A second chance: Deportation policy changes allow students to stay in U.S.

By Rachel Brown
The Dalton Daily Citizen
Sep 17, 2011

It all started on Father’s Day.

Pedro Morales, 19, of the Eastside community, got a call from his father asking him for a ride home. Pedro’s father normally doesn’t indulge in alcohol, family members said, but on this occasion he’d had a couple of beers and wasn’t feeling well.

“I had to get him home so he could take his pill, and so I decided to drive,” said Morales, who does not have a driver’s license because he was illegally brought into the country when he was 7 and has lived here ever since.

Morales got stopped at a road block, and when a Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office deputy asked him for his license, he confessed he didn’t have one. He was put into the back of a car, and a friend with a valid license drove his father home.

That was the last time he would see his family until Aug. 23, when he was released from custody. In the intervening two months, he spent five days in the local jail and most of the rest of the time in the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, fighting not to be deported to his native Mexico, which he hasn’t been to since he was little.

Morales said he was depressed and ready to give up hope when a judge finally dismissed his case based on a new enforcement policy from the Obama administration that instructs officials to focus deportation efforts on illegals who have committed violent crimes or been convicted of crimes. The directive excludes most students from being priorities for deportation, particularly those who have lived most of their lives in the United States.

Caught in traffic

Morales and Gordon Central High School student Luis “Ricky” Hernandez, 18, were among the first youths in the nation to benefit from the new policy.

Hernandez also has ties to Dalton and, like Morales, was represented by Atlanta-based immigration attorney Charles Kuck. Hernandez participated in Dalton State College’s Steps to College program for high school students this summer and was in Dalton when he was arrested and nearly deported back to Mexico.

Like Morales, Hernandez had been brought to the United States at a young age — just 2. His only relative who still lives in Mexico is his grandmother, he said. It’s a country he doesn’t know.

Hernandez said it was mid-June when he was on his way to see the movie “Hangover II” with a friend. He was a passenger in the car his friend was driving, and the two were pulled over for a headlights violation. Hernandez said he was booked on a drug possession charge, which was later dropped after authorities found no proof the drugs, which were found in the car, belonged to him. Once officials discovered he was in the country illegally, he too was sent to the Stewart Detention Center.

The two cases are not uncommon.

Morales said he ran into a few Southeast High School and Whitfield Career Academy students at Stewart while he was there. He said they were likewise arrested on traffic violations and awaiting deportation. Southeast Principal Brian Satterfield, who could not be reached to comment on this story, said in a previous interview that the school’s expected graduation rate dropped slightly because five students were deported last year.

“There’s really not a whole lot we can do with that, although we have tried to work with the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Atlanta to see if they can possibly graduate before the deportation,” he said last month.

Hernandez’s principal, Scott McClanahan, said another of the school’s students, an honors student who played football, was in JROTC and planned to enter the military, was deported to his native Guatemala in April.

“This happens all the time,” Kuck said. “You let these kids grow up here, you educate them and then you deport them to a country they don’t know. It’s insane. It’s an insane process.”

Staying in Stewart

The detention center houses anyone set to be deported. Morales said he was placed in a cell with 66 people. The men slept on bunk beds and shared three bathrooms and five showers, he said.

“I had never been in trouble for anything,” Morales said. “They put me with people from prison ... It was pretty awkward at the beginning.”

Morales’ father, who is also Pedro Morales, said he went to see eight lawyers in Atlanta, one of whom he lost $1,000 with. He didn’t want his son to return to the chaotic situation in Mexico where just last week three people were killed in his town and there is extortion, drugs and anarchy from the drug traffickers, he said.

“We took it for fact that my son was going to be deported back to Mexico,” said the father. “There were days of anxiety, not sleeping, not eating. It is something you do not wish on anyone.”

Morales’ mother, Veronica Arredondo, said the experience was “very hard,” and that she’d never been apart from her son for so long before. She said he’d never had problems in school or been in trouble with the law.

In Calhoun, teacher and assistant soccer coach Sean McKenzie said he advocated for Hernandez to be able to stay with his family in the United States, as did several other educators. McKenzie said he invited all his students to participate in Steps to College, a program which helps high school students or recent graduates prepare for high stakes tests and college entrance exams, but Hernandez was the only one who took him up on it.

“When I found out Ricky had been picked up, it was especially upsetting to me,” McKenzie said. “He had been working so hard to try to better himself.”

McKenzie said Hernandez had never been in any trouble.

“That wasn’t his marijuana,” he said. “He didn’t have anything to do with that.”

Hernandez said he always held out hope he would not be deported.

“I had a feeling I would (be released) because I didn’t do anything bad,” he said. “I was just in there wasting time when I could have been with my family.”

For two months, Morales stayed in Stewart as Kuck attempted to get him back home. When told he was getting released, he initially didn’t believe it.

“I was getting everything denied, and everything was getting worse,” Morales said. “My last court (date) was the decision if I was going to be able to stay or if I would have to leave. They told me my case was dropped because of what President Obama said, that people brought here as children or were students and trying to achieve a college degree, that immigration was going to have to leave them alone.”

There’s no guarantee, of course, that Morales or Hernandez can continue to live in the United States. Enforcement is conducted on a case-by-case basis.

“ICE moved to administratively close their case,” Kuck said. “ICE could move to administratively open their case.”

Looking forward

Both young men are working to get permission to stay here legally, they said. Kuck said they’re not eligible to become legal residents, but he will apply next week to allow them to continue to live in the U.S. under ICE supervision and get work visas. It could be months before they learn of the decision, he said.

“It (the appeal) is through ICE, and it’s very informal,” he said, adding he didn’t know how long the work permits would last if granted. “A lot of this is dependent on the current administration’s policies on this, and frankly they are at best vague.”

Morales applied to Georgia Northwestern Technical College last year to begin studying auto engine repair at the college’s Walker County campus. A 2010 graduate at the Whitfield Career Academy, he had planned to be in school this fall.

Instead, he spent his college savings on fighting deportation, he said. He said he’s hoping to begin classes in the spring.

Hernandez said he too hopes to go to college somewhere.

Asked what he learned from the situation, Hernandez said he’ll now be more careful who he hangs around with. He said he wishes he could have his own car so he’ll know what’s in it and what’s not.

Morales said he wishes officials would put more thought into who they’re arresting.

“They should look more into seeing what kind of people they’re arresting because a lot of people are not doing anything bad,” he said. “A lot of these people are honest people. They just want to work and make something out of themselves like I’m trying to do.”

Temple Black, an ICE spokesman based in Louisiana, said that without local sheriff and police departments holding illegal aliens, it would be harder to catch those who have committed crimes.

“The identification and removal of many criminal aliens would not be possible without the cooperation of our state and local law enforcement partners,” Black said in an emailed statement. “ICE detainers are an effective tool to ensure that individuals convicted of criminal charges or who have previously been removed, who are found to be in violation of U.S. immigration law, are not released back into the community to potentially commit more crimes.”

He did say using resources on cases that are no longer deemed high priority hurts the department’s goal of deporting those who are a threat to safety.

Teachers, McKenzie said, often find themselves in a delicate situation when it comes to working with children who, though they may have had no say in the matter, are illegal aliens. Schools are required to serve students regardless of their immigration status, meaning American taxpayers foot the bill for a majority of their education.

McKenzie said he would like lawmakers to create a clear path to legal residency for students like Hernandez. Others say there should be stronger border enforcement or even stronger efforts to deport everyone who is in the country illegally. They point out the difficulty of holding illegals accountable since they often don’t carry car insurance, and they lament the fact many undocumented residents take advantage of taxpayer-funded social service programs that are supposed to be reserved for legal residents.

Still others take a middle-of-the-road approach, supporting enforcement of the law but also advocating for leniency for at least some.

“I do think everybody has got to make up their mind how they handle things, but I certainly see it as my role to stand up for my students and be an advocate for them,” McKenzie said. “Ricky is a great kid, and I was honored to stand up for him.”

El Informador writer Jorge Perez contributed to this story.

http://daltondailycitizen.com/local/x1660695849/A-second-chance

Lucha contra deportación

Por Johanes Rosello
Mundo Hispanico
Miércoles, Septiembre 14, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rising number of illegal immigrants deported for traffic offenses

By Patrik Jonsson
The Christian Science Monitor
Jul 23, 2011

The US notched a record number of deportations of illegal immigrants in 2010, according to an analysis of government statistics, with the spike driven primarily by increased deportations of people stopped for drunken driving and other traffic violations.

Drunken driving incidents involving illegal immigrants are known to inflame public anger over border security, and the Obama administration's deportation crackdown could be seen as a practical, and potentially popular, response to a public safety issue.

But news of the traffic-related deportations also highlights a political problem for the administration. It risks loss of Hispanics' support for Democrats, even as it seems to do little to persuade those on the right, who insist that President Obama is bent on letting most illegal immigrants off the hook in anticipation of a national amnesty program, that the administration is serious about immigration enforcement.

"This is the strange world of immigration policy that we're in right now, where everyone is building their own narrative of how these things fit together," says Noah Pickus, co-director of the Brookings-Duke Immigration Policy Roundtable, in Durham, N.C. "For some, the idea that the Obama administration is taking a traffic violation, and driving immigration policy through that, is too much. On the other hand, the notion that we should use a lot more discretion and focus more on [immigrant] criminals is precisely what's too little for others."

Some 393,000 people were deported in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010, about half of whom had committed crimes, according to an Associated Press analysis. The report, citing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data, stated that 27,635 people were deported after receiving drunken driving citations, compared with 10,851 in the last full year of the Bush administration. In addition, 13,028 people were deported for less serious traffic violations, three times the 4,527 who were deported two years earlier.

For some, especially in Democratic-leaning states including New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois, the report confirms concerns that Obama has not adhered to his promise of targeting only the "worst of the worst" for deportation. Several states are brawling with the administration over the Secure Communities program, announcing they are pulling out of it. Secure Communities uses a federal immigration database to help local police identify illegal immigrants among people charged with local crimes and misdemeanors.

Meanwhile, those who want tougher immigration enforcement point to recent ICE changes around prosecutorial discretion as evidence that the Obama administration does not intend to enforce the law aggressively.

They cite a June memo from ICE director John Morton that detailed different classes of illegal immigrants that ICE personnel should consider "sensitive" when deciding whether to prosecute for deportation. It included minors and the elderly, pregnant women, college graduates, and those who have been living in America for a long time.

In response, Rep. Lamar Smith (R) of Texas filed legislation that would curtail the administration's use of broad classifications to guide prosecutorial discretion. Representative Smith particularly pointed to a decrease in workplace immigration raids since the Bush years as an example of the Obama administration's reduced focus on broad-based immigration enforcement.

"The administration … knows the political reality that the vast majority of Americans want them to enforce the law, so they have to do the best not to enforce the law and yet convince the American people that they actually are," says Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which advocates stricter immigration laws.

Advocates for illegal immigrants say the facts – including this most recent deportation analysis – counter that argument.

Congressman Smith "forgets that President Obama deports more people – about 1,100 per day – than the last president or any president in modern history,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D) of Illinois told Congress Thursday in Washington. “He also forgets that we are seeing historically low levels of illegal immigration; that communities along the US-Mexico border are the most crime-free communities in our nation; and that immigration from Mexico is the lowest it has been in six decades."

Nevertheless, the contradiction between the president's "worst of the worst" promise and the fact that some immigrants have been ousted for minor traffic infractions is notable enough that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pushed back at the Associated Press analysis of ICE statistics.

"The more serious offenders are still in prison," Secretary Napolitano told the AP on Thursday. "We're not going to see them reflected in the numbers until we can begin to remove them" after they undergo trial and serve their sentences.

Moreover, the growth in deportations linked to traffic violations is less a result of vigilance by the Department of Homeland Security than of local jurisdictions, which in increasing numbers are handing over illegal immigrants to federal authorities for prosecution, say immigration policy experts.

"There are bills across the states that are named after someone killed in an accident by someone who is here illegally, and there's enormous, up-close, personal, and hostile reactions to that, because the reaction is that if we [had] enforced our laws this never would have happened," says Mr. Pickus at Duke University.

At the same time, he adds, the emerging patchwork of state and local laws on illegal immigration is not helping to build the political trust that will be needed to build a "grand bargain" for federal immigration reform.

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/rising-number-illegal-immigrants-deported-traffic-offenses?page=full

Por infracciones mínimas deportan a inmigrantes

Por Lorena Figueroa
El Diario de El Paso
23-Julio-2011

Infracciones de las leyes de tránsito tan pequeñas, como el no traer encendida una luz trasera o no realizar un alto completo en una intersección, han llevado a inmigrantes en esta región fronteriza a ser deportados a sus países de origen.

Así lo advirtió ayer el abogado migratorio Eduardo Beckett, del Centro de Abogacía Migratorio Las Américas, quien consideró que las autoridades siguen enfocándose en dar con los inmigrantes que cometen violaciones administrativas, en lugar de quienes cometen crímenes.

Lo anterior, pese al anuncio de junio pasado de reformas por parte de la oficina de Aplicación de Leyes de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés), de enfocarse a delincuentes peligrosos.

“La intención quizá sea ésa, pero en la práctica es distinto”, dijo Beckett. “Seguimos viendo casos de muchas personas que, sin tener antecedentes penales, fueron detenidas y deportadas por cosas tan mínimas como infracciones de tránsito”.

Según estadísticas oficiales, aumentos en las deportaciones de personas tras violar leyes de tránsito o de inmigración han ayudado al gobierno a establecer un récord en la cifra de inmigrantes con antecedentes penales expulsados del país.

Estados Unidos deportó a casi 393 mil personas en el año fiscal 2010, la mitad de ellas consideradas delincuentes.

De esa cifra, 27 mil 635 fueron detenidas por conducir ebrias, más del doble que las 10 mil 851 deportadas tras arrestos similares en 2008, indican estadísticas de ICE.

Un total de 13 mil 028 personas adicionales fueron deportadas el año pasado tras su arresto por infracciones menores a las leyes de tránsito, casi tres veces más que las 4 mil 527 de dos años antes.

ICE no respondió ayer a peticiones de estadísticas de El Paso.

Beckett aseguró que el centro Las Américas sigue viendo casos de inmigrantes que fueron deportados luego de ser multados por infracciones de tráfico tan mínimas como no traer encendida una luz trasera o no realizar un alto completo en una intersección.

Aclaró que los inmigrantes no contaban con antecedentes penales ni tampoco con ‘papeles’ para vivir o trabajar legalmente en el país.

El abogado migratorio dijo incluso que en uno de los casos las autoridades migratorias estaban a punto de deportar a un individuo que se encontraba en el país con una visa tipo U, que se le otorga a víctimas de algún crimen, luego de ser multado por no llevar el cinturón de seguridad puesto cuando conducía.

“En el momento de ser infraccionado, el hombre no traía su visa, por lo que la policía le habló a Inmigración para que lo detuvieran”, dijo.

Beckett aseguró que muchos casos de este tipo están ocurriendo en Las Cruces, Hobbs y sus alrededores, en Nuevo México.

Mencionó que en esos lugares la Policía local actúa bajo su propia discreción cuando lidian con un inmigrante indocumentado.

El litigante denunció también que las policías, además de infraccionar, realizan retenes en donde supuestamente revisan ‘papeles’, mientras que las autoridades migratorias realizan operativos ‘sorpresa’ en lugares de trabajo y, en ocasiones, se ostentan como civiles en mercados donde suelen comprar las personas de origen hispano .

Manifestó que las detenciones y deportaciones de inmigrantes, sólo por estar en el país ilegalmente, renuevan el escepticismo en torno a la afirmación del gobierno de que se enfoca en delincuentes peligrosos.

El presidente Barack Obama afirma que su gobierno aplica las leyes de inmigración de una manera más prudente que el de su predecesor porque se enfoca en arrestar a “los peores entre los peores”.

Durante su campaña presidencial de 2008, Obama se comprometió a centrar sus acciones sobre inmigración en los delincuentes peligrosos.

El pasado 10 de mayo, en un discurso en El Paso, Obama dijo que su gobierno se centra en los transgresores violentos y no en las familias ni “en las personas que se esfuerzan por reunir un ingreso”.

La mayoría de los inmigrantes deportados el año pasado habían cometido algún delito relacionado a las drogas. Estos sumaron 45 mil 003, en comparación con los 36 mil 053 de 2008.

Los delitos relacionados a las drogas, que incluyen elaboración, distribución, posesión o venta de narcóticos, se habían mantenido durante años como la principal transgresión de los inmigrantes.

Conducir en ebriedad fue el año pasado el tercer delito más numeroso.

http://www.diario.com.mx/notas.php?f=2011/07/23&id=c483e1afb778c2b6b1720f5dd28d51a4

Feds crack down on illegal immigrants in Michigan

By David Ashenfelter
The Detroit Free Press
Jun. 19, 2011

When Troy police spotted Miguel Rojas-Villanueva last October, the 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico was passed out behind the wheel of his pickup.

It was 1 a.m., and Rojas-Villanueva was stopped in the center lane of northbound I-75, near Rochester Road, with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the limit at which someone can be convicted of drunken driving.

Six months earlier, authorities had sent him back to Mexico for driving drunk in Troy on a suspended license and cocaine possession.

This time, they took a different tack with the man who has illegally entered the U.S. five times: They prosecuted him in federal criminal court.

He got 12 months in prison, plus deportation and a felony conviction that dashes any hope of legally rejoining his wife, a U.S. citizen, in Rochester Hills.

He's one of nearly 150 illegal immigrants prosecuted in a federal crackdown in eastern Michigan since January 2010.

The initiative has sparked criticism from those who say it's a waste of money.

But David Koelsch, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy Law School, said immigration laws must be enforced, even though he says they are sometimes unfair and need to be changed.

"You can argue that it's a questionable use of prosecutorial resources, but re-entering the country illegally is a felony, and it's time we started to take deportation seriously," he said.
Illegal immigration crackdown a waste, some lawyers, experts say

Authorities have plenty of ways of nabbing illegal immigrants.

Many are arrested during routine traffic stops. Some are tripped up when they try to cross the border.

Cesar Tomas Hernandez, 43, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, was turned in by an informant.

Immigration agents confronted him in March while he sat in his 2007 Jeep Liberty outside a Romulus restaurant.

They said Hernandez readily admitted to being in the U.S. illegally after serving prison sentences in New York for drugs and weapons violations, and had a phony New York driver's license, a handgun and a stash of fake cocaine.

Hernandez, who has been deported three times, is jailed on federal charges of illegally re-entering the U.S. and of being a noncitizen in possession of a firearm. The charges carry a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

He's one of nearly 150 immigrants to be prosecuted in eastern Michigan since early 2010 in a federal crackdown on illegal immigrants who repeatedly re-enter the country.

"When people are here illegally and engaging in criminal behavior, or repeatedly disregarding deportation orders, we have an obligation to enforce and promote respect for the law," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said of the initiative.

But many criminal defense lawyers, some judges and members of McQuade's staff said -- unlike in Hernandez's case -- they think the office is wasting federal resources and jail space on some of the immigrants: Those who were here to work, had minor run-ins with the law and who are facing six months or less in federal custody. Critics said they should be expelled quickly, not prosecuted.

"The vast majority of these cases involve guys who have gotten picked up on traffic offenses and have nothing to do with national security," said Federal Defender Miriam Siefer, whose staff works many of the cases.

She said she has complained to McQuade without success.

But authorities say the program creates a deterrent and rewards those who come here legally.

"Spending three or four months in the Wayne County Jail with people you don't identify with can be a real game changer," said Jonathan Goulding, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official on loan to McQuade's staff.

"It's a relatively small investment in the overall scheme of things," he said.

The prosecutions accelerated after McQuade became U.S. attorney in January 2010 and moved the responsibility for prosecuting the cases to her National Security Unit.

That May, ICE loaned Goulding and 25 other lawyers to U.S. attorney's offices around the country to prosecute such cases.

Since then, illegal re-entry prosecutions in eastern Michigan have tripled -- from 29 cases in 2008 to 92 in 2010. Fifty more cases have been filed this year.

Prosecutors are targeting immigrants who have previously been removed or deported and who have had run-ins with the law.

The maximum penalty for illegally re-entering the U.S. ranges from two years for first offenders to 20 years for those deported after convictions for a serious felony in the U.S.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Grand Rapids wasn't loaned an ICE lawyer, but said its cases have steadily risen since 2006, after illegal immigration became a national priority.

Nationally, there were 7,152 re-entry convictions in the fiscal year ending Oct. 1, 2010 -- a 22% increase over 2009, ICE said. It said it has removed or deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants in each of the past three years.

Authorities said most of the prosecutions involve Mexicans because they constitute most of the illegal immigrants in the U.S., thanks to a common border and economic conditions that drive them north in search of jobs. But some Canadians and other nationalities also are being prosecuted.

Federick Hernandez Rodriquez, 29, a Mexican national, was sentenced in April to a year and a day in federal prison after illegally entering the U.S. a dozen times since 1999.

Magali Ojeda Villagrana, 30, who has lived illegally in the U.S. off and on since she was 16, is another. Villagrana, who was living on a farm near Jackson, was arrested with two other illegal immigrants from Mexico at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel in November after she took a wrong turn while looking for a restaurant.

Agents surrounded her pickup after she squealed the tires trying to flee.

Villagrana, who had been convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault in Adrian in 2003, pleaded guilty in December to illegal re-entry and was sentenced to the 41 days she had spent in federal custody and then deported. Her passengers received similar treatment.

"The travesty here is for her two children, 5 and 11, who have never lived in Mexico," said Deputy Federal Defender Penny Beardslee, who represented Villagrana. "If they had charged her with a misdemeanor, or not prosecuted her at all, she might have had a chance to seek legal status for the kids' sake.

"I begged the U.S. Attorney's Office to make an exception in her case, and they wouldn't do it," Beardslee said.

Some legal experts said prosecuting illegal re-entry cases is an easy way for authorities to make the public think they're combating illegal immigration.

"On paper, it looks great, but in reality, who are they prosecuting? And what are they prosecuting them for?" said David Leopold of Cleveland, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "I'm not sure this kind of use of tax dollars is making America safer."

Hispanic leaders in metro Detroit have complained recently that federal immigration agents have engaged in racial profiling -- stopping legal immigrants in their quest to find those here illegally.

Lidia Reyes-Flores, CEO of Latino Family Services in southwest Detroit and who organized a protest June 11 to decry immigration sweeps at her agency, said she has no problem with McQuade's initiative.

"My complaint is about profiling, not about people with criminal records," she said.

Occasionally, a Canadian gets caught in the federal net.

Arnoldus Jeroen Reekers, 54, of Windsor was initially charged with illegal re-entry. He was accused of lying to border officers at the Ambassador Bridge in April about his Canadian criminal record, including arson and sexual assault.

Court papers said he and his girlfriend were on their way to Detroit Metro Airport to fly to Acapulco, Mexico, to celebrate his efforts to conquer the root of his criminal past -- alcohol and anger.

His lawyer, Martin Crandall of Detroit, said Reekers didn't divulge his record at the border because he didn't want to embarrass his girlfriend in front of friends who were driving them to the airport.

Reekers pleaded guilty last month to making false statements, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He's free on a $20,000 cash bond, pending sentencing in July.

Crandall said Reekers has seen the light: "Next time he wants to go to Acapulco, he'll fly out of Toronto or Newfoundland."

http://www.freep.com/article/20110619/NEWS06/106190515/Feds-crack-down-illegal-immigrants-Michigan?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

Community rallies behind Mexican mom facing deportation

Fox News Latino
Published May 16, 2011

Denver – Jeanette Vizguerra, an Aurora, Colorado business-owner who is supporting a cancer-stricken husband and three young children, could be deported to Mexico after being stopped for a traffic violation, in a case that has rallied the community behind her.

Evangelical pastors, Catholic priests and a rabbi led a group Monday in front of the Denver federal court to pray for the undocumented Mexican immigrant.

"Our cries for justice before this court and our banners are a way of praying to God to intervene on behalf of those who suffer injustice. What we do is no different from what the prophets did in ancient times," the Rev. Anne Dunlap of Comunidad Liberacion/Liberation Community Church said.

Vizguerra, a native of Mexico City, moved to Colorado with her husband 14 years ago. In 2000, her husband was diagnosed with cancer, and the illness returned with greater severity three years ago, making him no longer able to work.

The mother of a grown-up daughter and three U.S.-born children ages 8, 6 and 3 months, the immigrant owns a moving and cleaning company with 12 full-time employees.

She also works two other jobs part-time to pay the medical bills and support her family.

Prior to the traffic stop, Vizguerra's application for permanent residence was proceeding normally, her supporters say.

"The first question the officer asked her was whether she was in the country legally or not. Since Jeanette couldn't present the documents the officers asked for, she was arrested and spent several days in jail," Rev. Daniel Klawitter of the Interfaith Worker Justice Committee of Colorado said.

After her arrest, Vizguerra's immigration status "crumbled," said Nicole Melaku, spokeswoman of Rights for All People, a pro-immigrant organization in Denver that is helping Vizguerra and her family.

According to Melaku, Vizguerra has no criminal record and has always worked and paid her taxes. But now that the order for her deportation has been issued, her only hope is that authorities at the Department of Homeland Security review her case and allow her to remain in the country for humanitarian reasons.

"But this isn't just about Jeanette. She is simply the symbol, the visible face of a situation that affects thousands and thousands of people nationwide. We want people to know who is being deported," Melaku said.

Nearly 85 percent of the more than 1.05 million people deported from the United States between 2007-2009 did not have criminal records, according to statistics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"Jeanette's only 'crime' was to come here and work hard in three low-paying jobs," Klawitter said.

For her part, Vizguerra, before attending her hearing, thanked everyone present for their "moral and spiritual support."

"There are no words to thank you enough for coming so early on a Monday morning to downtown Denver to pray for me and my family. It is immoral that we accept an immigration system that divides families, and it's horribly unjust that someone can be deported for a traffic violation," she said.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/05/16/community-rallies-mexican-mom-facing-deportation/#ixzz1MZ8Rg5EJ

Colotl allowed to remain in U.S. for another year

By Laura Diamond
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, May 3, 2011

As Jessica Colotl sat in a classroom taking a final exam at Kennesaw State University Tuesday, federal immigration officials sent word she can remain in the country for another year.

Colotl, an illegal immigrant brought to this country as a child, was nearly deported to Mexico last spring following an arrest for a traffic violation on campus, but the federal government granted her a yearlong deferment so she could complete a degree in political science.

That reprieve was set to expire Thursday.

Colotl is among several illegal immigrant college students across the country who received temporary reprieves in recent weeks, according to published reports. Students living in Connecticut, Florida and Texas saw their deportations halted following a federal review of their cases. Federal immigration officials didn't have statistics on how many deferments occurred recently and wouldn't say if they are part of a conscious effort.

But the decisions follow a political push to suspend deportation of these students and pushback from some groups, who argue students like Colotl occupy space in America's colleges that should go to legal citizens.

On Monday, as Colotl prepared to take her final exams, she said she considers herself an American.

"I think I deserve the right to be recognized as an American on paper because I believe in the American system and I believe in American values," Colotl said. "I am no different than any other American."

On Friday President Obama renewed his support for the DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants like Colotl brought to this country as children. They would have to meet several criteria, including completing at least two years of college.

The bill has been introduced in multiple forms over the past decade, but has yet to pass. While it has bi-partisan support, some Republicans blocked it last year.

Supporters say these children have the potential to contribute to this country and should not be punished for their parents' mistakes. Critics say the bill provides amnesty to those who broke the law and that it could increase illegal immigration.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said last month deporting illegal immigrant students is not a high priority for the agency responsible for protecting the nation's borders.

Meanwhile states, including Georgia, are passing their own laws. Georgia lawmakers debated a bill to ban illegal immigrants from all public colleges but it did not pass.

That bill will be re-introduced, said Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville. He doubted the DREAM Act would become a reality.

"The DREAM is literally a dream and it's time for the federal government to follow the law," Balfour said. "I'm happy she's finally filing paperwork and following legal channels now, but let's not forget that the law is the law."

The deferment means Colotl can walk at graduation May 11. She picked up her cap and gown, but hasn't allowed herself to try it on yet.

She wants to remain in Georgia permanently. She plans to work at a law firm next year and then go to law school. Her deferment, which came as a surprise to her attorney Charles Kuck, included a provision that allows her to work, he said. She wants to be an immigration attorney.

Colotl scheduled three finals Tuesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment. She rushed to finish her exams before Thursday, the day her deferment was originally set to expire.

Colotl was 11 when her parents brought her here. Over the past year, the 22-year-old has been in and out of courtrooms and spent 37 days in a detention center.

"It's been a a nightmare and I can't wait until it's over," she said. "I'm a firm believer everything happens for a reason so I'm stuck in this situation and at the end of the day I'm going to see why it really happened to me."

Georgia has long debated illegal immigration and higher education, but Colotl's arrest re-ignited the issue.

There was public outcry that KSU President Daniel Papp spoke to federal officials on her behalf and that the college wrongly charged her in-state tuition. At that time, illegal immigrants were allowed to attend public colleges but were required to pay the higher out-of-state tuition rates.

The regents have since tweaked the policy and illegal immigrants can't attend any college that turns away academically qualified students. This applies to: University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, Georgia Health Sciences University and Georgia College & State University. Illegal immigrants may attend other colleges, including KSU, provided they pay out-of-state tuition.

Colotl's legal troubles aren't over. Kuck said they will need to request another extension next year and was unsure if she would receive a third one.

"If I'm denied the opportunity to remain in the United States I will still have my education," Colotl said. "No one will be able to take it away from me because that is something I earned myself."

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/colotl-allowed-to-remain-934097.html

Woman Raised in Texas Faces Deportation After Traffic Infraction

By Emily Lopez
Fox News Latino
March 17, 2011

A young woman raised in North Texas now faces deportation to the same city in Mexico where an American immigration agent was murdered.

Twenty-year-old Olga Zanella was brought to the country illegally by her parents when she was a young child.

“I was a baby when I came over here. I was 6 years old,” she said.

She graduated from an Irving high school and has been taking classes to become a dental hygienist.

Zanella does not have a criminal record, but started having trouble with the Department of Homeland Security in February 2009 after being pulled over for a traffic violation.

“That’s when they asked me to get off and that’s when they handcuffed me,” Zanella said.

She was arrested for driving without a license. She admits she never tried to get a Texas driver’s license because she was undocumented.

Zanella spent three days in an Irving jail cell before police turned her over to immigration authorities. They released her on bond and she went back home.

“That was the first time I saw my dad cry,” she said.

Zanella admits that before her arrest neither she nor her parents tried to become legal residents of the United States. But for the past two years, she’s been trying to do what is needed to remain in the country.

She’s gone through a series of court hearings and legal problems. She has exhausted her appeals, and now she faces an uncertain future.

Zanella would be deported to San Luis Potosi, a Mexican city with a violent reputation following the death of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata at the hands of the drug cartel members. She will live with distant relatives she’s never met.

“Right now, if Olga is not helped the alternative is her parents will see her come back to the United States in a body bag because she is not going to make it in Mexico,” said Ralph Isenberg, an activist who is helping Zanella through the murky waters of immigration law.

Isenberg has appealed to the Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C. and filed a complaint against the director of ICE in Dallas.

The Department of Homeland Security did not return phone calls.

The local ICE office confirmed that a federal immigration judge initially issued deportation orders for Zanella. A spokesman also said Dallas ICE field office director has the authority to stop the deportation process, but that is not appropriate in this case.

Zanella is waiting in fear of the day when she will have to leave her family.

“I’ve never been apart from them," she said. "We’ve always been a close family.”

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/03/17/woman-raised-texas-faces-deportation-traffic-infraction/

Escondido's city-federal effort to oust illegal immigrants draws praise, criticism

Escondido police and ICE agents join to snag and deport people with deportation orders or criminal records. Some welcome U.S. involvement. Others say the targets are sometimes well-established community members with decades-old convictions.
By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times
February 4, 2011

Reporting from Escondido —It was just an inconvenient traffic stop on the way through town for Javier Barrera Saldivar. Police had spotted the broken tail light on his car, and he figured he'd get a fix-it ticket and be on his way. But federal immigration officers soon rolled up, wielding handcuffs and Barrera's mug shot on a cellphone.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been stationed at the Police Department of this San Diego County city since May, responding to everything from traffic stops to gang sweeps in an aggressive effort to clear the community of illegal immigrants with deportation orders or criminal records.

Barrera, 24, the records showed, was a previously deported illegal immigrant with convictions for drunk driving and possessing a false driver's license. Instead of receiving a traffic citation and being released — which is what typically would have occurred — he was arrested and placed in deportation proceedings.

Barrera is among 303 illegal immigrants arrested and placed in deportation proceedings so far in a program dubbed Joint Effort, which allows federal agents to reach deeper into the streets for immigration scofflaws than in almost any other community in the country. Most arrests are of illegal immigrants with deportation orders and drunk-driving records, but gang members and sex and drug offenders have also been snared and deported.

Since the pair of ICE agents moved into police headquarters, the pilot program, which was recently made permanent, has been hailed by many as a welcome expansion of federal authority. ICE officials say they would consider expanding the program if other communities expressed interest.

But opponents say the presence of immigration officers on the streets of Escondido has put Latinos, who constitute slightly more than 50% of the population of 140,000, on edge.

One local immigrant rights group last year issued a travel advisory for people visiting the city, saying the program invites racial profiling. Critics contend that the measure is the latest effort by City Hall, which once tried to punish landlords for renting to illegal immigrants, to create a hostile environment for Latinos.

"The city of Escondido is the Arizona of San Diego County," said Kevin Keenan, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego and Imperial counties. "The program is an extreme example of local police working with federal immigration agents, and neglects the tremendous harm to public safety from scaring to death our immigrant communities."

But backers call the program a balanced approach toward changing Escondido's status as a revolving-door destination for previously deported illegal immigrants. Officers arrest only previous deportees or people with criminal records; illegal immigrants encountered on city streets who have clean records are not arrested, said Police Chief Jim Maher.

"We're here to protect everybody regardless of what their [immigration] status is, but if they're criminals then we make every effort to get them out of Escondido," Maher said.

Federal immigration officers working shoulder to shoulder with local police would be a welcome sight in many regions of the country where there is growing support for tougher enforcement measures against illegal immigration.

"I think there are many police departments across the country that would love to have a similar arrangement, if ICE were able to staff it," said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supporters stricter immigration laws.

With the Obama administration under pressure to burnish its immigration enforcement credentials, Joint Effort represents one of the boldest measures yet to boost deportation numbers. Most deportations of criminal aliens — 58,000 nationwide in the last two years — result from ICE agents and local police running immigration checks of inmates at jails. The Escondido program goes a step further, targeting immigrants who come in contact with police but would not typically be booked into jail.

ICE officials in San Diego said officers regularly encounter illegal immigrants in Escondido with no criminal records. They are not detained because the program focuses only on people who are deemed threats.

"Escondido is not a huge community, and police were seeing these guys over and over again," said Robin F. Baker, ICE's director of enforcement and removal operations in San Diego. "These are people that have victimized the community before."

A young man recognized by police as a previously deported immigrant, someone hanging out with known gang members or someone pulled over who can't provide identification can now be subject to an immediate immigration check.

When Escondido police officers pulled over Barrera in October for the broken tail light, he couldn't provide a driver's license. He gave his name to the officer, who called ICE agents. A few minutes later the agents rolled up to the scene, having determined through a database check that Barrera had previous convictions and had been deported in 2005. After they confirmed his identification through the image on a cellphone, Barrera was arrested. The woman and child in the car were not checked for their immigration status, police said.

Few police departments in California, including the Los Angeles and San Diego departments, inquire about immigration status on routine police contacts. The Escondido program is most similar to one in Arizona, where federal immigration officers can respond to traffic stops. Under that program, however, all illegal immigrants, regardless of criminal history, can be arrested, according to ICE.

Having immigration officers inside the city, Escondido police say, has made the city safer by exposing people who pose a threat. One man stopped for walking after hours along a drainage canal turned out to be a convicted wife batterer; another man pulled over for having tinted windows in his car, an immigration check showed, was a convicted child molester.

But critics contend that most detainees are people with drunk driving convictions from long ago who are hardly criminals.

"What about a person who was 21 years old, convicted in 1979, and here we are in 2011, he's now in his 50s, has a family and hasn't had any law enforcement contact, and he gets deported. Is that what we want?" said Bill Flores, a local activist and former assistant sheriff for San Diego County. "It ruins lives unnecessarily."

When Salvador Santoyo Juarez, 61, was pulled over last month for a having tinted windows in his car, an immigration check revealed that he had convictions for child molestation, drug transportation and drunk driving — all more than 20 years old.

To his family, the grandfather of eight was hardly a threat to the community, spending most of his days resting his injured hip in front of the television. His wife, Carmen, 54, said his deportation would tear the family apart. "There are so many bad people, and they focus on the one who does nothing," she said. "How sad."

But police and federal agents said Santoyo is just the kind of person Joint Effort was designed to snare. Maher, the police chief, said he hopes the word gets out so illegal immigrants with criminal records who are considering a return to the U.S. will think twice about it.

"Maybe at some point that criminal alien will say, 'You know what, I'm going back to America, but I'm not going back to Escondido, because they have this program,' " Maher said.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

Girlfriend Fights Detention of Her 19-Year-Old Boyfriend

By Gabriela Garcia
Change.Org
January 04, 2011

Tangie Ruiz's MySpace posts read like those of most teenagers: "Summer's almost here! I'm so excited!!!" and "I'm the luckiest girl! I have the most amazing boyfriend!" But suddenly, after months of excited posts about friends, weekend plans, video games, and hanging out at the mall, the posts get dark: “I miss you”; “Please help me get him back.”

That's about the time that Ruiz's 19-year-old boyfriend, Pedro Espinoza, was picked up for riding a bicycle without a light and sent straight to Pinal County Jail in Florence, Arizona, and into deportation proceedings. He'd been on his way home from Ruiz's house to pick up clothes for a camping trip with her family. Since then, he's been sitting in jail, with no charges, for two months.

The baby-faced Pima Vocational High School student, who was en route to receiving a diploma, was brought to the country by his father when he was just 3 months old, and spent his entire life in Tucson, Arizona. His father was working with immigration lawyers to get Espinoza legal documents, but he died when his son was just four years old. Then his grandmother, a legal resident, took over the process, but also passed away. The petition was canceled. Now, Espinoza faces deportation to Mexico, a country he doesn't remember at all, and where he knows no one and has nowhere to live. "Everyday, he is calling [me] crying, so scared," says his girlfriend. "They barely feed him. He feels like he's going to starve to death."

She hasn't accepted the news without a fight. Fundraising car washes every single weekend, meetings with lawyers who were moved to take the case pro bono, collecting character witness letters from admiring mentors and teachers -- those are the activities that have taken the place of what used to be normal teenage past times. "He's a sweet, caring person who will do anything for everyone," she says. "Its tearing our family apart because my mom and brothers have grown to love Pedro, and now we just hear and see his sadness ... he's ready to give up, he's losing hope."

Before he was placed in detention, Espinoza was a volunteer at Salvation Army and a mentor who coached basketball. He is very religious, and attended church every Sunday. Teachers, who speak highly of him, have been trying to help in every way they can. Goldman and Goldman, the firm handling the case, secured a bond for $3,000 but it's not enough to win his release. Ruiz continues to raise funds. She has started a petition hoping the Change.org community can pressure Congress and ICE to intervene and release Pedro from detention so that he can continue his education and volunteer work in the only home he knows.

http://immigration.change.org/blog/view/girlfriend_fights_detention_of_her_19-year-old_boyfriend

Facing deportation, mother has hard choice: Should she leave her children behind?

Robert L. Smith
The Plain Dealer
November 27, 2010

For the Maldonado children of Painesville, life as they know it is about to end and probably end badly.

The two oldest, Juan and Ivan, were young children when their parents brought them across the border. They retain only hazy recollections of Mexico.

The four youngest have never left the neighborhood. Now the sun is setting on their familiar world.

Federal agents arrested and deported their dad, Diego, nearly three weeks ago. Their mom, Manuela, must report to immigration authorities in downtown Cleveland by Dec. 14, with or without her American-born children.

After a decade working and living in the shadows, the Maldonados were found out. Now a mother faces a desperate choice, one expected to become more common in Northeast Ohio: Should she uproot her family whole, or leave children behind?

"We have nothing in Mexico," Manuela Maldonado said through an interpreter, her face a mask of pain and confusion.

Those in her working-poor neighborhood realize that the ejection of a well-liked family is but a beginning. Without immigration law reform, Lake County's largely illegal Mexican community faces a harrowing future.

Immigration enforcement is accelerating. And there is little public sympathy for a family of "illegals," even when half that family is American.

That reality lent an anxious edge to a recent display of solidarity, when dozens of neighbors and friends gathered around the Maldonado family's modest home on a rainy afternoon to show support.

"You'll probably see us again with another family in a couple weeks," said Veronica Dahlberg, an advocate for the Hispanic community. "Everybody's scared."

In Lake County, home to the region's largest concentration of illegal immigrants, legal and cultural forces are heading toward a painful clash.

The county's $90-million nursery industry is staffed largely by Mexican immigrants, many of whom arrived over the last 30 years from Leon, a major city in central Mexico. Some came with work visas. Many did not.

Dahlberg estimates Lake and Ashtabula counties are home to 8,000 to 9,000 Mexican immigrants, and maybe 75 percent of the community is undocumented, lacking legal status.

After years here, the community is deeply rooted. Many Mexican immigrants belong to so-called "mixed-status families," a blend of citizens and non-citizens, which complicates deportations and heightens the moral dilemma.

For decades, the presence of illegal immigrants was largely ignored in a county enriched by their labor. Nursery work is hard, dirty and seasonal, and Mexicans are simply the latest immigrant group willing to do it.

"For the most part, they're very good workers," said Mark Gilson, owner of Gilson Gardens in Perry and the past president of the Nursery Growers of Lake County Ohio. "I think they would make very good citizens."

His trade group supports comprehensive immigration reform, which might offer a path to citizenship for families like the Maldonados.

But the anti-immigrant sentiment pervasive nationally percolates in Northeast Ohio. Citizens groups have sprung up to lobby for stricter enforcement of existing immigration laws and to oppose anything that smacks of amnesty.

Julie Aldrich, a leader of a group that calls itself the Grassroots Rally Team, said Diego and Manuela knew the risk when they crossed the border.

"I do feel bad for the children, but it's the parents who should feel guilty, not us," she said. "We have to have laws and we need to enforce those laws."

That is becoming easier to do. Regional immigration authorities, once barely noticeable, are now flush with manpower and resources. The Department of Homeland Security has steadily reinforced its Border Patrol stations in Sandusky and in Erie, Pa.

The Border Patrol, in turn, alerted local cops and sheriff's deputies that it stands ready to take custody of any illegal immigrants they might encounter, and Hispanics now complain of being pulled over for "driving while brown."

At the Nov. 16 vigil outside the Maldonado home, a girl held a sign reading, "Traffic Stops = Deportation. Stop Tearing Apart Families."

It was bad luck, not a stop sign, that outed the Maldonados.

When immigration agents swept through Painesville in May of 2007, targeting people who had ignored court orders or been accused of crimes, they arrested any suspected illegal immigrants they stumbled upon, some 40 in all. Diego Maldonado was one of those "collateral arrests."

He and Manuela had come across the border in 1997, seeking to escape the poverty and the hopelessness of Leon, Manuela said. They started in California but headed to Painesville after Diego's brother assured them they could find work.

He was right. Both Diego and Manuela were working, he in a factory and she at a nursery, when Diego opened the door to a federal agent looking for someone else, a fateful decision. The couple had been in the country nine years and nine months. Had they reached the 10-year threshold, both would have been entitled to apply for legal status.

The family tried to fight deportation but by last year their savings and their legal options were exhausted. The couple failed to follow an immigration court's order to leave the country, said Kaahlid Walls, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, so the government acted.

On Nov. 9, ICE agents were waiting outside when Diego left for work. Ivan Maldonado, 15, witnessed his father's arrest through the front window and raced crying to his mother, who kept the children inside and called Dahlberg. She reached a lawyer who convinced ICE to allow the rest of the family to turn themselves in.

Dad was flown to San Antonio, Texas, and on Nov. 16 was sent walking across the border into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, beginning his grim trek back to Leon.

Manuela, 40, faces life-changing decisions. Her youngest, Kevin, is three. The oldest, Juan, 18, cares for a baby boy he had with his American girlfriend. The family has no home in Mexico. Most of the children speak only English.

Should some be left behind, she wonders, for the better chance America offers? Who would raise them?

Should she take them all back to Mexico -- and to what?

It's a dilemma that pricks the conscience of a community.

At a community meeting Tuesday night, Rev. Roderick Coffee heard Manuela Maldonado share her story. He's pastor of a Concord congregation and president of the Lake County NAACP, which is newly interested in the immigration issue.

"I would think that we would be more prepared to handle this in a humanistic way," he said. "America has experience at immigration. We should be getting better."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: rsmith@plaind.com, 216-999-4024

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/11/facing_deportation_mother_has.html

Traffic stops that lead to deportations raise concerns

By Gabrielle Banks
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Over a two-hour stretch one night in April, state troopers stopped two cars on a highway in Inwood, W.Va., a little-known hamlet surrounded by apple orchards in the northeast corner of the state.

In both stops, troopers asked the vehicles' occupants, all Hispanic patrons of a nearby Latin nightclub, for identification. When some handed over Mexican driver's licenses, the troopers contacted the Pittsburgh branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained the drivers and passengers on charges of illegal entry.

Six occupants of the stopped vehicles face deportation proceedings and are challenging the police stops as unwarranted. Immigration lawyers say their clients fell victim to a pattern of racial profiling by state troopers, who they say purposely staked out motorists a mile from Lobo's, a dance club that plays "norteno" music on Saturday nights and draws largely Hispanic patrons from Winchester, Va.

The attorneys plan to ask immigration court judges to throw out these cases on the grounds that the state troopers stopped the cars because of their occupants' race.

"ICE will not tolerate racial profiling at all," said public affairs agent Mark M. Medvesky. He would not comment specifically on the Inwood stops since proceedings are pending.

Sgt. Michael Baylous, spokesman for the West Virginia State Police, was also unable to comment on the Inwood stops for the same reason, but said, "We don't do racial profiling here in West Virginia. Law enforcement is in the business of criminal profiling. We do actively profile criminals, people who violate the law. But we have not, nor will we ever engage in racial profiling."

David Rudovsky, a civil rights lawyer and law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said this sounded like "a classic case" of racial profiling, adding, "The cops will tell you (racial profiling) is illegal and they'll tell you they don't do it. Cops will say, 'I stopped them for a legitimate reason. I ran their names and found reason to report them.'"

Tackling a racial profiling allegation will be complicated in the parallel universe of immigration court, where clients are not afforded the same protections as in criminal or civil court.

In a civil rights suit, for example, an individual can request discovery of police evidence that might help demonstrate a pattern of racism. In immigration court, there's no guarantee a judge will allow that request. One of the three Inwood attorneys, Michelle Mendez, borrowing a phrase from an immigration judge, said tackling these matters in immigration court "is like trying a death penalty case in traffic court."

Immigration lawyers say the Inwood arrests are part of a nationwide pattern of de facto crackdowns on Hispanics by state and municipal law enforcement in the spirit of the new law passed in Arizona.

"A lot of people end up in removal proceedings because of a traffic stop," said Mendez, who works out of Catholic Charities in Washington, D.C. These disconnected arrests, wherever they occur, often aren't even a blip on a local community's radar, she said.

Many deportation arrests slip through the cracks before a qualified lawyer gets a look at them, attorneys said. An Amnesty International report in 2009 found that among individuals facing removal proceedings in Pennsylvania, 84 percent of detained immigrants and 58 percent of all clients did not have attorneys.

Valerie Burch, an American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania attorney representing three Inwood cases, said after troopers booked the two cars' occupants at the Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg, W.Va., none of the suspects was able to phone potential attorneys, or notify family members or day care providers of their whereabouts for three days.

The phones at the jail did not work, they said.

The group came to the attention of a lawyer when they were taken to York County Prison, an East Coast hub for ICE that processes thousands of detainees facing deportation each year.

The six Inwood cases are inching forward in immigration court, which operates differently from what most people picture when they think of a court. Immigration court is not under the judicial branch -- it's an administrative body under the executive branch of the federal government, which means clients aren't guaranteed the right to a lawyer and other constitutional protections.

Burch, of the ACLU, offered a preview of what she will tell the judge.

"I think there were many arrests of Hispanic motorists leaving Lobo's in recent months. ... Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's what used to happen down South to the African-American population.

"When people used to get together in one place they would be persecuted by law enforcement. Police would find any reason to stop them and harass them because of the color of their skin," she said.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/nation_world/article_8f34e554-f73d-11df-94ec-001cc4c03286.html

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

By Georgia Garvey
The Chicago Tribune
November 14, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ggarvey@tribune.com

Grandmother, Mom, Girl, 9, Deported

By KATIA LÓPEZ-HODOYÁN
NBC San Diego
Sat, Nov 13, 2010

Deportations are not that uncommon in Escondido, but a recent case is triggering some controversy.

It involves a grandmother, a 28-year-old mother and a 9-year-old girl.

Last week the family was driving to a clinic, because the young girl had a high fever. But the girl’s mother, Minerva Santos, 28, ran a stop sign on Mission and Fig Street.

According to Lt. Mike Cea from the County’s Sheriff’s Department, Santos almost crashed into the car of a deputy sheriff who was passing by.

Santos didn’t have a driver’s license.

“When the immigration issue came up,” said Lt. Cea. “Deputy Wayland rightfully notified the Border Patrol who are the experts in this area.”

Critics say the issue was handled inappropriately because the 9-year-old was patted down.

“From our perspective it was an extreme inspection,” said Pedro Rios from the American Friends Service Committee. “The patting down of the 9 year old girl who was sick… the most she could have had was a pencil, a notebook.”

But the Sheriff’s department says it acted lawfully by following their standard procedure.

“I understand the issue with the 9-year-old girl,” says Lt. Cea. “But it's no different than if it was an adolescent or a juvenile. It's a standard practice for officer’s safety. It’s what we do when transferring detainees.”

Human Rights advocates argue that cases like these only alienate the Latino community from officials, making it more difficult for them to report crimes.

“With this incident that took place there is very little confidence the Latino community has with officials, including the sheriff's office,” said Rios.

The Sheriff’s Department says people living in Escondido illegally shouldn’t fear the authorities.

“Our deputy wasn't out looking for undocumented residents," said Cea. "It was the near collision that provoked all this. They should have no fear of contacting us [when reporting crimes].”

Santos has two other daughters in Escondido. For now, a friend is looking after them.

Despite some criticism, in the last few days the Sheriff’s department has received calls from residents showing their support for how the case was handled.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Grandmother-Mom-Girl-9-Deported-107729813.html

Federal fingerprinting program leads to deportations in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties

Fingerprints taken from thousands arrested in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties have identified hundreds of illegal immigrants and resulted in their deportation.

BY VALLERY BROWN
The Oklahoman
Published: October 11, 2010

Fingerprints taken from thousands of people arrested in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties have identified hundreds of illegal immigrants and resulted in their deportation.

Oklahoma and Tulsa counties last November implemented Secure Communities, a program that sends the fingerprints of individuals booked into jail for comparison with federal investigative and immigration databases. Since then, nearly 30,000 fingerprints have been submitted in both counties, according to data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Most recent numbers show more than 1,200 hits for suspected immigration violations and 429 deportations.

Some in law enforcement praise the simplicity and ease of taking fingerprints to help identify the immigration violators. But others say the program opens the door to rights violations, is lacking transparency and oversight and isn't the tool it's been touted to be.

A recent report on the program by the Immigration Policy Center recommended all jurisdictions participating in the program receive adequate civil rights and illegal profiling training.

"This can't take the place of people trained in immigration enforcement,” said Sgt. Shannon Clark, head of the federal immigration enforcement program in Tulsa County. Deputies there are trained to identify illegal immigrants and are able to detain them for suspected violations.

Clark said only people who come into contact with federal immigration or customs agents will have fingerprints in the immigration database. Many arrested in Oklahoma have entered and lived in the country without ever being detected by law enforcement or immigration officials.

"Determining alienage can't be done simply with a computer program,” he said.

However, Maj. Jack Herron, Oklahoma County jail administrator, said the program has helped ease crowding in his packed jail.

The most recent data show the database identified 156 people with possible immigration violations from July 19 through Oct. 6. Interviews then conducted by federal agents resulted in 98 detained and taken away by immigration officers.

Herron said the jail books about 4,000 inmates per month.

Prioritizing offenders

Immigration officials say they prioritize their focus based on the severity of the crime allegedly committed.

Of the 429 deportations in the past year, 170 were noncriminal removals, meaning the individual was taken into custody for violations such as a traffic stop or charges weren't filed, said Carl Rusnok, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The other 259 were taken into custody and later deported after committing a wide range of crimes.

"This isn't a panacea, but it's a tool we use,” Rusnok said.

In a news conference earlier this week, U.S. Homeland Security Department Secretary Janet Napolitano announced authorities had removed more than 392,000 non-U.S. citizens during the 2010 fiscal year.

That includes 16,136 from North Texas and Oklahoma. Individual state-level deportations were not available from federal officials.

Napolitano said removal numbers are the highest on record. She attributed much of the success to Secure Communities. Currently, 660 jurisdictions in 33 states are a part of the Secure Communities program. A year ago, only 81 jurisdictions in nine states had the program.

Rusnok said the agency wants the program used nationwide by 2013.

http://newsok.com/program-deporting-illegals/article/3503434#ixzz123BVFBtC

Deported for Running a Red Light

By William Fisher
Interpress Agency News Service
August 20, 2010

NEW YORK, Aug 19, 2010 (IPS) - A government programme designed to prosecute serious criminals is instead deporting people who received traffic tickets and committed other minor offences, according to immigration rights advocacy groups.

The organisations charge that 79 percent of people deported through the so-called Secure Communities programme are not criminals or were picked up for lower level offences, like traffic violations and juvenile mischief.

Of the approximately 47,000 people deported through the programme from its inception in October 2008 through June 2010, only about 20 percent had been charged with or convicted of serious "Level 1" crimes, like assault and drug dealing.

The groups also assert that the programme "serves as a smokescreen for racial profiling, allowing police officers to stop people based solely on their appearance and arrest non-citizens, knowing that they will be deported, even if they were wrongfully arrested and are never convicted."

The charges stem from a Freedom of Information lawsuit brought by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

The organisations claim that documents obtained through the lawsuit "reveal a pattern of dishonesty" regarding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency's "Secure Communities" (S-Comm) programme.

S-Comm is a partnership between immigration authorities and local police. It encourages local police to help enforce federal immigration laws by arresting suspected wrongdoers and turning them over to ICE.

ICE officials have declared their intention to expand S-Comm into every jurisdiction in the country by 2013; it currently operates in 544 jurisdictions in 27 states. The programme automatically runs fingerprints through immigration databases for all people arrested and targets them for detention and deportation even if their criminal charges are minor, eventually dismissed, or the result of an unlawful arrest.

The groups charge that ICE "has been dishonest with the public and with local law enforcement regarding S-Comm's true mission and impact. While ICE markets S-Comm as an efficient, narrowly tailored tool that targets 'high threat' immigrants, it actually functions as a dragnet for funneling people into the mismanaged ICE detention and removal system."

They also claim that the programme "serves as a smokescreen for racial profiling, allowing police officers to stop people based solely on their appearance and arrest non- citizens, knowing that they will be deported, even if they were wrongfully arrested and are never convicted."

Sunita Patel, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, told IPS, "The misnamed Secure Communities programme is the Department of Homeland Security's current scheme to rope local cops into immigration enforcement. Though branded as a race-blind way to arrest certain people, the numbers show it's actually trap."

And Francis Boyle, a law professor at the University of Illinois, told IPS, "This is simply an exercise in racial profiling against Latinos."

Records obtained in the lawsuit "reveal a dangerous trend", said Pablo Alvarado, NDLON's executive director. "This programme creates an explosion of Arizona-like enforcement at a time when the results have proven disastrous. Thanks to S-Comm, we face the potential proliferation of racial profiling, distrust of local police, fear, and xenophobia to every zip code in America."

The advocacy groups report that preliminary data confirms that some jurisdictions, such as Maricopa County in Arizona, have abnormally high rates of non-criminal S-Comm deportations.

The national average of Secure Communities deportees with no criminal records was about 26 percent, but that figure also varied wildly around the country. It was 54 percent in Maricopa County, Arizona, whose sheriff is the target of hundreds of civil rights lawsuits and investigations - including one by the Justice Department - for staging indiscriminate immigration raids.

In a move that legal experts describe as unusual, the Justice Department this week threatened to sue Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio for being uncooperative in their investigation into whether he misused his power to harass and arrest Hispanics.

The dispute threatens to exacerbate the standoff between the Obama administration and Arizona's governor, Republican Jan Brewer, over the state's new immigration law. The immigration law has become issue number one in the November midterm elections.

The Justice Department has taken legal action to challenge Arizona's new "show me your papers please" law, B-1040, which would allow local law enforcement officers to arrest people if they have reason to believe they are in the country illegally.

A federal judge has ruled that many sections of the law cannot go into effect until an appeals court rules on its legality. The government has claimed that federal law is the nation's only immigration law and that states cannot pass immigration laws of their own.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52537

Deportations raise rights question; Consul wants proof immigrants properly informed

By Crystal Gutierrez
KRQE
11 Aug 2010

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A traffic stop that led to the deportation of two illegal immigrants raises serious questions about whether detained aliens are being informed of their rights under an international treaty, according to Mexico's consul in Albuquerque.

Consul Gustavo de Unánue said he now wants to see documentation that the civil rights of illegal immigrants from Mexico are not being violated.

According to the Mexican Consulate on July 9 an Albuquerque police officer pulled over a man and his sister and said they were speeding.

De Unánue said after the officer asked for the man’s driver’s license, registration and insurance he asked about the pair’s citizenship. De Unánue said the officer then called Border Patrol.

Soon after the federal agents arrived the sibling’s parents drove up and that is when their father’s citizenship was questioned.

The Mexican Consul said the officer was racial profiling and had no right to call in Border Patrol.

“It’s not his job,” de Unánue said. “If you detain somebody for speeding you give them the speed ticket and that’s it.”

Albuquerque’s Public Safety Director Darren White said the officer was trying to verify the man’s identity and that procedure is allowed.

Both the father and son were deported.

However, racial profiling is not the only thing that the consulate is questioning.

“We're talking about the rights of these people to contact their consulate,” de Unánue said.

De Unánue said neither of the men, who were deported, called the consulate. Then he started looking up all the other cases of deportations that started with city police.

Since Mayor Richard J. Berry's initiative allowing federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to check the immigration status of everyone arrested in the city about 150 illegal immigrants have been identified.

According to the Vienna Convention all illegal immigrants who are arrested in any country are supposed to be informed that they have the right to talk to their country's consulate.

The Mexican Consul said not one has called the consulate.

“I am assuming that no one told them they had the right to contact me,” de Unánue said.

City spokesman T.J. Wilham said that it is not the job of the city to make sure illegal immigrants are being told about their civil rights since city officers do not check the citizenship status.

“We are not in the business of checking immigration status,” Wilham said.

Wilham said the city is leaving that up to the federal agents, ICE officials, who are housed in the same prisoner transport center as the city police.

De Unánue said no matter whose job it is the consulate wants documentation that it's being done.

He said they will propose that all illegal immigrants be given a document informing them of their rights to read and sign.

“Just to make sure the people have their rights respected,” de Unánue said.

According to ICE Spokesperson Leticia Zamarripa it is standard procedure to inform all illegal immigrants about their rights to speak with their consulate. Zamarripa said she will check if they are already documenting this procedure.

Berry said he would not comment until the investigation is complete.

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/politics/civil-rights-of-illegals-violated%3F

Nun's death sparks immigration debate

By Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd
CNN
August 3, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Death of nun has angered local authorities
* Napolitano has called for an investigation
* Suspect was in the country illegally when he crashed into nun, police said

Bristow, Virginia (CNN) -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered an investigation after a man who was in the United States illegally killed a nun in a car crash, authorities said.

Napolitano is trying determine why the man was still in the country because he had been arrested two previous times for drunken driving offenses.

The suspect, Carlos Montano, driving Sunday morning under the influence of alcohol, slammed head-on into three nuns in a Toyota sedan, police said. The three were just a few miles from a monastery in Bristow, Virginia, heading for their annual retreat. Sister Denise Mosier was killed instantly, and the other two remained hospitalized Tuesday.

The suspect has twice been in custody -- the first time, almost two years ago in October 2008 -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. But both times, Montano was released on his own recognizance pending deportation proceedings, because he was not convicted of a violent felony such as murder, rape, or robbery.

"He was in removal proceedings," Napolitano told CNN on Tuesday. "Why were the removal proceedings taking so long? I do not obviously as of today have the results of that, but I will get them."

Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, said he was furious with how immigration officials have handled the case.

"We identified him as an illegal alien, we told ICE that he had twice been convicted now of DUI's, that he posed a threat to the community," said Stewart. "And they turned around and they released him right back into the neighborhood."

County prosecutor Paul Ebert said Montano has previously been convicted twice for drunken driving, as well as reckless driving, speeding, and public drunkenness. He spent 20 days in jail in 2009.

The suspect, 23, has now been charged with involuntary manslaughter. It was unclear if he has retained a defense lawyer.

The incident comes amid a contentious national debate about illegal immigration, just days after a strict new immigration law was scheduled to go into effect in Arizona. The most controversial provisions of the law have been stayed by a judge, but supporters of the law said a failure by Washington to crack down on illegal immigration forced Arizona to act.

The Department of Homeland Security says record numbers of immigrants who have committed crimes have been removed in the last 18 months.

"This administration has fundamentally reformed immigration enforcement," said spokesman Matt Chandler, "identifying and removing criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety."

But Stewart said more needs to be done.

"Congress has deliberately understaffed and underfunded immigration enforcement for years," Stewart said.

On Tuesday, the Virginia monastery's chapel was adorned with flowers, and a vigil and funeral are scheduled for later this week.

Mosier, the victim in the car accident, had served as a missionary in South Africa, and regularly acted as a spiritual mentor to the 30 other nuns at the convent.

"It's a great loss, because they depended on her," said Sister Andrea Verchuck.

But the convent said in a statement, "The Benedictine Sisters are dismayed and saddened that this tragedy has been politicized, and become an apparent forum for the illegal immigration agenda."

Verchuck said she would rather focus on the needless tragedies caused by drinking and driving, and on forgiveness, in memory of Mosier.

"If she had been conscious at the time that she was taken from the wreck," she said, "If Carlos had been there, she would have said, 'Carlos, I forgive you.' "

CNN's Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/04/virginia.nun.crash/?hpt=T2

More illegal immigrants being deported for lesser offenses, advocate says

By Georgia Pabst
Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
July 11, 2010

Rogelio Calderon-Gonzalez and two friends were going to play soccer last October when Greenfield police stopped the driver of the car.

The driver and the two other passengers, including Calderon-Gonzalez, were asked for identification so police could run a check.

Calderon-Gonzalez, 27, was told there was an outstanding warrant for operating a vehicle without a license, so he was taken into custody and booked into the Milwaukee County Jail.

Later he was questioned by immigration officials. He now faces deportation back to Mexico.

A review of court records shows the warrant appears to date back to 2005. Sitting in the upstairs of the duplex he shares with his girlfriend and their 10-month-old daughter, he said he thought that matter had been settled long ago.

"I don't know why there was a warrant," he said.

Calderon-Gonzalez came to the United States illegally at age 16. Since then he's worked in restaurants and other low-paying jobs. He's always known that he could face deportation.

He doesn't smoke or do drugs and hasn't committed any crimes, said Iliama Santos, his girlfriend. And although he's been stopped for traffic violations since 2005, his immigration status never came up, he said.

But these days Calderon-Gonzalez and many other illegal immigrants find themselves in deportation proceedings for traffic and various other infractions, says Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of Voces de la Frontera, a low-wage worker and immigrant advocacy group.

"In the past few years, we have seen a disturbing trend of escalated arrests of non-criminal immigrants who, through collaboration of local law enforcement agencies and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), end up in deportation proceedings," she wrote in a letter to Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway and other county supervisors.

Voces has "documented dozens of cases in the past 12 months in which immigrants, arrested for traffic violations or crime for which they were later found innocent, are now facing deportation," she wrote.

There also are increasing concerns about civil and labor rights violations, as well as racial profiling, she wrote.

Voces asked the Milwaukee County Board to start a formal investigation of the collaboration between ICE and the Sheriff's Department.

She was joined in the request for the investigation by the Milwaukee Commission on Community Police Relations immigration and racial profiling task force, which includes the NAACP, Islamic Society, the Council for the Spanish Speaking and the Sherman Park Association.

The request is scheduled to be on the agenda for the next meeting of the County Board's Judiciary, Safety and General Services Committee at 9 a.m. Thursday.

While ICE targets illegal immigrants who are a threat to public safety and the more severe criminals as its highest priority for deportation, other illegal immigrants who have been arrested may be deported as well, said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for ICE.

In fiscal year 2009, ICE deported 387,790 illegal immigrants, he said. Of those 136,116 had criminal convictions, he said. One reason deportations have increased in recent years is because of "increased efficiencies," more publicity and more information to local law enforcement about the criminal alien program, he said.

Voces also has written a separate open records request to Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. asking for records on policies, practices of the department related to the citizenship or immigration status, national origin, or places of birth of individuals held in the department's custody and its cooperation with ICE and funding received.

"My role in this thing is to enforce the law and not make subjective decisions," said Clarke. "We work and cooperate with all law enforcement in sharing information."

He explained that ICE has access to the names of everyone booked into the jail - the same information that's available to the public and the media. He said everyone who is arrested and booked is asked for name, date of birth, place of birth, Social Security number and biographical data.

"We don't investigate (the immigration status), we just collect the information," he said.

"For someone to suggest we shouldn't allow another law enforcement agency access to our information is ridiculous, but it happens," he said.

He added: "I believe, based on things going on around the country concerning immigration, passion and emotion now have replaced logic and reason."

Under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the Sheriff's Department receives money to help offset spending related to incarcerating undocumented immigrants. Last year that amount was about $135,000; the year before that it was about $60,000, Clarke said.

The funding goes back about five years, Clarke said.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/98212579.html