Immigration officials order agents not to sedate deportees without court approval
Associated Press - January 11, 2008 10:23 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) - U.S. immigration officials are ordering agents not to sedate deportees without a court order.
That's according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. It was written by John Torres, the detention and removal director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. .
The policy shift came after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit. According to the memo, the change is effective immediately.
Torres says field officers may no longer request a medical escort to administer involuntary sedation unless the government has obtained authorization from a federal district court.
A spokeswoman verified the memo's authenticity, saying the directive is consistent with ICE's commitment to maintain safe, secure, and humane conditions for people in its custody. She says medical sedation will only be considered as a "last resort."
Colorlines, News Feature Aarti Shahani, Posted: Jan 12, 2008
Elvira Arellano met with Felipe Calderon in his salon. These household names from Michoacán, Mexico followed starkly different paths to celebrity: the latter, a Harvard graduate, had just taken the Mexican presidency with only a .58-percent margin of victory and amidst fervent dissent; the former, a cleaning lady, had just been deported from the United States after taking sanctuary to evade immigration laws.
Elvira came to Felipe seeking a diplomatic visa to return to the U.S. legally. Already praised as a peace ambassador and the “Rosita Parks†of immigrant rights, she believed she could help these two nations work out a deal on migrants, just as they had with the North American Free Trade Agreement and the drug wars. Perhaps uneasy with people who question authority, or concerned that turning a deportee into a government officer would upset the markets, Felipe politely declined. Elvira left the salon disappointed and criticized her new president to the leading newspaper, La Jornada: “He is very weak.â€
Her assessment was not without basis. Elvira knew something about risk and vulnerability. A single mother, once deported and having twice crossed the border, she used to clean airplanes at O’Hare International Airport. Just before Christmas 2002, a federal sweep of 500 workers pushed her off the payroll and into the criminal courts. After three appearances before a federal judge, she pleaded guilty to document fraud (she bought fake papers to be able to work) and got three years probation. Elvira now belonged to a category almost universally condemned as “doubly illegal.†As a New York Times journalist once editorialized, “The country is polarized between those who want a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and those who want to deport them. But just about everyone agrees that the doubly illegal, immigrants with no documents and who have committed crimes, are not welcome.â€
Elvira disagreed. She was in fact outraged that the criminal courts would judge her so severely and that the immigration courts would not judge her at all. Contrary to popular belief, Elvira never had an immigration hearing. Deportation was the outcome of a civil process run entirely by Homeland Security.
My colleague Subhash Kateel, a veteran organizer, once told a disbelieving congressman, “Deportation is the cruelest civil proceeding in America. Is there any other where you can be incarcerated the whole time and never get a hearing?†If there is a single feature that distinguishes today’s immigration system from the past, it is prison. Two years after NAFTA deregulated economic borders, then–President Clinton signed domestic immigration laws that made deportation and detention mandatory minimums within our physical borders.
Elvira—unlike most of the workers picked up in the airport raids, and unlike most of the 2 million deported in the last decade—was not locked up physically. Nor spiritually. Where most would be afraid or ashamed, she insisted, “God is not embarrassed when one speaks for truth.†In advocates’ press conferences, she soon became the human face on the broken system.
While bearing witness, Elvira met Emma Lozano, an old-timer in Chicago politics who is as revered as she is controversial. Emma approached this young woman, raw with passion, and asked: “Do you have a job? A lawyer? A place to stay?†Emma invited her to live in a church. Elvira was cleaning homes and selling buttons about her struggle to skim by. Free housing was a godsend. And so began a relationship that pulled Elvira into a politicized community. Regular people resist political disenfranchisement daily—crossing the border, working off the books, saving money under mattresses. The standard nonprofit organization—structured to provide services or lobby people with power–is not built to seize on the power of regular people. Maria Jimenez, another veteran organizer, explains: “You see so much second- and third-floor organizing that assumes we have a first floor…the first floor is busy working and saving money.â€
Elvira was positioned to bridge the chasm between everyday survival and collective efforts for change. Her first assignment was to build La Familia Latina Unida, an organization for families like hers. She brought together dozens. They exchanged information about jobs and lawyers. Her American-born son Saulito led the youth. Using the relationships of Somos Un Pueblo (Emma’s organization) and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the families got a private bill sponsored by Congressman Luis Gutierrez and Senator **** Durbin. A private bill suspends public law for a named individual or group subject to that law. If passed, a private bill would make the members of La Familia Latina Unida an exception to the laws requiring the deportation of millions.
The group raised their own funds to take buses to Washington, D.C. Elvira was there at least 20 times. She joined coalitions for immigration reform and driver’s licenses, not as a professional, but as a leader. Her analysis transformed, too. She explained: “From working at Somos Un Pueblo, I now know that legalization doesn’t solve the problem for everyone. What about the people deported, or the people with old, old crimes?†Such people have been the government’s unrelenting focus. Despite Elvira’s civic leadership, Homeland Security ordered her to surrender. Unlike carefully picked idols of other movements, the imperfect mother (single and unemployed, with a criminal record and deportation order) had little more than faith in God and Saulito when she said, “No.†America had not seen this type of civil disobedience since the 1980s sanctuary movement. It touched countless hearts.
Mine included. For several years, I have been a member of Families for Freedom, a New York group similar to Elvira’s. That spring, when million-immigrant marches overran America, we had a rare win for a grassroots body: our American-born youth moved Bronx Congressman Jose Serrano to introduce national legislation. Nationwide, 15 percent of U.S. families are composed of citizen children and immigrant parents. If passed, the Child Citizen Protection Act would allow immigration judges to consider American children before deporting their mom or dad. In a policy battle overwhelmingly defined by business interests, Emma Lozano once called the children’s bill “the best-kept secret in this whole immigration debate.†It remains pending in the House.
In the middle of our victory and work, I lost sight of a friend. On the tenth anniversary of the 1996 laws, while we were in the capitol, educating lawmakers, Jorge Emilio Cabrera was at the Homeland Security office. Cabrera was a green card holder with an old drug conviction. In 1999, the government expelled him to the Dominican Republic. In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled his deportation was illegal. In 2002, while Cabrera was working for a shipping boat that docked at an American port, customs pulled him off the vessel and charged him with illegal re-entry. He spent the next four years serving time in a federal prison, appealing his case and trying to be a father to his sons, who missed him.
While Cabrera argued that he should be allowed to stay, the government said the past is the past—the old deportation could not be reversed. They were awaiting a court decision when immigration officers detained Cabrera during a standard parole visit. Once he was inside, it was impossible to get him out. The last time I talked with Cabrera, he was calling from the Dominican Republic. “You gotta get me back in…I got my kids. This guy here, he tellin’ me I can appeal.†I said, “Okay, okay. Let’s talk, but later. I gotta go.†I was headed to some important meeting. Days later, Cabrera died in a car accident, driving on a dirt road from his hometown to Santo Domingo. When a group of us crossed the sea to visit his grave, the senior Cabrera explained that Junior had just gotten a job. He left the earth with hope. Christ said that when a seed falls to the ground, it will multiply. But not of its own accord. The earth must engulf and nourish it. I felt despair, not hope, when my friend fell. Like the victim of a crime, I replayed the scene and asked repeatedly: “What did I do wrong?†Over time, the living struggles of other friends pulled me out of regret and into a search for ways to memorialize his death.
Elvira, through her sacrifice, sowed a path. Slowly in New York a few religious leaders began talking about providing sanctuary. Most of our members believe deeply in God and belong to churches and mosques. Houses of worship seemed to us to be natural allies. We became a peculiar asset to them too, grounding the ministers’ conversations with a very technical understanding of the legal maze (we lived it) and families already campaigning against their deportation (just like Elvira).
Sanctuary is not a social service. It is not legal representation on steroids. It is risky and time-intensive, especially for the person taking it. When we presented sanctuary to members at a monthly meeting, it was a moot point for most—their loved ones are locked up. But two men, from China and Haiti, rose to it. Thus began our sanctuary campaigns. The greatest lesson they have shown me so far is that faith—not self-interest—moves our people. The very fact that our rank-and-file keeps taking action, despite growing and militant raids, is proof that hate produces far more than fear in us.
Elvira’s decision to leave sanctuary may have been the least self-interested and boldest of her actions. Many said it was downright unstrategic. After fasting for two weeks, she gave a press conference and launched a tour in cities that were joining the new sanctuary movement that she inspired. Set to culminate in the capitol, the tour never made it past point one. Unmarked vehicles surrounded her very public entourage in Los Angeles, the nation’s premiere “sanctuary city.†After giving her a moment to say goodbye to Saulito, agents hauled her off. She was back in Mexico within days.
Though the government could have locked her up for several years, they did not. Luissana Santibanez, a college student who began visiting detained women and children after her own mother was deported, suggests, “They knew with her inside, all hell would have broken loose. Hunger strikes. She would have been organizing prisoners.†In the haste to get rid of Elvira, officials even violated the Vienna Convention, which required them to inform the Mexican government of her arrest and obtain permission to send her back.
Many laws went out the window in Elvira’s case. Her opponents were outraged, not just because she was a lawbreaker. She believed, truly, that she and her son deserved rights. Back in Mexico, Elvira continues to demand and believe. And in the U.S., for those of us who remain, her very complicated story lingers as a parable of what makes life worth living.
Ex-border agent, wife held in smuggling case Web Posted: 01/11/2008 10:09 PM CST Lynn Brezosky Express-News Valley Bureau
LAREDO — A former Border Patrol agent and his wife were ordered held without bond along with a third defendant Friday, accused of transporting and harboring 25 undocumented immigrants, federal prosecutors said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested David Cruz, 32, and his wife, 35-year-old Susana Lopez-Portillo de Cruz, at their home Thursday.
The third defendant, 39-year-old Bertha Alicia Esquivel, also known as "La Güera," was arrested Wednesday.
Investigators say the three harbored and transported groups of between seven to 10 undocumented immigrants on Jan. 23, July 21 and Sept. 7 of 2007.
All three are charged with three counts of conspiring with one another to transport and harbor groups of illegal immigrants for the purpose of financial gain.
Each charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The three will return to federal court for a hearing Jan. 17.
Cruz resigned in September. He was the second current or former Customs and Border Protection employee in Laredo arrested for immigration crimes this month.
Sergio Garza, a 32-year-old Customs officer, was arrested Jan. 4 on suspicion of aiding and abetting an undocumented immigrant.
State Officials Propose 2 Types of Driver's Licenses
Plan Would Distinguish Illegal, Legal Residents
By Lisa Rein Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, January 13, 2008; Page C01
The administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) is drawing up plans to issue separate driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants and legal residents to comply with new federal security regulations, a proposal that could become a focus in the debate over illegal immigration in Maryland.
Top state officials began briefing lawmakers last week on a two-tiered licensing system similar to one that New York Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer (D) proposed last fall but was forced to scuttle after a political battle. New York does not allow illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, and Spitzer wanted to change that.
Maryland is designing a plan for thousands of immigrants who have been receiving the same licenses as other drivers without having to prove that they are legally in the United States. Maryland is among eight states that allow illegal immigrants to get licenses.
Under a two-tier system, undocumented immigrants would have access to the license they can get now, which requires proof that they live in Maryland. But it could not be used to board airplanes, enter federal buildings or cross borders. A separate license would be issued to those who can show they are in the country legally. That would put the state into compliance with the federal Real ID security mandate, which is aimed at screening out potential terrorists and uncovering illegal immigrants.
Maryland officials say a two-tier system would address federal security concerns and help ensure highway safety, because undocumented motorists would have to get car insurance and pass a driving test.
"We ensure that Maryland motorists are licensed, and that enhances public safety," said Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D). "At the same time, Marylanders who have the highest form of identification can board airplanes and enter government buildings."
State Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari said the timing of Maryland's adoption of a new licensing system would depend on federal regulations issued Friday for implementing the Real ID program. Most states, including Maryland, have received extensions on a May deadline to have a plan in place.
Six states have refused to comply with Real ID, and legislatures in more than a dozen others have passed resolutions opposing it. Maryland officials said they have struggled to meet the mandate and balance the politics of immigration.
"We have a federal requirement," said Porcari, who recently briefed officials with the Department of Homeland Security on the licensing plan. "We know we have to comply with it. We intend to."
Porcari said some legal U.S. residents might opt not to get the license that would allow entry into federal buildings, as they might not be able to find original birth certificates or other documents to prove they are legal residents.
The plan has drawn criticism from immigrant advocates and opponents of illegal immigration.
"In this climate, that's a scarlet letter," Del. Ana Sol Guti¿rrez (D-Montgomery) said of a two-license system. She said she thinks it would tag its holders as illegal immigrants and make them vulnerable. "Any policeman could call [federal] authorities," she said. Guti¿rrez is one of the legislature's leading advocates for immigrants. Guti¿rrez and Casa de Maryland, which helps immigrants find jobs and housing, are pushing a different system that would keep the current license but offer legal residents a federally valid identification card similar to a passport.
"We think the best system is to retain the license," said Kim Propeack, Casa's advocacy director. "We believe the vast majority of people will want to keep the system the way it is." She said many Maryland residents, such as older drivers and ex-felons, regardless of their immigration status, would be unable to comply with federal requirements or have little need to enter federal buildings.
Opponents of illegal immigration have fought unsuccessfully for Maryland to adopt a federally recognized driver's license since the Real ID law was passed in 2005. Last week, some said the O'Malley administration would do little more than elevate the status of undocumented immigrants by awarding them a special license.
"They're following the letter of the law, but they're ignoring the intent," said Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley (R-Frederick). "The state is endorsing people to skirt the law. . . . Then Maryland becomes a haven for people that are here illegally."
Civil rights organizations and privacy advocates say that they are concerned that a standardized driver's license would amount to a national identification card and that a database with holders' information would be vulnerable to identify theft.
John T. Kuo, head of the state Motor Vehicle Administration, said his agency does not keep statistics on how many of Maryland's 3.9 million licensed drivers are not in the United States legally because state law does not require it to document immigration status.
"Our staff does not ask if someone is here legally, because that would be discriminatory," he said. However, as other states, including Virginia, have tightened the documentation required for a driver's license, Maryland has had a "surge in demand" for licenses from foreign-born residents, Kuo said.
About 2,000 foreign-born residents make appointments each week to present documents including foreign passports and marriage or divorce papers to get their driver's licenses. About 500,000 Maryland residents who do not drive have state identification cards.
Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Utah, New Mexico and Washington state do not require legal presence in the country to get a driver's license, although Oregon and Michigan are moving to require it.
Porcari said Maryland is the first state to propose a comprehensive two-tier system.
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Author says U.S. should learn immigration lessons of a century ago
Anastasia Ustinova, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, January 14, 2008
With the heated debate over undocumented workers poised to take center stage in the November election, a historian who researched the ethnic cleansing of Chinese Americans cautions against repeating the dark chapter of the American history.
"The idea of temporary workers has proven to be wrong by the history," said University of Delaware Professor Jean Pfaelzer, who will give several lectures in the Bay Area this week. "The Chinese were perceived as temporary people in this country ... and they became very vulnerable because they didn't have any rights."
In her book "Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans," Pfaelzer gives an in-depth account of the first "race war" that took place in California and the Pacific Northwest between the Gold Rush and the turn of the 20th century, when Chinese miners, merchants and field workers were driven out of more than 200 towns.
In some places, like Truckee, Pfaelzer writes, the mob threatened to boycott employers, forcing the Chinese to leave their homes. The Exclusion Act of 1882 barred the immigration of Chinese people for 60 years. And the Geary Act, known as Dog Tag Law, required Chinese Americans to carry an identity card, which prompted widespread opposition, with more than 100,000 immigrants refusing to comply.
"It's a subject matter that has been so hidden from our history books; Jean brings it to life and describes the process and the climate of the popular opinion at the time," said Connie Young Yu, a Los Altos Asian American historian. "It's hard for Americans to believe that, because it goes against the democratic beliefs in this country."
Today, regulations such as the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which prohibits a landlord from renting to undocumented workers, or the Real ID Act, which calls for a new set of driver's licenses designed to screen illegal immigrants, appear to bear dangerous similarities to the past, Pfaelzer said.
Young Yu, whose grandfather had to travel to China to find a wife because of laws prohibiting him from marrying here, agreed.
"People wanted to have the Chinese out - it really affected the Chinese for generations," she said. "Today, you (hear) the same arguments that people from Mexico are taking our jobs, they are overcrowding our cities - it's a racial issue."
Since its release in May, "Driven Out" has won book awards from the New York Times Book Review, The Chronicle and Choice magazine, among others.
"It has been an incredible response," said Pfaelzer, who is often approached by Chinese Americans eager to share their family history.
On Saturday, the Oakland Asian Cultural Center will open an exhibit featuring about 40 photographs, cartoons, placards and other materials collected by Pfaelzer, who visited hundreds of rural libraries and museums during her research of more than seven years.
"The exhibit puts faces on the stories that you hear and shows a wide variety of roles that the Chinese immigrants played in the society," said April Kim, the center's programs director. "I don't think people realize that there were all these acts of violence."
If you go Tuesday: 5:30 p.m., Commonwealth Club of California, 595 Market St., San Francisco
Thursday: 5:30 p.m., Chinese Cultural Society, University of the Pacific, 140 Wendell Phillips Center, Stockton
Saturday: "Driven Out" exhibit opening, 3-5 p.m., Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 Ninth St. No. 290, Oakland
E-mail Anastasia Ustinova at austinova@sfchronicle.com.
They perpetrate violence—from assaults to homicides, using firearms, machetes, or blunt objects—to intimidate rival gangs, law enforcement, and the general public. They often target middle and high school students for recruitment. And they form tenuous alliances...and sometimes vicious rivalries...with other criminal groups, depending on their needs at the time.
Who are they? Members of Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, who are mostly Salvadoran nationals or first generation Salvadoran-Americans, but also Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants. And according to our recent national threat assessment of this growing, mobile street gang, they could be operating in your community...now or in the near future.
Based on information from our own investigations, from our state and local law enforcement partners, and from community organizations, we’ve concluded that while the threat posed by MS-13 to the U.S. as a whole is at the "medium" level, membership in parts of the country is so concentrated that we've labeled the threat level there "high."
Here are some other highlights from our threat assessment:
MS-13 operates in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia and has about 6,000-10,000 members nationwide. Currently, the threat is highest in the western and northeastern parts of the country, which coincides with elevated Salvadoran immigrant populations in those areas. In the southeast and central regions, the current threat is moderate to low, but recently, we've seen an influx of MS-13 members into the southeast, causing an increase in violent crimes there.
For More Information -Going Global on MS-13 -MS-13 Up Close -FBI Violent Gangs Website
MS-13 members engage in a wide range of criminal activity, including drug distribution, murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, immigration offenses, kidnapping, car*******s/auto thefts, and vandalism. Most of these crimes, you'll notice, have one thing in common—they are exceedingly violent. And while most of the violence is directed toward other MS-13 members or rival street gangs, innocent citizens often get caught in the crossfire.
MS-13 is expanding its membership at a "moderate" rate through recruitment and migration. Some MS-13 members move to get jobs or to be near family members—currently, the southeast and the northeast are seeing the largest increases in membership. MS-13 often recruits new members by glorifying the gang lifestyle (often on the Internet, complete with pictures and videos) and by absorbing smaller gangs.
Speaking of employment, MS-13 members typically work for legitimate businesses by presenting false documentation. They primarily pick employers that don't scrutinize employment documents, especially in the construction, restaurant, delivery service, and landscaping industries.
Right now, MS-13 has no official national leadership structure. MS-13 originated in Los Angeles, but when members migrated eastward, they began forming cliques that for the most part operated independently. These cliques, though, often maintain regular contact with members in other regions to coordinate recruitment/criminal activities and to prevent conflicts. We do believe that Los Angeles gang members have an elevated status among their MS-13 counterparts across the country, a system of respect that could potentially evolve into a more organized national leadership structure.
One final word about MS-13: the FBI, through its MS-13 National Joint Task Force and field investigations, remains committed to working with our local, state, national, and international partners to disrupt and dismantle this violent gang.
Today, regulations such as the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which prohibits a landlord from renting to undocumented workers, or the Real ID Act, which calls for a new set of driver's licenses designed to screen illegal immigrants, appear to bear dangerous similarities to the past, Pfaelzer said.
I honestly do not know how people like this Anastasia Ustinova call themselves journalist and write a story like this.
This bears no comparison to illegal invasion by undocumented people/workers in the usa trying to get a peice of the gobment cheesecake.
the chinese were brought here more or less under 'indentured slave concept." They were forced to live amongst themselves and be seperate community. They did endure extreme racism. USA asked them to come here. And they worked in the capacity that they were brought into the usa for. And they did a fabulous job .. look at those tunnels they dug for the railroads here. They were Amazing!
And yes. the guest worker program is same concept. the concept is to come here for x amount of years ..do the job and go home as we dont need you anymore. You agreed to that when you signed on. Guest worker program can be compared to Temporary agence and how the temporary worker is sent in on a good job. After 6 months or so when the contract is done between the employer and the temp worker. The temporay worker gets a permanent job with the employer. The poor guy on the outside never gets the chance to be hired for that position becuase the temp worker got 1st preference,
Nobody seems to understand the word Temporary, especially the TPS people. So dont expect for guest workers to go home after time expires.
Hot Topic: Mexican Immigration; The History & Future of Race in America
The Vail Symposium presents Gregory Rodriguez from 5:30 – 7:15 p.m. at the Vail Marriott Hotel & Spa. He is director of the California Fellows Program at New America Foundation and is an Irvine Senior Fellow. He will be providing a historical perspective and context of Mexican immigration and will discuss the long term cultural and political influences on the U.S. character. Tickets $35 and $25 for Vail Symposium Contributors.
...................................................................................................................................... impossibility is a word found only in the dictionary of fools
Dennis Wagner The Arizona Republic Jan. 15, 2008 12:00 AM
Umberto Grijalva, who has worked under the H-2B visa program for 15 years, grooms horses at Turf Paradise in Phoenix. "Nobody's explained anything to me," Grijalva says. "I haven't had papers since May."
More than 100 immigrants working as grooms and exercisers at the Turf Paradise racetrack in Phoenix may lose their jobs and face deportation because of a failure to obtain work permits.
Scores of the undocumented employees remain on the job even though the government last year turned down their so-called H-2B visas because applications exceeded a federally mandated cap.
If the grooms leave, Phoenix racing experts say, the multimillion-dollar Turf Paradise operation will shrivel or get shut down for the season.
"If they take everybody out of here, it'll close the racetrack," said Tom Metzen, executive director of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, which handled the visa applications on behalf of trainers, who employ the grooms.
Amid a national political furor about immigration, the dilemma reflects the growing problems faced even by employers who attempt to hire foreign workers legally. Congress last year placed greater limits on the number of H-2B visas for seasonal workers, at the same time failing to adopt a comprehensive immigration-reform bill.
The Turf Paradise grooms, nearly all Mexican nationals, could face prosecution or expulsion from the country if caught and may not be able to reapply for legal work visas if the government learns of their unauthorized employment. The Arizona Department of Racing also could revoke the grooms' licenses for failure to verify work status.
Some of those affected have been employed each spring and summer at the track for nearly two decades, raising families in Arizona.
"Nobody's explained anything to me," said Umberto Grijalva, 61, a groom who has worked under the H-2B program for 15 years. "I haven't had papers since May. I don't know what happened." Asked what he will do if federal agents or county sheriff deputies raid the track, Grijalva shrugged: "Go back to Mexico. . . . What can I say?"
Another groom, who declined to be identified, said he started working at Turf Paradise 18 years ago and has two children in Phoenix schools. He said he has no idea what's going to happen.
Labor permits Turf Paradise has 222 licensed grooms, according to Department of Racing records, and they play a critical role in equestrian care: feeding, bathing and taping the horses, as well as cleaning stalls.
Under U.S. law, non-citizens can obtain H-2B labor permits to fill temporary jobs if American workers refuse to take the positions. The visas can be good up to 11 months, and only 66,000 are issued annually.
For decades, Congress allowed those who had been in the program during the previous three years to receive visas even if the cap was exceeded. Last year, that exemption was removed and the horsemen's group, not anticipating the change, filed visa applications after the limit had been met.
Linda Osborne, a trainer who handled applications, said the visa shortage was compounded by bureaucratic delays and confusion at federal agencies. "The Department of Labor messed up our stuff," she said.
Osborne said some grooms have returned to Mexico, but scores remain on the job, hoping for a change in the law.
The problem is not unique to Turf Paradise. News reports document similar issues at horse tracks in New York and New England, where trainers also failed to apply for seasonal visas on time.
Sharon Rummery is a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. She said the number of H-2B permits rejected last year because of the cap was not immediately available. Asked about the status of longtime workers who were denied visas, she said, "You can't employ someone who is not in good status. That's all there is to it. If you don't have status, you can't stay in the United States."
Even without renewed visas, the Department of Racing in June authorized many of the undocumented grooms to work at Arizona tracks by giving them new licenses.
Geoffrey Gonsher, department director, said the licenses were granted based on verification of H-2B applications, rather than approved visas. Under a new procedure, certified H-2B papers must be presented for licensing.
Gonsher said he learned of the problem in October and ordered grooms to document their work status a month later. He said 112 failed to do so and have been directed to appear at a license-revocation hearing today.
A judge will make recommendations and Gonsher will issue a final decision, which may be appealed to the state Racing Commission. Until then, Gonsher said licenses have not been suspended because the workers are entitled to due process.
Metzen, of the horsemen's association, said his group is providing an attorney for the sanctions hearing. However, he acknowledged, "they really don't have a defense" against allegations of working without visas.
Marshall Whitehead, a Phoenix immigration attorney, said a number of the grooms came to him in October seeking help.
"They said, 'What can you do for us?' I said, 'Not a ****ed thing. You're all out of status,' " Whitehead recalled. "Somebody made a major screw-up over there and cost these guys all their jobs."
Because the grooms continued working and have been identified in administrative records as unauthorized employees, they may be ineligible for new visas, Whitehead said.
Bobbie Grissom, a Turf Paradise trainer with 15 horses, said she'll be unable to race without grooms. "I'll quit. Can't do it by myself," she said. "It's got to be fixed, or I'm going home to Cave Creek to look for something else to do."
Congress at fault Metzen said the grooms are caught in a legal trap through no fault of their own, victims of a national failure to enact reform laws recognizing the need for seasonal workers. Hotels, restaurants, construction companies and other firms have suffered acute worker shortages because of the new cap in America's H-2B law.
"I blame Congress," he said.
He said the horsemen's association puts out help-wanted ads for grooms to no avail. The few U.S. citizens who respond either refuse the jobs or quit within days of learning about the long hours of dirty labor.
"They can tell you there are people who would do these jobs, but there aren't," Metzen said.
Grooms and exercisers are typically employed by trainers, who work under contracts with horse owners. At Turf Paradise, grooms earn $300 to $500 per week and have the option of living rent-free in austere dormitories amid the stables. They rise before dawn and work seven days a week during race season from October to May.
"Some of these guys have been on this program for 25 years," said Ricki Hinrichs, president of the Arizona Horsemen's Association, an employment service for some racetrack workers.
Hinrichs, who represents 115 track workers, said she obtained H-2B visas for about half of her clients and instructed the rest to return to Mexico until new permits are approved this April. She and others said they are hoping Congress will deal with the mess during the winter.
"Everybody's worried. They don't really know what's going to happen," said Armando Ramos, a horse exerciser who worked under the H-2B program for years before marrying an American citizen. "They all realize that la migra could come and take them away."
Federal Immigration Special Agent Charged With Child Sexual Assault
KSAT.com POSTED: 5:56 pm CST January 15, 2008 UPDATED: 6:25 pm CST January 15, 2008
SAN ANTONIO -- A Boerne church counselor and federal immigration agent was arrested and charged with having s.e.x with an underage female.
Damon Samudio, 34, was arrested after he and a 15-year-old female began a relationship after she went to Samudio for counseling following a breakup with her boyfriend, according to court documents.
Samudio faces charges of sexual assault against a child.
Law enforcement officials learned of the relationship after the girl contacted the Kendall County Sheriff’s office.
Samudio is a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to San Antonio police.
“We collected several pieces of evidence that led us to believe there was a relationship – a sexual relationship – going on between a 15-year-old female and this particular agent,†SAPD Sgt. Gabe Trevino said.
The girl told police she had s.e.x with Samudio on three occasions, twice at his parents’ home in San Antonio, according to court documents.
Local Homeland Security officials, which the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is a part of, declined an interview with KSAT 12 News, but released a statement saying the agency expects its employees to uphold the highest standards of ethics and professionalism and that it takes allegations of misconduct very seriously.
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