Postville Iowa: A Humanitarian Crisis?

POSTVILLE IOWA: A HUMANITRIAN CRISIS?

By Barth Anderson from Fair Food Fight.com

Postville, Iowa, is reeling at the moment.

On May 12, 2008, the largest single immigration raid in the country at the time was conducted against Agriprocessors, a kosher slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant in Postville, IA.

Now, six months later, the fallout from that raid is still raining down on this little Iowa town. Over 9000 counts of child-labor violations were leveled at management, along with charges of conspiring to hire illegal immigrants, and felony charges relating to identity theft. (One Agriprocessors Human Resources Manager is said to have skipped the country.)

In the wake of all this, Agriprocessors filed for bankruptcy in early November and stripped their operation down to nearly nothing, causing more hardship for employees still working at the plant.

But this last week, things went from bad to worse.

389 arrests were made last May, mostly of undocumented workers arrested by ICE (Immigration and Customes Enforcement). This forced Agriprocessors to eliminate their kosher beef line and focus solely on poultry.

To make up for their work force being gutted by the ICE raid, and assuming they would soon be back on their feet, Agriprocessors flew in workers from the island nation of Palau. Each Palauan worker was given a round trip ticket and promised $9/hr (compared to the $2/hr they were making in Palau).

Unfortunately, Agriprocessors couldn't make good on even $9/hr. The company didn't make payroll last Friday, leaving all their workers (but the Palauans in particular) in dire straits. On Friday night, the landlord of a local rental property, who presumably knew that workers had not been paid, asked Alliant Energy to cut power to workers' rental units. (The State of Iowa intervened, and power was restored later in the weekend).

In the wake of this turn of events, many workers were suddenly homeless this weekend. Seventeen Paluans were shuttled to nearby Decorah, IA, where they were housed in a skating rink. A bitter reversal in what they thought would be their first glimpse of the American dream.

Meanwhile, the Guatemalan and Mexican undocumented workers who'd been arrested back in May are still awaiting trial in Postville. Many were released back into the community wearing GPS leg bracelets but with nowhere to go. Many went to St. Bridget's Church, which provided aid to most of the former Agriprocessors undocumented workers. But the church is being pushed to the financial brink by this crisis

FailedMessiah, who has been doing the heavy lifting on this issue, is calling this a "staggering humanitarian crisis," and it may well be (it's hard to get a bead on how strapped the town of Postville is, in this situation). If you would like to help, that blog is organizing a response, and you can make donations through their site -- they even have directions for food donations (if you happen to live in the Twin Cities).

In particular, you could make donations directly to St. Bridget's Church, which sorely needs the help.

More information here:

http://www.fairfoodfight.com/...

We've been covering this at Fair Food Fight for a couple weeks now. The link above is to all article tagged with "Agriprocessors".

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A small victory in Postville - owners to be charged with child labor violations

DES MOINES, Iowa - State officials say they're shocked by the sheer number of child labor violations uncovered at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, where nearly 400 workers were arrested during an Immigration raid in May.

… The state's investigation found dozens of violations from "virtually every aspect of Iowa's child labor laws," said Dave Neil the Iowa Labor Commissioner. Officials also said the scope of the case -- with 57 children involved -- makes it unusually large.

"Typically, when we have child labor issues it's an issue of one or two individuals," said Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, which oversees the labor commissioner's office. "From our point of view, with this investigation, it's a large-scale violation of the law."

Labor officials said their investigation spanned several months and began before a May 12 federal Immigration raid at Agriprocessors. The raid resulted in 389 arrests and was the largest in U.S. history.

… Labor officials said the violations included minors working in prohibited occupations, exceeding allowable hours for youth to work, failure to obtain work permits, exposure to hazardous chemicals and working with prohibited tools. Under Iowa law, it is illegal for children under the age of 18 to work in a meatpacking plant.

Neil said he was recommending "that the attorney general's office prosecute these violations to the fullest extent of the law."

Officials say they are still investigating possible wage violations at the plant.

Juda Engelmayer, an Agriprocessors spokesman, declined immediate comment on the labor officials' announcement.

Chicago Tribune

While the announcement of these charges will provide little solace to those illegally charged with criminal activity and held in prison, the hundreds of children left behind to a life of uncertainty, or those at the forefront of the humanitarian effort to care for a community ravaged by the overzealous overreach of the Department of Homeland Security and a corrupted justice system, at least those who are the only true criminals in this sad case will finally be held accountable for some of their despicable actions.

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More evidence about injustice of Postville surfaces.

Last week, Dr Erik Camayd-Freixas, the court appointed interpreter who blew the whistle on the flagrant abuses of civil rights that marked the aftermath of the ICE raids in Postville Iowa last May, testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law.

Additionally, The ACLU has acquired a copy of a Government "manual" distributed to defense lawyers assigned to represent the immigrant workers arrested in the meat packing raids. The manual contians prepackaged scripts for plea and sentencing hearings as well as documents providing for guilty pleas and waivers of rights to be used by both the judges and attorneys in expediting procedures as quickly as possible with little regard for due process.

"This document provides further evidence of the government's disturbing pressure cooker tactics for mass guilty pleas that assumed guilt instead of protecting the constitutional presumption of innocence," said ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project Director Lucas Guttentag. "Along with the workers, fairness and due process were the victims of the Postville prosecutions."

The government "manual" provided for the workers to waive all their legal rights and in the overwhelming majority of cases, to plead guilty to charges of falsely using identity documents for employment. It was an important tool used to rush defendants through the criminal justice and immigration systems without a criminal trial or immigration proceedings. The plea forms in the "manual" included a requirement barring immigrants from pursuing any legal claims or procedures under the immigration laws.

…. The troubling system implemented by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Homeland Security appeared designed to undermine fairness and due process by criminally prosecuting the workers under circumstances that undermined their ability to understand or protect their rights.

link

View Government Manual (PDF)

When viewed together these two important pieces of evidence paint a vivid picture of the gross abuses of power and disrespect for basic constitutional protections that marked the aftermath of the Postville raid

What follows are the prepared remarks of Dr Camayd-Freixas from the congressional hearing:

STATEMENT OF DR. ERIK CAMAYD-FREIXAS
FEDERALLY CERTIFIED INTERPRETER
AT THE U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF IOWA
REGARDING A HEARING ON

“THE ARREST, PROSECUTION, AND CONVICTION
OF 297 UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS
IN POSTVILLE, IOWA, FROM MAY 12 TO 22, 2008”

BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, CITIZENSHIP, REFUGEES, BORDER SECURITY AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
July 24, 2008 at 11:00am
1310 Longworth House Office Building

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. ERIK CAMAYD-FREIXAS

Introduction

Good morning, Chairwoman Lofgren, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee. My name is Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas. I was one of 26 interpreters who started the court hearings at Waterloo on May 13, 2008, and one of approximately 16 interpreters who stayed the whole two weeks, until May 22.

The role of the Interpreter is defined in Rule 604 of the Federal Criminal Code and Rules(1989) as both an Officer of the Court and the Court’s Expert Witness. In that impartial capacity, I wrote my essay, Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History, which I respectfully submit for the congressional record. I finished the essay on June 13, with the intention of sending it to an educational trade journal for translators and interpreters.

I first sent my essay to the court and to the group of interpreters with whom I worked in Waterloo. After proper consultation and several requests, I granted permission to forward the essay to family and friends. Immediately, I began to receive, on a daily basis, scores of e-mails of support from attorneys, academics, other interpreters, and people in all walks of life around the country. Distributed by people over the Internet, in two weeks my essay had been read by thousands, had made it to Congress, and later to the media.

The essay can be found at the end of this statement.

In my capacity as the court’s expert witness I observed that the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of 297 undocumented workers from Postville was a process marred by irregularities at every step of the way, which combined to produce very lamentable results.

It is important to note that the initial appearances, plea hearings, and sentencing hearings were presided by different magistrates and judges, and that the interpreters were the only officers of the court who were present at every step of this fast-tracking operation,including the individual interviews in jail, which were not accessible to judges or prosecutors.

This unprecedented operation was a learning experience for all concerned. It was also a pilot operative to be replicated at a similar or smaller scale throughout the country. In this context, it is the duty of the interpreter, as the court’s expert, to ensure that the court is not misled, and to bring to the court’s attention any misunderstandings and impediments to due process.

While on location, I was only able to give the court a sketchy oral report. Only after careful research, analysis, and reconstruction of the events was I able to make a detailed written report in the form of the abovementioned essay. Moreover, I had to do this after the cases were already closed, so as not to influence their outcome, which is the rationale for the confidentiality clause in the interpreter’s code of ethics.

It is also important to note that I maintained an impartial position throughout the proceedings and I remain impartial today. All my judgments were arrived at from such impartial perspective, in the same way that judges or juries can emit impartial judgments and conclusions of fact.

I had occasion to observe and document the following problems in the judicial process:

1) The compound and quarters where the detainees were kept were not certified by the DOJ or the Bureau of Prisons.

2) The court failed to maintain a physical separation and operational independence from the ICE prosecution.

3) There was inadequate access to legal counsel.

4) The court failed to provide a level playing field for the (centralized) prosecution and the (fragmented) defense.

5) At initial appearance there was no meaningful presumption of innocence.

6) Many defendants did not appear to understand their rights, particularly the meaning and consequences of waiving their right to be indicted by a grand jury.

7) There was no bail hearing, as bail was automatically denied pursuant to an immigration detainer.

8) The heavier charge of aggravated identity theft, used to leverage the Plea Agreement, was lacking in foundation and never underwent the judicial test of probable cause.

9) Many defendants did not appear to understand their charges or rights, insisting that they were in jail for being in the country illegally (and not for document fraud or identity theft), and insisting that they had no rights.

10) Many defendants did not know what a Social Security Number is or what purpose it serves. Because “intent” was an element of each of the charges, many were probably not guilty, but had no choice but to plead out.

11) The denial of bail, the inflated charge, and the leveraged Plea Agreement combined to create, for the many sole providers whose families were put in jeopardy, a situation of duress under which the pleas were obtained. Under these circumstances, the pleas, in many cases, may have been coerced.

12) At sentencing, the judges had no discretion to administer justice, as they were presented with a binding and coerced Plea Agreement.

13) It was a foreseeable effect that, for the many sole providers whose families were put in jeopardy, the recommended prison sentence would in fact result in a cruel and unusual psychological punishment.

In order to accurately interpret the meaning and spirit of the message, the interpreter has to identify with and “become” each speaker. Seeing from within the perspective of the other is a common procedure in legal interpreting. When I assumed the perspective of most defendants, I found the charges and rights to be incomprehensible; I felt that a great injustice was being done; and I found their mprisonment, with their families in jeopardy,to be an intolerable burden.

I will now concentrate briefly on the defendants’ inability to understand their charges and rights. This was due to the interplay of four factors:

1) It was unclear to what extent the numerous ethnic Mayans understood Spanish as a second language.

2) There are vast cultural differences between Mexican and Guatemalan rural cultures, on the one hand, and American legal culture on the other.

3) It is my expert opinion as an educator that, due to their lack of schooling and low rate of literacy, most of the defendants had a level of conceptual and abstract understanding equivalent to that of a third grader or less. They needed much more time and individualized legal counsel than could be remotely provided by this fast-tracking process under the average ratio of 17 clients per attorney.

4) The court was put in a position of interdependence with the prosecution, which resulted in the court sending very mixed messages. For example, telling defendants in chains, without right of bail, and who are being fast-tracked without regard for individual circumstance, that they have the presumption innocence.

In general, the defendants were not able to understand the far-fetched, abstract, and derivative concept of “identity theft,” because they felt they had not literally stolen from anybody, but had in fact purchased the documents necessary to obtain work, paying up to $300 for them.

Similarly, many had trouble understanding the charge of Social Security fraud because they felt they had not done anyone any harm. They simply understood that both were arbitrary charges brought by the government for the sole reason that they were in the country illegally and that, therefore, they had no rights.

They further understood that, because they were in the country illegally, they had no chance of ever wining at trial, and that its outcome was predetermined. They had lost all confidence in our justice system. Some even distrusted their own court appointed lawyers, who had come to deliver a forcible Plea Agreement that offered them no viable option. If they pleaded not guilty, they could end up waiting longer in jail, without bail, for a trial they felt they could never win.

Whatever rights they were told they had made absolutely no difference, so they kept insisting that they had no rights because they were here illegally. With their rights being meaningless or denied, and without understanding the nature of the charges against them, they were unable to aid in their own defense.

Their decision, both to waive grand jury indictment or other rights and to plead guilty, was solely based on which was the fastest way to get back home and look after their families. Nothing else had any real meaning.

Download PDF of Dr Camayd-Freixas' Testimony

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Welcome to the police state

Being of a certain age, much of my early worldview was shaped by childhood indoctrination about authoritarian states, I guess you could call me part of the "Duck and Cover" generation. Taught from an early age about the evils of communism and fascism, we were often told that one of the greatest differences between free societies like our own, and evil totalitarian states, was that here in America one was safe to voice political views or dissent without fear of government retribution. We had no Siberian exile, Gulags, or internment camps. The police did not burst into your home in the middle of the night and arrest you on trumped up charges simply for voicing opinions contradictory to government policy.

Yet given today's current situation, it is no longer quite so easy to draw such simplistic comparisons.

Under the current administration, no thinking person can honestly say that they don't feel the slow grip of government overreach extending into the fabric of everyday life. An uneasiness has settled across the nation, somehow instinctively knowing that we are teetering on a precipice from which at any moment we could be sent spiraling down into the depths of a fascist nightmare straight out of the a futuristic novel.

In past expansions of totalitarianism, there have usually been early warnings signs. Certain groups within society were often preliminary targets, subjected to the loss of rights or privileges, long before these rights are taken away from the society as a whole. Gypsies, Jews, Gays, Blacks ….. the list of society's "coal mine canaries" is long. Generally any minority population that could be marginalized would be the first to feel the stranglehold of the coming authoritarian state.

In the United States of the early 21st century, our "coal mine canaries" increasingly appear to be the foreign-born population of this nation. Whether they be Muslims from the Middle East or Africa or Latinos coming to seek jobs and a better life for their families, the government appears all to willing to treat the foreign-born population of this nation as a testing grounds for dismantling basic constitutional rights.

Warrant-less arrests, indefinite detentions, and lack of judicial review have become standard practices when dealing with the foreign-born population.

Now apparently we can add the use of law enforcement to quiet political dissent and free speech to that list.

Three days after a 24-year-old college graduate spoke out on her immigration plight in USA TODAY, U.S. agents arrested her family — including her father, a Vietnamese man who once was confined to a "re-education" camp in his home country for anti-communist activities.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who chairs the House immigration subcommittee, on Tuesday accused federal officials of "witness intimidation" for staging a pre-dawn raid on the home of Tuan Ngoc Tran.

The agents arrested Tran, his wife and son, charging them with being fugitives from justice even though the family's attorneys said the Trans have been reporting to immigration officials annually to obtain work permits.

Lofgren said she believes the family was targeted because Tran's eldest child, Tam Tran, testified before Lofgren's panel earlier this spring in support of legislation that would help the children of illegal immigrants. On Oct. 8, Tam Tran was quoted in USA TODAY.
Her parents and brother were taken into custody Thursday. The family was released to house arrest after Lofgren intervened.

"Would she and her family have been arrested if she hadn't spoken out?" Lofgren said of Tran, who was not at home for the raid but has been asked to report to Immigration and Customs officials next week. "I don't think so."
link

The family has a long and complicated history. Tuan Ngoc Tran had faced persecution in his native Vietnam due to his anti-communist activates and managed to escape, becoming a "boat person" and eventually ending up in Germany after being rescued at sea. Both Tam Tran and her brother, Thien, 21 were then born in Germany. The family moved to the USA when Tran was 6 and began going through the process of applying for asylum.

When they lost their asylum case the Tran's volunteered to go back to Germany, but the German government refused to issue them travel documents. Although born in Germany, both Tan and Thien are not considered German citizens. Being technically "stateless", Tran told the Congressional subcommittee in May that she writes "the world" when asked her citizenship on official papers.

Unable to go back to either Vietnam or Germany, the Tran's were granted "withholding of removal" status by the government in 2001 that allowed them to stay until the government could figure out what to do with them. It required them to continue to report to immigration officials annually to obtain their work permits….just as they’ve done every year for the last 18 years. In the US today there are 324,000 people who have been ordered deported, yet have no country to accept them.

Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the Tran family's arrest "absolutely, unequivocally had nothing to do" with Tam Tran's advocacy. She said ICE agents began working on the case Sept. 28 and will now try to send the family to Germany, where the Trans lived for several years before coming to the United States. In the past, the German government refused the family's permission to return; Nantel said the U.S. government will now make an official request

Link

The Tran's spend a night in custody before Representative Lofgren orchestrated their release, yet they were still issued ankle bracelets and told they had a 7 p.m. curfew. After more negotiations the bracelets were removed Tuesday.

Tam Tran, who graduated from UCLA in 2006, testified before the House immigration subcommittee in May on the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented college students who have lived in the U.S. for five years to get legal status.
Link

Tam Tran's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law about the DREAM Act painted a vivid picture of the limbo that thousands of immigrant children find themselves in.

In December, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in American Literature and Culture with Latin, Departmental and College honors from UCLA. I thought, finally, after all these years of working multiple jobs and applying to countless scholarships all while taking more than 15 units every quarter, were going to pay off. And it did seem to be paying off. I found a job right away in my field as a full-time film editor and videographer with a documentary project at UCLA. I also applied to graduate school and was accepted to a Ph.D. program in Cultural Studies. I was awarded a department fellowship and the minority fellowship, but the challenges I faced as an undocumented college student began to surface once again.

Except the difference this time is I am 24 years old. I suppose this means I’m an adult. I also have a college degree. I guess this also means I’m an educated adult. But for a fact, I know that this means I do have responsibilities to the society I live in. I have the desire and also the ability and skills to help my community by being an academic researcher and socially conscious video documentarian, but I’ll have to wait before I can become an accountable member of society. I recently declined the offer to the Ph.D. program because even with these two fellowships, I don’t have the money to cover the $50,000 tuition and living expenses. I’ll have to wait before I can really grow up. But that’s okay, because when you’re in my situation you have to, or learn to, or are forced to make compromises.

With my adult job, I can save up for graduate school next year. Or at least that’s what I thought. Three days ago, the day before I boarded my flight to DC, I was informed that it would be my last day at work. My work permit has expired and I won’t be able to continue working until I receive a new one. Every year, I must apply for a renewal but never have I received it on time. This means every year around this month, I lose the job that I have. But that’s okay. Because I’ve been used to this—to losing things I have worked hard for. Not just this job but also the value of my college degree and the American identity I once possessed as a child.
…
But for some of my friends who could only be here today through a blurred face in a video, they have other fears too. They can’t be here because they are afraid of being deported from the country they grew up in and call home. There is also the fear of the unknown after graduation that is uniquely different from other students. Graduation for many of my friends isn’t a rite of passage to becoming a responsible adult. Rather, it is the last phase in which they can feel a sense of belonging as an American. As an American university student, my friends feel a part of an American community—that they are living out the American dream among their peers. But after graduation, they will be left behind by their American friends as my friends are without the prospect of obtaining a job that will utilize the degree they’ve earned; my friends will become just another undocumented immigrant.
Link

Somehow I think that Tam is not the only one who feels she is being stripped of "the American identity (she) once possessed as a child"….In a nation now so callous and small-minded, so willing to allow their rights and privileges to be thrown away, so willing to turn a deaf ear to the faint songs of the coal mine canaries around us as they warn of our own impeding disaster ….all of us lose a little more of our American identity each and every day.

For more on the DREAM Act and the plight thousands of immigrant children, brought here as children, who just want to be part of the American Dream:
Here
here
here
here
here

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Long Island top official calls for investigation of Federal raids.

Coming on the heels of NY Governor Eliot Spitzer's recent announcement that his state would start making driver's licenses available to its approximately 500,000 undocumented residents in December, a spate of recent Federal immigration raids on Long Island, that infuriated local officials, have drawn the state to the center of the heated national debate on immigration.

The raids, which occurred on September 24 and 26, were characterized at a press conference held yesterday by Nassau County Executive, Tom Suozzi , as poorly structured and executed, leading him to call for a Federal investigation into ICE's handling of the matter.

Click for Video Courtesy News12 LI

Federal agents displayed a "cowboy" mentality while running roughshod over local police officers _ at times pointing their weapons at cops _ and ensnared more suspected illegal aliens than targeted gangsters in raids on Long Island last week, officials said Tuesday.

"There were clear dangers of friendly fire," Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said. "We did have members that were actually drawn upon."

Mulvey and County Executive Tom Suozzi want Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to investigate the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents; ICE is under the jurisdiction of the Homeland Security department.

Newsday

"The Ice official failed on three occasions to check the names and addresses of their arrest suspects against the Naussau County Police Department's Gang Intelligence Files," Suozzi said Tuesday."The result was that many wrong residential addresses were raided, and in one instance, ICE sought a 28-year-old defendant using a photograph taken when the he was seven year old boy.

He stressed that, "Of the reported 82 county arrests, our police records indicate that there are eight active gang members and one is a gang associate."

Suozzi went on to say that “tactically the operation was structured poorly,” and that “some ICE members wore cowboy hats and in the view of some of my members displayed a ‘cowboy’ mentality. This, in my view, posed unnecessary dangers to all parties, including my members, who in fact were drawn upon by the agents."

According to Nassau' Police Commissioner, Lawrence W. Mulvey, officials of Immigration and Customs Enforcement originally claimed they would be executing warrants for residents who were known gang members, but given the final outcome of the raids, he now believes that ICE's initial characterization was "misleading."

Stating that the lack of current intelligence and organization created unnecessary risks to officer safety, Mulvey announced last week that the county would no longer be cooperating with Federal officials on immigration related matters.

Federal agents acted like "cowboys" ... mistakenly pulling their weapons on Nassau Police officers -- during immigration raids in the Nassau County last week, the county police commissioner charged Tuesday.

On two separate occasions during the raids, the federal agents mistakenly aimed their weapons at Nassau County police officers who were serving as backup, Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said at a news conference with County Executive Thomas Suozzi.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had asked for county police to assist them in arresting gang members on warrants, but the agents appeared to be just rounding up undocumented immigrants, Mulvey said.

However, the special agent in charge of the federal operation, Peter Smith, denied that his agents acted improperly, or that they ever aimed their weapons at Nassau officers.

"We stand behind our operation," Smith said. He said all agents and local officers wore distinctive marking on their vests or shirts, but said "a couple" of agents from other parts of the country might have worn cowboy hats.

Newsday

The Police Commissioner also expressed anger over the damage the raids have done to the departments ability to operate effectively in the immigrant and Latino communities. "This sets us back" with the Latino community, Mulvey said. "We suffer the consequences of the mistrust that develops."

October 2, 2007

Michael Chertoff
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20536

Dear Mr. Chertoff:

I bring to your attention serious allegations of misconduct and malfeasance committed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in executing arrest warrants in various Nassau County communities on September 24 and 26, 2007. I ask that you investigate the allegations and advise me of your written findings.

The immigration laws of the United States should be enforced and I fully support the execution of lawfully issued arrest warrants in Nassau County, particularly for known gang members. I condemn, however, any tactical actions which cross the lines of legality and law enforcement best practices.

In order to facilitate an appropriate inquiry, enclosed is a copy of Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence W. Mulvey’s September 27, 2007 letter to Joseph A. Palmese, the Resident Agent in Charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“I.C.E.”) office located in Bohemia, New York. A portion of the letter has been redacted so as not to interfere with planned I.C.E. operations. Commissioner Mulvey’s letter raises important issues as to how I.C.E. personnel, in the presence of Nassau County police officers, conducted themselves, including these observations:

• The operation on Monday lacked current intel.” I.C.E. officials failed on three occasions to check the names and addresses of their arrest targets against the Nassau County Police Department’s Gang Intelligence Files. The result was that many wrong residential addresses were raided and in one instance I.C.E. sought a 28 year old defendant using a photograph taken when he was a 7 year old boy. Of the reported 82 Nassau County arrests, our police records indicate that 8 are active gang members and 1 is a gang associate.


• “Tactically the operation was structured poorly.” The federal operation utilized border patrol personnel from around the country who had not trained together for this complex mission. “[S]ome [I.C.E.] members wore cowboy hats and in the view of some of my members displayed a “cowboy” mentality. This, in my view, posed unnecessary danger to all parties, including my members, who in fact were drawn upon by some of the agents.”

I know you agree that these are serious allegations and deserve a serious and prompt response.


Very truly yours,


Thomas R. Suozzi
County Executive


Cc: Julie Meyers, Assistant Secretary for I.C.E.
Roslynn Maskopf, United States Attorney for the Eastern District
Kathleen Rice, Nassau County District Attorney

Watch video of press conference HERE

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Raids continue as politicians talk

In Washington, the power-elite and chattering classes are arguing over the fate of millions of men, women and children in terms of statistics and numbers - deciding how many people will eventually be allowed to finally fulfill their dreams of legitimacy. Yet, out in the real world, where the workday is ten hours long, the pay is hard-earned and the kids need to be fed, there is no sense of peace or security tonight for the immigrants at the heart of the debate.

For all their high-minded talk of family values, honoring hard work, and respect for our immigrant past, the politicians and media that are expending so much hot air and ink on the issue of reforming the broken immigration system seem to have lost sight of the very people they are talking about.

Day after day, as they bicker and quarrel in Washington, the immigration raids continue, one hundred taken here, twenty-five taken there.

Stories in small local papers that never make it to the big national media outlets, the only record of the families torn apart and the children left behind.

Immigration officials arrest 100 at Cassville-area plant

5/22/2007

Federal authorities detained more than 100 people believed to be illegal immigrants after serving two criminal search warrants this morning at a George’s Processing Inc. poultry-processing plant in Barry County.

At an afternoon news conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Hammons Tower, 901 St. Louis St., U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the plant employees were taken into custody as part of an ongoing investigation into identity fraud and employment of illegal immigrants. The investigation is part of a nationwide effort to combat the unlawful employment of undocumented workers, officials said.

About 100 officers with ICE, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, U.S. Marshals and the Missouri Highway Patrol served the warrants at the processing plant in Butterfield, north of Cassville, said Pete Baird, assistant special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Kansas City.

Baird said previous federal indictments of five individuals for alleged Social Security fraud and firearms violations are linked to the warrants served at the plant today, but he declined to elaborate on the connections.

“This case is particularly troubling due to the existence of Social Security and identity fraud in addition to the numerous immigration-related violations,” Baird said in a news release.

Most of the people arrested today are from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and Baird said several were conditionally released for humanitarian reasons such as child care. Officials said a specific breakdown of those arrested would be available Wednesday.

An ICE officer handling the detention and deportation of those arrested today said they were being processed in Springfield and would later be transported to jails in Kansas City, St. Louis and Wichita, Kan. Detainees will appear before a federal immigration judge in Kansas City unless they waive their rights to a hearing, he said.

There are no charges pending against George’s, which is based in Springdale, Ark. Company spokesman Glen Balch did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Springfield Business Journal Staff

Just another hundred people taken away.

Just another hundred families broken apart.

Just another hundred parentless children.

Just another hundred spouses waiting for word of the missing.

Just another hundred families wondering how they'll pay the rent, or buy the groceries.

Just another hundred mothers comforting for her neighbor's child.

Just another day while we wait for the those in Washington to figure out what they want to do about the great immigration compromise.

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Immigration News Roundup: April 2 – April 8

This week brought the formal announcement by Tom Tancrazy that he will in fact make a run for the Republican presidential nomination. ICE released some numbers on the results of "Operation Return to Sender", the nationwide crackdown intended to catch criminal undocumented immigrants. Not surprisingly, over one third of those taken into custody were not intended targets, but rather "collateral arrests" made of those who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Census data revealed that immigration is crucial to maintaining growth in many major
US metropolitan areas.

With this years income tax filing date quickly approaching, tax preparation chains are dealing with record numbers of undocumented immigrants wishing to file tax returns.

A newly released surveillance video of a migrant shooting in Arizona by a Border Patrol Agent casts doubt on the veracity of his account of the incident. It appears that what he claimed was self defense now looks more like an execution style killing.

Lastly, we look at this past weekend's immigration march in LA.

• Tancredo Makes it Official: Announces Presidential Run


• Immigration Raids Yield Thousands of "Collateral Arrests"


• Immigration Crucial to Sustaining Metro Populations


• Undocumented Immigrants File Taxes in Record Numbers


• Video Reveals Details of Migrant Shooting by Border Patrol


• Thousands March in LA for Immigrant Rights

Tancredo Makes it Official: Announces Presidential Run

Citing a tough immigration stance, Tancredo announces presidential bid

Criticizing other GOP candidates as weak in their efforts to stop illegal immigration, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo announced Monday he would seek the Republican presidential nomination.

‘‘The political elite in Washington have chosen to ignore this phenomenon,’’ he said.

Tancredo, a congressman who has gained prominence in recent years for his staunch stance against illegal immigration, said immigration would be the primary focus of his campaign.

He said he would not enter the race if he thought one of the leading candidates was sufficiently conservative on the issue..
Times-Republican

Tancredo campaign: more scare tactics

Call Tom Tancredo the no-chance candidate, a one-trick pony.

While he may not be a real contender, the Colorado congressman has a million dollars and a dream: to push the issue of undocumented immigration to the forefront of the 2008 presidential campaign.

It's the sole reason he's running for prez.

In many ways Tancredo is like Al Sharpton, the Democratic challenger of the '04 race who knew he couldn't win but used his platform to talk in no-nonsense fashion about civil rights issues.

You have to admire someone who is passionate about an issue, even if you disagree with him. But Tancredo borders on the obsessive. It's evident in his actions.

He's hung out along the Mexican border with gun-toting "Minutemen" vigilantes who dress in camouflage and wear night-vision goggles.

At a California rally he held up a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "America is full."

He said Miami, a city that is majority Latino, resembles a "third-world country."

And in South Carolina he didn't mind speaking in a room draped with Confederate battle flags, where men dressed in Confederate regalia sang "Dixie," an offensive song that came out of blackface minstrel shows of the 1850s, mocking freed slaves.

It's understandable why Esquire magazine called him "Tancrazy."
Denver Post

Related:
Candidate Tancredo welcomed times 2, Denver Post

Tancredo joins GOP race on immigration platform, Chicago Tribune


Immigration Raids Yield Thousands of 'Collateral Arrests'

Immigrant crackdown brings 6,696 'collateral arrests'

More than one-third of 18,000 people arrested in a nearly yearlong federal crackdown on illegal immigrants were not the people authorities had targeted, according to government figures.

The so-called collateral arrests involved people picked up by immigration agents seeking fugitives such as drug smugglers, thieves, drunken drivers and others who flouted deportation orders.

When tracking down fugitives, authorities visit a suspect's last known address and often find other immigrants, who are then asked to prove they are legally entitled to live in the United States.

Supporters of such tactics say the government is just doing its job after years of neglect.

...snip…

Critics say the campaign against fugitive illegal immigrants ensnares many hard-working people who are in the country illegally but do not pose a danger.

"They're trying to sell it as something where they target [criminals] but it's become part of a larger dragnet," said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee's office in San Diego.

Dubbed "Operation Return to Sender," the crackdown began last May in cities nationwide. As of Feb. 23, it had resulted in 18,149 arrests of suspected illegal immigrants, most of whom were captured at home and in Hispanic neighborhoods.

But, according to figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nearly 37 percent of those cases, or 6,696 arrests, were "collateral" captives -- people who just happened to be present when agents arrived. Such arrests account for more than half the total in four cities: Dallas and El Paso, Texas (59 percent); New York (54 percent); and San Diego (57 percent).
San Diego Tribune

Related:
Crackdown on Fugitives Nets Many Arrests, Washington Post

Religious leaders want end to raids' 'collateral arrests', San Diego Union Tribune

Agents step up immigrant searches, San Diego Union Tribune

359 arrested in Calif. immigration sting, Houston Chronicle

Mount Kisco immigration raids are among many across U.S.The Journal News


Immigration Crucial to Sustaining Metro Populations

Census: Immigration Helps Big Metros Grow

Without immigrants pouring into the nation's big metro areas, places such as New York, Los Angeles and Boston would be shrinking as native-born Americans move farther out.

Many smaller areas, including Battle Creek, Mich., Ames, Iowa, and Corvallis, Ore., would shrink as well, according to population estimates to be released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

"Immigrants are filling the void as domestic migrants are seeking opportunities in other places," said Mark Mather, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau, a private research organization.

Immigrants long have flocked to major metropolitan areas and helped them grow. But increasingly, native-born Americans are moving from those areas and leaving immigrants to provide the only source of growth.

The New York metro area, which includes the suburbs, added 1 million immigrants from 2000 to 2006. Without those immigrants, the region would have lost nearly 600,000 people.

Without immigration, the Los Angeles metro area would have lost more than 200,000, the San Francisco area would have lost 188,000 and the Boston area would have lost 101,000.

The Census Bureau estimates annual population totals as of July 1, using local records of births and deaths, Internal Revenue Service records of people moving within the United States and census statistics on immigrants. The estimates released Thursday were for metropolitan areas, which generally include cities and their surrounding suburbs.
Washington Post

Related:
Census Shows Immigration Helping St. Louis Schools, KSCK News5

Very low growth seen by census, The Republican, MA


Undocumented Immigrants File Taxes in Record Numbers

Even illegal immigrants in U.S. pay taxes

On a recent Sunday afternoon, construction workers, car washers, truck drivers and students crowded into Petra Castillo's one-room tax-preparation office in this city's South Central neighborhood. Most of those inside what was once the home of El Jefe Tacos shared something besides their need to beat this year's April 17 filing deadline: They are illegal immigrants.

…Politicians and activists campaigning for a crackdown on illegal immigration frequently complain that the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented residents violate U.S. law by not paying taxes, as well as by being in the U.S. without permission. But . Castillo's booming business shows how some of the workers who are here in defiance of one arm of the U.S. government - the Department of Homeland Security - are filing federal tax returns with the aggressive encouragement of another - the Internal Revenue Service.

"If someone is working without authorization in this country, he or she is not absolved of tax liability," IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, a former immigration official, said in testimony before Congress last year. Last week, speaking to the National Press Club, he added, "We want your money whether you are here legally or not and whether you earned it legally or not."

In 1996, the IRS created the individual taxpayer identification number, or ITIN, a nine-digit number that starts with "9," for taxpayers who didn't qualify for a Social Security number. Since then, the agency has issued about 11 million of them, and by 2003, the latest year with available figures, the number of tax returns using them had risen to nearly one million. The government doesn't know how many of those taxpayers were undocumented immigrants. Foreign nationals with tax-reporting requirements in the U.S. can also get an ITIN. But most of the people who use the number are believed to be in the U.S. illegally. All told, between 1996 and 2003, the income-tax liability for ITIN filers totaled almost $50 billion.

As part of its outreach effort, the IRS has been helping taxpayers apply for ITINs through partnerships with community groups. Last week, the Center for Economic Progress, a nonprofit group in Chicago, hosted its fourth ITIN event of the tax season at a church on the city's South Side, helping individuals apply for the number and file in one sitting.
Wall Street Journal, via Arizona Republic

Related:

Tax Prep Chains Attract Immigrants , Washington Post

Illegal immigrants filing taxes more than ever, AP


Video Reveals Details of Migrant Shooting by Border Patrol

Video of entrant's killing is released, Blurry tape fails to back account related by agent

Video taken by a surveillance camera of the fatal shooting of an illegal entrant by a Border Patrol agent appears to cast more doubt on the agent's account of the incident.

A copy of the video was released Tuesday by the Cochise County Attorney's Office. This follows Monday's release of a 300-page report on the Jan. 12 shooting.

The video shows from a distance the moments of the fatal shooting of Francisco Javier Domínguez-Rivera by Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett. The incident happened in the afternoon near the border between Douglas and Bisbee.

The blurry digital video shows Corbett getting out of the driver's side of his vehicle and moving around the back before engaging a group of people, Cochise County sheriff's Sgt. Mark Genz wrote in a report given to the county attorney.

"You can see that he is very close to several subjects. It appears that one of the subjects he is near goes down partly, possibly to his knees and then goes down to the ground all the way and you lose sight of him," he wrote.

…snip…

The County Attorney's Office sent the video to the FBI to see if the bureau can enhance the quality of the footage.
Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer said he is waiting to review an enhanced version of the video before deciding whether to charge Corbett.

Corbett, 39, didn't speak to investigators during the investigation but reportedly told colleagues he fired a single shot from the front of his vehicle at a man who was at the back of his vehicle who looked like he was going to throw a rock.

An autopsy report and other forensic evidence seem to support the matching account from three witnesses, including the dead man's two brothers, who told investigators the agent fired while pushing Domínguez-Rivera to the ground.

The Cochise County Medical Examiner's Office found that a single bullet entered the left side of Domínguez-Rivera's chest and followed a downward trajectory through his heart and liver before lodging in his abdomen.
The shot was fired from between 3 inches and 2 1/2 feet away, according to Arizona Department of Public Safety lab information included in the report. The bullet casing from Corbett's gun was recovered.
Arizona Star

Related:
Border Patrol agent's account of shooting doesn't match evidence, Scipps

Agent Who Killed Immigrant Back on Duty, San Francisco Chronicle

Records contradict agent's story on entrant's slaying, Arizona Star

Witnesses: Agent shot unarmed man while pushing him to ground, Douglas Daily Dispatch


Thousands March in LA for Immigrant Rights

L.A. pro-immigrant march draws thousands

Thousands of people, many wearing red, marched peacefully Saturday through downtown Los Angeles, calling for broad amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Police estimated that about 7,000 to 10,000 people participated in the march. Two demonstrations two weeks ago, both held to commemorate last year's massive Los Angeles march, were marked by low turnout.

Organizers said Saturday's noontime event, which began at Olympic Boulevard and Broadway and ended at City Hall, was designed to rejuvenate efforts in Washington to promote reform that offers a path to citizenship to the greatest possible number of undocumented immigrants. Such efforts have stalled in Congress.

It was also intended to prove to critics that the immigrant rights movement was not dead, organizers said.

"People would like for it to go away," said Juan Jose Gutierrez of Latino Movement USA, one of the coordinators of the march. Speaking of Congress, he said, "we are not going to go away until they act responsibly.".
LA Times

tags: immigration, Tancredo , DHS raids, Nicholas Corbett, Collateral Arrests,

Read More...

Summary only...

Immigration News Roundup: March 19 – March 25

This week brings us a story about those who take advantage of the desperation of undocumented immigrants hoping to normalize their status with fraudulent schemes and rip-offs. Minutemen leaders continue to fight over control of the vigilante group and financial impropriety, while the Klan tries to further inject itself into the immigration debate. Some editorials examine the failures of immigration policy, as raids and deportations continue. Lastly we look at some immigration semantics in Washington State where ICE assures residents that there are no raids as they arrest, detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

• Immigration Fraud Scheme Uncovered


• Minuteman Infighting Continues


• KKK Weighs in on Hazleton Case


• Editorials Look At Failed Immigration Policies


• 750 Set for Deportation after Week-Long Southern California Raids


• When is a Raid-Not a Raid? 30 Arrested in Washington State.

Immigration Fraud Scheme Uncovered

Woman pleads guilty to million-dollar fraud of immigration applications

Maria Maximo, 56, pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to charges relating to two schemes to defraud immigrants by charging them between $500 and $2,500 to file immigration applications that Maximo knew were baseless and would ultimately be denied. According to the felony Information to which Maximo pleaded guilty, and other documents publicly filed in this case:

Between June 2004 and early 2005, Maximo, on behalf of approximately 500 illegal immigrants, prepared applications to a purported "work permit program" through which, Maximo claimed, the immigrants would receive valid United States work permits. Maximo charged $500 for the preparation of each of these approximately 500 applications. United States Citizenship and Information Services (USCIS) had no such "work permit program" and offers employment identification cards only to immigrants who have visas allowing them to work in the United States, or who are applying for immigration status which, if granted, would allow them to work. As a result, USCIS denied the approximately 500 invalid applications.

In another facet of the scheme, between May 2005 and January 2006, Maximo charged approximately 1,700 people between $500 and $2,500 for the preparation of applications to what she promoted as a "legalization program" open to virtually any illegal immigrant. Maximo claimed that through the "legalization program" applicants could receive work permits and ultimately green cards.
ICE.gov

Minuteman Infighting Continues

Judge hears arguments in Minuteman Project leadership struggle March 22, 2007

An Orange County Superior Court judge is urging those involved in a power struggle at the Minuteman Project, an anti-illegal immigration group, to work out their differences.

Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist has sued the group's board of directors for control of the organization after he was fired and accused of embezzling $400,000 in donations. He has denied the allegations.


Advertisement
In a court hearing Wednesday, Judge Randell L. Wilkinson suggested that Gilchrist work out the disagreements with board members through mutually trusted intermediaries.

But Gilchrist called the differences “irreconcilable,” and said he could not be an ally of people who have filed complaints against him with the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service.
Sna Diego Union Tribune

Gilchrist denied control March 23, 2007

A Superior Court judge on Thursday rejected Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist's request to be immediately returned sole control of the anti-illegal immigration group – a ruling that leaves the organization immobilized.

Judge Randell Wilkinson also placed restrictions on the three directors tussling with Gilchrist, noting in his order that there were "serious issues concerning the credibility of the claims of both Jim Gilchrist and the defendants…"

Gilchrist was ousted from the group in January by the vote of the three directors, who said they were concerned with sloppy accounting and possible fundraising improprieties. The three then took control of the organization's primary bank account and, at least temporarily, the group's main Web site.
OC Register

Related:
Lawsuit ties up Minuteman donations, Arizona Star, 3-23-07
Both sides claim a win in Minuteman suit, LA Times, 3-24-07
Judge hears arguments in Minuteman case, LA Times, 3-22-07

KKK Weighs in on Hazleton Case

Klan wants to rally in Hazleton; city says no way

A New Jersey-based Ku Klux Klan group vowed Wednesday to hold a rally in Hazleton if the city loses its battle over the illegal-immigration ordinance in federal court.

By Thursday, they pushed up the date to this weekend.

The Confederate Knights, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan held an “emergency meeting” after city officials in Hazleton rejected the group’s support Wednesday and said they would try to stop the rally, the KKK chapter’s leader said Thursday night.

“People, especially public officials, have to think about things they say before they say them,” said Joseph V. Bednarsky Jr., the KKK chapter’s imperial wizard. “Irritating us isn’t going to do them any good.”

The KKK group sent a letter Wednesday to Mayor Lou Barletta saying it supports the city’s efforts to fight illegal immigration “100 percent.” Mr. Barletta promptly rejected the KKK’s support and said he would do anything he could to stop the group from rallying in his city.

“We don’t need that in Hazleton,” Mr. Barletta said of the KKK chapter’s proposed appearance.

…snip…

Besides handing out literature during the Hazleton visit, the group plans to look around the area and possibly purchase some property, Mr. Bednarsky said. His group — which has a “state office” in Bloomsburg — has received more than 50 messages about its proposed trip to Hazleton and “95 percent” are people who support the KKK, he said.

“People are just getting tired of the bull crap,” Mr. Bednarsky said. “I would like to see the rise of the Klan like it was in the 1920s.”

The controversy surrounding illegal immigration has allowed the KKK nationally to grow its ranks, according to a 2007 report from the Anti-Defamation League. Pennsylvania is one of 19 states that have active or growing KKK chapters, according to the report.
Times-Tribune

Related:
KKK threaten to protest in Hazleton, Times Leader, 3-24-07
‘Minuteman’ travels 200 miles to back Barletta,Times Leader, 3-23-07
KKK chapter expected to make private appearances in area, The Citizens Voice, 3-24-07
Hazleton mayor rebuffs offer of help from Ku Klux Klan, Times Leader, 3-23-07

Editorials Look At Failed Immigration Policies

Senseless Deportations

Every year, thousands of longtime, legal permanent residents are deported from the United States on the basis of criminal convictions without any opportunity to present evidence of their family ties, employment history or rehabilitation. Many are barred for life from returning to America.

Next Sunday will mark 10 years since the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act went into effect. This broad legislation, together with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, took away the power of immigration judges to exercise discretion in most types of deportation proceedings. Congress dramatically expanded the list of offenses resulting in mandatory deportation so that it now includes many crimes that are considered misdemeanors under state law and that result in no jail time. Individuals can be deported for shoplifting, jumping subway turnstiles, drunken driving and petty drug crimes. Some of those who have been subject to mandatory deportation came to the United States as infants and have never known life elsewhere.

Some arrived as refugees fleeing persecution or as children adopted by American couples. One man, a former child refugee from the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge, was deported back to Cambodia for urinating in public; while working as a construction manager, he had relieved himself at a job site.
Wahington Post

Clearing the air: Misconceptions skew immigration debate

When immigration officials crashed through the doors of a New Bedford, Mass., furniture factory, they were hoping to show the Bush administration's determination to enforce immigration laws. With at least a half of a dozen children left without parents, what the administration got instead was a humanitarian crisis.

One might be tempted to congratulate the federal government for doing something about illegal immigration, but let us be the first to dissuade you from any premature shows of support. This raid, like so many others, is a waste of time, rooted as it is in a host of popular but ultimately wrong-headed misconceptions.
Arizona Daily Wildcat

750 Set for Deportation after Week-Long Southern California Raids

More than 750 foreign nationals have been removed from the United States or are facing deportation following a massive week-long enforcement action by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeting criminal aliens and immigration fugitives in five Southland counties that concluded earlier today.

During the operation, ICE officers tracked down and arrested 338 immigration violators who were at large in Los Angeles (169), Orange (111), Riverside (26), San Bernardino (22), and Ventura (10) counties. More than 150 of those arrested were immigration fugitives, aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation issued by immigration judges. Another 24 of those encountered were aliens who had been previously deported and returned to the United States illegally.

…snip…

The majority of the aliens taken into custody during the last week are Mexican nationals, but the group also included immigration violators from 14 countries, including the Ukraine, India, Japan, Poland, and Trinidad. Since many of these individuals have already been through immigration proceedings, they are subject to immediate removal from the country. Of the 757 aliens arrested during the past week, more than 450 have already been returned to their native countries. The remaining aliens are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge.
ICE.gov

When is a Raid-Not a Raid? 30 Arrested in Washington State.

30 arrests, but no immigration raids

With rumors of immigration raids sending ripples of fear throughout the Yakima Valley this week, immigration officers announced late Friday afternoon they have arrested 30 people since Wednesday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the suspects were detained as part of a three-day initiative to gather "immigration fugitives" in Yakima and Benton counties.

Seattle-based ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said "Operation Return to Sender" captured 16 people from Yakima County and 14 from Benton. Of the 30 undocumented people (from Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and South Korea) she said 14 were fugitives -- those who'd been ordered by an immigration judge to leave the country but had failed to comply with the court's order. The other 16 people -- all suspected of immigration violations -- were arrested after immigration officials came upon them while searching for a list of fugitives

Twenty-eight of the detainees were sent to a federal detention center in Tacoma, while two women were released to their families. One was the primary caregiver for her children, the other was caring for an ailing spouse. Both still face legal hearings.

…snip…

Although officials arrested some at their homes or known hangouts, Dankers said there were no raids, despite rumors to the contrary.

"We're not there to disrupt and spook people," she said. "I don't want there to be fear in a community."

To ease public fears, Dankers said, she spoke to reporters with Granger's Radio KDNA, a Spanish-language station, to let listeners know there weren't any roundups.
Yakima Herald Republic

Read More...

Summary only...

Immigration News Roundup: March 12 – March 18

This week's news was somewhat sparse as the fallout from last weeks raids continued and news of war and scandal dominated the headlines. One ironic story coming out this week revolves the Texas town of Farmers Branch, where the ballots for a May 5th vote on anti-immigration ordinances will be bilingual. In the wake of the New Bedford immigration raid that garnered national attention, the Anti-Defamation League will be stepping up efforts to battle an increase in anti-immigrant bigotry in New England. While on the opposite coast, Washington State saw the first traffic checkpoints set up by the DHS to screen for immigration status. Lastly the LA Times gives us a detailed account of the case of Tyrone Williams, the trucker convicted in the deaths of 19 migrants who died during a smuggling operation turned deadly.

• Farmers Branch to Use Bilingual Ballots for Anti-Immigration Vote


• Anti-Defamation League to Fight Anti-Immigrant Bigotry in Wake of Raids


• DHS Sets Up Traffic Checkpoints in Washington State


• Details of Deadly Journey Revealed

Farmers Branch to Use Bilingual Ballots for Anti-Immigration Vote

Ballots for anti-illegal immigrant ordinance to be bilingual

To comply with state law, ballots and election materials related to an anti-illegal immigrant ordinance going to Farmers Branch voters May 12 will be printed in English and Spanish.

The controversial ordinance would require apartment landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants.

In November, council members also approved resolutions making English the city's official language and allowing local authorities to become part of a federal program so they can enforce immigration laws.

…snip…

Bruce Sherbet, the Dallas County elections administrator, said every election requires ballots in Spanish and English, a requirement since 1975.

Some areas in Texas also have had to print election-related items in Vietnamese, Pueblo and Kickapoo languages, according to the secretary of state's Web site.

Farmers Branch has been sued by civil rights groups, residents, property owners and business people challenging the rental ordinance. Opponents of the ordinance also submitted a petition that forced the citywide vote on the issue, a move allowed under the city's charter.

Farmers Branch in suburban Dallas has changed from a small, predominantly white bedroom community with a declining population in the 1970s to a city of almost 28,000 people, about 37 percent of them Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census. It also is home to more than 80 corporate headquarters and more than 2,600 small and mid-size firms, many of them minority-owned.
Austin American Statesman

Anti-Defamation League to Fight Anti-Immigrant Bigotry in Wake of Raids

For ADL, another mission: Group will combat anti-immigrant bias

The Anti-Defamation League of New England, saying that hostility toward immigrants represents a growing form of intolerance, is making the fight against anti-immigrant sentiment a significant focus of the 60-year-old organization.

Leaders of the ADL, which is known primarily for its efforts to combat anti-Semitism, say they are alarmed at the animus toward immigrants that seems to be surfacing as the debate over securing the country's borders intensifies.

Andrew Tarsy, regional director of the ADL of New England, said recent events in immigrant communities around Boston demonstrate the urgency for more activism.

"We fight against bigotry in all forms," Tarsy said. "It has become clear both in the extremist world and even in the mainstream that the conversation about immigrants is laced with bigotry."

…snip…

Tarsy said there has been an upsurge in anti-immigrant activity nationally among organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. The ADL here received reports in the last week of hate literature about immigrants being distributed in Taunton, Easton, and Brockton by another group, he said.
Boston Globe

Related:
Boston Globe
ADL
Columbia Missourian
EJP


DHS Sets Up Traffic Checkpoints in Washington State

Seven suspected illegal immigrants detained in first-ever U.S. 101 traffic checkpoint on Peninsula
3/16/07

Customs and Border Protection agents on Thursday detained seven people thought to be illegal immigrants at the North Olympic Peninsula's first-ever traffic checkpoint on U.S. Highway 101.

Travelers moving south on the highway between 8 a.m. and noon - including those in a Clallam County Transit bus - were stopped north of Forks and asked if they were citizens and where they were born.

More checkpoints on Highway 101 in Clallam County can be expected in the coming months, said Robert Kohlman, a field operations supervisor in the agency's Blaine office.

The federal agency, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the checkpoint was part of a nationwide terrorism deterring strategy.

"The checkpoints are part of the national border protection strategy," Kohlman said.

The seven who were detained were taken to a federal detention center in Tacoma, where they will await removal proceedings, Kohlman said.

…snip…

City and police officials in Forks were told ahead of time where and when the checkpoint would be, said Nedra Reed, mayor of Forks.

She said she has assured members of her city that the operation was not an immigration action.

"We're 100 miles or so from the Canadian border, and they felt this action was necessary," Reed said.
Penninsula Daily News

Highway checkpoint fallout reaches Rep. Dicks
3/18/03

The first terrorism checkpoint in the Northern Olympic Peninsula has spurred complaints and concerns that are reaching as far as Washington D.C.

U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks' office received "a number of complaints and inquiries" Friday from constituents in the Forks area, said an aide to the congressman, D-Belfair.

…snip…

(Dick's spokesman George) Behan said the Congressman "has questioned whether this is the best use of border protection resources."

Behan said Dicks planned to pass along to Customs and Border Protection some of the comments and concerns he has received.

"If there is a specific terrorist threat or legitimate information suggesting terrorist activity, there could be a cause for this type of search," Behan said.

"But Customs and Border Protection staff shouldn't function as immigration enforcement officers," he added.

When the agency was reached after the checkpoint was taken down Thursday, Robert Kohlman, a field operations supervisor in the agency's Blaine office, declined to say whether specific information or threats had prompted the checkpoint.

…Daniel Perez, intake and outreach coordinator, with the Tacoma-based Northwest Immigration Rights Project, said in light of Thursday's action, he plans to visit Forks and help inform the Latino community.

"People are not obligated to answer immigration official's question about status," Perez said.

"People can remain absolutely silent . . . the key is not to engage in any conversation."
Pennisula Daily News

Details of Deadly Journey Revealed

Immigrants' journey took a deadly turn

THEY started leaving the stash houses at twilight, six, seven immigrants at a time, crammed into vans, sport utility vehicles, compact cars. The smugglers dropped them in a field by a Fruit of the Loom plant outside Harlingen, Texas, deep in the Rio Grande Valley, not far from the border

…snip…

Shortly after 10 p.m., a white Freightliner diesel truck, the legend "Wild Child" painted across the cab door, entered the field. The truck was pulling a 48-foot-long trailer equipped with a refrigeration unit — a "refrigerator on wheels" was how the driver described it.

Tyrone Mapletoft Williams, a 32-year-old Jamaican immigrant, routinely hauled fresh milk in this trailer from upstate New York to Texas, often returning with a load of watermelons. On this night, he was engaged in something far more lucrative than a typical milk run.

For a fee of $7,500, he had agreed to carry a load of illegal immigrants through a Border Patrol checkpoint about 45 miles up the highway. After he was underway, however, Williams would be redirected by the smugglers to Houston, a six-hour drive.

…snip…

Williams remained in the cab, engine running. The smuggler who had recruited him — a chubby, ne'er-do-well of the border named Abelardo Flores — told Williams it was best if passengers never got a look at their driver, just in case something went wrong on the road.

Flores positioned himself on the running board beside Williams, giving him the standard instructions: Remain "cool" at the checkpoint. Tell the agent you are running empty. If caught, feign surprise and claim that the people must have sneaked on board, perhaps while you were asleep or inside a truck stop.

One thing Flores did not tell Williams was how many people were being squeezed into his trailer. There were at a minimum 74, and some who boarded put the headcount closer to 100. Still, the loading did not take long, maybe 10 minutes.

…snip…

At first, conditions inside the trailer had seemed "normal," many of the survivors would testify without any apparent sense of irony. Wrapped in almost perfect darkness, they could see nothing. What they experienced were sensations and sounds — the slight swaying of the trailer as it left the field and rolled onto the roadway, the jostling of shoulders and hips, sticky sweat and, within minutes, rising heat.

According to a mathematical model prepared for trial, it took only 10 minutes to reach 100% humidity inside the insulated trailer. Within 35 minutes, the heat surpassed the normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees and continued to climb. This was a critical tipping point. Now body heat generated by the passengers no longer could escape into the trailer's airspace

…snip…

By now, the passengers were stripping off blouses and shirts. Their bodies poured sweat, and the more they perspired, the more they became dehydrated. One man squeezed sweat from his shirt and tried to drink it. The 5-year-old boy was wailing.

…snip…

On the trailer's corrugated metal floor, with his father crouched protectively over him, the boy slipped away. Castro-Reyes heard him cry out one last time.

"Daddy, I am dying."

And then the father screamed, and panic descended into pandemonium. Men and women pounded at the side of the trailer with fists and shoes, shouting huskily that they needed to be let out. Hoping to attract attention, others threw caps, shoes, anything that could fit, through the small holes they'd knocked in the doors after clawing away the insulation. There was fevered talk of rocking the trailer to tip it over.

"People were saying we were going to die anyway," recalled one passenger, "so we should roll it over so they would pay attention to us."

…snip…

NSIDE the trailer, the passengers were hurtling toward death, their bodies battered by heat, dehydration and a shortage of oxygen. In overlapping methods of attack, these three instruments of death would break down the kidneys, lungs, heart and brain. Along the way, they would produce pounding headaches, vomiting, bulging eyes, a maddening shortness of breath and hallucinations.

By now, most of the trailer occupants were too far gone to bang or shout. Some, spent, sunk to their knees in weariness. Others found places in the less-crowded front of the trailer to lie down and await death. Lorenzo Otero-Marquez recalled it felt "fresh" somehow on the floor. He lay in the blackness and listened to others flailing as they died, their bodies convulsed by seizures.

"You could only hear that they were dying," he testified. "They started to strike with their hands louder, and then they stopped striking."

Ana Gladis Marquez-Aguiluz also heard, and felt, these final throes: "They were hitting and some of them were kicking us — strongly, not intentionally."

In the jumble of bodies, the living sometimes became pinned under the dead. The father of the 5-year-old was kneeling over his child when he too passed away.

…snip…

Williams had stopped at a truck stop just south of the town of Victoria, more than halfway from Harlingen to Houston. He parked on a side road, next to a tree-studded horse pasture. Yet another camera captured the trucker's entrance into the store, time-stamped at 1:37 a.m.

…snip…

"We're out of here," he told her.

There was a loud crash as the truck pulled away. Hastily unhooking the trailer, Williams had neglected to crank down the dolly wheels that hold its nose aloft when detached. Back on the highway, they spotted a police car speeding toward the truck stop. Williams called Abel Flores, who, high on cocaine, had just closed down a Harlingen strip joint named Secrets.

…snip…

He turned the truck for Houston, pounding on the steering wheel as he drove. In a few hours, he would check himself into a hospital, complaining of a case of the nerves and telling a story about how a bunch of illegal immigrants somehow had sneaked into his trailer, perhaps while he was asleep or inside a truck stop.

…snip…

As many as 100 people are thought to have boarded the trailer. Police recovered 18 bodies and caught 56 survivors, one of whom died later. Others are thought to have escaped.
LA Times Via KTLA-5

Related:
LA Times

tags: immigration, news , Farmers Branch, ADL

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It's a Simple Choice…

"There are those who think that the problem of immigration can easily be solved by walls on our borders and strict law enforcement in our country. I wish they could have joined me last Sunday afternoon at St. James Church in New Bedford. I saw first-hand the pain and suffering of the families and community ripped apart by the recent enforcement raid by the Department of Homeland Security.

The reality of illegal immigration is anything but simple and the solutions are difficult. The Department of Homeland Security was ready with hundreds of officers to subdue a group of frightened workers, but they were totally unprepared to deal with the aftermath of their raid. DHS knew that it would be detaining young parents, and yet it had no effective plan to identify and help the children who would be left alone. The photographs of bewildered, desperate, crying children brought home the full horror of the government raid distinguished by its callousness".
Sen. Edward Kennedy

"As if it were our fault that they came here illegally. We are so into blaming America for everything. If it's a law, it's a law, there are consequences."
Rep. Tom Tancredo

…As to what kind of America we end up with.

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Mayan priests to "cleanse" holy site after Bush visit.

Only days after immigration raids in Massachusetts resulted in the arrest and possible deportation of 361 undocumented immigrants, most from Guatemala and El Salvador, President Bush was met with disapproval during a visit to Guatemala City intended to shore up deteriorating relations in the region.

Even while engaging in what should have been a simple photo opportunity, typical of any tourist to the region, controversy followed the beleaguered President. As Bush's entourage arrived at a local Mayan ruins, hundreds of indigenous demonstrators faced off with police and soldiers to oppose the president’s visit to the spiritual site. After the visit to the ruins of Iximche, the ancient capital of the Kaqchiqueles kingdom, local Mayan priests vowed that they would have to "spiritually cleanse" the area of Bush's negative energy.

According to Mayan leader Juan Tiney, "That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture."

Perhaps the priests could be persuaded to do the same kind of "cleansing" in Washington.

Tiney said the "spirit guides of the Mayan community" decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of "bad spirits" after Bush's visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace. He also said the rites _ which entail chanting and burning incense, herbs and candles _ would prepare the site for the third summit of Latin American Indians March 26-30.
Washington Post

But the President's problems in the region go far beyond the exorcism of his "bad spirits." The backlash from last week's immigration raid is strong in Guatemala where 10% of the population currently lives in the US.

President Bush came to this struggling Central American nation on Tuesday bearing a message that free trade with the United States would improve conditions for even the poorest Latin Americans.

But he was also confronted with an angry, outside-in perspective on the immigration debate raging at home, with even his otherwise friendly host, President Óscar Berger, using a ceremonial welcome to criticize the arrest of several hundred illegal workers, many of them Guatemalans, in Massachusetts last week.

“As is the case in every mature relationship, once in a while differences of opinion arise,” Mr. Berger said in the central courtyard of the grand presidential palace here. “For example, with regard to the issue of migrants, and particularly those who have been deported without clear justification.”

The remark, coming during otherwise warm comments by Mr. Berger, reflected the longstanding anger here over deportation of Guatemalans from the United States, which has been stoked by a raid last week in which more than 300 workers were arrested at Michael Bianco Inc., a company in New Bedford, Mass., that provides vests for the military.
New York Times

News of the New Bedford raid has dominated the Guatemalan press in recent days with stories of families torn apart and children left behind as their parents were sent off to Texas and New Mexico for deportation.

Bush stood by the raid, saying, “People will be treated with respect, but the United States will enforce our law” when face with questions from Guatemalan journalists. (Watch Video)

When asked about “conspiracies” that children were taken away from families on purpose, he denied such accounts. “No es la verdad,” Mr. Bush said, “That’s not the way America operates. We’re a decent, compassionate country. Those are the kind of things we do not do. We believe in families, and we’ll treat people with dignity.”

Adding even more fuel to the fire is the recent change in US policy towards Guatemalan asylum seekers living in the US since coming the 1990's to escape civil war and political unrest.

…activists who represent Guatemalan immigrants say asylum officers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have begun to systematically deny thousands of asylum claims from Guatemalans who fled in the 1990s, arguing that normalcy has returned to Guatemala since the 1996 peace accords.

… immigrant rights group in Los Angeles - Casa de la Cultura de Guatemala - recently discovered that USCIS asylum officers had begun denying asylum claims of many Guatemalans who arrived in the 1990s.

Byron Vasquez, president of the group, said his organization is preparing a lawsuit in federal court to prevent asylum officers from denying these claims, arguing they should have been decided earlier.

Immigration officials said the agency is not seeking to deny all petitions from Guatemalan asylum-seekers and they are being decided on a case-by-case basis. Denials are referred to immigration judges to reverse or affirm.

But officials acknowledged the agency delayed decisions on many Guatemalan asylum applications because at the time the number of green cards available to asylum seekers was limited.

…snip…

According to Vasquez, as many as 250,000 Guatemalans could face removal proceedings. Immigration officials said the figure may be much lower than that.
Kansas City Star

As Bush continues of his journey to attempt mend fences throughout Latin America after years of neglect, he's bound to face even further criticism. Perhaps he can convince some Mayan priests to work some mojo in his favor…but somehow I doubt they'd be too receptive to the idea.

tags: immigration, Bush , Guatemala, Maya

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Immigration News Roundup: March 5 – March 11

This week one story dominates above all others – Increased immigration raids. A major raid in New Bedford, Mass left over one hundred children parentless after federal agents arrested over 300 mostly female immigrants at a military equipment manufacturer. While this story garnered national attention, not only for its scope but its aftermath, a myriad of other smaller raids took place all over the country. This week's roundup looks at those raids – just one more week in what's becoming a government war on the undocumented.

• Ten Arrested at Arizona Construction Company


• Immigration agents arrest 11 in raid on party rental company in San Diego


• 36 Arrested in Indiana


• Thirty arrested in San Francisco Area Tuesday


• Second day of immigration raids includes Novato and San Rafael


• Immigration Raids: Feds Say Local Sweep is ‘Ongoing’-30 Arrested in Santa Fe


• Dozens Arrested in Missouri on Immigration Charges


• Seven arrested in Sioux Falls, S.D.


• Officials net 363 immigrants in recent New Jersey raids


• 350 are held in immigration raid in New Bedford

Ten Arrested at Arizona Construction Company

TUCSON - Federal authorities on Friday raided a construction company in southern Arizona accused of breaking the law by hiring illegal immigrants, arresting the firm's president and several employees on federal charges and detaining 10 undocumented workers.
…. Scores of agents fanned out in Sierra Vista and Douglas Friday morning, raiding the company's offices, a foreman's home, the home of a suspected counterfeiter and eight worksites.
Arizona Republic

Immigration agents arrest 11 in raid on party rental company in San Diego

SAN DIEGO, (AP) --Federal agents raided a party rental company Thursday and arrested 11 workers on immigration violations, authorities said.

Nine of those detained worked for Raphael's Party Rentals, a long-established business that did work on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Two others worked for another party rental company.

The company handles shows, golf tournaments and other events on the base, just north of downtown San Diego, according to owner Philip Silverman. He said he did not know whether any of the people who were arrested had worked on the base.
San Francisco Chronicle

36 Arrested in Indiana

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- Juan Ruiz de Leon knew there might be an immigration raid on Janco Composites after another worker was arrested for allegedly using someone else's Social Security number to get her job.

His 20-year-old daughter, Carmen Ruiz, said he thought about quitting.

"He'd been there so long. He decided to take a chance," she said.

Her father was one of 36 workers arrested during a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the factory Tuesday where Fiberglas-reinforced plastic products are made.
Indianapolis Star

Thirty arrested in San Francisco Area Tuesday

Federal agents arrested at least 30 alleged illegal immigrants in San Rafael and Novato Tuesday and Wednesday during immigration raids, authorities said.

In response, scores of other undocumented immigrants skipped work and kept their children home from school out of fear they too would be detained, community leaders said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley confirmed that agents were conducting arrests in San Rafael and Novato but would not say how many people had been picked up.
San Francisco Chronicle

Second day of immigration raids includes Novato and San Rafael

Federal immigration officers were back in San Rafael and Novato Wednesday to make another round of arrests.

San Rafael police received a call from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security, about 5 a.m. indicating they would be making additional arrests, said San Rafael police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher.
Marin Independent

Immigration Raids: Feds Say Local Sweep is ‘Ongoing’ - 30 Arrested in Santa Fe

A raid by federal agents that sparked panic in Santa Fe’s immigrant community last week and resulted in 30 arrests is over for now, but an immigration official said agents could be back in town anytime.

“This is an ongoing, daily effort,” said Leticia Zamarripa, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso. “This was not a one-time deal.”

The raid angered officials in a city known for its pro-immigrant stance. Mayor David Coss called the sweep “an attack on our town” and said the city was still trying to piece together what happened. That included trying to figure out who was arrested and deported.
Santa Fe NewMexican

Dozens Arrested in Missouri on Immigration Charges

JEFFERSON CITY, MO -- Dozens of suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody after an investigation at Missouri's state capitol.

The two-month long investigation by local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) found that Sam's Janitorial Service allegedly employed dozens of suspected illegal workers.
KHQA-7

Seven arrested in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Seven Mexican nationals were arrested Wednesday in Sioux Falls, accused of being in the country illegally.

At least five of them worked at Inca, a restaurant near West 41st Street and Holly Avenue, said Tim Counts, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Counts said ICE agents used search warrants to arrest five men and one woman at the restaurant at 11 a.m. Wednesday, then removed another man from an apartment two blocks to the east.

It's unclear whether the business owners could face criminal or civil penalties.
ArgusLeader

Officials net 363 immigrants in recent New Jersey raids

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced this week they had picked up 363 immigrants in New Jersey in a series of recent raids. The arrests were part of a nationwide ICE operation called Return to Sender, in which immigration agents have been enforcing orders of deportation, picking up fugitives with criminal records, and detaining immigrants here illegally, according to an agency spokesman.
New Jersey Media Group

350 are held in immigration raid in New Bedford

NEW BEDFORD -- Hundreds of immigration officers and police descended on a New Bedford leather goods factory yesterday , charged top officials with employing illegal immigrants, and rounded up 350 workers who could not prove they were in the country legally.
Boston Globe

tags: immigration, immigration raid , DHS, deportation

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