented immigrants who are crime victims and witnesses from coming forward.
Those concerns are well justified, said Bolanos, speaking through a translator.
"You would have to be crazy to call the police," she said. "I would never call the police again."
Detained and desperate
Maria Bolanos works two jobs to pay her bills. She does janitorial work at an apartment complex Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and pulls a 6 p.m.-to-3 a.m. shift at a restaurant Thursday through Sunday.
"Dora the Explorer" plays endlessly on the TV in her second-floor apartment, in deference to the wishes of her daughter, Melisa Arellano-Bolanos.
Framed pictures of "The Last Supper" and of Jesus and Mary hang above the dining table. A photo of Bolanos's partner, Fernando Arellano, hugging Melisa is tucked into a corner of one of the frames.
Bolanos said she came to the United States in 2004 in search of a better life. She paid $7,000 to "coyotes" to help her cross the border via the Arizona desert.
The first time, her party was caught, she said. She was released in the desert across the Arizona border from Mexico after being fingerprinted and photographed by authorities - and almost immediately crossed the border again.
She found her way to the Washington area and met Arellano at a restaurant where she worked. Arellano, now 34, was also undocumented and from Mexico. They fell in love and moved in together. Melisa was born in January 2008 at Washington Hospital Center.
The couple's fight began when Arellano came home late on Christmas Eve, Bolanos said, and it quickly escalated into a shouting match.
By the time police arrived, Arellano had left the apartment.
Police charged Arellano with assault. That charge was dropped when neither Bolanos nor the police officer showed up in court, according to a spokesman for the Prince George's states attorney's office.
Months later, the fight forgotten, Bolanos found an arrest warrant waiting for her on the charge that she was selling phone cards without a license.
The charge eventually was thrown out, but not before she was fingerprinted and the prints were shared with ICE through Secure Communities.
Authorities determined that she was in the country illegally and ordered her detained. Her ankles and wrists were shackled, she said, and she was moved to a detention facility in Upper Marlboro.
Bolanos said she told authorities she was still breastfeeding her daughter, but that they initially disregarded her plea to be released. After a doctor found that her breasts were engorged with milk, she was fitted with a locator ankle bracelet and sent home, pending the deportation hearing Wednesday.
Parents in jeopardy
In August, Arellano was booked by police for making an illegal traffic turn. Police found he did not have a driver's license and arrested him. His fingerprints went to ICE, too - and he was detained. Now he is also facing deportation.
"In both of these cases, Secure Communities functioned exactly as it was designed to, allowing ICE to identify individuals booked into jail for a state crime and who were also present in the country unlawfully," said ICE spokesman Hale.
But that's not how immigrant-rights group see it.
ICE is misrepresenting the program in order to implement a nationwide deportation instrument, said Gustavo Andrade, organizing director at CASA of Maryland, which has been trying to help Bolanos. "Even one family destroyed because of this kind of program makes it unacceptable."
Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey also expressed concern about a phone card charge leading to a deportation proceeding.
"We should target our limited state and federal law enforcement dollars on killers, rapists, child molesters, human traffickers and violent gang members," Ivey said in a statement. "This kind of defendant should not be a high priority."
If Bolanos and Arellano are both deported, he would have to go to Mexico and she to El Salvador, meaning Melisa would be left without at least one of her parents. In El Salvador, Bolanos said, her family has faced death threats from gangs, and her brother was killed a year ago.
As she talked, Melisa played with the charger attached to her mother's ankle bracelet. Bolanos spends two hours every day charging the device, which looks like a BlackBerry attached to her leg with a thick band of black rubber. It hurts when she walks.
Bolanos wears long jeans to cover the ankle bracelet.
"I'm really ashamed to show it in public," she said. "People see it and think I'm a murderer. I try to keep it covered at all times."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/01/AR2010110106661.html
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Immigrant raid spurs protest, cheers
More details emerge from operation that rounded up 45 at Annapolis company
By LISA BEISEL, Staff Writer
Capital Gazette Communications
Published 07/01/08
Spurred by yesterday's raid of an Annapolis-area painting business, Hispanic rights defenders protested this morning in front of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore.
Meanwhile, political leaders and other business owners in the area applauded the raids, saying companies that hire undocumented workers undercut legitimate businesses and workers.
ICE agents, with the help of about 50 county police officers, raided the offices of Annapolis Painting Services and 15 homes throughout the county yesterday morning, arresting 45 suspected undocumented workers.
About 50 people attended this morning's rally in Baltimore, which was organized by the National Capital Immigrant Coalition, armed with signs saying "Don't divide our families" and "Stop the raids."
Irma Gonzalez, who said she has lived in Annapolis for 20 years, sported a bright pink sign with a picture of County Executive John R. Leopold with a line through it saying "John Leopold, we are not criminals."
She said immigrants in Annapolis are afraid.
"We have a voice," she said. "We can't keep quiet because a lot of innocent people get hurt," she said.
The Rev. John Levin, a priest at St. Mary's Church in Annapolis, said poverty in El Salvador and other countries drives people here, sometimes illegally.
"The effect on the families is what concerns me," he said of the raids. "They are people of faith, they're contributing to our economy, and we're taking advantage of them. It's a terrible injustice," he said.
Scot R. Rittenberg, assistant special agent in charge for ICE in Baltimore, said the agency received a tip about the company and has been investigating for 18 months. The arrests involved 11 search warrants, five seizure warrants for bank accounts, 10 seizure warrants for vehicles and 15 forfeitable properties, he said.
The arrested workers included people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nigeria and Panama.
Ten women and 35 men were taken into custody. In addition, at least five more people were served notice, but not taken into custody because of medical reasons, being the sole caregiver for a child, or in one case, due to a late-term pregnancy, Mr. Rittenberg said. Those people will have to appear before an immigration judge at a later date, he said.
ICE has been investigating employers since 2003 when the agency was created as a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
"The magnet for illegal immigrants is jobs, is the work and the money," Mr. Rittenberg said. "So one method of sort of getting rid of that magnet is by going after these companies, especially ones that are egregious violators of both the immigration and labor laws so we can get rid of the draw of illegal immigration."
ICE still is investigating the company and the owner has not been charged with anything at this point, he said.
Mr. Leopold said the county plans to continue working cooperatively with ICE in operations like this and said that other jurisdictions in the region are collaborating more and more in this kind of operation.
Companies that hire illegal immigrants hurt the business market, he said.
"Clearly when companies hire illegal immigrants, pay them below market wage rates, don't pay overtime, don't pay taxes, they're putting employers who want to play by the rules at a competitive disadvantage," Mr. Leopold said this morning.
He stressed that he did want to help immigrants "who want to play by the rules" get legal status in the U.S.
Mr. Leopold pushed for a workshop earlier this year to help businesses navigate the complicated process of legally hiring foreign workers.
The business owner
Calls to Robert Bontempo Jr., owner of Annapolis Painting Services, were not returned yesterday and someone who answered the door at the company said he was not there.
As a young man, Mr. Bontempo paid for college by painting homes in the 1970s and built up a firm that has worked on everything from the Naval Academy to such landmark buildings as the State Capitol building.
On early mornings, the firm's white vans can regularly be seen zig-zagging across the city.
"Over the years, we've been called on for virtually every painting project imaginable, and have completed work on over 10,000 residential, commercial, historic and landmark properties," according to the company's Web site. Mr. Bontempo's firm also is one of several local firms branding themselves as the "Annapolis Design District," mostly along Chinquapin Round Road.
Other than his success as a businessman, Mr. Bontempo is a property owner who owned nearly a third of all the properties in the 5-acre neighborhood of Carrs Manor and was a vocal proponent who petitioned to hook his lots up to the county sewer system.
Diane Marianos, whose husband owns M&M Painting Co., an Annapolis-area painting company, called yesterday's immigration raid "unfortunate," but not uncommon.
Ms. Marianos said M&M Painting employs only legal workers, but said the issue of hiring illegal immigrants is becoming rampant.
"It happens more and more everyday," she said.
Michael McGurk, owner of Bay Country Painters in Severna Park and president of the Baltimore/Annapolis Chapter of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, said Mr. Bontempo is a "serious business man" he knows personally.
Mr. McGurk said he is glad to see the county executive being so vocal on an issue unfair to companies like his that are playing by the rules.
"We're trying to do everything by the book," he said. "I've worked really hard to do that."
Bob Burdon, president and chief executive officer of the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce, said Mr. Botempo is a member of the local chamber.
"It's a well-established business, a very well respected business in the community," he said. "It's hard to believe when you hear something like this."
Mr. Burdon said like any other person a number of questions are running through his mind, including whether Mr. Bontempo was aware of hiring unqualified employees.
Because these people were taken in under suspicion, "I guess we're going to have to wait and see" to find out what the results are, he said.
Mario Quiroz, a spokesman for Casa de Maryland, a nonprofit group that advocates for Hispanic immigrants, said yesterday's operation will have long-reaching effects.
"We think that this is really bad for the community because we're not only talking about 45 people, we're talking about 45 people and their families," he said.
His group condemns actions like this, especially in this case, where 125 officers - 50 from the county and 75 from ICE - were used to capture just 45 detainees.
"These people are not criminals. They are not a national threat," he said.
The national immigration system is "broken," he said, and problems in policy must be solved on a national level.
He said the group also feels that illegal immigrants help the economy by providing much-needed labor.
Mr. Quiroz said he was surprised the county was so involved in the operation, noting that it is unusual for local agencies to be involved in these operations, and he was surprised immigration was such a focus in the county.
"The county has many, many needs, and he's making immigration priority one? That's something to think about," Mr. Quiroz said.
Irene M. Zoppi, executive director of the Annapolis office of El Centro de Ayuda - The Help Center - said they haven't gotten requests for help from effected families yet, but that they will respond to any request they get.
The Center helps people whose families are deported reunite with family members.
"We are prepared ... we are here to help them," she said.
Yesterday's efforts were one of several in the county over the last year in which the county cooperated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcment targeting immigrations.
Last fall, county police and ICE officials arrested nine people at a bust at Viva La Raza, Mexican Restaurant & Bar in Glen Burnie.
And last March, 69 people were arrested at several businesses, including workers at Under Armour in Curtis Bay and Dixie Printing and Packaging Corp. in Glen Burnie, and six other companies in the Baltimore region. The workers worked for a temporary employment agency, and not the businesses themselves.
Last fall, Mr. Leopold permanently assigned a county police officer to the regional Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, which is led by ICE.
Also, one officer from each of the county police department's four districts has received specialized training in spotting fake immigration documents and assisting in immigration investigations.
---
Staff writers Katie Arcieri and Elisabeth Hulette contributed to this report.
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/07_01-30/TOP
By LISA BEISEL, Staff Writer
Capital Gazette Communications
Published 07/01/08
Spurred by yesterday's raid of an Annapolis-area painting business, Hispanic rights defenders protested this morning in front of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore.
Meanwhile, political leaders and other business owners in the area applauded the raids, saying companies that hire undocumented workers undercut legitimate businesses and workers.
ICE agents, with the help of about 50 county police officers, raided the offices of Annapolis Painting Services and 15 homes throughout the county yesterday morning, arresting 45 suspected undocumented workers.
About 50 people attended this morning's rally in Baltimore, which was organized by the National Capital Immigrant Coalition, armed with signs saying "Don't divide our families" and "Stop the raids."
Irma Gonzalez, who said she has lived in Annapolis for 20 years, sported a bright pink sign with a picture of County Executive John R. Leopold with a line through it saying "John Leopold, we are not criminals."
She said immigrants in Annapolis are afraid.
"We have a voice," she said. "We can't keep quiet because a lot of innocent people get hurt," she said.
The Rev. John Levin, a priest at St. Mary's Church in Annapolis, said poverty in El Salvador and other countries drives people here, sometimes illegally.
"The effect on the families is what concerns me," he said of the raids. "They are people of faith, they're contributing to our economy, and we're taking advantage of them. It's a terrible injustice," he said.
Scot R. Rittenberg, assistant special agent in charge for ICE in Baltimore, said the agency received a tip about the company and has been investigating for 18 months. The arrests involved 11 search warrants, five seizure warrants for bank accounts, 10 seizure warrants for vehicles and 15 forfeitable properties, he said.
The arrested workers included people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nigeria and Panama.
Ten women and 35 men were taken into custody. In addition, at least five more people were served notice, but not taken into custody because of medical reasons, being the sole caregiver for a child, or in one case, due to a late-term pregnancy, Mr. Rittenberg said. Those people will have to appear before an immigration judge at a later date, he said.
ICE has been investigating employers since 2003 when the agency was created as a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
"The magnet for illegal immigrants is jobs, is the work and the money," Mr. Rittenberg said. "So one method of sort of getting rid of that magnet is by going after these companies, especially ones that are egregious violators of both the immigration and labor laws so we can get rid of the draw of illegal immigration."
ICE still is investigating the company and the owner has not been charged with anything at this point, he said.
Mr. Leopold said the county plans to continue working cooperatively with ICE in operations like this and said that other jurisdictions in the region are collaborating more and more in this kind of operation.
Companies that hire illegal immigrants hurt the business market, he said.
"Clearly when companies hire illegal immigrants, pay them below market wage rates, don't pay overtime, don't pay taxes, they're putting employers who want to play by the rules at a competitive disadvantage," Mr. Leopold said this morning.
He stressed that he did want to help immigrants "who want to play by the rules" get legal status in the U.S.
Mr. Leopold pushed for a workshop earlier this year to help businesses navigate the complicated process of legally hiring foreign workers.
The business owner
Calls to Robert Bontempo Jr., owner of Annapolis Painting Services, were not returned yesterday and someone who answered the door at the company said he was not there.
As a young man, Mr. Bontempo paid for college by painting homes in the 1970s and built up a firm that has worked on everything from the Naval Academy to such landmark buildings as the State Capitol building.
On early mornings, the firm's white vans can regularly be seen zig-zagging across the city.
"Over the years, we've been called on for virtually every painting project imaginable, and have completed work on over 10,000 residential, commercial, historic and landmark properties," according to the company's Web site. Mr. Bontempo's firm also is one of several local firms branding themselves as the "Annapolis Design District," mostly along Chinquapin Round Road.
Other than his success as a businessman, Mr. Bontempo is a property owner who owned nearly a third of all the properties in the 5-acre neighborhood of Carrs Manor and was a vocal proponent who petitioned to hook his lots up to the county sewer system.
Diane Marianos, whose husband owns M&M Painting Co., an Annapolis-area painting company, called yesterday's immigration raid "unfortunate," but not uncommon.
Ms. Marianos said M&M Painting employs only legal workers, but said the issue of hiring illegal immigrants is becoming rampant.
"It happens more and more everyday," she said.
Michael McGurk, owner of Bay Country Painters in Severna Park and president of the Baltimore/Annapolis Chapter of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, said Mr. Bontempo is a "serious business man" he knows personally.
Mr. McGurk said he is glad to see the county executive being so vocal on an issue unfair to companies like his that are playing by the rules.
"We're trying to do everything by the book," he said. "I've worked really hard to do that."
Bob Burdon, president and chief executive officer of the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce, said Mr. Botempo is a member of the local chamber.
"It's a well-established business, a very well respected business in the community," he said. "It's hard to believe when you hear something like this."
Mr. Burdon said like any other person a number of questions are running through his mind, including whether Mr. Bontempo was aware of hiring unqualified employees.
Because these people were taken in under suspicion, "I guess we're going to have to wait and see" to find out what the results are, he said.
Mario Quiroz, a spokesman for Casa de Maryland, a nonprofit group that advocates for Hispanic immigrants, said yesterday's operation will have long-reaching effects.
"We think that this is really bad for the community because we're not only talking about 45 people, we're talking about 45 people and their families," he said.
His group condemns actions like this, especially in this case, where 125 officers - 50 from the county and 75 from ICE - were used to capture just 45 detainees.
"These people are not criminals. They are not a national threat," he said.
The national immigration system is "broken," he said, and problems in policy must be solved on a national level.
He said the group also feels that illegal immigrants help the economy by providing much-needed labor.
Mr. Quiroz said he was surprised the county was so involved in the operation, noting that it is unusual for local agencies to be involved in these operations, and he was surprised immigration was such a focus in the county.
"The county has many, many needs, and he's making immigration priority one? That's something to think about," Mr. Quiroz said.
Irene M. Zoppi, executive director of the Annapolis office of El Centro de Ayuda - The Help Center - said they haven't gotten requests for help from effected families yet, but that they will respond to any request they get.
The Center helps people whose families are deported reunite with family members.
"We are prepared ... we are here to help them," she said.
Yesterday's efforts were one of several in the county over the last year in which the county cooperated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcment targeting immigrations.
Last fall, county police and ICE officials arrested nine people at a bust at Viva La Raza, Mexican Restaurant & Bar in Glen Burnie.
And last March, 69 people were arrested at several businesses, including workers at Under Armour in Curtis Bay and Dixie Printing and Packaging Corp. in Glen Burnie, and six other companies in the Baltimore region. The workers worked for a temporary employment agency, and not the businesses themselves.
Last fall, Mr. Leopold permanently assigned a county police officer to the regional Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, which is led by ICE.
Also, one officer from each of the county police department's four districts has received specialized training in spotting fake immigration documents and assisting in immigration investigations.
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Staff writers Katie Arcieri and Elisabeth Hulette contributed to this report.
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/07_01-30/TOP
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