By Ashley Portero
Business and Law
November 1, 2011
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 15 residents of a Tennessee apartment complex who had their homes illegally raided by immigration officials on Oct. 20, 2010, an act the suit claims was the result of a conspiracy to rid the complex of its Hispanic residents.
Multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, in addition to officers from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and the employees for the private security company Crime Suppression Services, forced their ways into multiple residences in South Nashville's Clairmont Apartments without a search warrant, ultimately arresting 20 people, according to the lawsuit. The ACLU of Tennessee reports ICE officials broke into apartments, harassed residents with racially-charged slurs and even held guns to the heads of some unarmed individuals.
When one of the residents asked the law enforcements agents if they had a search warrant, one agent reportedly replied, "We don't need a warrant, we're ICE." He then gestured to his genitals and made an explicit reference, saying the warrant was "coming out" of that area.
It is unclear as to whether the agent in question has been identified. Lindsay Kee, the communications director of ACLU Tennessee told the International Business Times the office did not have any additional information about the incident beyond what is listed in the legal complaint.
ICE officials did not return a request for comment. The agency told The Tennessean it does not comment on pending litigation.
Did Law Enforcement Officials Violate 4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments?
The lawsuit argues law enforcement officials violated the plaintiffs' -- who are all U.S. citizens -- rights under the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws.
In particular, the Fourth Amendment strictly prohibits law enforcement from intruding into private homes without a judicially authorized search warrant. In the absence of a warrant, citizens' must offers their voluntary and knowing consent.
The plaintiffs include a child who the ACLU claims was detained and interrogated while playing soccer on a playground because he appeared to be of Latino descent.
The lawsuit names several ICE agents, officers from the Nashville police department as well as the apartment complex's owner, manager and security company. The apartment complex is managed by Greystar Real Estate Partners and owned by TriTex Real Estate Partners.
In a statement released shortly after the incident, the Nashville Police Department said the raid was in response to reports from Clairmont Apartments' employees who said there was a threatening gang presence at the complex, The Tennessean reports. Police said they were concerned gangs were preying on undocumented immigrants that were hesitant to report robberies and other crimes because of their immigration status.
The department statement, according to the newspaper, said officers merely conducted "knock and talks" and did not illegally force their way into their homes.
The statement does not appear on the police department's Web site.
The lawsuit claims Greystar manager Tracy Hall told police she intended to "clean house, and get the Hispanics gone." As a result, the management company reportedly allowed building conditions to deteriorate. In addition, in the course of one rental cycle Greystar abandoned its on-site offices, began demanding Social Security numbers in order to sign lease agreements, and coordinated immigration raids that led to 20 detentions and resulted in scores of apartment vacancies.
Some of the 20 people arrested during the Oct. 2010 raid were placed into deportation proceedings, while others were released. No criminal charges were pursued.
In an Oct. 19 news conference where ACLU officials announced the lawsuit -- just one day before the year-anniversary of the incident -- Megan Macaraeg of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said many Hispanic residents are leaving Clairmont Apartments out of fear.
"I was just there today chatting with residents," Macaraeg said. "There are still apartments that stand vacant, and most Hispanic residents who were there are gone, have fled the site of terror."
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/241396/20111101/aclu-lawsuit-warrantless-raid-tennessee-apartment-complex.htm
Showing posts with label Expulsions in TN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expulsions in TN. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Latino residents sue ICE over apartment raids
By Associated Press
October 19, 2011
NASHVILLE — Fifteen residents of a Nashville apartment complex sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers Wednesday over what they said were violations of their constitutional rights during a raid last year.
October 19, 2011
NASHVILLE — Fifteen residents of a Nashville apartment complex sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers Wednesday over what they said were violations of their constitutional rights during a raid last year.
The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and claims ICE officers, along with Metro police, entered homes without warrants, consent or probable cause.
It alleged the raid was part of a conspiracy with the owners of the Clairmont Apartments to rid the complex of Latinos. All but one of the plaintiffs are Latino.
The suit claimed the officers violated several constitutional rights and seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages.
ICE and Metro’s deputy legal director both said they do not comment on pending litigation.
According to the suit, in early 2010, the Clairmont Apartments were sold in bankruptcy proceedings and taken over by a company that allowed conditions to deteriorate in an effort to force out current residents, many of whom were Latino.
The company abandoned its onsite offices, hired a “notoriously harsh” security company, allowed two buildings to lose hot water and saw an immigration raid that led to at least 20 detentions but no criminal arrests, the suit said.
The suit said ICE and Metro Gang Unit officers on Oct. 20, 2010, broke into apartments and held unarmed adults at gunpoint, shouting obscenities and racial epithets at them.
At a news conference announcing the suit, ACLU of Tennessee director Hedy Weinberg said her group respects the right of the United States to control immigration, but the rights to due process and equal protection apply to everyone.
“Looking Latino is not probable cause,” she said.
Megan Macaraeg with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said she was called to the apartments when the raid started.
“It was like nothing I had ever seen,” she said. Describing how she came to the U.S. to escape repression in the Philippines in 1974, she called the raid “personally appalling to me.”
Another federal suit was filed earlier this month by four Clairmont residents claiming similar rights violations during a smaller raid that took place Oct. 1, 2010.
http://www.timesnews.net/article/9037273/latino-residents-sue-ice-over-apartment-raids
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Hispanics sue feds over raid; Lawyer says agents target old addresses
By Brandon Gee
The Tennessean
Oct. 10, 2011
Four Nashville residents say federal agents illegally entered their apartment while looking for a fugitive at the complex.
Their attorney says the raid represents a pattern of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Nashville operate. They go to an old address where the target of the raid no longer lives but go ahead and arrest whoever happens to be living there now.
“This is not the only time this has happened,” said immigration attorney Elliott Ozment, who has filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of local Hispanic residents who claimed they were mistreated by federal and local authorities. “They get an old address, they go to that old address looking for somebody who hasn’t been there in years and arrest others incidentally. That’s the way they operate.”
Ozment filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in response to the first of two controversial raids that police and immigration authorities conducted at a South Nashville apartment complex last year.
He filed the lawsuit on behalf of four former residents of the Clairmont apartment complex. Pablo Cahuec-Castro, Myra Leticia Juarez, Ottoniel Perez-Piox and Maria del Rosario Osorio say Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials illegally entered their home on Oct. 1, 2010 — with the assistance of the complex’s maintenance supervisor — and subjected them to unreasonable searches and unlawful seizures.
The Oct. 1 arrests were followed by a much larger ICE operation on Oct. 20, 2010, that included the Metro Nashville Police Department and resulted in 20 federal arrests. The Tennessee Immigrant Rights Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union called a news conference after the second raid and claimed dozens of residents had their rights violated by ICE agents who broke into homes without consent and dragged people out at gunpoint in front of children.
Ozment claims his clients were treated similarly on Oct. 1.
According to the lawsuit, ICE agents threatened to break down their door and “drag every one of you out one by one” if they weren’t allowed into the apartment. The lawsuit states that the agents did not have a warrant but that Cahuec-Castro eventually let the agents in out of fear.
Fugitive not found
The agents were looking for a fugitive whom they did not find in the apartment. Cahuec-Castro and Perez-Piox were arrested after questioning and after agents found an entry matching the fugitive’s name in Cahuec-Castro’s cellphone contacts.
“Defendants violated Plaintiffs clearly established constitutional rights by arresting them after an illegal entry into their residence, unlawful and involuntary custodial interrogation, unlawful search and seizure of … Cahuec-Castro’s cellular phone, and an unlawful search of plaintiffs’ home,” the lawsuit states.
Ozment said Cahuec-Castro is now fighting deportation in immigration court and Perez-Piox has returned to Guatemala.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for physical and mental pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and medical and psychological expenses, as well as punitive damages.
ICE would not comment on the lawsuit.
“ICE is precluded from commenting on pending litigation,” New Orleans-based spokesman Temple Black said. “We routinely report matters of public record when they are releasable.”
In addition to the ICE agents, the lawsuit names the Clairmont’s owner, manager and former maintenance supervisor as defendants. The complex is managed by South Carolina-based Greystar Real Estate Partners. Messages left with Greystar and Atlanta-based TriTex Real Estate Partners, which owns the complex, were not returned. The maintenance supervisor, Scott Jarvis, no longer works at the complex.
According to a Metro police news release, staff at the apartments reported a strong gang presence at the Clairmont and said employees had been threatened after the Oct. 1 arrests of Cahuec-Castro and Perez-Piox. The police gang unit said members of the MS-13 and SUR-13 gangs lived in the complex and were suspected of preying on undocumented workers there who were hesitant to report robberies and other crimes because of their immigration status, according to the release.
Police began monitoring the complex and targeting suspects after receiving the apartment managers’ complaints and ultimately conducted the raid with ICE on Oct. 20. While residents claimed they were terrorized, the news release states that officers merely conducted “knock and talks,” meaning they knocked on doors and spoke with those who answered while looking for suspects or criminal activity at the same time.
Some of the 20 people arrested that day were placed into deportation proceedings while others were released. No criminal charges were pursued. Employees at the complex said conditions have improved since the sweeps, but Ozment said the long-term impact has been harmful.
“They are full of fear, the Hispanic community, very fearful,” he said. “Now, at least, they don’t open their doors when people knock.”
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111010/NEWS03/310100030/Hispanics-sue-feds-over-raid
The Tennessean
Oct. 10, 2011
Four Nashville residents say federal agents illegally entered their apartment while looking for a fugitive at the complex.
Their attorney says the raid represents a pattern of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Nashville operate. They go to an old address where the target of the raid no longer lives but go ahead and arrest whoever happens to be living there now.
“This is not the only time this has happened,” said immigration attorney Elliott Ozment, who has filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of local Hispanic residents who claimed they were mistreated by federal and local authorities. “They get an old address, they go to that old address looking for somebody who hasn’t been there in years and arrest others incidentally. That’s the way they operate.”
Ozment filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in response to the first of two controversial raids that police and immigration authorities conducted at a South Nashville apartment complex last year.
He filed the lawsuit on behalf of four former residents of the Clairmont apartment complex. Pablo Cahuec-Castro, Myra Leticia Juarez, Ottoniel Perez-Piox and Maria del Rosario Osorio say Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials illegally entered their home on Oct. 1, 2010 — with the assistance of the complex’s maintenance supervisor — and subjected them to unreasonable searches and unlawful seizures.
The Oct. 1 arrests were followed by a much larger ICE operation on Oct. 20, 2010, that included the Metro Nashville Police Department and resulted in 20 federal arrests. The Tennessee Immigrant Rights Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union called a news conference after the second raid and claimed dozens of residents had their rights violated by ICE agents who broke into homes without consent and dragged people out at gunpoint in front of children.
Ozment claims his clients were treated similarly on Oct. 1.
According to the lawsuit, ICE agents threatened to break down their door and “drag every one of you out one by one” if they weren’t allowed into the apartment. The lawsuit states that the agents did not have a warrant but that Cahuec-Castro eventually let the agents in out of fear.
Fugitive not found
The agents were looking for a fugitive whom they did not find in the apartment. Cahuec-Castro and Perez-Piox were arrested after questioning and after agents found an entry matching the fugitive’s name in Cahuec-Castro’s cellphone contacts.
“Defendants violated Plaintiffs clearly established constitutional rights by arresting them after an illegal entry into their residence, unlawful and involuntary custodial interrogation, unlawful search and seizure of … Cahuec-Castro’s cellular phone, and an unlawful search of plaintiffs’ home,” the lawsuit states.
Ozment said Cahuec-Castro is now fighting deportation in immigration court and Perez-Piox has returned to Guatemala.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for physical and mental pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and medical and psychological expenses, as well as punitive damages.
ICE would not comment on the lawsuit.
“ICE is precluded from commenting on pending litigation,” New Orleans-based spokesman Temple Black said. “We routinely report matters of public record when they are releasable.”
In addition to the ICE agents, the lawsuit names the Clairmont’s owner, manager and former maintenance supervisor as defendants. The complex is managed by South Carolina-based Greystar Real Estate Partners. Messages left with Greystar and Atlanta-based TriTex Real Estate Partners, which owns the complex, were not returned. The maintenance supervisor, Scott Jarvis, no longer works at the complex.
According to a Metro police news release, staff at the apartments reported a strong gang presence at the Clairmont and said employees had been threatened after the Oct. 1 arrests of Cahuec-Castro and Perez-Piox. The police gang unit said members of the MS-13 and SUR-13 gangs lived in the complex and were suspected of preying on undocumented workers there who were hesitant to report robberies and other crimes because of their immigration status, according to the release.
Police began monitoring the complex and targeting suspects after receiving the apartment managers’ complaints and ultimately conducted the raid with ICE on Oct. 20. While residents claimed they were terrorized, the news release states that officers merely conducted “knock and talks,” meaning they knocked on doors and spoke with those who answered while looking for suspects or criminal activity at the same time.
Some of the 20 people arrested that day were placed into deportation proceedings while others were released. No criminal charges were pursued. Employees at the complex said conditions have improved since the sweeps, but Ozment said the long-term impact has been harmful.
“They are full of fear, the Hispanic community, very fearful,” he said. “Now, at least, they don’t open their doors when people knock.”
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20111010/NEWS03/310100030/Hispanics-sue-feds-over-raid
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Insecure Communities: An ICE dragnet in Bedford County targeting Latinos wasn't subtle — which may have been the point
By Jonathan Meador
Nashville Scene
September 29, 2011
In The Godfather, hotheaded Sonny Corleone refers to war with a rival crime family as "going to the mattresses." It's not often that a quote from a mob movie applies so literally to federal anti-immigration activities, but maybe that's just how Immigration and Customs Enforcement rolls.
A recent spate of federal patrols in nearby Bedford County shocked and awed the immigrant community into meek subjugation two weeks ago as agents of ICE's fugitive operations unit made their presence known at multiple Latino-frequented businesses. Among these was Corsicana Bedding Inc., a mattress supply store, where ICE personnel allegedly scared the daylights out of the store's manager and employees during normal hours of operation.
Witnesses and media reports describe the spectacle of government vans and SUVs, windows tinted and teeming with federales, storming local homes, businesses, and area Lowe's and Walmart department stores. Reportedly they were searching for four Latinos accused of violating probation related to their immigration status.
The high-octane dragnet was cast over a sustained three-day period beginning in the early hours of Sept. 17 — one week after a consortium of local immigrants-rights groups held a hearing detailing racial profiling of Latinos by the Bedford County authorities. It ultimately succeeded in apprehending three of its targets, albeit with a cool-headed subtlety worthy of Sonny himself.
But members of the activist community are left wondering if ICE's cowboy behavior — a marked break from its mass Bush-era factory raids — is either retaliation for the Sept. 12 hearing, mere coincidence, or some combination of the two.
"That's definitely the conclusion one can draw from the situation," says Bill Geissler, a member of Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville (LUS), one of the hearing's organizers. "Of course, [ICE] denies it. But honestly, even if this was coincidental, it was, at the very least, utterly inefficient. All of that bluster to arrest three people who violated their probation? Clearly, they wanted their presence felt, to be seen, and it worked. This is a small town, and people are terrified."
Maybe for good reason. According to a report released at the hearing, "The Forgotten Constitution," Shelbyville Latinos are already hounded by local law-enforcement agencies more than any other ethnic group, based on research conducted and compiled by several area organizations, including LUS, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), among others.
According to the report, out of 74 reported arrests for traffic violations in the first quarter of 2011, 26 were Latinos. And even though Latinos comprise 20 percent of Bedford's 45,000 inhabitants, "approximately 39 percent of arrests for driving license violations were arrests of Latinos."
The report also criticizes the Bedford County Sheriff's Department — who declined to comment for this story — as "a zealous participant" in DHS' Secure Communities program, a full-fledged bureaucratic deportation machine created under Bush II and injected with steroids by Obama. What's more, it lambasts the department's mishandling of the so-called "Tennessee Jailer Bill," a state law that permits local authorities to detain suspected illegal immigrants on ICE's behalf for up to 48 hours.
"As a result," the report finds, "immigrants have languished in Bedford County jail for days and weeks longer than non-immigrants, without access to legal council, even when their only crime was driving without a license. Many are ultimately removed by ICE, even though the Bedford County jail had detained them illegally. Only after systematic advocacy and legal education by community members have officers begun to allow immigrants to post bond."
Although the Bedford County Sheriff's Department did not respond to repeated requests for comment, Capt. Tony Bennett recently told the Associated Press, "We're doing exactly what the immigration department has asked us to do."
Geissler, who often visits Bedford County's jail on behalf of incarcerated Latinos, finds Bennett's comment amusing, if not troubling.
"I don't know why he says those things," says Geissler, laughing.
Nevertheless, ICE spokesman Temple Black issued a statement to dismisses claims of federal retaliation as "without merit."
"ICE did not attend the [hearing], track participants or target supporters," Black says. "Rather, wholly apart and distinct from the meeting, ICE identified and arrested three convicted criminals who were living at large within the community. These arrests are in line with ICE's focus on convicted criminals and public safety threats, recent border violators, and those who game the immigration system."
Despite such assurances, the disconnect between ICE's public statements, its internal machinations and its public performance is pronounced enough to warrant sufficient skepticism.
A March 27, 2010, Washington Post article revealed that internal documents circulated among ICE's field offices sharply contrasted with the official line espoused by ICE chief John Morton. As Morton and the Obama administration sought to decrease the number of deportations nationwide, local ICE units adopted a different policy, setting quotas for detention and deportation.
And for the second time in less than a year, the 7,000-strong ICE agent's union unanimously passed a no-confidence in Morton, whom they criticized for a June 2011 memo that binds the tactics of the agency with something resembling the rule of law.
Officials within the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security who attended the Shelbyville hearing could not be reached for comment on this story, leaving the seemingly schizophrenic relationship between ICE's rhetoric and ICE's deeds — as well as federal opinion on Bedford County's apparent proclivity for profiling — up for debate.
But the chilling effect that ICE's actions have had on Shelbyville residents is hard to deny.
"The underlying impression that I have, and this is just my personal opinion, is that there is a lot of fear in the community regardless of your document status," says Noel Johnson, president of SOCM and an eighth-generation Bedford County resident. "People are feeling unwanted. They feel that no matter what they do, there is a risk they will be pulled over, so they're driving less, which makes it more difficult for them to get access to health care, to food, to basic services. I certainly don't have any facts or figures to report, but that to me definitely seems to be the case."
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/an-ice-dragnet-in-bedford-county-targeting-latinos-wasnt-subtle-andmdash-which-may-have-been-the-point/Content?oid=2640581
Nashville Scene
September 29, 2011
In The Godfather, hotheaded Sonny Corleone refers to war with a rival crime family as "going to the mattresses." It's not often that a quote from a mob movie applies so literally to federal anti-immigration activities, but maybe that's just how Immigration and Customs Enforcement rolls.
A recent spate of federal patrols in nearby Bedford County shocked and awed the immigrant community into meek subjugation two weeks ago as agents of ICE's fugitive operations unit made their presence known at multiple Latino-frequented businesses. Among these was Corsicana Bedding Inc., a mattress supply store, where ICE personnel allegedly scared the daylights out of the store's manager and employees during normal hours of operation.
Witnesses and media reports describe the spectacle of government vans and SUVs, windows tinted and teeming with federales, storming local homes, businesses, and area Lowe's and Walmart department stores. Reportedly they were searching for four Latinos accused of violating probation related to their immigration status.
The high-octane dragnet was cast over a sustained three-day period beginning in the early hours of Sept. 17 — one week after a consortium of local immigrants-rights groups held a hearing detailing racial profiling of Latinos by the Bedford County authorities. It ultimately succeeded in apprehending three of its targets, albeit with a cool-headed subtlety worthy of Sonny himself.
But members of the activist community are left wondering if ICE's cowboy behavior — a marked break from its mass Bush-era factory raids — is either retaliation for the Sept. 12 hearing, mere coincidence, or some combination of the two.
"That's definitely the conclusion one can draw from the situation," says Bill Geissler, a member of Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville (LUS), one of the hearing's organizers. "Of course, [ICE] denies it. But honestly, even if this was coincidental, it was, at the very least, utterly inefficient. All of that bluster to arrest three people who violated their probation? Clearly, they wanted their presence felt, to be seen, and it worked. This is a small town, and people are terrified."
Maybe for good reason. According to a report released at the hearing, "The Forgotten Constitution," Shelbyville Latinos are already hounded by local law-enforcement agencies more than any other ethnic group, based on research conducted and compiled by several area organizations, including LUS, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), among others.
According to the report, out of 74 reported arrests for traffic violations in the first quarter of 2011, 26 were Latinos. And even though Latinos comprise 20 percent of Bedford's 45,000 inhabitants, "approximately 39 percent of arrests for driving license violations were arrests of Latinos."
The report also criticizes the Bedford County Sheriff's Department — who declined to comment for this story — as "a zealous participant" in DHS' Secure Communities program, a full-fledged bureaucratic deportation machine created under Bush II and injected with steroids by Obama. What's more, it lambasts the department's mishandling of the so-called "Tennessee Jailer Bill," a state law that permits local authorities to detain suspected illegal immigrants on ICE's behalf for up to 48 hours.
"As a result," the report finds, "immigrants have languished in Bedford County jail for days and weeks longer than non-immigrants, without access to legal council, even when their only crime was driving without a license. Many are ultimately removed by ICE, even though the Bedford County jail had detained them illegally. Only after systematic advocacy and legal education by community members have officers begun to allow immigrants to post bond."
Although the Bedford County Sheriff's Department did not respond to repeated requests for comment, Capt. Tony Bennett recently told the Associated Press, "We're doing exactly what the immigration department has asked us to do."
Geissler, who often visits Bedford County's jail on behalf of incarcerated Latinos, finds Bennett's comment amusing, if not troubling.
"I don't know why he says those things," says Geissler, laughing.
Nevertheless, ICE spokesman Temple Black issued a statement to dismisses claims of federal retaliation as "without merit."
"ICE did not attend the [hearing], track participants or target supporters," Black says. "Rather, wholly apart and distinct from the meeting, ICE identified and arrested three convicted criminals who were living at large within the community. These arrests are in line with ICE's focus on convicted criminals and public safety threats, recent border violators, and those who game the immigration system."
Despite such assurances, the disconnect between ICE's public statements, its internal machinations and its public performance is pronounced enough to warrant sufficient skepticism.
A March 27, 2010, Washington Post article revealed that internal documents circulated among ICE's field offices sharply contrasted with the official line espoused by ICE chief John Morton. As Morton and the Obama administration sought to decrease the number of deportations nationwide, local ICE units adopted a different policy, setting quotas for detention and deportation.
And for the second time in less than a year, the 7,000-strong ICE agent's union unanimously passed a no-confidence in Morton, whom they criticized for a June 2011 memo that binds the tactics of the agency with something resembling the rule of law.
Officials within the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security who attended the Shelbyville hearing could not be reached for comment on this story, leaving the seemingly schizophrenic relationship between ICE's rhetoric and ICE's deeds — as well as federal opinion on Bedford County's apparent proclivity for profiling — up for debate.
But the chilling effect that ICE's actions have had on Shelbyville residents is hard to deny.
"The underlying impression that I have, and this is just my personal opinion, is that there is a lot of fear in the community regardless of your document status," says Noel Johnson, president of SOCM and an eighth-generation Bedford County resident. "People are feeling unwanted. They feel that no matter what they do, there is a risk they will be pulled over, so they're driving less, which makes it more difficult for them to get access to health care, to food, to basic services. I certainly don't have any facts or figures to report, but that to me definitely seems to be the case."
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/an-ice-dragnet-in-bedford-county-targeting-latinos-wasnt-subtle-andmdash-which-may-have-been-the-point/Content?oid=2640581
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Tennessee Latinos Angered Over Alleged ICE Racial Profiling
Fox News Latino
September 21, 2011
Advocates in Tennessee claim Latinos in Shelbyville were purposely coerced by federal officials during immigration raids.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denies the allegations.
Saturday's raids came five days after a hearing attended by representatives from the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security where Latino residents complained that they are the victims of racial profiling and illegal detention.
ICE agents showed up at the homes and businesses of at least two people involved in organizing the hearing, witnesses said. Neither person was arrested.
Megan Macaraeg, organizing director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, described the way Shelbyville Latinos view the raids like this: "That'll teach you to speak up and say bad things about us and bring the feds in."
ICE spokesman Temple Black said in an email that allegations the raids were retaliatory are "without merit."
"ICE did not attend the meeting, track participants, or target supporters," he wrote. "Rather, wholly apart and distinct from the meeting, ICE identified and arrested three convicted criminals who were living at large in the community."
Regardless of the intention, the raids and a continuous show of force by ICE over the past several days has frightened residents, said TIRRC organizer Leticia Alvarez, who was in the store of one of the hearing organizers when ICE agents circled the parking lot, writing down license plate numbers.
"Everyone is scared," she said. ..."There is serious panic in the community."
A report on last week's hearing -- sponsored by TIRRC, Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville (United Latinos of Shelbyville) and the Washington, D.C.,-based Rights Working Group -- links many of the reported rights abuses to the implementation of Tennessee's "Jailer Bill," which went into effect in January. The bill requires jailers to try to determine whether inmates are legally in the country and alert ICE if they believe someone is an illegal immigrant.
According to the report, that has led some Shelbyville Police officers to deliberately target Latinos in an attempt to find and deport illegal immigrants.
TIRRC found through open records requests on traffic violations for the first quarter of 2011, that just four officers made 62 percent of the arrests of Latinos for traffic violations.
"Since Shelbyville police officers are assigned to patrol throughout the city rather than in a specific area, these statistics suggest that some officers may be intentionally targeting Latino drivers for traffic stops and arrests," the report states.
Shelbyville police Chief Austin Swing said he did not know how TIRRC had compiled its numbers, but he does not believe he has any out-of-control officers on his staff. He said he had not heard any complaints of racial profiling before the release of the report on Monday.
"If anything like that is going on, I'm not aware of it," he said. He added that he would investigate any substantiated accusations of officer misconduct.
The report also claims that, once in jail, Latinos are being held illegally past the time they should be released in order to give ICE more time to decide whether to pick them up for possible deportation proceedings.
Bill Geissler, a member of Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville, said he has been to the jail numerous times over the past year on behalf of immigrants and has seen the abuses firsthand.
Bedford County Sheriff's Capt. Tony Bennett disputed that, saying that jailers only hold inmates for the amount of time they are legally allowed.
“We're doing exactly what the immigration department has asked us to do," he said. And the report claims that ICE's Nashville Fugitive Operations Team asked the Bedford County
Probation Office to prepare a list of people with Hispanic-sounding last names to target for deportation.
"Latino probationers were profiled based on their perceived national origin," the report states.
Macaraeg said the allegations in the report were enough to make TIRRC call for a Justice Department investigation of illegal patterns and practices.
The raids on Saturday and a continuous show of force by immigrations agents since then have prompted them to request a fast-track of that process.
Based on reporting by the Associated Press.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/09/21/tennessee-latinos-angered-over-alleged-ice-racial-profiling/#ixzz1YgxjQRSc
September 21, 2011
Advocates in Tennessee claim Latinos in Shelbyville were purposely coerced by federal officials during immigration raids.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denies the allegations.
Saturday's raids came five days after a hearing attended by representatives from the U.S. Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security where Latino residents complained that they are the victims of racial profiling and illegal detention.
ICE agents showed up at the homes and businesses of at least two people involved in organizing the hearing, witnesses said. Neither person was arrested.
Megan Macaraeg, organizing director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, described the way Shelbyville Latinos view the raids like this: "That'll teach you to speak up and say bad things about us and bring the feds in."
ICE spokesman Temple Black said in an email that allegations the raids were retaliatory are "without merit."
"ICE did not attend the meeting, track participants, or target supporters," he wrote. "Rather, wholly apart and distinct from the meeting, ICE identified and arrested three convicted criminals who were living at large in the community."
Regardless of the intention, the raids and a continuous show of force by ICE over the past several days has frightened residents, said TIRRC organizer Leticia Alvarez, who was in the store of one of the hearing organizers when ICE agents circled the parking lot, writing down license plate numbers.
"Everyone is scared," she said. ..."There is serious panic in the community."
A report on last week's hearing -- sponsored by TIRRC, Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville (United Latinos of Shelbyville) and the Washington, D.C.,-based Rights Working Group -- links many of the reported rights abuses to the implementation of Tennessee's "Jailer Bill," which went into effect in January. The bill requires jailers to try to determine whether inmates are legally in the country and alert ICE if they believe someone is an illegal immigrant.
According to the report, that has led some Shelbyville Police officers to deliberately target Latinos in an attempt to find and deport illegal immigrants.
TIRRC found through open records requests on traffic violations for the first quarter of 2011, that just four officers made 62 percent of the arrests of Latinos for traffic violations.
"Since Shelbyville police officers are assigned to patrol throughout the city rather than in a specific area, these statistics suggest that some officers may be intentionally targeting Latino drivers for traffic stops and arrests," the report states.
Shelbyville police Chief Austin Swing said he did not know how TIRRC had compiled its numbers, but he does not believe he has any out-of-control officers on his staff. He said he had not heard any complaints of racial profiling before the release of the report on Monday.
"If anything like that is going on, I'm not aware of it," he said. He added that he would investigate any substantiated accusations of officer misconduct.
The report also claims that, once in jail, Latinos are being held illegally past the time they should be released in order to give ICE more time to decide whether to pick them up for possible deportation proceedings.
Bill Geissler, a member of Latinos Unidos de Shelbyville, said he has been to the jail numerous times over the past year on behalf of immigrants and has seen the abuses firsthand.
Bedford County Sheriff's Capt. Tony Bennett disputed that, saying that jailers only hold inmates for the amount of time they are legally allowed.
“We're doing exactly what the immigration department has asked us to do," he said. And the report claims that ICE's Nashville Fugitive Operations Team asked the Bedford County
Probation Office to prepare a list of people with Hispanic-sounding last names to target for deportation.
"Latino probationers were profiled based on their perceived national origin," the report states.
Macaraeg said the allegations in the report were enough to make TIRRC call for a Justice Department investigation of illegal patterns and practices.
The raids on Saturday and a continuous show of force by immigrations agents since then have prompted them to request a fast-track of that process.
Based on reporting by the Associated Press.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/09/21/tennessee-latinos-angered-over-alleged-ice-racial-profiling/#ixzz1YgxjQRSc
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Crowd protests Mexican teen's potential deportation; Protesters fight for Mexican teen caught speeding
By Nicole Young
The Tennessean
Jul. 8, 2011
Mercedes Gonzalez presented a deputy with her graduation cap, a group of about 30 students, teachers and community advocates looking on in front of the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
Gonzalez, 18, and her supporters, clad in graduation caps, had a message to deliver Thursday: “Don’t deport our city’s future.”
Gonzalez, who moved from Mexico to Nashville with her family at age 11, was arrested for speeding — going 48 mph in a 40 mph zone — and held at the Metro Jail for three days after a traffic stop on May 15. Because she is in the country illegally, she faces deportation.
And even though she and her supporters were told that Sheriff Daron Hall was not in, they carried on with their plans.
'This is home'
“We are here today because we feel like this is a serious issue in our community,” Luis Escoto, 18, a recent Glencliff High School graduate, told the deputy standing at the entrance.
“Students are being arrested and families are being separated. We don’t think it’s a good thing.”
Gonzalez spoke about her arrest for the first time after the group marched from the sheriff’s office to the Metro Courthouse on Second Avenue.
“When I was in jail I was so scared,” she said. “They told me I’d never see my family again or make my graduation ceremony.”
But Gonzalez did make the Overton High School ceremony, held on May 21. She said she walked home from the jail, a two-hour journey, after she was released on her own recognizance.
“I cried all the way home,” she said. “I love Nashville. This is home. I don’t know what I’ll do if they send me back to Mexico. I’m scared to go back.”
So far, there has been no movement in Gonzalez’s case, said Adrienne Schlichtemier, her attorney.
“We’ve made a request for deferred action to (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” said Schlichtemier, who works with the nonprofit group Justice for Our Neighbors. “If that doesn’t go through, we’ll have to look at other avenues of action, such as asking our representatives or congressmen and women for a private bill.
“The good news is there’s no rush. An immigration hearing has not been set yet.”
There is no word on how long it could take for a hearing, said Schlichtemier, who became involved with the case through the public defender’s office.
The protest came after nearly three weeks of planning, said Karla Vasquez, a leader with JUMP, which translated from Spanish stands for Youth United for a Better Present. It is affiliated with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
The deputy wouldn’t take Gonzalez’s graduation cap, so she left it on the sidewalk in front of the sheriff’s office. An hour after the protesters left the facility, it was still there.
“We’re leaving it here for now, but it will be discarded at some point,” sheriff’s office spokeswoman Karla Weikal said.
Contact Nicole Young at 615-259-8091 or nyoung@tennessean.com.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110708/NEWS01/307080065/Crowd-protests-Mexican-teen-s-potential-deportation
The Tennessean
Jul. 8, 2011
Mercedes Gonzalez presented a deputy with her graduation cap, a group of about 30 students, teachers and community advocates looking on in front of the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
Gonzalez, 18, and her supporters, clad in graduation caps, had a message to deliver Thursday: “Don’t deport our city’s future.”
Gonzalez, who moved from Mexico to Nashville with her family at age 11, was arrested for speeding — going 48 mph in a 40 mph zone — and held at the Metro Jail for three days after a traffic stop on May 15. Because she is in the country illegally, she faces deportation.
And even though she and her supporters were told that Sheriff Daron Hall was not in, they carried on with their plans.
'This is home'
“We are here today because we feel like this is a serious issue in our community,” Luis Escoto, 18, a recent Glencliff High School graduate, told the deputy standing at the entrance.
“Students are being arrested and families are being separated. We don’t think it’s a good thing.”
Gonzalez spoke about her arrest for the first time after the group marched from the sheriff’s office to the Metro Courthouse on Second Avenue.
“When I was in jail I was so scared,” she said. “They told me I’d never see my family again or make my graduation ceremony.”
But Gonzalez did make the Overton High School ceremony, held on May 21. She said she walked home from the jail, a two-hour journey, after she was released on her own recognizance.
“I cried all the way home,” she said. “I love Nashville. This is home. I don’t know what I’ll do if they send me back to Mexico. I’m scared to go back.”
So far, there has been no movement in Gonzalez’s case, said Adrienne Schlichtemier, her attorney.
“We’ve made a request for deferred action to (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” said Schlichtemier, who works with the nonprofit group Justice for Our Neighbors. “If that doesn’t go through, we’ll have to look at other avenues of action, such as asking our representatives or congressmen and women for a private bill.
“The good news is there’s no rush. An immigration hearing has not been set yet.”
There is no word on how long it could take for a hearing, said Schlichtemier, who became involved with the case through the public defender’s office.
The protest came after nearly three weeks of planning, said Karla Vasquez, a leader with JUMP, which translated from Spanish stands for Youth United for a Better Present. It is affiliated with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
The deputy wouldn’t take Gonzalez’s graduation cap, so she left it on the sidewalk in front of the sheriff’s office. An hour after the protesters left the facility, it was still there.
“We’re leaving it here for now, but it will be discarded at some point,” sheriff’s office spokeswoman Karla Weikal said.
Contact Nicole Young at 615-259-8091 or nyoung@tennessean.com.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110708/NEWS01/307080065/Crowd-protests-Mexican-teen-s-potential-deportation
Friday, May 27, 2011
Fewer deportations put 287(g) immigration program at risk; Immigrants’ fear, economy drive decline, critics say
Written by Brian Haas
The Tennessean
May 26, 2011
The number of immigrants detained in Nashville’s deportation program has been nearly halved. Federal dollars earned by the program have been cut by almost two-thirds.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, whose 287(g) immigration program has been the subject of years of complaints, said its days are numbered if the declines continue.
“If we continue to trend this way… clearly our resources in the Sheriff’s Office could be better used in areas like mental health,” Hall said. “That’s what we would hope, which would be able to focus in a direct way in other areas.”
Deportation proceedings of jailed Nashville immigrants have dropped 40 percent since 2008 to fewer than 1,500 last year, with federal funding dropping more. Hall said the decline signals success, that immigrants deported for even the most minor crimes don’t return. But critics say a troubled economy and a cautious immigrant community are more likely to blame for the drop.
“The fact that it slows doesn’t suggest to me that the program is working any better or worse,” said Katharine Donato, professor and chair of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Sociology. “The program, yes, has been effective, it’s led to thousands of deportations. But if the population locally isn’t growing at the rate it once was, let’s say two years ago, of course you’re going to get a slowdown.”
Dropping numbers
Davidson County joined the 287(g) program in 2007, which allows deputies to screen and interview inmates to determine whether they are U.S. citizens. Suspected illegal immigrants are then turned over to immigration officials for possible deportation proceedings.
Hall has come under consistent criticism from advocates who say that far too many minor offenders are deported when the program was designed to target dangerous criminals.
Though the number of immigrants caught in the program has declined, a Tennessean analysis of 287(g) data shows that the top five charges immigrants faced in 2010 continued to be traffic or minor crimes. Driving without a license, DUI, implied consent violations, failing to show up to court and misdemeanor warrants made up 56 percent of the charges filed, higher than in prior years.
Hall has countered that he doesn’t determine who is arrested for what charge or who ends up deported.
“When we started we were adamant that we wanted to screen all people,” Hall said. “Everyone who is criminally arrested, taken off the streets of Nashville.”
That isn’t a surprise to immigration attorney Elliott Ozment. Ozment is suing Hall on behalf of two legal immigrants caught up in the 287(g) program, one of whom was held for days.
“I have never seen any evidence of him backing off that policy. If he has, I’m certainly not aware of it,” he said. “The sheriff still hasn’t straightened out the priorities of the 287(g) program.”
Cutting back
Attorney Gregg Ramos, who was on Hall’s 287(g) advisory board before it was dissolved, suspects some of the decline can be attributed to immigrants afraid to be driving Nashville’s streets out of fear of being deported.
“I know people are still scared to come out. They get stopped for playing their music too loud, they get stopped for a tail light allegedly out, they get stopped for tinted windows that are maybe too dark,” Ramos said. “Parents are afraid to engage in their children’s education.”
Donato said the decline can largely be traced to an overall drop in immigration from Latin American countries because of the lagging U.S. economy and a lackluster job market. Immigration from some smaller countries, such as El Salvador, has completely dried up, she said.
“Migration has slowed from Mexico and Latin America related to the economy. It hasn’t disappeared, but it has slowed,” she said.
Whatever the reason, Hall has already scaled back his 287(g) program. He started out with 15 detention deputies and a supervisor. Today, he’s cut back to 12 employees and is already mulling over what it would take to shrink the team even more. And he’s convinced that each cut is another sign of success.
“I think it’s pretty simple,” Hall said. “What’s wrong with ‘It’s worked?’ ”
Additional Facts
Drop in numbers
Number of immigrants held at the Davidson County jail for removal
2007 2,224
2008 2,506
2009 2,068
2010 1,474
2011 465*
*Through May 23, 2011, at 3:15 p.m. SOURCE: Davidson County Sheriff’s Office
Most common charges
Most common charges filed against suspected illegal immigrants held in the 287(g) program in 2010:
Driving without a license: 24.76%
Driving under the influence: 14.69%
Implied consent violation: 8.20%
Failure to be booked: 5.41%
Misdemeanor capias: 3.23%
FUNDS CUT
Federal money received by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office for holding immigrants under the 287(g) removal program.
2007-08 $1,045,845
2008-09 $659,642
2009-10 $368,867
2010-11 to date $254,797
(Projected to be $360,000)
SOURCE: Davidson County Sheriff’s Office
The Tennessean
May 26, 2011
The number of immigrants detained in Nashville’s deportation program has been nearly halved. Federal dollars earned by the program have been cut by almost two-thirds.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, whose 287(g) immigration program has been the subject of years of complaints, said its days are numbered if the declines continue.
“If we continue to trend this way… clearly our resources in the Sheriff’s Office could be better used in areas like mental health,” Hall said. “That’s what we would hope, which would be able to focus in a direct way in other areas.”
Deportation proceedings of jailed Nashville immigrants have dropped 40 percent since 2008 to fewer than 1,500 last year, with federal funding dropping more. Hall said the decline signals success, that immigrants deported for even the most minor crimes don’t return. But critics say a troubled economy and a cautious immigrant community are more likely to blame for the drop.
“The fact that it slows doesn’t suggest to me that the program is working any better or worse,” said Katharine Donato, professor and chair of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Sociology. “The program, yes, has been effective, it’s led to thousands of deportations. But if the population locally isn’t growing at the rate it once was, let’s say two years ago, of course you’re going to get a slowdown.”
Dropping numbers
Davidson County joined the 287(g) program in 2007, which allows deputies to screen and interview inmates to determine whether they are U.S. citizens. Suspected illegal immigrants are then turned over to immigration officials for possible deportation proceedings.
Hall has come under consistent criticism from advocates who say that far too many minor offenders are deported when the program was designed to target dangerous criminals.
Though the number of immigrants caught in the program has declined, a Tennessean analysis of 287(g) data shows that the top five charges immigrants faced in 2010 continued to be traffic or minor crimes. Driving without a license, DUI, implied consent violations, failing to show up to court and misdemeanor warrants made up 56 percent of the charges filed, higher than in prior years.
Hall has countered that he doesn’t determine who is arrested for what charge or who ends up deported.
“When we started we were adamant that we wanted to screen all people,” Hall said. “Everyone who is criminally arrested, taken off the streets of Nashville.”
That isn’t a surprise to immigration attorney Elliott Ozment. Ozment is suing Hall on behalf of two legal immigrants caught up in the 287(g) program, one of whom was held for days.
“I have never seen any evidence of him backing off that policy. If he has, I’m certainly not aware of it,” he said. “The sheriff still hasn’t straightened out the priorities of the 287(g) program.”
Cutting back
Attorney Gregg Ramos, who was on Hall’s 287(g) advisory board before it was dissolved, suspects some of the decline can be attributed to immigrants afraid to be driving Nashville’s streets out of fear of being deported.
“I know people are still scared to come out. They get stopped for playing their music too loud, they get stopped for a tail light allegedly out, they get stopped for tinted windows that are maybe too dark,” Ramos said. “Parents are afraid to engage in their children’s education.”
Donato said the decline can largely be traced to an overall drop in immigration from Latin American countries because of the lagging U.S. economy and a lackluster job market. Immigration from some smaller countries, such as El Salvador, has completely dried up, she said.
“Migration has slowed from Mexico and Latin America related to the economy. It hasn’t disappeared, but it has slowed,” she said.
Whatever the reason, Hall has already scaled back his 287(g) program. He started out with 15 detention deputies and a supervisor. Today, he’s cut back to 12 employees and is already mulling over what it would take to shrink the team even more. And he’s convinced that each cut is another sign of success.
“I think it’s pretty simple,” Hall said. “What’s wrong with ‘It’s worked?’ ”
Additional Facts
Drop in numbers
Number of immigrants held at the Davidson County jail for removal
2007 2,224
2008 2,506
2009 2,068
2010 1,474
2011 465*
*Through May 23, 2011, at 3:15 p.m. SOURCE: Davidson County Sheriff’s Office
Most common charges
Most common charges filed against suspected illegal immigrants held in the 287(g) program in 2010:
Driving without a license: 24.76%
Driving under the influence: 14.69%
Implied consent violation: 8.20%
Failure to be booked: 5.41%
Misdemeanor capias: 3.23%
FUNDS CUT
Federal money received by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office for holding immigrants under the 287(g) removal program.
2007-08 $1,045,845
2008-09 $659,642
2009-10 $368,867
2010-11 to date $254,797
(Projected to be $360,000)
SOURCE: Davidson County Sheriff’s Office
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Kentucky's immigration enforcement program criticized for deporting non-violent offenders
By Valarie Honeycutt Spears and Linda J. Johnson
The Lexington Herald-Leader
May 13, 2011
Since Lexington joined a federal program in October aimed at deporting illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes, 75.6 percent of the 41 people deported have been convicted of a minor crime or no crime at all.
Lexington's percentage of such deportations is well above the national average of 60 percent, according to a Herald-Leader analysis of a report on the program released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 4.
There has been mounting national criticism in recent weeks of ICE's Secure Communities program, leading Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn to abandon the initiative earlier this month.
In a May 4 letter to Marc Rapp, the acting assistant director of Secure Communities, Quinn said his state wants to withdraw because more than "30 percent of those deported from the United States, under the program, have never been convicted of any crime, much less a serious one."
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government spokeswoman Susan Straub said the city has no plans to take similar action.
"We will continue to work with Homeland Security to address the issues involving illegal immigration and have no plans to withdraw from our participation in this Homeland Security initiative," Straub said.
In the program, local law enforcement shares fingerprints of all those arrested in a specific county with the Department of Justice. The fingerprints are then submitted to ICE and checked against U.S. Department of Homeland Security databases to determine a person's immigration status. ICE then determines what, if any, enforcement action to take.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/05/13/3624281/kentuckys-immigration-enforcement.html
The Lexington Herald-Leader
May 13, 2011
Since Lexington joined a federal program in October aimed at deporting illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes, 75.6 percent of the 41 people deported have been convicted of a minor crime or no crime at all.
Lexington's percentage of such deportations is well above the national average of 60 percent, according to a Herald-Leader analysis of a report on the program released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 4.
There has been mounting national criticism in recent weeks of ICE's Secure Communities program, leading Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn to abandon the initiative earlier this month.
In a May 4 letter to Marc Rapp, the acting assistant director of Secure Communities, Quinn said his state wants to withdraw because more than "30 percent of those deported from the United States, under the program, have never been convicted of any crime, much less a serious one."
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government spokeswoman Susan Straub said the city has no plans to take similar action.
"We will continue to work with Homeland Security to address the issues involving illegal immigration and have no plans to withdraw from our participation in this Homeland Security initiative," Straub said.
In the program, local law enforcement shares fingerprints of all those arrested in a specific county with the Department of Justice. The fingerprints are then submitted to ICE and checked against U.S. Department of Homeland Security databases to determine a person's immigration status. ICE then determines what, if any, enforcement action to take.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/05/13/3624281/kentuckys-immigration-enforcement.html
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Poll: Majority of Tennesseans say immigrants a burden but oppose deportation
By Chas Sisk
The Tennessean
Feb. 9, 2011
Tennesseans have mixed opinions about immigration, with a majority saying foreigners have become a burden to the United States while also opposing a crackdown that would send illegal immigrants back to their home countries.
About 70 percent of Tennesseans believe immigrants take jobs from American citizens and use up tax dollars, according to a statewide poll by Vanderbilt University.
More than 60 percent said they favor giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship rather than arresting them and forcing them to leave. Most Tennesseans also said they support granting citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil, regardless of where their parents are from, a principle often referred to as birthright citizenship.
The results suggest that even as they hold negative views about the recent wave of immigration to the United States, many Tennesseans do not support extraordinary measures to remove people who are in the country illegally.
"It’s something that we just need to accept," Will Shuff, owner of the 12South Taproom said in an interview with The Tennessean conducted separately from the poll. "We need to find a solution that works for everybody. If we just totally eliminated that, it’s going to be dramatic."
The poll found general agreement among Tennesseans on how to address illegal immigration, including on major policy questions such as amnesty, mass deportations and birthright citizenship.
Only about 1 percent of Tennesseans support giving illegal immigrants citizenship without any requirements or amnesty, but only about 36 percent back deportations.
Tennesseans instead expressed support for heftier penalties on businesses that use illegal immigrants. More than 78 percent of Tennesseans told pollsters they would support fines on employers that hire illegal immigrants, and 62 percent said they would back jail time for the practice.
"I wouldn’t mind a little fining," said Alvin Riedl, a barber at the Granny White Barber Shop nearly Lipscomb University. "Seven days wouldn’t be bad either. Forty-eight hours even."
Education a factor
Tennesseans’ attitudes toward immigration varied somewhat based on their level of education.
More than 80 percent of people with a high school education or less said immigrants are a burden on American society, a view shared by only 47 percent of those with college degrees.
Otherwise, skepticism toward the benefits of immigration appeared to span the political spectrum, cutting across race, age and gender.
A majority of liberals, nearly 56 percent, told pollsters that they view immigrants as a burden, a view shared by 64 percent of moderates and 80 percent of conservatives. About two-thirds of Tennesseans less than 45 years of age see immigrants as burdensome, as do 72 percent of Tennesseans older than 65 and 78 percent of Tennesseans of ages in between.
"We’re good people that really want to push ourselves forward," Celeste Nuñez, a 24-year-old immigrant from Mexico, said as she waited in a Catholic Charities office on Nolensville Pike for help completing her citizenship application. "I think they really should give us a chance, not just Hispanics but all kinds of people."
Yet, majorities of Tennesseans of all ages told pollsters that they favor creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. That solution was favored by Democrats, Republicans and independents, and by 52 percent of respondents who identified themselves as members of the tea party movement.
"I’ve got immigrants who live right next to me, and their good neighbors," said Margaret Timmons, a 77-year-old retired nurse technician from Antioch. "They don’t bother me at all. … I think something should be done because they got to make a living just like anybody."
Several Middle Tennesseans said the citizenship requirements appear to be too difficult, raising unnecessary hurdles for immigrants, even those who are in the country legally.
"They need to give some permits to work," said Alfonso Martinez, a 26-year-old painter from Mexico who was naturalized in December. "All people want is to have drivers’ licenses and get jobs."
More than two-thirds of the people who called themselves tea partiers said they oppose granting citizenship to all children born in the U.S., but more generally, birthright citizenship drew majority support from Republicans and Democrats.
But support was widespread for tougher penalties on those who employ illegal immigrants. More than 85 percent of independents supported fines, as did 78 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Democrats. A majority of liberals, 63 percent, backed fines, as did 79 percent of moderates and 81 percent of conservatives.
Even the suggestion of jail time was greeted with support. About two-thirds of conservatives and liberals supported sending employers who hire illegal immigrants to jail, as did 55 percent of moderates.
"Overall, Tennesseans are pretty unified in their perception of immigration," Clinton said. "It’s not a Republican or Democratic question. Most of the time, they’re on the same side of the issue."
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/feb/09/tennesseans-immigrants-burden-oppose-deportation/
The Tennessean
Feb. 9, 2011
Tennesseans have mixed opinions about immigration, with a majority saying foreigners have become a burden to the United States while also opposing a crackdown that would send illegal immigrants back to their home countries.
About 70 percent of Tennesseans believe immigrants take jobs from American citizens and use up tax dollars, according to a statewide poll by Vanderbilt University.
More than 60 percent said they favor giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship rather than arresting them and forcing them to leave. Most Tennesseans also said they support granting citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil, regardless of where their parents are from, a principle often referred to as birthright citizenship.
The results suggest that even as they hold negative views about the recent wave of immigration to the United States, many Tennesseans do not support extraordinary measures to remove people who are in the country illegally.
"It’s something that we just need to accept," Will Shuff, owner of the 12South Taproom said in an interview with The Tennessean conducted separately from the poll. "We need to find a solution that works for everybody. If we just totally eliminated that, it’s going to be dramatic."
The poll found general agreement among Tennesseans on how to address illegal immigration, including on major policy questions such as amnesty, mass deportations and birthright citizenship.
Only about 1 percent of Tennesseans support giving illegal immigrants citizenship without any requirements or amnesty, but only about 36 percent back deportations.
Tennesseans instead expressed support for heftier penalties on businesses that use illegal immigrants. More than 78 percent of Tennesseans told pollsters they would support fines on employers that hire illegal immigrants, and 62 percent said they would back jail time for the practice.
"I wouldn’t mind a little fining," said Alvin Riedl, a barber at the Granny White Barber Shop nearly Lipscomb University. "Seven days wouldn’t be bad either. Forty-eight hours even."
Education a factor
Tennesseans’ attitudes toward immigration varied somewhat based on their level of education.
More than 80 percent of people with a high school education or less said immigrants are a burden on American society, a view shared by only 47 percent of those with college degrees.
Otherwise, skepticism toward the benefits of immigration appeared to span the political spectrum, cutting across race, age and gender.
A majority of liberals, nearly 56 percent, told pollsters that they view immigrants as a burden, a view shared by 64 percent of moderates and 80 percent of conservatives. About two-thirds of Tennesseans less than 45 years of age see immigrants as burdensome, as do 72 percent of Tennesseans older than 65 and 78 percent of Tennesseans of ages in between.
"We’re good people that really want to push ourselves forward," Celeste Nuñez, a 24-year-old immigrant from Mexico, said as she waited in a Catholic Charities office on Nolensville Pike for help completing her citizenship application. "I think they really should give us a chance, not just Hispanics but all kinds of people."
Yet, majorities of Tennesseans of all ages told pollsters that they favor creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. That solution was favored by Democrats, Republicans and independents, and by 52 percent of respondents who identified themselves as members of the tea party movement.
"I’ve got immigrants who live right next to me, and their good neighbors," said Margaret Timmons, a 77-year-old retired nurse technician from Antioch. "They don’t bother me at all. … I think something should be done because they got to make a living just like anybody."
Several Middle Tennesseans said the citizenship requirements appear to be too difficult, raising unnecessary hurdles for immigrants, even those who are in the country legally.
"They need to give some permits to work," said Alfonso Martinez, a 26-year-old painter from Mexico who was naturalized in December. "All people want is to have drivers’ licenses and get jobs."
More than two-thirds of the people who called themselves tea partiers said they oppose granting citizenship to all children born in the U.S., but more generally, birthright citizenship drew majority support from Republicans and Democrats.
But support was widespread for tougher penalties on those who employ illegal immigrants. More than 85 percent of independents supported fines, as did 78 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of Democrats. A majority of liberals, 63 percent, backed fines, as did 79 percent of moderates and 81 percent of conservatives.
Even the suggestion of jail time was greeted with support. About two-thirds of conservatives and liberals supported sending employers who hire illegal immigrants to jail, as did 55 percent of moderates.
"Overall, Tennesseans are pretty unified in their perception of immigration," Clinton said. "It’s not a Republican or Democratic question. Most of the time, they’re on the same side of the issue."
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2011/feb/09/tennesseans-immigrants-burden-oppose-deportation/
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Immigrant advocates dispute cause of police raid in South Nashville
By Brian Haas
THE TENNESSEAN
October 29, 2010
Immigrant rights groups on Thursday accused federal officials of violating the rights of dozens of people in a massive South Nashville immigration raid last week.
Except police say it wasn't an immigration raid.
Members of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union accused Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of violating people's civil rights on Oct. 20 during a raid at the Clairmont apartment complex.
Remziya Suleyman, policy coordinator for the immigration coalition, said the raid may have been retribution for complaints from residents about deplorable living conditions that included insects, vermin, mold, leaks and broken doors and windows.
"ICE came in — from the allegations that we heard — without consent, breaking into people's homes, breaking through windows and doors, dragging people out by gunpoint and in front of children," said Tricia Herzfeld, an attorney with the ACLU.
"This is not fair. We're a country of laws. Everyone has to follow them, including law enforcement."
But Metro police say the raid was not related to immigration issues.
Police say they were investigating suspected members of the MS-13 and SUR-13 gangs who were preying on undocumented workers.
Gang unit detectives and ICE agents watched four apartments for two weeks after requests from apartment managers.
They found two men who were wanted in connection with several robberies in the area, police spokesman Don Aaron said.
The Oct. 20 raid involved "knock and talks," Aaron said, meaning police knock on doors and try to spot fugitives as they talk to residents.
Aaron said police spotted at least three people they had identified as wanted gang members during the sweep.
In all, Aaron said, ICE made several arrests of wanted fugitives.
ICE officials Thursday said they were merely supporting the Metro Gang Unit but didn't address questions about the arrests.
"In this case, ICE's Fugitive Operations Team was assisting local law enforcement with field interviews of suspected street gang members and targeted ICE fugitives," said ICE spokesman Temple Black from the New Orleans field office.
The apartment's managers declined to comment, and their management company could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Several people detained
The ACLU and immigrant advocates had said that ICE detained a few dozen people in the raid, some of whom were denied access to attorneys.
"We are not aware of a single criminal charge that has resulted from this raid that terrorized all of these people," Herzfeld said. "There are between 20 and 40 people who are currently being held in immigration detention. Many of them have not been provided access to legal counsel."
Herzfeld said the ACLU was looking into possible litigation but that the groups were still investigating exactly what happened in the raid.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101029/NEWS03/10290356/Immigrant-advocates-dispute-cause-of-police-raid-in-South-Nashville
THE TENNESSEAN
October 29, 2010
Immigrant rights groups on Thursday accused federal officials of violating the rights of dozens of people in a massive South Nashville immigration raid last week.
Except police say it wasn't an immigration raid.
Members of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union accused Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of violating people's civil rights on Oct. 20 during a raid at the Clairmont apartment complex.
Remziya Suleyman, policy coordinator for the immigration coalition, said the raid may have been retribution for complaints from residents about deplorable living conditions that included insects, vermin, mold, leaks and broken doors and windows.
"ICE came in — from the allegations that we heard — without consent, breaking into people's homes, breaking through windows and doors, dragging people out by gunpoint and in front of children," said Tricia Herzfeld, an attorney with the ACLU.
"This is not fair. We're a country of laws. Everyone has to follow them, including law enforcement."
But Metro police say the raid was not related to immigration issues.
Police say they were investigating suspected members of the MS-13 and SUR-13 gangs who were preying on undocumented workers.
Gang unit detectives and ICE agents watched four apartments for two weeks after requests from apartment managers.
They found two men who were wanted in connection with several robberies in the area, police spokesman Don Aaron said.
The Oct. 20 raid involved "knock and talks," Aaron said, meaning police knock on doors and try to spot fugitives as they talk to residents.
Aaron said police spotted at least three people they had identified as wanted gang members during the sweep.
In all, Aaron said, ICE made several arrests of wanted fugitives.
ICE officials Thursday said they were merely supporting the Metro Gang Unit but didn't address questions about the arrests.
"In this case, ICE's Fugitive Operations Team was assisting local law enforcement with field interviews of suspected street gang members and targeted ICE fugitives," said ICE spokesman Temple Black from the New Orleans field office.
The apartment's managers declined to comment, and their management company could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Several people detained
The ACLU and immigrant advocates had said that ICE detained a few dozen people in the raid, some of whom were denied access to attorneys.
"We are not aware of a single criminal charge that has resulted from this raid that terrorized all of these people," Herzfeld said. "There are between 20 and 40 people who are currently being held in immigration detention. Many of them have not been provided access to legal counsel."
Herzfeld said the ACLU was looking into possible litigation but that the groups were still investigating exactly what happened in the raid.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101029/NEWS03/10290356/Immigrant-advocates-dispute-cause-of-police-raid-in-South-Nashville
Sunday, October 24, 2010
287(g) deportation program snags few felons, memos from feds show; Critics hit deportation program
By Nate Rau
THE TENNESSEAN
October 24, 2010
Earlier this year, federal officials decided the Davidson County Sheriff's 287(g) program that screens the immigration status of incarcerated foreign nationals was targeting too many minor criminal offenders and not enough felons.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall's controversial program is supposed to place a priority on screening foreign nationals who are accused of committing serious felonies, according to last year's revised 287(g) agreement between Metro and the federal government.
But internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memos obtained by The Tennessean show that Hall's program was screening more than twice as many people with minor offenses as those with crimes such as murder, robbery and rape. An ICE memo from April shows that 73 percent of those screened by 287(g) in Nashville during the latter part of 2009 were arrested for minor offenses, while just 13 percent had been arrested for serious crimes.
The question then becomes: Is 287(g) serving the intended purpose of targeting dangerous criminals given the large number of minor offenders screened by county jailers? Immigrant advocates and court filings in aggressive litigation targeting Hall's program say the program is not working as intended.
The 2009 figures are consistent with the track record of 287(g) in Nashville since the program was put in place in 2007, with 66 percent of those screened over the life of the program having only misdemeanor citations or arrests — not violent crimes or felonies. The program is an offshoot of federal immigration law that empowers local jails to act as extensions of ICE.
"By focusing on all these minor traffic offenders, it does take police officers off the street, and all these administrators to process it," said Gregg Ramos, a Nashville attorney and former member of the sheriff's 287(g) advisory council. "In the end I submit we're less safe."
Feds question screenings
ICE officials began asking questions this spring about the effectiveness of the Nashville program and its impact on violent crime.
In a July memo, ICE officials asked regional field officers to explain why nine different 287(g) programs, including Nashville, had such a disproportionate number of people screened for minor crimes. According to an audit that covered October through December of last year, 73 percent of those screened by 287(g) had been arrested for minor offenses. Just 13 percent were arrested for major felonies.
The disproportionate totals sounded alarm bells for federal officials, who just a year earlier had shifted the focus of 287(g) to prioritize "criminal aliens who are a threat to local communities," according to a separate ICE memo.
A second audit by ICE of Nashville's program from January through March of this year showed the numbers of those screened for minor crimes dropped to 36 percent.
The audit pointed out that the sheriff's only function in 287(g) is to check the immigration status of foreign-born prisoners and that the Metro police department is responsible for enforcing the law and making arrests. Hall would not address the memos, citing ongoing litigation in which the memos are exhibits. Metro police said the number of traffic stops this year is similar to 2009.
The series of ICE memos suggest federal officials were satisfied with the corrective action and that the Nashville program received no additional scrutiny.
Sheriff's data show the 2009 figures are more reflective of the performance of 287(g) through the years.
Since 287(g) was put into place in 2007, the Sheriff's office has screened the immigration status of 12,486 foreign nationals cited and arrested for everything from murder to fishing without a license, according to data obtained in an open records request by the newspaper.
Of those, more than 7,250 immigrants have been processed for removal because of Nashville's 287(g) program. The sheriff's office could not say how many of those processed for deportation came from misdemeanors or felony arrests.
According to the sheriff's office data, 66 percent of those screened through 287(g) since 2007 were arrested for misdemeanors, while 34 percent were arrested for a felony crime.
The crime that most frequently leads to being screened by 287(g) is driving without a license. Through September, 4,397 foreign-born prisoners initially arrested for driving without a license had their immigration status checked through 287(g), according to data provided by the sheriff's office.
Hall defends program
This past week, Hall defended the practice of screening everyone who comes through the jail, because doing so has led to deporting illegal immigrants with violent criminal pasts. He pointed to David Medina-Valasquez, who was arrested for driving without a license but had criminal convictions for crimes against children in California.
"If you said, only look at felony offenders, then (people like Medina-Valasquez) would not have been identified," Hall said.
"The point we're trying to make is, the charge seems fairly trivial," Hall added. "It's a question of, 'Why not just cite the person?' That's a police question. I don't know why he wasn't cited. But once he came to jail, this is what was discovered about him."
Hall dismissed the notion some immigrants are being deported for not having a driver's license.
"It is false to say that the only reason he was deported was because he had no driver's license," Hall said. "No, he was deported, because he had been deported before. He was arrested because he didn't have a license, and he didn't have any identification."
The sheriff would not answer any questions regarding the ICE memos because of the ongoing lawsuit from former inmate Juana Villegas. Villegas was nine months pregnant when she was detained by 287(g) in 2008, after being arrested for a traffic violation and driving without a license. She later gave birth while in sheriff's custody and then filed a lawsuit alleging she was mistreated.
But Hall did face questions about the high percentage of immigrants screened for minor crimes during his deposition for the Villegas case.
The sheriff, who was re-elected to a third term in August, said the purpose of 287(g) has always been to check the immigration status of every prisoner who enters the jail.
"So what happens to you has never been our decision," Hall said during his deposition for the Villegas lawsuit. "We are going to screen everybody."
Immigration advocates say 287(g) has missed its mark by not focusing strictly on violent criminals.
"There's plenty of people out there who the sheriff can concentrate on who are in fact dangerous offenders," Ramos said. "That alone will make this a much safer community."
Last year, Metro Council approved extending the 287(g) program until 2012.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101024/NEWS01/10240376/287%28g%29+snags+few+felons++memos+from+feds+show
THE TENNESSEAN
October 24, 2010
Earlier this year, federal officials decided the Davidson County Sheriff's 287(g) program that screens the immigration status of incarcerated foreign nationals was targeting too many minor criminal offenders and not enough felons.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall's controversial program is supposed to place a priority on screening foreign nationals who are accused of committing serious felonies, according to last year's revised 287(g) agreement between Metro and the federal government.
But internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memos obtained by The Tennessean show that Hall's program was screening more than twice as many people with minor offenses as those with crimes such as murder, robbery and rape. An ICE memo from April shows that 73 percent of those screened by 287(g) in Nashville during the latter part of 2009 were arrested for minor offenses, while just 13 percent had been arrested for serious crimes.
The question then becomes: Is 287(g) serving the intended purpose of targeting dangerous criminals given the large number of minor offenders screened by county jailers? Immigrant advocates and court filings in aggressive litigation targeting Hall's program say the program is not working as intended.
The 2009 figures are consistent with the track record of 287(g) in Nashville since the program was put in place in 2007, with 66 percent of those screened over the life of the program having only misdemeanor citations or arrests — not violent crimes or felonies. The program is an offshoot of federal immigration law that empowers local jails to act as extensions of ICE.
"By focusing on all these minor traffic offenders, it does take police officers off the street, and all these administrators to process it," said Gregg Ramos, a Nashville attorney and former member of the sheriff's 287(g) advisory council. "In the end I submit we're less safe."
Feds question screenings
ICE officials began asking questions this spring about the effectiveness of the Nashville program and its impact on violent crime.
In a July memo, ICE officials asked regional field officers to explain why nine different 287(g) programs, including Nashville, had such a disproportionate number of people screened for minor crimes. According to an audit that covered October through December of last year, 73 percent of those screened by 287(g) had been arrested for minor offenses. Just 13 percent were arrested for major felonies.
The disproportionate totals sounded alarm bells for federal officials, who just a year earlier had shifted the focus of 287(g) to prioritize "criminal aliens who are a threat to local communities," according to a separate ICE memo.
A second audit by ICE of Nashville's program from January through March of this year showed the numbers of those screened for minor crimes dropped to 36 percent.
The audit pointed out that the sheriff's only function in 287(g) is to check the immigration status of foreign-born prisoners and that the Metro police department is responsible for enforcing the law and making arrests. Hall would not address the memos, citing ongoing litigation in which the memos are exhibits. Metro police said the number of traffic stops this year is similar to 2009.
The series of ICE memos suggest federal officials were satisfied with the corrective action and that the Nashville program received no additional scrutiny.
Sheriff's data show the 2009 figures are more reflective of the performance of 287(g) through the years.
Since 287(g) was put into place in 2007, the Sheriff's office has screened the immigration status of 12,486 foreign nationals cited and arrested for everything from murder to fishing without a license, according to data obtained in an open records request by the newspaper.
Of those, more than 7,250 immigrants have been processed for removal because of Nashville's 287(g) program. The sheriff's office could not say how many of those processed for deportation came from misdemeanors or felony arrests.
According to the sheriff's office data, 66 percent of those screened through 287(g) since 2007 were arrested for misdemeanors, while 34 percent were arrested for a felony crime.
The crime that most frequently leads to being screened by 287(g) is driving without a license. Through September, 4,397 foreign-born prisoners initially arrested for driving without a license had their immigration status checked through 287(g), according to data provided by the sheriff's office.
Hall defends program
This past week, Hall defended the practice of screening everyone who comes through the jail, because doing so has led to deporting illegal immigrants with violent criminal pasts. He pointed to David Medina-Valasquez, who was arrested for driving without a license but had criminal convictions for crimes against children in California.
"If you said, only look at felony offenders, then (people like Medina-Valasquez) would not have been identified," Hall said.
"The point we're trying to make is, the charge seems fairly trivial," Hall added. "It's a question of, 'Why not just cite the person?' That's a police question. I don't know why he wasn't cited. But once he came to jail, this is what was discovered about him."
Hall dismissed the notion some immigrants are being deported for not having a driver's license.
"It is false to say that the only reason he was deported was because he had no driver's license," Hall said. "No, he was deported, because he had been deported before. He was arrested because he didn't have a license, and he didn't have any identification."
The sheriff would not answer any questions regarding the ICE memos because of the ongoing lawsuit from former inmate Juana Villegas. Villegas was nine months pregnant when she was detained by 287(g) in 2008, after being arrested for a traffic violation and driving without a license. She later gave birth while in sheriff's custody and then filed a lawsuit alleging she was mistreated.
But Hall did face questions about the high percentage of immigrants screened for minor crimes during his deposition for the Villegas case.
The sheriff, who was re-elected to a third term in August, said the purpose of 287(g) has always been to check the immigration status of every prisoner who enters the jail.
"So what happens to you has never been our decision," Hall said during his deposition for the Villegas lawsuit. "We are going to screen everybody."
Immigration advocates say 287(g) has missed its mark by not focusing strictly on violent criminals.
"There's plenty of people out there who the sheriff can concentrate on who are in fact dangerous offenders," Ramos said. "That alone will make this a much safer community."
Last year, Metro Council approved extending the 287(g) program until 2012.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101024/NEWS01/10240376/287%28g%29+snags+few+felons++memos+from+feds+show
Monday, September 20, 2010
Steps add up on immigration Policies change in significant ways
The Tennessean
September 19, 2010
The Obama administration may not have been able so far to pass comprehensive immigration reform, but changes are taking place that are a move in the right direction at last.
Since 2001, deportations of illegal immigrants had been increasing dramatically, and most often the deportees came to the attention of law enforcement because of routine traffic stops and other minor incidents. In the past year, however, the administration has shifted the emphasis to detaining and deportation of people who have committed serious crimes.
It's a common-sense change that nonetheless has been criticized by hard-line nativist groups, especially in an election year in which opponents of President Barack Obama feel they can embarrass him and take away his party's control of Congress. Yet the plan is working.
As a recent report done by ProPublica with USA TODAY showed, the focus on criminal immigrants has started to chip away at the huge backlog of deportation cases that has built since 2001. ProPublica cited government data showing immigrants have to wait an average 459 days for deportation hearings.
With a record 387,000 people deported in 2009, it's easy to see how courts and detention centers have struggled with the influx of people, many of whom have led mostly productive lives in the U.S. They also have relatives, through birth or marriage, who are American citizens or have legal residency, and the politicized push to deport them has torn apart good, hard-working families.
Democrats tried earlier this year to introduce immigration reform with Obama's endorsement, but it quickly bogged down in the toxic atmosphere after passage of health-care and financial reforms. So the president instead has made changes that are within his executive powers. They include:
• Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials have been ordered to begin dismissing deportation cases against people who haven't committed serious crimes and who have viable immigration applications pending.
• ICE officials are considering prohibiting police from sending people to them based on misdemeanor traffic stops, unless they are found to have a record of serious crimes. This took on urgency because it would have been routine under the Arizona immigration law that has mostly been overturned by a federal judge. As other states try to emulate Arizona, federal agents are right to nip this dangerous practice in the bud.
• Obama also lent his support to the DREAM Act, which would allow thousands of young immigrants a path to legal U.S. residency. The Senate bill would apply only to people who came to the U.S. before age 16, lived here for five years, and agree to two years of military service.
"It is time to stop punishing innocent young people for the actions of their parents," Obama said in a meeting last week at the White House.
The administration will continue to take heat for these steps — at least, until the elections. But the immigration process is broken now, with thousands of people paying too harsh a price for unwisely choosing to lie about their status. All who are born here pay, as well, through the legal tangles and racial and ethnic tensions that have been stirred up in communities across the nation.
The steps the White House has taken could help restore some sanity to the discussion before it goes completely off the rails.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100919/OPINION01/9190371/Steps-add-up-on-immigration-Policies-change-in-significant-ways
September 19, 2010
The Obama administration may not have been able so far to pass comprehensive immigration reform, but changes are taking place that are a move in the right direction at last.
Since 2001, deportations of illegal immigrants had been increasing dramatically, and most often the deportees came to the attention of law enforcement because of routine traffic stops and other minor incidents. In the past year, however, the administration has shifted the emphasis to detaining and deportation of people who have committed serious crimes.
It's a common-sense change that nonetheless has been criticized by hard-line nativist groups, especially in an election year in which opponents of President Barack Obama feel they can embarrass him and take away his party's control of Congress. Yet the plan is working.
As a recent report done by ProPublica with USA TODAY showed, the focus on criminal immigrants has started to chip away at the huge backlog of deportation cases that has built since 2001. ProPublica cited government data showing immigrants have to wait an average 459 days for deportation hearings.
With a record 387,000 people deported in 2009, it's easy to see how courts and detention centers have struggled with the influx of people, many of whom have led mostly productive lives in the U.S. They also have relatives, through birth or marriage, who are American citizens or have legal residency, and the politicized push to deport them has torn apart good, hard-working families.
Democrats tried earlier this year to introduce immigration reform with Obama's endorsement, but it quickly bogged down in the toxic atmosphere after passage of health-care and financial reforms. So the president instead has made changes that are within his executive powers. They include:
• Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials have been ordered to begin dismissing deportation cases against people who haven't committed serious crimes and who have viable immigration applications pending.
• ICE officials are considering prohibiting police from sending people to them based on misdemeanor traffic stops, unless they are found to have a record of serious crimes. This took on urgency because it would have been routine under the Arizona immigration law that has mostly been overturned by a federal judge. As other states try to emulate Arizona, federal agents are right to nip this dangerous practice in the bud.
• Obama also lent his support to the DREAM Act, which would allow thousands of young immigrants a path to legal U.S. residency. The Senate bill would apply only to people who came to the U.S. before age 16, lived here for five years, and agree to two years of military service.
"It is time to stop punishing innocent young people for the actions of their parents," Obama said in a meeting last week at the White House.
The administration will continue to take heat for these steps — at least, until the elections. But the immigration process is broken now, with thousands of people paying too harsh a price for unwisely choosing to lie about their status. All who are born here pay, as well, through the legal tangles and racial and ethnic tensions that have been stirred up in communities across the nation.
The steps the White House has taken could help restore some sanity to the discussion before it goes completely off the rails.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100919/OPINION01/9190371/Steps-add-up-on-immigration-Policies-change-in-significant-ways
Friday, August 27, 2010
Immigrants jailed after fishing without a license; License violators face deportation after arrest
By Chris Echegaray
THE TENNESSEAN
August 26, 2010
For most who fish in Nashville's lakes and streams, getting caught without a license means a ticket, up to a $50 fine and forfeiting the catch.
But for immigrants nabbed by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officers, it can mean a trip to jail a nd possible deportation to their home countries.
Since the Davidson County Sheriff's Office instituted an immigration enforcement program in 2007, the wildlife agency issued 820 citations in the county but took only 29 people to jail — all of those immigrants. An agency spokesman initially said officers don't take people to jail for fishing without a license.
Shown data that reveal otherwise, a different official said the arrests were actually made because the fishermen weren't carrying valid identification.
"We have to determine they are who they say they are," said Cape Taylor, Region 2 law enforcement manager. "If you can't determine that, and they don't have a valid ID, they are going to be arrested."
Immigrant advocates say the figures are one more example of how the sheriff's program misses the mark, causing illegal immigrants who commit minor offenses to be jailed and, typically, separated from their families by deportation. Arresting people for fishing without a license does not secure a community from real threats and can constitute racial profiling, said Art Venegas, former Sacramento police chief.
"I think those kind of deportations have a chilling effect on communities," said Venegas, whose Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative seeks to educate officers on immigration issues. "You want people to step forward on more serious crimes. Also, how safe is Nashville now after deporting these people for fishing without a license?"
Stephen Fotopulos, executive director of the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the fishing license arrests are more proof of what his group has always said — the sheriff's program focuses on immigrants who commit minor offenses.
Named 287(g) after a section of federal immigration law, the program allows Davidson County deputies to run all foreign-born inmates through an immigration database and hold them for possible deportation through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But the federal agency has stressed repeatedly, in statements and reports, that 287(g) resources are meant to rid the U.S. of dangerous felons.
Sheriff's office spokeswoman Karla Weikal said a third of those processed through 287(g) for fishing license arrests had prior charges.
"Advocates have sensationalized the issue of this particular scenario because it further vilifies the program," Weikal said. "The immigrant community would be better served if advocates would spend more time publicly explaining how to avoid the arrest in the first place rather than perpetuating fear."
It was unknown Wednesday whether any of those prior charges were felonies.
Analysis of Davidson County's 287(g) data has shown repeatedly the most common reason for processing is a traffic violation.
Of the 29 immigrants taken to Davidson County's jail for fishing without a license, 25 were processed for deportation. Records show those included three men fishing in J. Percy Priest Lake on April 25 —Isidro Cardoza, 22, Juan Hernandez, 21, and Roberto DeLeon Martinez, 29. One had a single small-mouth bass in a bag. None had fishing licenses or U.S.-issued identification.
It's unclear what happened to them after the arrest — the sheriff's office can't release the names of people on immigration detainers. No one answered the door at several addresses listed for those arrested.
Since the start of 287(g) in Davidson County, 7,887 inmates have been processed through the program and 5,338 were deported, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Temple Black said.
Tennessee and surrounding states require a Social Security number to purchase a fishing license. Illegal immigrants can't have Social Security numbers. The cost begins at $5.50 for a one-day Tennessee fishing license.
Contact Chris Echegaray at 664-2144 or
cechegaray@tennessean.com.
THE TENNESSEAN
August 26, 2010
For most who fish in Nashville's lakes and streams, getting caught without a license means a ticket, up to a $50 fine and forfeiting the catch.
But for immigrants nabbed by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officers, it can mean a trip to jail a nd possible deportation to their home countries.
Since the Davidson County Sheriff's Office instituted an immigration enforcement program in 2007, the wildlife agency issued 820 citations in the county but took only 29 people to jail — all of those immigrants. An agency spokesman initially said officers don't take people to jail for fishing without a license.
Shown data that reveal otherwise, a different official said the arrests were actually made because the fishermen weren't carrying valid identification.
"We have to determine they are who they say they are," said Cape Taylor, Region 2 law enforcement manager. "If you can't determine that, and they don't have a valid ID, they are going to be arrested."
Immigrant advocates say the figures are one more example of how the sheriff's program misses the mark, causing illegal immigrants who commit minor offenses to be jailed and, typically, separated from their families by deportation. Arresting people for fishing without a license does not secure a community from real threats and can constitute racial profiling, said Art Venegas, former Sacramento police chief.
"I think those kind of deportations have a chilling effect on communities," said Venegas, whose Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative seeks to educate officers on immigration issues. "You want people to step forward on more serious crimes. Also, how safe is Nashville now after deporting these people for fishing without a license?"
Stephen Fotopulos, executive director of the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition, said the fishing license arrests are more proof of what his group has always said — the sheriff's program focuses on immigrants who commit minor offenses.
Named 287(g) after a section of federal immigration law, the program allows Davidson County deputies to run all foreign-born inmates through an immigration database and hold them for possible deportation through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But the federal agency has stressed repeatedly, in statements and reports, that 287(g) resources are meant to rid the U.S. of dangerous felons.
Sheriff's office spokeswoman Karla Weikal said a third of those processed through 287(g) for fishing license arrests had prior charges.
"Advocates have sensationalized the issue of this particular scenario because it further vilifies the program," Weikal said. "The immigrant community would be better served if advocates would spend more time publicly explaining how to avoid the arrest in the first place rather than perpetuating fear."
It was unknown Wednesday whether any of those prior charges were felonies.
Analysis of Davidson County's 287(g) data has shown repeatedly the most common reason for processing is a traffic violation.
Of the 29 immigrants taken to Davidson County's jail for fishing without a license, 25 were processed for deportation. Records show those included three men fishing in J. Percy Priest Lake on April 25 —Isidro Cardoza, 22, Juan Hernandez, 21, and Roberto DeLeon Martinez, 29. One had a single small-mouth bass in a bag. None had fishing licenses or U.S.-issued identification.
It's unclear what happened to them after the arrest — the sheriff's office can't release the names of people on immigration detainers. No one answered the door at several addresses listed for those arrested.
Since the start of 287(g) in Davidson County, 7,887 inmates have been processed through the program and 5,338 were deported, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Temple Black said.
Tennessee and surrounding states require a Social Security number to purchase a fishing license. Illegal immigrants can't have Social Security numbers. The cost begins at $5.50 for a one-day Tennessee fishing license.
Contact Chris Echegaray at 664-2144 or
cechegaray@tennessean.com.
Friday, December 18, 2009
On hold, 18 months
By Perla Trevizo
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Candelaria Jacinto is among 100 workers arrested in April 2008 for being in the country illegally during the Pilgrim's Pride raid. Ms Jacinto's case is still not resolved and she is not able to work.
Since Candelaria Jacinto was caught by immigration officials more than 18 months ago, she has wondered if her children are going to eat the following day or if they are going to have clean clothes to wear.
"I simply don't have any money," said the Guatemalan native, who still is waiting for her case to be resolved and has not worked since April 2008, when she was arrested during a raid at a Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plant.
Of the 100 workers initially arrested for being in the country illegally, 13 still have cases pending before the immigration court, according to immigration officials.
Another 15 are categorized as Immigration and Customs Enforcement fugitives -- they either failed to appear for their hearing or failed to comply with the judge's order to leave voluntarily in lieu of deportation -- ICE spokesman Temple Black wrote in an e-mail. The remaining 72 have left the country, he said.
For workers who've asked for a form of relief in front of a judge, a resolution might take anywhere from a year to several years, depending on the individual case and if there are any appeals, said Terry Smart Jr., an immigration attorney in Memphis who is representing Mrs. Jacinto for free.
"The more (complex) the case, the longer it's going to take for it to come to fruition in immigration court," he said.
But the families who are still here have put themselves in that situation, said Janice Kephart, national security policy director of the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent organization that does research on the impacts of immigration on the United States.
"They've chosen this route, they came here voluntarily illegally, they worked here voluntarily illegally, and now they've chosen to stay in the process to try to garner an immigration status," she said.
GIVEN ANOTHER CHANCE
Lubia del Cid, whose daughter Kemberly Mendez is being treated for Poland syndrome -- a pattern of physical malformations present at birth -- said it's very difficult because she hasn't been able to work. But at the same time, she's grateful for the medical treatment her daughter is receiving.
"She has improved so much in this time," the mother of five said in Spanish. "There's no way she would get this type of treatment in Guatemala."
Mrs. del Cid, who recently applied for a work permit, still has three teens in Guatemala, but Kemberly is a U.S. citizen who will be 2 years old in January. The little girl recently went through one of several surgeries she needs to separate some of her fused right-hand fingers and eventually insert a plate in her chest because of muscle deficiency.
"Sometimes she looks at her hand and says 'Mommy' and tries to separate her fingers," Mrs. del Cid said.
"I'm just appreciative on behalf of my client that the government is willing to work with us on this case," said her attorney David Elliott. "Whereas removal cases can take many years, in this situation, the fact that they haven't scheduled a hearing is somewhat unique, and I think it's just based upon the fact that Kemberly has medical issues that cannot be addressed in Lubia's home country."
Even before she was arrested in the Pilgrim's Pride raid, Mrs. del Cid faced a deportation order. Immigration agents caught her as she crossed the Texas-Mexico border five years ago.
She was given a notice to appear in court, but because she didn't understand what the notice was, she said she didn't go and missed a deportation hearing.
SURVIVAL MODE
Immediately after the raid at Pilgrim's Pride, social service and legal organizations from across Tennessee swooped in to help the families financially and with legal representation.
Within six months of the arrests, the help diminished because of a lack of funds, although the support continued to be there, said Melody Bonilla, care manager for La Paz de Dios, one of about 12 organizations that stepped up to help.
But by that time, many of those arrested also had left the country, she said.
"We kept working with those who stayed behind, working with the lawyers representing them, and at this point it's very slow," said Mrs. Bonilla. "They are not coming as frequently, but we are working with a few of them to get all their information for hearings, with translations," among other services.
For Mrs. Jacinto, a widow who can't read or write and has three children ages 7 to 12, the ensuing months have been extremely difficult.
"I don't have any money for the rent or the bills," she said during a recent afternoon, sitting on the porch of a house she shares with a relative of her late husband and that woman's two children. Two pairs of children's pants were hanging from the fence drying.
"I haven't had money to do the laundry in 15 days," she said in broken Spanish. "I hope they will be dried when they go to school tomorrow."
Having grown up speaking a Guatemalan dialect, she speaks very little Spanish and no English.
Her husband's relative was helping her with the rent and paying her to take care of her children, but the woman is also unemployed and can't help anymore, said Mrs. Jacinto, a 40-year-old who came to the United States 13 years ago.
"It's hard not to be caught up in the humanity of these individual cases. There are certainly human issues here," said Ms. Kephart, "but the value of our law is only in it's ability to be followed, and when we become a country (whose) own laws are not important enough to follow, then we are only hurting ourselves in multiple ways."
CASE BACKLOGS
The time an immigration court case takes to be resolved depends on a number of factors, said Elaine Komis, spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice.
"For example, the alien needs more time to seek legal representation, or the Department of Homeland Security requires more time for preparation," she said. "All that builds time into the case."
The backlog of immigration cases awaiting disposal is steadily increasing, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data gathering organization at Syracuse University.
Since the end of fiscal year 2006, the backlog has grown by 19 percent, the clearinghouse said in a report published earlier this year.
But lawyers representing the arrested workers from Chattanooga say the court in Memphis, which has two judges, has done a good job of scheduling the cases in a timely manner.
"Cases tend to take a little longer in (the immigration court of) Atlanta," said Mr. Elliott, "I think they do a pretty good job with their dockets (in Memphis)."
"(Immigration judges) continue to handle challenging caseloads," said Ms. Komis, "(but) they do an excellent job in adjudicating their cases, (and) take as much time as necessary to ensure fairness in their adjudication."
THE STORY SO FAR
* On April 16, 2008, 100 Chattanooga workers were among almost 300 immigrants arrested in Pilgrim's Pride plants in five states for being in the country illegally.
* The workers faced charges that included identity theft, document fraud and immigration violations.
* The majority of the Chattanooga workers went back to their country of origin, but a handful are still here as their cases move through the legal system.
BY THE NUMBERS
* 231: Number of immigration judges nationwide
* 2: Number of immigration judges in the Memphis court
* 350,000: Number of immigration proceedings nationwide in fiscal year 2008
* 2,844: Number of immigration proceedings in the Memphis court in fiscal year 2008
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/dec/12/on-hold-18-months/
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Nashville accepts immigration detention deal
October 9, 2009
By Janell Ross
THE TENNESSEAN
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall spent much of the summer warning that his office might drop a federal immigration enforcement program because of changes that would have kept case details under wraps.
Now, Hall and a Metro attorney working with the sheriff's office say they have reached an agreement with federal officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over how to handle requests for information. That means the controversial immigration program known as 287(g) probably will continue in Nashville, though with limitations on the number of people who will be detained.
That scaled-back version of the program also would mean less revenue for the Metro General Fund going forward.
In June, the federal agency issued a directive calling for local law enforcement agencies participating in the 287(g) program to stop holding individuals arrested for all but the most serious crimes after they served time on state charges.
Before the policy change, Davidson County was reimbursed $61 for each day individuals were held in Nashville awaiting pickup by federal immigration authorities, often for a few days at a time.
The cost of housing an inmate in the Davidson County jail ranges from a low of $25 a day for inmates in a work release program to $100 a day for high-security inmates with health problems. The cost of housing most of the inmates detained on immigration matters falls somewhere in between, said Karla Weikal, a Davidson County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.
Overall, Hall expects to see about 30 percent fewer inmates held in the jail on suspected immigration violations, leading to a corresponding decrease in the amount of reimbursements from ICE.
That drop in revenue — from $818,986 in fiscal year 2008-2009 to an estimated $573,290 this fiscal year — is one that Hall says was fully anticipated and doesn't change the fact that 287(g) has been an effective program that has reduced crime in Nashville.
"This program was never about money; it's not something on which we depend. So that's not a problem," Hall said Thursday.
It's been a year of change for the 287(g) program.
In March, a U.S. General Accounting Office report said enforcement programs such as Nashville's, which screened all foreign-born individuals rather than those accused or convicted of serious crimes, led the 287(g) program to fall short of its goal.
A Tennessean investigation last year showed that of the roughly 3,000 people deported during the program's first year, about 81 percent were charged with misdemeanors. About half were caught during traffic stops.
Hall said that federal officials have repeatedly described the Nashville 287(g) program as a "model" operation and have not requested additional changes to the way the Nashville program operates in the new contract. Federally trained Davidson County sheriff's deputies will continue screening all foreign-born individuals brought to the Davidson County jail. Hall had objected to sections of a proposed new agreement with ICE dealing with public access to information about details of individual cases.
"I think we need to be prepared to show the public whenever possible what the program is doing, who it is identifying and just how much crime it is preventing in this county," Hall said. "I think openness and honesty and access to information is always a good policy with only a few law-enforcement-related exceptions."
Lawyer disputes claim
Elliott Ozment, a Nashville immigration attorney and one-time member of the sheriff's 287(g) community advisory board, who was removed by Hall, also has expressed concerns about closing information about the program from public review. Ozment fears that the inability to access public information could put detained individuals at risk and make it harder for families to track their whereabouts.
Ozment disagrees with Hall's assessment that the number of deportations has reduced crime in Nashville, because some of the people arrested were brought to the jail on charges such as fishing without a license or in many cases driving without a license.
"He wants more transparency so that he can continue to issue press releases about the accomplishments as he sees it of Nashville's 287(g) program," Ozment said. "I think this summer when it looked like (Hall) wasn't going to get the political glory or generate much revenue he thought he wanted out altogether."
Hall says that his reasons for considering a withdrawal from the program were limited to the issue of public access to information.
Earlier this week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced plans to change the way that illegal immigrants awaiting deportation are confined.
Instead of nonviolent, noncriminal immigrants being housed in local jails, individuals and families ordered deported by an immigration court or awaiting a court's decision on a special visa or asylum claim would be housed in former hotels, nursing homes and other sites.
The alternative sites are intended to cut the costs of detaining immigrants, which reached nearly $2 billion in 2008.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the division of the Department of Homeland Security that administers the 287(g) program, will submit to Congress in coming weeks a plan for using alternatives to detention. The agency says possible alternatives will cost only about $14 a day. The alternatives include electronic ankle bracelets for those released on their own recognizance.
Before the new 287(g) agreement can be finalized, the contract will have to be approved by the Metro Council and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091009/NEWS03/910090344/2066/Nashville+accepts+immigration+detention+deal
By Janell Ross
THE TENNESSEAN
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall spent much of the summer warning that his office might drop a federal immigration enforcement program because of changes that would have kept case details under wraps.
Now, Hall and a Metro attorney working with the sheriff's office say they have reached an agreement with federal officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over how to handle requests for information. That means the controversial immigration program known as 287(g) probably will continue in Nashville, though with limitations on the number of people who will be detained.
That scaled-back version of the program also would mean less revenue for the Metro General Fund going forward.
In June, the federal agency issued a directive calling for local law enforcement agencies participating in the 287(g) program to stop holding individuals arrested for all but the most serious crimes after they served time on state charges.
Before the policy change, Davidson County was reimbursed $61 for each day individuals were held in Nashville awaiting pickup by federal immigration authorities, often for a few days at a time.
The cost of housing an inmate in the Davidson County jail ranges from a low of $25 a day for inmates in a work release program to $100 a day for high-security inmates with health problems. The cost of housing most of the inmates detained on immigration matters falls somewhere in between, said Karla Weikal, a Davidson County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.
Overall, Hall expects to see about 30 percent fewer inmates held in the jail on suspected immigration violations, leading to a corresponding decrease in the amount of reimbursements from ICE.
That drop in revenue — from $818,986 in fiscal year 2008-2009 to an estimated $573,290 this fiscal year — is one that Hall says was fully anticipated and doesn't change the fact that 287(g) has been an effective program that has reduced crime in Nashville.
"This program was never about money; it's not something on which we depend. So that's not a problem," Hall said Thursday.
It's been a year of change for the 287(g) program.
In March, a U.S. General Accounting Office report said enforcement programs such as Nashville's, which screened all foreign-born individuals rather than those accused or convicted of serious crimes, led the 287(g) program to fall short of its goal.
A Tennessean investigation last year showed that of the roughly 3,000 people deported during the program's first year, about 81 percent were charged with misdemeanors. About half were caught during traffic stops.
Hall said that federal officials have repeatedly described the Nashville 287(g) program as a "model" operation and have not requested additional changes to the way the Nashville program operates in the new contract. Federally trained Davidson County sheriff's deputies will continue screening all foreign-born individuals brought to the Davidson County jail. Hall had objected to sections of a proposed new agreement with ICE dealing with public access to information about details of individual cases.
"I think we need to be prepared to show the public whenever possible what the program is doing, who it is identifying and just how much crime it is preventing in this county," Hall said. "I think openness and honesty and access to information is always a good policy with only a few law-enforcement-related exceptions."
Lawyer disputes claim
Elliott Ozment, a Nashville immigration attorney and one-time member of the sheriff's 287(g) community advisory board, who was removed by Hall, also has expressed concerns about closing information about the program from public review. Ozment fears that the inability to access public information could put detained individuals at risk and make it harder for families to track their whereabouts.
Ozment disagrees with Hall's assessment that the number of deportations has reduced crime in Nashville, because some of the people arrested were brought to the jail on charges such as fishing without a license or in many cases driving without a license.
"He wants more transparency so that he can continue to issue press releases about the accomplishments as he sees it of Nashville's 287(g) program," Ozment said. "I think this summer when it looked like (Hall) wasn't going to get the political glory or generate much revenue he thought he wanted out altogether."
Hall says that his reasons for considering a withdrawal from the program were limited to the issue of public access to information.
Earlier this week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced plans to change the way that illegal immigrants awaiting deportation are confined.
Instead of nonviolent, noncriminal immigrants being housed in local jails, individuals and families ordered deported by an immigration court or awaiting a court's decision on a special visa or asylum claim would be housed in former hotels, nursing homes and other sites.
The alternative sites are intended to cut the costs of detaining immigrants, which reached nearly $2 billion in 2008.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the division of the Department of Homeland Security that administers the 287(g) program, will submit to Congress in coming weeks a plan for using alternatives to detention. The agency says possible alternatives will cost only about $14 a day. The alternatives include electronic ankle bracelets for those released on their own recognizance.
Before the new 287(g) agreement can be finalized, the contract will have to be approved by the Metro Council and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091009/NEWS03/910090344/2066/Nashville+accepts+immigration+detention+deal
Monday, April 13, 2009
NW Arkansas Focus: Springdale alien roundup raises questions
BY ADAM WALLWORTH
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
April 13, 2009
Deportation cases against two dozen illegal aliens apprehended in a recent raid at two Springdale houses highlight an inconsistency in how such cases are handled.
The cases also reveal a continuing problem with some business owners who hire aliens but then don't pay them, law enforcement and immigration experts said. That happens frequently because the owners know the illegal workers likely will not report them to authorities, they said.
The Springdale raid occurred after a local immigrant advocate tipped police about the squalid conditions where the workers were living after having been promised money to help lay underground cable. More than 30 people had worked for up to a month but had not been paid, according to a federal affidavit.
Five left the area after not being paid, but 26 others couldn't afford to leave and continued to live in the two small houses on East Allen Street.
When members of the local immigration task force arrived at one of the houses at 9:05 a.m. March 26, they found dozens of mattresses spread on the floors. There was no furniture or food in the house, and the heater was not working. The temperature that morning was 45 degrees, according to the affidavit.
The workers had not eaten for more than two days, Ana Hart, executive director of Just Communities, told police after a lawyer contacted her about the situation.
"Where there would be normally a small living room, dining area, all of that was mattresses. Very few blankets or bedding of any kind," Hart said. "To the right, another small room was the same - bedding, mattresses, no furniture. There were probably 15 to 17 people that called that place home. The situation was very inhumane."
The houses had been rented by Marcio De Oliveira for a total of $800 a month, according to the affidavit. De Oliveira owns Molink Underground Construction Services of Ooltewah, Tenn.
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/257195/
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
April 13, 2009
Deportation cases against two dozen illegal aliens apprehended in a recent raid at two Springdale houses highlight an inconsistency in how such cases are handled.
The cases also reveal a continuing problem with some business owners who hire aliens but then don't pay them, law enforcement and immigration experts said. That happens frequently because the owners know the illegal workers likely will not report them to authorities, they said.
The Springdale raid occurred after a local immigrant advocate tipped police about the squalid conditions where the workers were living after having been promised money to help lay underground cable. More than 30 people had worked for up to a month but had not been paid, according to a federal affidavit.
Five left the area after not being paid, but 26 others couldn't afford to leave and continued to live in the two small houses on East Allen Street.
When members of the local immigration task force arrived at one of the houses at 9:05 a.m. March 26, they found dozens of mattresses spread on the floors. There was no furniture or food in the house, and the heater was not working. The temperature that morning was 45 degrees, according to the affidavit.
The workers had not eaten for more than two days, Ana Hart, executive director of Just Communities, told police after a lawyer contacted her about the situation.
"Where there would be normally a small living room, dining area, all of that was mattresses. Very few blankets or bedding of any kind," Hart said. "To the right, another small room was the same - bedding, mattresses, no furniture. There were probably 15 to 17 people that called that place home. The situation was very inhumane."
The houses had been rented by Marcio De Oliveira for a total of $800 a month, according to the affidavit. De Oliveira owns Molink Underground Construction Services of Ooltewah, Tenn.
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/257195/
Monday, March 23, 2009
A Slippery Place in the U.S. Work Force
A Slippery Place in the U.S. Work Force
By JULIA PRESTON
The New York Times
March 22, 2009
MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — The faithful stand and hold their hands high, raising a crescendo of prayer for abundance and grace. In the evangelical church where they are gathered, the folding chairs are filled with immigrants from Latin America.
Balbino López Hernández, who came here illegally from Mexico, closes his eyes to join the hallelujahs. But after the service Mr. López, 28, a factory worker who has been unemployed since June, shares his worries about jobs and immigration raids with other worshipers.
Like many places across the United States, this factory town in eastern Tennessee has been transformed in the last decade by the arrival of Hispanic immigrants, many of whom are in this country illegally. Thousands of workers like Mr. López settled in Morristown, taking the lowest-paying elbow-grease jobs, some hazardous, in chicken plants and furniture factories.
Now, with the economy spiraling downward and a crackdown continuing on illegal immigrants, many of them are learning how uncertain their foothold is in the work force in the United States.
The economic troubles are widening the gap between illegal immigrants and Americans as they navigate the job market. Many Americans who lost jobs are turning for help to the government’s unemployment safety net, with job assistance and unemployment insurance. But immigrants without legal status, by law, do not have access to it. Instead, as the recession deepens, illegal immigrants who have settled into American towns are receding from community life. They are clinging to low-wage jobs, often working more hours for less money, and taking whatever work they can find, no matter the conditions.
Despite the mounting pressures, many of the illegal immigrants are resisting leaving the country. After years of working here, they say, they have homes and education for their children, while many no longer have a stake to return to in their home countries.
“Most of the things I got are right here,” Mr. López said in English, which he taught himself to speak. “I got my family, my wife, my kids. Everything is here.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/22immig.html?em
By JULIA PRESTON
The New York Times
March 22, 2009
MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — The faithful stand and hold their hands high, raising a crescendo of prayer for abundance and grace. In the evangelical church where they are gathered, the folding chairs are filled with immigrants from Latin America.
Balbino López Hernández, who came here illegally from Mexico, closes his eyes to join the hallelujahs. But after the service Mr. López, 28, a factory worker who has been unemployed since June, shares his worries about jobs and immigration raids with other worshipers.
Like many places across the United States, this factory town in eastern Tennessee has been transformed in the last decade by the arrival of Hispanic immigrants, many of whom are in this country illegally. Thousands of workers like Mr. López settled in Morristown, taking the lowest-paying elbow-grease jobs, some hazardous, in chicken plants and furniture factories.
Now, with the economy spiraling downward and a crackdown continuing on illegal immigrants, many of them are learning how uncertain their foothold is in the work force in the United States.
The economic troubles are widening the gap between illegal immigrants and Americans as they navigate the job market. Many Americans who lost jobs are turning for help to the government’s unemployment safety net, with job assistance and unemployment insurance. But immigrants without legal status, by law, do not have access to it. Instead, as the recession deepens, illegal immigrants who have settled into American towns are receding from community life. They are clinging to low-wage jobs, often working more hours for less money, and taking whatever work they can find, no matter the conditions.
Despite the mounting pressures, many of the illegal immigrants are resisting leaving the country. After years of working here, they say, they have homes and education for their children, while many no longer have a stake to return to in their home countries.
“Most of the things I got are right here,” Mr. López said in English, which he taught himself to speak. “I got my family, my wife, my kids. Everything is here.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/22immig.html?em
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Work site arrests and deportations continue to rise
Work site arrests and deportations continue to rise
Sunday, August 17, 2008
By: Perla Trevizo
Chattanooga Free Times Press
In 2002, 510 people were arrested at work sites nationwide for violating U.S. immigration laws.
In the past 11 months, almost 5,000 have been arrested for the same thing, a tenfold increase. Included in that number are the 311 Pilgrim’s Pride workers arrested April 16 in five states, 100 in Chattanooga.
Over the last several years, immigration officials have redoubled their efforts to detain and deport illegal immigrants, Assistant Field Office Director Scott Sutterfield, from the Office of Detention and Removal in New Orleans, has said.
He credited “fugitive operations teams” and a program that cross-designates state and local officers to enforce immigration laws for the increased number of deportations.
Critics of illegal immigration want to see more raids and tougher penalties. “I felt the Pilgrim’s Pride arrests were justified and there should be even more enforcement of illegal workers in the U.S., along with stiffer penalties and quicker deportation,” said Brenda Poe, a resident of Dunlap, Tenn., who opposes illegal immigration.
Illegal immigrants are “criminals,” she said, and organizations that helped arrested Hispanics and their families should focus on others.
“I was concerned and somewhat surprised that there were so many agencies and organizations rushing in to try to support the families of these criminals,” she said. “Maybe these organizations need to be concerned with the law-abiding citizens and the families that are trying to work according to the laws of our land and still just barely making ends meet.”
Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, a professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, said the current increase in deportations is closely tied to politics.
“It’s very clear that there’s an unprecedented increase in deportations,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing now is much more a political response than anything else to the fact that the
Republican Congress and the president wanted stepped-up enforcement because that was campaign promises they made.”
So, in fiscal year 2008 — October 2007 through August 2008 — 1,022 people have been arrested, including 116 company owners, managers, supervisors or human resources employees who now face charges that include harboring or hiring illegal immigrants. The remaining workers arrested are facing charges that include identity theft and Social Security fraud, ICE officials said.
During this same period, ICE made 3,900 administrative arrests for immigration violations.
Administrative arrests may involve people who entered the country illegally but don’t have a criminal record, according to ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa.
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/aug/17/work-site-arrests-and-deportations-continue-rise/?local
Sunday, August 17, 2008
By: Perla Trevizo
Chattanooga Free Times Press
In 2002, 510 people were arrested at work sites nationwide for violating U.S. immigration laws.
In the past 11 months, almost 5,000 have been arrested for the same thing, a tenfold increase. Included in that number are the 311 Pilgrim’s Pride workers arrested April 16 in five states, 100 in Chattanooga.
Over the last several years, immigration officials have redoubled their efforts to detain and deport illegal immigrants, Assistant Field Office Director Scott Sutterfield, from the Office of Detention and Removal in New Orleans, has said.
He credited “fugitive operations teams” and a program that cross-designates state and local officers to enforce immigration laws for the increased number of deportations.
Critics of illegal immigration want to see more raids and tougher penalties. “I felt the Pilgrim’s Pride arrests were justified and there should be even more enforcement of illegal workers in the U.S., along with stiffer penalties and quicker deportation,” said Brenda Poe, a resident of Dunlap, Tenn., who opposes illegal immigration.
Illegal immigrants are “criminals,” she said, and organizations that helped arrested Hispanics and their families should focus on others.
“I was concerned and somewhat surprised that there were so many agencies and organizations rushing in to try to support the families of these criminals,” she said. “Maybe these organizations need to be concerned with the law-abiding citizens and the families that are trying to work according to the laws of our land and still just barely making ends meet.”
Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, a professor at the University of California in Los Angeles, said the current increase in deportations is closely tied to politics.
“It’s very clear that there’s an unprecedented increase in deportations,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing now is much more a political response than anything else to the fact that the
Republican Congress and the president wanted stepped-up enforcement because that was campaign promises they made.”
So, in fiscal year 2008 — October 2007 through August 2008 — 1,022 people have been arrested, including 116 company owners, managers, supervisors or human resources employees who now face charges that include harboring or hiring illegal immigrants. The remaining workers arrested are facing charges that include identity theft and Social Security fraud, ICE officials said.
During this same period, ICE made 3,900 administrative arrests for immigration violations.
Administrative arrests may involve people who entered the country illegally but don’t have a criminal record, according to ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa.
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/aug/17/work-site-arrests-and-deportations-continue-rise/?local
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Immigrant, Pregnant, Is Jailed Under Pact
By JULIA PRESTON
The New York Times
July 20, 2008
It started when Juana Villegas, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was nine months pregnant, was pulled over by a police officer in a Nashville suburb for a routine traffic violation.
By the time Mrs. Villegas was released from the county jail six days later, she had gone through labor with a sheriff’s officer standing guard in her hospital room, where one of her feet was cuffed to the bed most of the time. County officers barred her from seeing or speaking with her husband.
After she was discharged from the hospital, Mrs. Villegas was separated from her nursing infant for two days and barred from taking a breast pump into the jail, her lawyer and a doctor familiar with the case said. Her breasts became infected, and the newborn boy developed jaundice, they said.
Mrs. Villegas’s arrest has focused new attention on a cooperation agreement signed in April 2007 between federal immigration authorities and Davidson County, which shares a consolidated government with Nashville, that gave immigration enforcement powers to county officers. It is one of 57 agreements, known formally as 287G, that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has signed in the last two years with county and local police departments across the country under a rapidly expanding program.
Nashville officials have praised the agreement as a successful partnership between local and federal government.
“We are able to identify and report individuals who are here illegally and have been charged with a criminal offense, while at the same time remaining a friendly and open city to our new legal residents,” Karl Dean, the mayor of Nashville, said in a statement on Friday.
Lawyers and immigrant advocates say Mrs. Villegas’s case shows how local police can exceed their authority when they seek to act on immigration laws they are not fully trained to enforce.
“Had it not been for the 287G program, she would not have been taken down to jail,” said A. Gregory Ramos, a lawyer who is a former president of the Nashville Bar Association. “It was sold as something to make the community safer by taking dangerous criminals off the streets. But it has been operated so broadly that we are getting pregnant women arrested for simple driving offenses, and we’re not getting rid of the robbers and gang members.”
Mrs. Villegas, who is 33, has lived in the United States since 1996, and has three other children besides the newborn who are American citizens because they were born here.
She was stopped on July 3 in her husband’s pickup truck by a police officer from Berry Hill, a Nashville suburb, initially for “careless driving.” After Mrs. Villegas told the officer she did not have a license, he did not issue a ticket but arrested her instead. Elliott Ozment, Mrs. Villegas’s lawyer, said driving without a license is a misdemeanor in Tennessee that police officers generally handle with a citation, not an arrest.
After Mrs. Villegas was taken to the Davidson County jail, a federal immigration agent working there as part of the cooperation agreement conducted a background check. It showed that Mrs. Villegas was an illegal immigrant who had been deported once from the United States in March 1996, Karla Weikal, a spokeswoman for the county sheriff, said. She had no other criminal record.
As a result, immigration agents issued an order to take charge of Mrs. Villegas once she was released by the local authorities. Based on that order, county officers designated her a medium-security inmate in the jail, Ms. Weikal said.
So when Mrs. Villegas went into labor on the night of July 5, she was handcuffed and accompanied by a deputy as she was taken by ambulance to Nashville General Hospital at Meharry. Cuffs chaining her foot to the hospital bed were opened when she reached the final stages of labor, Mrs. Villegas said.
“I felt like they were treating me like a criminal person,” Mrs. Villegas said, speaking in Spanish in a telephone interview. The phone in her room was turned off, and she was not permitted to speak with her husband when he came to retrieve their newborn son from the hospital on July 7 as she returned to jail, she said.
As Mrs. Villegas left the hospital, a nurse offered her a breast pump but a sheriff’s deputy said she could not take it into the jail, Mrs. Villegas said.
Mr. Ozment, the lawyer, said Mrs. Villegas would never have been detained without the 287G cooperation agreement.
“Whether this lady was documented or undocumented should not affect how she was treated in her late pregnant condition and as she was going through labor and bonding with her new baby,” Mr. Ozment said.
On July 8, Mrs. Villegas was taken to court, where she pleaded guilty to driving without a license and was sentenced to time served. Immigration agents immediately released her while a deportation case proceeds, following a policy adopted last year by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to avoid separating babies from nursing mothers.
Ms. Weikal said Mrs. Villegas’s jail stay was prolonged by the Independence Day holiday weekend, when the courts were closed.
“There is a perception that she was treated different from other inmates, and it just is not true,” Ms. Weikal said. “Unfortunately the business of corrections is that families are separated. It’s not pretty, it’s not understandable to a lot of people.”
She said that it was standard procedure to bar medical equipment like a breast pump from the jail.
More than 60,000 illegal immigrants have been identified for deportation since 2006 through 287G cooperation programs, said Richard Rocha, a spokesman for the federal immigration agency. Most of the agreements are aimed at increasing the screening of immigrant convicts serving sentences in local jails, in order to speed their deportation. Some, like Nashville’s, provide for immigration screening right after any foreign-born person is arrested.
Arrests of immigrants have increased rapidly in Tennessee since early 2006, when the state stopped allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, after five years when they had been able to drive legally.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
July 20, 2008
It started when Juana Villegas, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was nine months pregnant, was pulled over by a police officer in a Nashville suburb for a routine traffic violation.
By the time Mrs. Villegas was released from the county jail six days later, she had gone through labor with a sheriff’s officer standing guard in her hospital room, where one of her feet was cuffed to the bed most of the time. County officers barred her from seeing or speaking with her husband.
After she was discharged from the hospital, Mrs. Villegas was separated from her nursing infant for two days and barred from taking a breast pump into the jail, her lawyer and a doctor familiar with the case said. Her breasts became infected, and the newborn boy developed jaundice, they said.
Mrs. Villegas’s arrest has focused new attention on a cooperation agreement signed in April 2007 between federal immigration authorities and Davidson County, which shares a consolidated government with Nashville, that gave immigration enforcement powers to county officers. It is one of 57 agreements, known formally as 287G, that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has signed in the last two years with county and local police departments across the country under a rapidly expanding program.
Nashville officials have praised the agreement as a successful partnership between local and federal government.
“We are able to identify and report individuals who are here illegally and have been charged with a criminal offense, while at the same time remaining a friendly and open city to our new legal residents,” Karl Dean, the mayor of Nashville, said in a statement on Friday.
Lawyers and immigrant advocates say Mrs. Villegas’s case shows how local police can exceed their authority when they seek to act on immigration laws they are not fully trained to enforce.
“Had it not been for the 287G program, she would not have been taken down to jail,” said A. Gregory Ramos, a lawyer who is a former president of the Nashville Bar Association. “It was sold as something to make the community safer by taking dangerous criminals off the streets. But it has been operated so broadly that we are getting pregnant women arrested for simple driving offenses, and we’re not getting rid of the robbers and gang members.”
Mrs. Villegas, who is 33, has lived in the United States since 1996, and has three other children besides the newborn who are American citizens because they were born here.
She was stopped on July 3 in her husband’s pickup truck by a police officer from Berry Hill, a Nashville suburb, initially for “careless driving.” After Mrs. Villegas told the officer she did not have a license, he did not issue a ticket but arrested her instead. Elliott Ozment, Mrs. Villegas’s lawyer, said driving without a license is a misdemeanor in Tennessee that police officers generally handle with a citation, not an arrest.
After Mrs. Villegas was taken to the Davidson County jail, a federal immigration agent working there as part of the cooperation agreement conducted a background check. It showed that Mrs. Villegas was an illegal immigrant who had been deported once from the United States in March 1996, Karla Weikal, a spokeswoman for the county sheriff, said. She had no other criminal record.
As a result, immigration agents issued an order to take charge of Mrs. Villegas once she was released by the local authorities. Based on that order, county officers designated her a medium-security inmate in the jail, Ms. Weikal said.
So when Mrs. Villegas went into labor on the night of July 5, she was handcuffed and accompanied by a deputy as she was taken by ambulance to Nashville General Hospital at Meharry. Cuffs chaining her foot to the hospital bed were opened when she reached the final stages of labor, Mrs. Villegas said.
“I felt like they were treating me like a criminal person,” Mrs. Villegas said, speaking in Spanish in a telephone interview. The phone in her room was turned off, and she was not permitted to speak with her husband when he came to retrieve their newborn son from the hospital on July 7 as she returned to jail, she said.
As Mrs. Villegas left the hospital, a nurse offered her a breast pump but a sheriff’s deputy said she could not take it into the jail, Mrs. Villegas said.
Mr. Ozment, the lawyer, said Mrs. Villegas would never have been detained without the 287G cooperation agreement.
“Whether this lady was documented or undocumented should not affect how she was treated in her late pregnant condition and as she was going through labor and bonding with her new baby,” Mr. Ozment said.
On July 8, Mrs. Villegas was taken to court, where she pleaded guilty to driving without a license and was sentenced to time served. Immigration agents immediately released her while a deportation case proceeds, following a policy adopted last year by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to avoid separating babies from nursing mothers.
Ms. Weikal said Mrs. Villegas’s jail stay was prolonged by the Independence Day holiday weekend, when the courts were closed.
“There is a perception that she was treated different from other inmates, and it just is not true,” Ms. Weikal said. “Unfortunately the business of corrections is that families are separated. It’s not pretty, it’s not understandable to a lot of people.”
She said that it was standard procedure to bar medical equipment like a breast pump from the jail.
More than 60,000 illegal immigrants have been identified for deportation since 2006 through 287G cooperation programs, said Richard Rocha, a spokesman for the federal immigration agency. Most of the agreements are aimed at increasing the screening of immigrant convicts serving sentences in local jails, in order to speed their deportation. Some, like Nashville’s, provide for immigration screening right after any foreign-born person is arrested.
Arrests of immigrants have increased rapidly in Tennessee since early 2006, when the state stopped allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, after five years when they had been able to drive legally.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)