ICE AGENTS TAKE NBC11 ALONG FOR ARRESTS 'ENFORCEMENT' TARGETS PEOPLE ORDERED TO LEAVE U.S.
Bay Area immigration agents invited a select number of TV news crews along as they made their daily round of arrests of undocumented immigrants.
UPDATED: 6:12 pm PDT August 21, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO -- For the first time ever, Bay Area immigration agents invited a select number of television news crews along as they made their daily round of arrests of undocumented immigrants, NBC11's Ethan Harp reported Tuesday.
The arrests, which agents called "targeted enforcement," are not the same as "raids" or "sweeps," Harp said.
ICE Agents Make Bay Area Arrests
The operation focused instead on those who have been ordered by a judge to return to their home country.
"It's just such a hot issue, and there are people on both sides of this. It's a very passionate issue," said Tim Aitken with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Aitken made it clear that part of ICE's goal in allowing their daily operation to be videotaped was to dispel misconceptions about the program, NBC11 reported.
"That we're just going into houses and you'll hear stories that we'll go into a house and just leave children behind, and we're leaving little kids behind or we're going onto schoolyards and we're terrorizing children. We're not doing that, I mean we're very professional in the way we operate," said Aitken. "I mean, if we encounter a residence and there's a caregiver there, there's a mother there, there's a small child, I mean we'll exercise our judgment and we won't take that person in. I mean we're not going to leave a little kid there by themselves. Nor are we going to take a parent away."
More than 2,000 deportees have been arrested in the Bay Area since October, though many of the 600,000 nationwide have yet to leave the United States, Harp said.
Northwest Florida Daily News Staff Reports Wednesday August 22nd, 2007
Eight illegal aliens were arrested at construction sites in Panama City Beach on Tuesday after the Bay County Sheriff's Office conducted random site visits.
Seven of those individuals were working at the Bay County Courthouse and were employed by BCL Contractors, according to the Bay County Sheriff's Office. All seven had used stolen Social Security numbers.
Another illegal alien was arrested at the Sperry Enterprise Storage construction site for also using a stolen Social Security number to obtain employment. His employer's information is not available.
More than 75 employment records were checked Tuesday. Other sites visited were Breakfast Point School on Beckrich Road and McCory Construction on Front Beach Road.
The eight people arrested were charged with criminal use of personal identification information, which is a felony.
Given increased enforcement activity in recent months by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), it is important that immigrant rights advocates and local communities be prepared in the event of a raid. Before ICE conducts a raid, immigrants' advocates should:
– Prepare individuals in the community so they know they should . . .
"¢ REMAIN SILENT, or tell the ICE agent that they want to remain silent.
"¢ Ask to speak with a lawyer.
"¢ NOT carry false documents.
"¢ Carry a "know your rights" card (see www.nilc.org/ce/nilc/rightscard_2007-03-15.pdf). "¢ Find out the name and phone number of a reliable immigration attorney and keep this information with them at all times.
"¢ Know their "alien registration number" ("A" number) if they have one, and write it down someplace at home where their family members know where to find it.
"¢ Prepare a form or document that authorizes another adult to care for their minor children.
"¢ Advise family members who do not want to be questioned by ICE to stay away from the place where the raid occurred or where a detained person is being held.
"¢ NOT sign any documents without first speaking with a lawyer.
– Prepare immigrant rights advocates and community groups.
"¢ Distribute to unions, workers, and community groups know-your-rights materials about what to do if raids occur or individuals are detained. (Some materials are available at www.nilc.org /ce/ ceindex.htm#know-rights.)
"¢ Help individuals who could be detained to practice, through role-playing, the best ways of responding to questioning by ICE agents.
"¢ Advise individuals not to sign any documents or allow ICE agents to coerce them into signing "stipulated orders of removal" or voluntary departure.
"¢ Be prepared to document all the facts about a raid, including any and all actions taken by ICE agents that may be unlawful, the names and badge numbers of ICE agents, and the names and dates of birth of detained immigrants.
"¢ Obtain contact information (e.g., phone numbers) for foreign consulates in your area.
"¢ Obtain contact information, including the phone number, of the local ICE detention center.
"¢ Find out where to obtain contact information for other detention centers in case detained people are transferred out of your local area.
(A list of ICE detention centers is available at www.ice.gov/pi/dro/facilities.htm. Detention Watch Network has compiled a more complete mapped list of places where immigrants may be detained, available at
NATIONAL IMMIGRATION LAW CENTER www.nilc.org 3435 Wilshire Boulevard Suite 2850 Los Angeles, CA 90010 213 639-3900 213 639-3911 fax
1101 14th Street, NW Suite 410 Washington, DC 20005 202 216-0261 202 216-0266 fax
405 14th Street Suite 1400 Oakland, CA 94612 510 663-8282 510 663-2028 fax
LOS ANGELES (Headquarters) WASHINGTON, DC OAKLAND, CA
"¢ Obtain the name of the local ICE special agent in charge (SAC).
"¢ Establish contact or strengthen your relationship with the local (1) Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) chief counsel and (2) Office of the Federal Public Defender.
"¢ With respect to the media:
o Establish relationships with the local media in advance to increase the likelihood that the public will be alerted immediately when a raid is happening.
o If you develop such relationships, in the event of a raid on a workplace you may be able to accompany a reporter into the workplace or detention center to observe, for example, whether ICE is turning away attorneys, to deny detainees access to them.
o Conduct "know your rights" presentations on community radio programs.
o Consider writing "know your rights" articles in local community newspapers.
"¢ With respect to local community leaders and law enforcement officials:
o Establish relationships with local law enforcement officials and community leaders, so you can be in communication with them during a raid and the community can mobilize to support affected workers and their families.
"¢ With respect to the local ICE office:
o Establish relationships with local ICE officials.
o Meet with ICE (1) to ensure that agents who work out of the local office are aware of ICE internal guidance regarding (a) engaging in enforcement activities at workplaces where there are ongoing labor disputes, and (b) releasing detained parents with minor children if there is no other parent to care for the children; and (2) to ask about the local office's raid protocol and how decisions are made to proceed with a raid.
– Develop a rapid response team comprised of attorneys, media personnel, and community leaders.
"¢ The rapid response legal team should include attorneys who specialize in immigration, criminal, and family law who will gather facts about the raid, help locate and represent individuals whom ICE has detained, and assist with caring for minor children whose parents are detained.
o When creating this team, advocates should also establish relationships with other attorneys who have constitutional, criminal, and family law experience "” in case ICE violates individuals' civil liberties during the raids, or the government files criminal charges against detainees, or detainees have minor children.
o Advocates should also identify local immigration lawyers who would be available to represent detained individuals.
o A well organized team that includes members from the media, the community's leadership, and attorneys can provide a coordinated response to any immigration raid.
"¢ If ICE denies detainees access to attorneys, members of the rapid response team can call the Executive Office for Immigration Review's chief counsel to facilitate attorneys' access to clients.
"¢ If the federal government files criminal charges against detainees, members of the rapid response team can work with the Office of the Federal Public Defender to help ensure that they obtain adequate legal representation. "”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"”"” FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT Monica Guizar, employment policy attorney | guizar@nilc.org | 213.639.3900 x. 123 National Immigration Law Center | www.nilc.org
If government agents question you, it is important to understand your rights. You should be careful in the way you speak when approached by the police, FBI, or INS. If you give answers, they can be used against you in a criminal, immigration, or civil case.
HOW TO LOCATE/HELP IMMIGRANTS WHO ARE ARRESTED/DETAINED
1. ID the person you wish to locate:
Name Date of Birth Place of birth Location of arrest
2. Determine Custody by contacting local ICE office or Federal Marshalls
3. Federal Custody indicates that the person is being charged with a crime and eventually will be brought to Federal Court can seek assistance through the Federal Public Defender. A bond will generally be assessed.
4. If family members are unable to have contact with family members or if individuals are being denied access to attorneys complaints should be made directly to the Consulate of the individuals in order to have access by family members and legal representatives.
5. If contact is made and the person is id'd as being in custody try and determine if criminal charges are being filed and if so what are the charges and what is the amount of bail.
6. If the individual is in ICE custody request the A# and ask if any bond has been set.
If the person is in ICE custody eventually the person will be brought to the immigration court. The 800 number can provide information regarding court dates. 1-800-698-7180. Just follow the prompts.
If no bond has been set a bond can be requested through the court.
If you get an A# and call the 800 number and there is no info it is because ICE has not passed the case on to the court.
Courtesy of Vicenta Montoya, Immigration Lawyer, NISN Legislative Working Group,
The Detention Watch Network (DWN) is the only national coalition in the United States that addresses the detention crisis head-on and helps detainees and their loved ones make their voices heard. Formed in 1997 in response to the rapid growth of the immigration detention system in the United States, DWN is a network of individuals and organizations working in support of, and in service to, immigrants in detention.
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Strengthening the nation's capacity to detain and remove criminal and other deportable aliens is a key component of the comprehensive strategy to deter illegal immigration and protect public safety. Detention and removal of illegal aliens is a priority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This commitment has been backed by significant resources devoted to detention and removal efforts.
DRO secures bed space in detention facilities, and monitors these facilities for compliance with national Detention Standards. The standards specify the living conditions appropriate for detainees. These standards have been collated and published in the Detention Operations Manual (Detention Standards). This manual provides uniform policies and procedures concerning the treatment of individuals detained by ICE.
For information on services relating to but not under the direct jurisdiction of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, please contact the following:
The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is an agency within the Department of Justice (DOJ). Its primary mission is to preside over immigration cases in an attentive and timely manner. These cases involve detained aliens, criminal aliens, and aliens seeking asylum as a form of relief from removal. EOIR ensures the standards of due process and fair treatment for all parties involved.
For information about a matter in an Immigration Court administered by EOIR or informaton about each of its offices, visit EOIR's Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/. You may also call its electronic information system at 1 (800) 898-7180.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). USCIS is responsible for the administration of immigration and naturalization arbitration functions and establishing immigration services policies and priorities including ruling on immigration visa petitions, naturalization petitions, asylum and refugee applications, cases performed at the service centers and all other mediation.
You may call U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) toll-free for automated information and live assistance concerning immigration services and benefits at 1 (800) 375-5283. The TTY number is: 1 (800) 767-1833. You may also visit its Web site at http://uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm where you can find out the status of your case, find out how to post a bond for an alien in detention, download forms, learn about detainee rights, learn how to file forms and more.
For information about a matter before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) you may contact BIA at (703) 605-1007. Its menu of automated options includes:
Appeals and motions; Transcripts and briefs; Board decisions and stays of deportation; and Change of address.
Smithfield Foods became a target for federal authorities again at 4 a.m. Wednesday as officers swooped into trailer parks and the world's largest pork processing plant in North Carolina and arrested 28 illegal immigrants.
The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agency made what it called "targeted arrests" of 15 men and 13 women alleged to be linked to identity theft. They are being held in North Carolina jails and are facing federal criminal prosecution.
"These were targeted arrests - not raids," said ICE spokesman Richard Rocha.
The arrests come as the company deals with growing unrest at the plant from a past immigration problem and union drive. Federal officials pressed the company last November to deal with 600 employees whose Social Security numbers didn't match federal records.
Smithfield lost or had to fire most of those workers, spurring walkouts and protests.
Agents made the arrests of 20 people in four counties near the plant, and another eight inside the facility. The officials were targeting Smithfield employees who are believed to have stolen Americans' identities to get work at the plant.
"Most of those arrested are current or former employees of Smithfield," said Rocha.
Rocha wouldn't say if those arrested committed any other fraud with the stolen identities, other than trying to get a job at the meatpacking plant. Of those arrested, 25 were Mexican, 2 were from Guatemala and one was from Honduras.
According to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union trying to organize the plant, agents arrested the workers in their homes and tore mothers from their children.
By Charles Keeshan Daily Herald Staff Published: 8/24/2007
The controversial Illinois Minuteman Project canceled its weekend seminar on illegal immigration in Crystal Lake after a McHenry County judge Thursday issued a restraining order barring the group from holding the event at a local hotel as planned.
At the urging of the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn's owners, Judge Maureen McIntyre ordered the Minuteman Project not to appear at the hotel and to notify its guest speakers and about 100 ticket holders that the seminar would not take place there.
The ruling left the Minuteman Project no option but to call off the event, Director Rosanna Pulido said.
"There's a lot of outrage out there that American citizens cannot have a meeting," she said. "But this might be a blessing in disguise. People have to see what we're up against."
The group, which says its mission is to educate Americans about the negative effects of illegal immigration, was planning a seminar featuring guest speaker Sheriff Dan Beck of Allen County, Ohio. Beck has won national attention for his efforts to deport illegal immigrants living in his county.
Saturday's seminar was expected to draw hundreds of protesters from at least three organizations, including the Carpentersville Community Alliance and the McHenry County Peace Group.
Peace group member Patrick Murfin said his organization was unhappy with the news that the Minuteman meeting would not go as scheduled.
"We're actually saddened when free speech or assembly rights are abridged in any way," he said.
Despite the Minuteman cancellation, Murfin said, his group still plans to hold a vigil at 1 p.m. Saturday at Route 14 and Main Street in Crystal Lake.
Citing concerns that guests and workers would get caught in the crossfire, the Holiday Inn's owners had gone to court Thursday asking McIntyre to ban the Minuteman Project from the hotel.
The Holiday Inn's attorney, Rita Alliss Powers, said Crystal Lake police told hotel management they would need 17 armed officers on the site and a SWAT team stationed nearby to ensure a peaceful environment.
"These meetings have a history of drawing a lot of visceral reaction and protest," Alliss Powers said, noting skirmishes at a similar event in Arlington Heights. "(The hotel) has serious, serious concerns about having this type of event on its property."
Hotel lawyers argued that they had legal grounds to cancel Pulido's conference room reservation because she misled management about the nature of her organization and the likelihood of protests.
Pulido, Alliss Powers said, never wrote "Minuteman Project" on the application for a conference room, instead labeling the applicant "Sheriff Dan Beck - Immigration Conference."
Minuteman attorney Suzanne Walters argued that the hotel, knowing the seminar dealt with the immigration issue, should not be surprised by the likelihood of protests.
"I don't think the Holiday Inn should be in the business of regulating free speech, which is what they're doing right here," Walters said. "It's another example of the rights of Americans being trampled on by illegal immigrants and their supporters."
McIntyre, however, said she viewed the matter as a contractual dispute, not a free speech issue.
"I am an advocate of the right to free speech, but I don't think the question boils down to an infringement of that right," McIntyre said.
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Posted on Thu, Aug. 23, 2007 10:15 By DIANE CARROLL The Kansas City Star
A recent case in the Kansas Court of Appeals case raised this issue: Should an illegal immigrant be denied probation solely on the basis of his immigration status?
Last week, a three-judge panel said no.
In doing so, the judges overturned a Barton County district judge's decision to sentence Nicholas L. Martinez to one year in jail instead of probation. The appeals panel said an illegal immigrant cannot be denied probation solely because of his immigration status, unless a compelling reason exists.
Entering the United States without proper documentation is a crime, the court said, but being in the country afterward is not necessarily against the law.
"While Congress has criminalized the illegal entry into this country, it has not made the continued presence of an illegal alien in the United States a crime unless the illegal alien has previously been deported and has again entered the country illegally," Appeals Court Judge Patrick McAnany wrote in the unanimous opinion.
Barton County Attorney Douglas Matthews said this week that courts in Oregon and Minnesota have issued similar rulings. However, he said, "as far as I know through my research it seems to be the first time the question has gone up to our appellate court."
Matthews said he had not yet decided whether to appeal.
Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said he hoped Matthews would.
"I think the appeals court got it wrong," said Kobach, who is also Republican Party chairman in Kansas.
Even if remaining in the country is not considered a criminal offense for an illegal immigrant, Kobach said, it still would be considered a civil offense under federal law. The appeals court failed to consider that point, he said, and "that is the biggest flaw in the decision."
The Kansas appeals panel took up the case after Martinez pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and endangering a child for having his young son deliver cocaine to an undercover detective.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys recommended probation, in keeping with the state's sentencing guidelines.
But Barton County District Judge Hannelore Kitts said she could not impose probation because Martinez is in the country illegally, according to the transcript of the sentencing in the appeals court ruling. She reasoned that any violation of the law "” including an immigrant's illegal status "” would be a violation of probation.
In the appeals court ruling, McAnany wrote that a district court might depart from sentencing guidelines because of a defendant's illegal immigration status but only under "certain limited circumstances." Kitts failed to determine whether those circumstances existed in this case, he wrote.
Attorney Janine Cox, who defended Martinez before the appeals panel, said: "Our argument is, status alone is not a substantial and compelling reason." In addition, she said, regardless of what was said before Kitts, Martinez's immigration status has not yet been determined. Only the federal government can determine status, she said, and it has not done so in his case.
The appeals court also ruled that Kitts had failed to provide proper notice to attorneys that she planned to depart from sentencing guidelines.
The panel sent the case back to Kitts for resentencing.
By Venita Jenkins Staff writer Published on Friday, August 24, 2007
LUMBERTON "” Twenty-eight people arrested Wednesday by immigration agents are being detained in jails in Mecklenburg and Alamance counties.
In the meantime, advocacy groups are attempting to gather a list of names of those who were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents so they can find lawyers to represent them.
ICE agents arrested people suspected of identity theft crimes. They conducted searches in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Bladen counties early Wednesday.
Thirteen women were taken to the Mecklenburg County Jail in Charlotte and 15 men went to the Alamance County Jail in Graham. Of those, 25 were Mexican, two were Guatemalan and one was Honduran.
Their cases will be turned over to federal prosecutors, said Richard Rocha, a spokesman for ICE. He declined further comment.
The North Carolina Justice Center has been working with other advocacy groups since the raids, said Dani Martinez -Moore, who handles immigration issues at the center.
"We object strongly to the way ICE is going about arresting people in North Carolina," Moore said. "We are very concerned about middle-of-the-night raids and the separation of families and the terror that is engendered when people are awakened in the middle of the night with agents at their doors at 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock in the morning."
Volunteers with the Workers Center of Eastern North Carolina in Red Springs and St. Andrew Catholic Church spent much of Wednesday and this morning trying to track down the names of those arrested.
"We're still missing some names," said Emma Herrera, director of the workers center. "This morning, a husband called because he didn't know anything about his wife."
Herrera said she and others spoke with immigration officials to get information about where the arrested were taken and their charges. Most of those detained have talked to family members, she said.
The center was busy Thursday morning filtering calls from Hispanics about the raids. Many asked whether they should go to work, Herrera said.
"I said, ˜Look, you have to make that decision. I cannot say go to work or not,'" she said.
At Smithfield, where eight people were arrested, life appeared to go on as usual Thursday morning as workers arrived for first shift. About 100 more people than normal did not report for second shift Wednesday.
"Attendance was not as good as normal, but it was better than yesterday," said Dennis Pittman, the company's spokesman. "We are running a normal schedule."
More Hispanics are on edge because immigration agents went to homes. In January, ICE agents picked up 21 people at Smithfield Packing Co. Hispanics feel they can't go about their normal routine of going to work, school and church, Herrera said.
"This shocked them," she said. "It woke them up."
Family members are concerned about those arrested, Herrera said. One woman detained is seven months' pregnant. Her family wanted to make sure she is getting adequate care, Herrera said.
Others who called the center were worried about care for children left behind.
"More mothers were arrested this time," Herrera said.
A community meeting is scheduled for today at St. Andrew Catholic Church, 301 Mercer Ave. in Red Springs.
Updates will be given to family members, and information will be handed out about how to be prepared for immigration raids. Immigration specialists will be available to answer questions.
"We are meeting to let them know their rights," Herrera said.
Representatives with the North Carolina Justice Center will answer questions on immigration law.
"The broader community is concerned and fearful right now," Moore said.
By Ouisa D. Davis / Guest columnist Article Launched: 08/24/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Services knows well -- a sure-fire way to guarantee revenues is to increase fees and make it mandatory for a population to pay those fees. And immigrants are a captive audience with neither voice nor choice.
Less than a month after doubling most immigration fees, US CIS has announced that over 275,000 legal permanent residents must have their identification cards re-issued. Why? Because they were issued with no expiration date.
Let's be clear here -- permanent resident status does not expire. It's not like a driver's license or a passport. Permanent resident status is just that, the ability to reside in the U.S. permanently. Of course, we encourage naturalization, but neither existing law nor the Constitution requires it.
So why do we need an expiration date on permanent resident cards? We don't. But immigrants are a revenue source. And CIS is desperately in need of funding. Historically, the agency is one of the most underfunded departments of the federal government -- and the most inefficient.
At a cost of $370 per card, these legal immigrants will generate approximately $101.8 million for the agency. Who can resist that temptation?
There's no way around this new conundrum.
Permanent residents will fall victim to a myriad of new immigration problems. For example, in 1996, several non-serious crimes were declared deportable offenses. Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that application of the laws for such convictions is unconstitutional. However, in order to assert that defense, the immigrant will be detained, undergo deportation proceedings and a trial in order to clear their record.
While waiting for their new card, permanent residents will be unable to certify employment eligibility. The applicant will probably be given a paper document or a receipt letter. With the requirement for verifiable proof and recent threats of workplace enforcement, employers will likely hesitate when presented with a beaten-up paper entry permit or a CIS receipt notice as proof of employability.
Who decides whether or not a document is valid for travel or employment? Employers? TSA officials at the airports? Border Patrol officers untrained in the intricacies of immigration laws? Local law enforcement? Will the immigrant be jailed under mandatory detention laws while we figure it out?
Affected immigrants will be buried in the processing backlog. As it is, the average processing time for issuance of a permanent resident card is six months. What happens when over 275,000 new applications flood the CIS processing center? What guarantee do we have that CIS will be prepared with adequate staff?
And then there's the question of FBI background checks. The system is completely overwhelmed. That's one reason it's taking so long for U.S. citizens to get passports. With a six- and nine-month waiting period, people remain in limbo while background checks are completed.
Will permanent residents be permitted to travel within the U.S. while awaiting new ID cards? Will they be able to apply for citizenship? Will they be permitted to file applications to immigrate spouses and minor children who remain in their native land?
An obvious way to avoid this problem is for permanent residents to apply for citizenship. That only takes between 13 and 36 months. Oh, and by the way, that fee has also increased -- from $470 to $755. It's a captive audience.
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune Published: Aug 24, 2007
TAMPA - State and federal authorities are asking for the public's help in tracking down a 51-year-old Colombian woman they say is linked to a driver's license fraud scheme in Hillsborough County.
Gloria Ines Bustamante was charged by the state in April with being the main recruiter in a driver's license conspiracy they say involved a clerk in the Hillsborough County Tax Collector's Office who accepted money from undocumented immigrants to obtain legitimate Florida driver's licenses.
Authorities say Bustamante charged immigrants $1,200 to obtain legitimate driver's licenses. She then referred them to Deisy Oropesa, 30, a former Hillsborough County Tax Collector's Office customer service representative, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says in a written statement.
Oropesa, who has been indicted on federal charges, is accused of entering false information into the Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles' computer system to reflect that those soliciting driver's licenses were presenting U.S. passports even though they weren't.
"We are confident that someone in our community will recognize this criminal and notify us," Susan McCormick, deputy special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Tampa, says in a written statement.
"We have closed a serious security vulnerability and will work tirelessly to ensure that those involved in this scheme are brought to justice," McCormick says.
According to state charges brought last year, Oropesa acknowledged selling fraudulent licenses and altering the citizenship status of 58 people obtaining driver's licenses for $200 per transaction.
Oropesa acknowledged receiving $25,000 for her participation in the ring, according to a criminal arrest affidavit filed by the Florida Highway Patrol in November.
Anyone with information regarding Bustamante's whereabouts is asked to call ICE toll-free at 1-866-347-2423. The lines are staffed around the clock.
Both ICE and the highway patrol are investigating the case. Authorities expect additional arrests.
Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.
The Washington Times By Seth McLaughlin August 24, 2007
Virginia's only Hispanic state lawmaker is crafting legislation that would cut off state funding to any locality providing sanctuary to illegal aliens.
"Providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants in essence encourages illegal immigration, and makes Virginia a destination for illegals," said Jeffrey M. Frederick, Prince William County Republican.
The aim is to stop Virginia counties, cities and towns with policies that ignore a person's immigration status while providing public benefits and services. Several localities in Northern Virginia are enacting or exploring ordinances aimed at curbing the population of illegal aliens.
"Illegal immigration is costing taxpayers a fortune, and it is harming the quality of life of our citizens," Mr. Frederick said. "It's time we require our local governments to obey the law."
Mr. Frederick will introduce his proposal when the General Assembly convenes in January. Republican lawmakers said yesterday that the likelihood of approval depends of the specifics of the bill.
Prince William County has been at the forefront of efforts to enforce immigration laws. Last month, the Board of County Supervisors voted unanimously to require police officers to ask about the immigration status of those they arrest if there is probable cause to think federal immigration laws were violated. The board also voted to require the county to verify legal status before providing certain public services.
Loudoun, Spotsylvania, Culpeper, Stafford, Chesterfield and James City counties also have either explored or enacted ordinances aimed at curbing illegals.
Mr. Frederick said his legislation would require every local government to take actions similar to those in Prince William or jeopardize state funding.
Delegate David B. Albo, Fairfax County Republican, called Mr. Frederick's plan a "great idea."
Mr. Albo said some local governments, including Fairfax County, have ignored legislation he ushered through the General Assembly in 2005 to prevent illegal aliens from receiving any non-emergency public benefits.
Fairfax County officials say the law goes too far by denying access to subsidized health care, free clinics and homeless shelters for adult aliens.
"As Prince William, Loudoun, Spotsylvania and Stafford crack down on illegal immigrants, very clearly they are going to go to find a sanctuary for illegal immigrants and Fairfax County sticks out like a sore thumb," said Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. "We have been having this problem with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors refusing to get on board with what we are doing."
J. Walter Tejada, vice chairman of the Arlington County Board, said Mr. Frederick's proposal amounts to politics.
"We need to be about ensuring safety in our community and making sure health issues are addressed," said Mr. Tejada, a Democrat. "We will continue to be a jurisdiction that is welcoming to immigrants and will continue to comply with the law."
Mr. Albo and Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Fairfax County Republican, said Mr. Frederick faces a challenge with his definition of "sanctuary" and how he addresses such things as the Supreme Court's ruling making every child eligible for a free education.
"I really don't want Virginia localities to act as inviters of illegals, but I want to be careful not to go berserk on it," Mr. Cuccinelli said. "If you are not running a check on everyone you pull over, does that mean you are a sanctuary? We need to stay rational and move with forethought."
Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican, said he is reluctant to support the plan without learning the details, but that he is pushing for proposals to reduce crime related to illegal aliens and the drain on state taxpayers.
"I am certainly open to other things that will deal with this problem in the absence of federal action," he said.
Author: Mike Cutler Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc. Date: August 24, 2007
The Census Bureau wants immigration raids halted during the 2010 census so the census can be conducted properly. Is that the real reason? FSM Contributing Editor Michael Cutler draws on his past experience as an immigration agent and comes up with a scenario that, if true, is alarming.
By Michael Cutler
A recent article about the Census Bureau wanting immigration raids halted during the 2010 census so illegal aliens can be properly counted is not as new a story as you might think. When Jimmy Carter was president, the (former) INS was instructed by the administration to not permit their special agents to make arrests unless those arrests were authorized at the upper management level. As I recall, the local district office needed to seek authorization for any immigration arrests either at the regional or headquarters level. We were discouraged from discussing this practice. Back then, many of us at the INS speculated that this was being done to tilt the number of congressional representatives in those cities that would most likely support the Democrats. I happen to be a registered Democrat, but I was outraged by the idea that the official bureaucracy would be prostituted by politicians of either party for political gain.
Today, we are seeing the same madness where the census is concerned on a number of levels. First of all, I do not know what raids the Census Bureau is talking about. The main reason that immigration raids generally attract press coverage these days is because immigration raids are actually a rarity.
However, we should primarily consider the reason for the census. As is noted in the MSNBC article linked above, the census is mandated by law to determine the apportionment of representation in the House of Representatives. We all know that each state, regardless of population, has two senators to represent their citizens. But representation in the House of Representatives is determined solely by population. The census is therefore conducted every ten years to reallocate the number of members of Congress for each state.
Think about the implications of the request by the Census Bureau: our government wants to make certain that illegal aliens have their "voices" heard in the hallowed halls of Congress!
The way that our government deals with illegal immigration legitimizes the illegal and criminal activities committed by people who have no right to be in the United States! The "climate of fear" referenced in the article is generally known as "deterrence" in the realm of law enforcement. In other words, those who violate laws (or are contemplating doing so) need to feel apprehensive that if they do violate laws, there will be meaningful consequences. That is one of the reasons that law enforcement authorities make arrests, and why those who violate the law may be imprisoned or fined. It is not only to punish the law violator and take criminals off the streets, but to convince others who would break the law that they too can anticipate that such actions will cost them their freedom or their largess.
It is obvious that those aliens who violate our nation's immigration laws constitute a privileged class of law violators!
This level of lunacy leaves me breathless. Let us consider the reason that aliens are supposed to be inspected before they simply traipse across our nation's borders. The inspection booth at a port of entry is not the equivalent of a toll plaza at a bridge or turnpike. The inspections process is supposed to prevent criminals and terrorists from entering the United States; prevent the entry of aliens who harbor serious contagious diseases; prevent aliens from entering the United States and then harming the American labor market by undercutting the American workforce; and to keep out aliens who would become public charges.
I could continue on with the list of reasons why certain aliens should be kept out of the United States under the immigration statutes. But I think you get the idea: the inspections process is not a mere formality. Rather, it is the equivalent of a responsible homeowner who carefully looks through the peephole on his front door when a stranger rings his bell seeking entry into his home.
This is why aliens who run our nation's borders represent a threat to our safety and to our economy. We continue to hear about the crisis in the mortgage industry, and I am forced to wonder about how many of the homeowners who have defaulted on their mortgages might be illegal aliens. I am also curious as to how many families are unable to make their mortgage payments because they are unable to maintain their income levels. There are a number of industries that have taken to the unscrupulous (and utterly outrageous) practice of hiring illegal aliens – and then telling their long time United States citizen and lawful resident alien employees that they will now have to settle for far lower wages if they want to keep their jobs.
Every nation on the face of this planet takes its borders seriously for a multitude of very important reasons. Yet our politicians keep looking for ever more creative ways of blurring the distinction between citizens and legal aliens in the U.S. and illegal aliens. Consider the "Dream Act." This legislative abomination would provide in-state tuition for illegal aliens while American college kids are not eligible for such an economic windfall! It's the equivalent of a family subsidizing the college education of a neighbor's children while telling their own kids that they will have to work their way through college
Furthermore, there are so-called "Sanctuary Cities," where the police are told to ignore the immigration status of aliens they encounter during their official duties. Meanwhile, the number of alien absconders in the United States has doubled in the last six years to more than 600,000. These are aliens or fugitives who have failed to show up for immigration hearings or who, having been ordered deported, have failed to surrender.
Another sobering statistic is that gang violence committed by illegal aliens continues to increase across the United States. Some 25% of the criminal population in prisons across our nation is identified as being illegal aliens.
Three years ago, the amount of money wired out of the United States (also known as "remittances") sent to Latin America and the Caribbean stood at some $30 billion. Last year, that number increased to $45 billion. This is the "visible money" that is being exported away from our economy. Former colleagues in other law enforcement agencies who conducted currency investigations have told me that they believed even more money was sent out of the United States covertly than was wired out of the United States. Again, this is money that is lost to our nation's economy.
America is bleeding green and red because of the failures of our government to secure our borders and create and maintain an immigration system that possesses integrity. Furthermore, all too many of our politicians on all levels seem to be tripping over each other seeking to give new rewards and incentives to aliens who violate our laws and our borders.
I suspect that if they could get away with it, many of these politicians would declare anyone born on the planet Earth to be a United States citizen, turning the ICE agents into the equivalent of the "Men In Black" in that science fiction/comedy movie starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Of course in this day and age, if they did this and extraterrestrials showed up, no doubt the ACLU and other such organizations would accuse the "Men In Black" of "profiling" if they arrested critters that possessed six legs and multiple heads!
As the saying goes, you only get one opportunity to make a first impression. For millions of people around the world – as well as for illegal aliens in the United States – the first impression is provided by how our nation administers and enforces the immigration laws, the first laws of the United States they are likely to encounter. Thanks to these political "leaders" and the bureaucrats who lead the agencies that they appoint to their positions, the message is clear. You can come to the United States, break our laws, and not only expect to get away with such transgressions, but be rewarded for violating our laws – even at a time that the government continues to curtail our expectations of privacy and freedom in the name of "national security."
"We the People" must become involved in the political process because clearly, the illegal alien population seems to be encouraged to do so!
Democracy is not a spectator sport!
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
# #
FamilySecurityMatters.org contributing editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a well-respected authority on immigration and border security issues.
Father Giovanni Bizzotto addresses the media Tuesday at a protest called by immigration rights activists condemning Sunday's arrest and deportation of Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant who has become a key figure in the battle for immigration reform.
Los Angeles Wave August 25, 2007
A NEW FACE OF IMMIGRATION REFORM
Immigration officials say they were just doing their job.
LOS ANGELES "” The battle for immigration reform took a new step over the weekend with the arrest Sunday of a Mexican woman who has become the face of the movement to provide amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Elvira Arellano, who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church rather than be deported, was arrested here and deported to Tijuana after appearances at three Southland churches.
The head of the local immigration enforcement office said his agents were simply doing their job.
"[Our office] has a sworn duty to ensure that our nation's immigration laws are applied fairly and without regard for a person's ability to generate public support," said Jim Hayes, director of the Los Angeles office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Arellano, 32, was taken into custody by immigration agents on a street near La Placita Church in downtown Los Angeles around 2:15 p.m.
"Arellano was processed at [the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's] staging facility in Santa Ana, and was transported ... to the border crossing at San Ysidro, where she was turned over to Mexican immigration officials, according to a statement released by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office Monday.
"Arellano was taken into custody without incident based upon an order for removal originally issued in 1997," the statement said.
Arellano and her son Saul, 8, who is a U.S. citizen, were in Los Angeles to press for changes in immigration laws and were staying at La Placita Church. She has been struggling to avoid deportation to avoid being separated from her son "” saying immigration raids unfairly break up families that have a mix of legal and illegal residents.
Hayes said federal officials don't consider Arellano a martyr for the cause of immigration rights. He insisted she was simply the subject of a deportation order who was living and working in the country illegally.
"She illegally returned to the United States, a felony under federal law, which is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison," Hayes said. "In 2002, ICE agents arrested Miss Arellano at Chicago's O'Hare airport, where she was working illegally for a janitorial business whose employees had access to secure areas of the airport."
Hayes noted that Arellano was given the option of taking her son with her, but she declined.
"At Arellano's request, he was left in the custody of her traveling companions, including Pastor William Coleman, the pastor of the Chicago church where she had received sanctuary for the past year," the statement said.
Arellano's adviser Emma Lozano of Chicago said she is Saul's legal guardian and was taking care of him.
Arellano's son said they were followed by unmarked cars after services at La Placita and that plain-clothed officers who identified themselves as immigration agents took her into custody, said local spokeswoman Hilda Delgado.
"She was transported [to San Ysidro] without permission or consent of herself or the Mexican consulate, which wanted to intervene or talk to her," immigration activist Carlos Montes said.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Arellano's arrest and deportation are indicative of "Washington's failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform."
"Until we resolve the status of the estimated 12 million undocumented people living and working in the United States by giving them some meaningful pathway to citizenship, families will continue to be torn apart," Villaraigosa said. "As mayor of a city that is over 40 percent foreign-born, I can tell you, when families are torn apart, our communities are torn apart."
Arellano's supporters held candlelight vigil Sunday and Monday nights and a press conference Tuesday denouncing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's actions.
They are also planning a march on Washington on Sept. 15, and have issued a call for a national day of boycott on Sept. 12 "” urging immigrants to avoid work and school.
"We are appalled and disappointed [by] the behavior of our federal authorities who arrested and deported immigrant rights activist Arellano," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, director of Latino Movement USA.
Gutierrez said the actions of federal officials send a message that "there will be no mercy toward undocumented workers."
"The question remains, how can our government justify this cruel behavior towards hardworking, taxpaying undocumented workers?" he asked.
While immigration advocates condemned Arrellano's arrest and deportation, others were quick to praise the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
Ted Hayes, an anti-illegal immigration activist, said he was pleased the agency enforced the law by arresting Arellano.
"I knew it was going to happen," he said.
Hayes said he went to Chicago twice to talk to Arellano and tell her she could become "a real Rosa Parks in Mexico," helping to fight for economic justice in her home country.
Parks is considered one of the pioneers of the black civil rights movement in America for refusing to sit in the back of a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955, sparking a bus boycott, and Arellano's supporters have called her the Rosa Parks of the movement for immigration reform.
But Hayes, who is black, disagreed.
"She was intoxicated with a false sense of power,'' Hayes said of Arellano. "How dare they flaunt themselves in the face of the American people."
Arellano visited three area churches Sunday, calling for amnesty for illegal immigrants, but was arrested before she could go to a fourth.
Arellano defied an order to report to the Department of Homeland Security on Aug. 15, 2006, to be deported. Instead, she took refuge in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago, which became a center for the New Sanctuary Movement, which is recruiting churches around the country to harbor illegal immigrants.
According to the New Sanctuary Movement, at least 600,000 families in the United States have at least one member facing deportation because they are not legal residents.
Delgado said they are asking all sanctuary churches in the country to "stand in solidarity" and start a "mobilization ... to urge Congress to fix the broken immigration system."
She said 25 churches in California are providing sanctuary for eight families.
Arellano has said she sought to remain in this country so her son, who was born in the United States, can get better medical care for his attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
She told reporters she came to the United States because the North American Free Trade Agreement hurt the Mexican economy, making it harder for her to find a job there.
Arellano first came to the United States in 1997 and was deported to Mexico shortly afterward. She returned and moved to Illinois in 2000, taking a job cleaning planes at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
She was arrested in 2002 and later convicted of working under a false Social Security number.
Elvira Arellano, the illegal immigrant that sought refuge in a Chicago church and was eventually deported by the United States, talks about what the future holds after she is reunited with her son, Saul, 8, at an apartment in Tijuana, Mexico.
MEXICO CITY (AP) "” A Mexican Senate committee passed a measure Wednesday urging President Felipe Calderon to send a diplomatic note to the United States protesting the deportation of an illegal migrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year.
The committee also approved a scholarship to help her 8-year-old U.S.-born son, Saul, who is an American citizen and stayed in the United States.
Elvira Arellano, 32, became an activist and a national symbol for illegal immigrant parents by defying her deportation order and speaking out from her sanctuary in the Adalberto United Methodist Church. She announced last week that she was leaving to try to lobby U.S. lawmakers for immigration reform.
On Sunday, shortly after she spoke at a rally in a Los Angeles church, she was arrested and deported to Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.
"We cannot remain quiet in view of this injustice and must ask for firm action from our authorities," Mexican Sen. Humberto Zazue said.
He accused the United States of violating international deportation accords by denying her access to the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles.
Arellano, who was at the committee's session, said Saul is in Chicago in the care of his godmother and will attend a Sept. 12 rally for immigration reform in Washington. She said she would help organize a rally in Tijuana that same day to demand Mexican authorities do more to protect migrants.
"For me it is very important that our government take a strong stand to defend all of us who decide to migrate to another country," she said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Wilfredo Montes of Nicaragua, second from left, stands with other day laborers looking for work next to a Lowe's parking lot in suburban New Orleans.
DREAMS OF STEADY WORK FADE FOR HISPANIC WORKERS
By Kathy Chu, USA TODAY NEW ORLEANS "” Wilfredo Montes came from Texas to this city about a year and a half ago for good work and good pay: gutting homes and clearing debris from neighborhoods left waterlogged by Hurricane Katrina. He worked six or seven days a week, for up to $15 an hour. These days, Montes often finds work only two or three days a week, and the pay rate has shrunk by nearly half. Yet he's staying, at least for now. The hourly wage still far exceeds the federal minimum of $5.15. In fact, the $8 for an hour's work is nearly as much as he'd earn in a full day back in Chinandega, Nicaragua, where he used to sell steaming plates of rice and beans.
STORY: Tension grows amid influx of Hispanic mobile food vendors
"I like it here for the money," Montes, 54, says, speaking in Spanish. "But the lifestyle, I don't like it."
Since Katrina, tens of thousands of Hispanic workers, most of them undocumented, have poured into battered sections of the Gulf Coast. They've supplied the labor to rebuild, to keep businesses running and to boost tax revenue. To support their families back home, they often will work longer hours and for less pay than other laborers.
Yet the economic dream that drew them here has weakened. For some, pay is falling. And jobs are scarcer, because the most urgent work "” gutting homes and removing debris "” is mostly finished. Though years of rebuilding remain, not enough state and insurance money has arrived to pay for it.
Still, many Hispanic workers remain in the region "” and others are still arriving "” because even now, they can typically earn more on the Gulf Coast than in other parts of the USA. Some workers have decided to settle here, bringing their families over to open restaurants and businesses, says Phuong Pham, who teaches at Tulane University in New Orleans.
As of March 2006, the most recent point for which figures are available, Hispanics made up nearly half the reconstruction workforce in New Orleans. About two thirds of them moved to the area "” mostly from elsewhere in the USA "” after the hurricane, according to a study of 212 workers by researchers at Tulane University and the University of California, Berkeley.
For all the economic muscle these workers have supplied, their presence has also fueled tensions: over language barriers and over education and health care needs in a public-services system strained by Katrina. There's been "a big increase (in the Hispanic population) at a time when the local infrastructure (has been) stretched," says Katharine Donato, a sociology professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
As longtime residents return to the region, concern is rising that migrant laborers have diminished job prospects for others. Greg Stewart, a business owner and member of the Mississippi Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, complains that illegal workers are "driving wages down for people who live in Mississippi."
The Hispanic population on the Gulf Coast ballooned after Katrina struck in August 2005. In New Orleans, their numbers surged 29% by October 2006, even as the overall population shrank to less than half its pre-Katrina levels. Meantime, the number of African-American households in New Orleans fell sharply from pre-Katrina levels. Mayor Ray Nagin expressed concern shortly after Katrina about the city being "overrun" by Mexicans. He later soothed critics by saying he welcomed all workers and that Hispanics were particularly hardworking.
Cameron Taylor, 35, has worked alongside Hispanic laborers, rebuilding homes wrecked by Katrina: "At first, I was upset because I was losing work to them." Taylor's resentment eased, he says, after he saw how hard they worked. New Orleans has a long way to go in its recovery, but the city wouldn't have progressed even this far, he says, "if it wasn't for the (Hispanic day laborers). They should be allowed to stay."
Montes says he doesn't mean to take anyone's job. But he has to earn a living, he says, and finding a good job in Nicaragua is all but impossible.
He left his country 10 years ago to try to provide for his family "” a wife, Natalia, and seven children. He worked in Costa Rica before coming to the USA, spent a few years in Dallas, then moved to New Orleans more than a year and a half ago. Over the years, his children, who range in age from 21 to 31, have grown up and most have married, so he no longer needs to support them. But Montes wants to earn enough money to complete his wife's dream house in Nicaragua; he's two windows and a front door away from his goal. He also wants to build a cash cushion so he and his wife can afford to retire.
For five months, Montes has been sleeping in a partitioned corner of a Lutheran church, Monte de los Olivos, set inconspicuously in a neighborhood of modest homes outside New Orleans. He and more than a dozen other migrant workers live there free. In return, they're required to attend weekly Bible classes, English classes and Sunday services if they're not working. Montes, a Catholic, says his belief in God lifts his spirits on days when he can't find work.
On this Tuesday, like many other days, Montes wakes before dawn. He showers and dresses before rousing the others, who are sprawled on cots and pews around the wood-paneled room.
Montes "runs the camp," says the church pastor, Jesus Gonzales, which means that Montes looks after the Hispanic workers living in the church and keeps it tidy. Today, his task includes figuring out how to dispel the faint odor of shoes, unwashed clothes and dirt tracked in from construction sites. Montes sprays air freshener. He wends his way around fold-up cots, a fake palm tree and a white dry-erase board that recalls last night's English lesson given by a teacher from the neighborhood.
This week, the workers learned such phrases as, "My head hurts" and "I'm not doing very well," so they can tell their employers when they're ill. The vast majority of them have no health insurance. When they get sick, they typically go to one of the free health clinics that have sprung up after Katrina to serve the Hispanic population, or to a hospital if it's an emergency.
A strained health care system
The result is that Hispanic day laborers who lack health insurance are further straining the region's health care system, already in poor shape after Katrina. Six hospitals in the New Orleans area remain largely closed because of damage. Those that are still running are losing an average of $750,000 a month treating the uninsured, though losses vary widely among hospitals, says Jack Finn of the Metropolitan Hospital Council. The average wait time in emergency rooms has ballooned to about three hours.
By 6:20 a.m., Montes steps out into the already muggy New Orleans air and begins his mile-and-a-half walk. By the time he reaches his destination, an intersection in front of Home Depot, nearly two dozen other men are waiting. Hispanic day laborers congregate outside construction supply stores like this one, hoping for contractors to swing by to find workers.
It's been three days since Montes has found work. When a van pulls up, he jumps at the job prospect. Montes sticks his face halfway into the window. "Tiene trabajo?" he asks hopefully. The man shakes his head. No work.
The pattern repeats itself all morning. A handful of contractors stop and pick up men. Those who are the fastest, most "prepared, strongest and who speak a little English" are noticed first, says Raoul Martinez, a laborer from Mexico. Workers pile into a van with offers of work but no guarantees. Other contractors drive by to look over the men and tell them they might need help tomorrow. Or maybe the next day.
On days like this, when he can't find work, "I feel depressed," Montes concedes, adjusting his baseball cap lower to shield the sun, which blazes as fiercely as it does in Chinandega. "But I'm a very strong man, and I keep it inside. We knew when we came to the United States, we were going to suffer like this. This is life."
Day laborers, when idle, share stories about how they were paid less than promised, or not at all. They note that they're trying to rebuild a city that welcomed them when the most dangerous work needed to be done, only to rebuff them as the pace of rebuilding stops and starts. "A very legitimate perception," says Anita Sinha, a staff attorney at the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization in Washington, D.C. "What's actually gotten worse, perhaps, is the attitude toward these immigrant workers."
A rising number of Hispanic workers have contacted the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice in recent months to report abuses by contractors, or harassment by immigration agents or police, says Saket Soni of the center.
Hispanic workers in New Orleans who responded to last year's Tulane-UC Berkeley study said they also had trouble recovering wages and coping with dangerous working conditions.
The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance says it's helped recover more than $1 million in back pay for workers, mostly Hispanic, since Katrina. Illegal workers were more likely to say they have been mistreated on the job, the UC Berkeley-Tulane study found.
Even Hispanics who came here legally, on guest worker visas, say their situation has been far from ideal. One hotel chain, Decatur Hotels, faces a lawsuit from Hispanic workers who say they faced unacceptable working conditions after being brought from Latin America by a recruiter working on behalf of Decatur Hotels.
Daniel Castellanos, of Lima, Peru, says he answered a recruiter's ad in November 2005 promising $10 an hour with "good housing" "” "in a luxury hotel in New Orleans."
Castellanos says he used most of his savings and mortgaged his house to pay $4,500 in recruitment fees and travel expenses to work for Decatur. But he says he wasn't reimbursed for his expenses and faced poor living and working conditions in New Orleans. Castellanos and others have sued the hotel chain.
Patrick Quinn, head of Decatur, disputes the claims, saying, "The working conditions were American hotel working conditions." Quinn says he thinks the workers' objections coincided with a business slowdown in 2006, when the hotel couldn't give many of them a full 40-hour week. "Our motive was good: to find people who wanted to come here and work," he says.
Fading prospects
Montes says he's seen friends hauled off to jail for minor infractions, such as standing on private property, or deported for major ones, such as lacking permission to work in the USA.
Today, police cars cruise by the site outside Home Depot nearly every hour. Most of the men shrink away, walking in the opposite direction. One police car stops. "Go home," an officer says.
The men chat. Does the officer mean go home for the day or to their own country? Montes mutters, "No more here," and walks away. He'll try his luck outside Lowe's, a few miles away.
It's 11 a.m., and Montes' prospects of working today are fading. By midafternoon, workers will call it a day if they haven't found work.
Hispanic laborers who stay in the region see blocks of wrecked homes that seem to promise a livelihood in rebuilding for years to come.
But state Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., says illegal workers should go home. The city, he says, "is happy to have anyone who comes here legally to rebuild. But it becomes a problem when someone is illegal. If someone is breaking the law to come here, then there's a higher chance they're breaking other laws while they're here."
When he doesn't find work, Montes tells himself he'll return to Nicaragua in the fall. On other days, when he has a job, he's certain he'll stay a few more years. Today, he didn't find work. He hopes his luck will change. He knows it could be worse. "I don't have money," he says. "But, thanks to God, I have good health."
By Leslie Berestein UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER August 22, 2007
SAN DIEGO – An online competition by a San Diego marketing company, with the goal of gathering young people's views on immigration for a political think tank, has wound up engendering lively debate among participants around the country.
Brickfish is a University Towne Centre-based company that uses online competitions as a marketing tool for clients, with respondents producing original work in exchange for prizes. Competitions can range from designing lingerie to writing a slogan for a perfume ad.
In this case, the competition is titled "Design Your Portion of the Border Fence," a sort of online focus group in which respondents are asked to come up with a virtual mural expressing their views on border enforcement and illegal immigration.
As might be expected, the entries – the majority from participants younger than 30 – have ranged from idealistic ("True Freedom Means a World Without Walls") to hostile ("I Want You OUT of This Country, Illegal!").
Others offer more sedate advice to would-be border crossers, such as a 14-year-old's mural designed for the Mexican side that reads, "The Grass Isn't That Much Greener Here . . . Really."
The company is doing the project for free for the Reform Institute, an Alexandria, Va., nonprofit think tank with ties to Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., who is running for president.
Executive Director Cecilia Martinez would not specify how the information gathered will be used.
"I'm not trying to be evasive, but that is to be determined," she said. "We are at a point right now, as proponents of comprehensive immigration reform, where we are trying to figure out what's next."
Martinez said that "there is no relationship between this campaign and that campaign," referring to McCain's presidential bid, and said the senator is no longer on the board.
McCain served as advisory committee co-chairman for the Reform Institute, whose primary mission is overhauling campaign finance laws. It was previously headed by his campaign manager.
The institute continues to support McCain's policies, including immigration legislation that has cost him some Republican support.
The Reform Institute will choose the winners of the border fence competition. In addition to small cash scholarships, the institute is offering a paid freelance job to whoever has the "most passionate stance."
Shahi Ghanem, CEO of Brickfish, said the company took on the project pro bono not because it supports any particular political cause, but because it's the company's first political marketing campaign. The company, founded in late 2005, has done similar free trials for clients, he said.
Ghanem said he is surprised at how much traffic the border fence campaign has generated since it began Aug. 1. "This is one of our fastest-growing campaigns we have ever had," Ghanem said.
Another Brickfish political campaign, paid for by what the company only identifies as an anonymous war veteran, encourages participants to submit "war songs."
As of yesterday the border fence contest, which ends Sept. 12, had generated close to 240,000 views and more than 680 entries. Designs are voted on and reviewed, generating a lively back-and-forth for each entry.
Beneath one entry titled "Berlin Again," participants sounded off.
"History shows that walls don't work – even the Great Wall of China didn't keep the Mongols out," wrote Jericha, 19.
Kyle, 27, didn't like it. "This isn't something that was divided as a spoil of war; this is a country where people are paying the bills of others," he wrote. "We are providing all sorts of services (to people) that are not contributing to the system."
Perhaps it's a good thing that the virtual murals were never intended to go on an actual fence: President Bush signed a bill last year calling for 700 miles of additional border fencing, but it has yet to be fully funded.
Description: A law enacted by Congress last year authorizes 700 miles of fencing along the U.S./Mexico border. Construction of the fence is in its early stages.
If there has to be a fence built along the border, shouldn't it at least be pretty? This is an opportunity to express the message you feel the fence conveys about the U.S. Decide which side of the border fence you're painting and go to town! Maybe it'll be a welcoming mural or a warning to all not to cross, it's up to you!
Download the border fence template below or create your own "fence" canvas. Be creative and think big!
Rewards: Grand Prize: One winner, chosen by The Reform Institute art jury, will receive a $1000 scholarship to the school of "life."
Passion Prize: One winner, chosen by The Reform Institute panel, whose entry takes the most passionate stance will be offered a "paid freelance" opportunity with The Reform Institute from Oct. to Dec. for up to $500/month. See rules for complete details.
Best American Side: One entry representing the American side, chosen by highest score, will receive a $500 scholarship.
Best Mexican Side: One entry representing the Mexican side, chosen by highest score, will receive a $500 scholarship.
Visit The Reform Institute Duration: August 1, 2007 12:00 AM (PST) - September 12, 2007 11:30 PM (PST) How to Submit: Create your own fence or use the provided template (download below). Click the Submit Entry tab and follow the steps provided.
Tell friends to come to Brickfish and vote for your entry!
Requirements: Your art should demonstrate your position on the border fence or immigration reform to have the best chance to win. Include a description stating your position in case it is unclear from your art. You are encouraged to create your own interpretation of the fence or use the provided template below. Legal Notice: No purchase necessary. Open to anyone who has access to the Internet, and is 14 or older at the time of entry. Click here to view the complete campaign rules and regulations. Campaign ends on September 12, 2007.
Total Activity: 292,213 Entries: 841 Reviews: 6,305 Votes: 7,562 Views: 277,507 Time Left: 18 days, 16:27:41
Today's Stats: Top Score: Kristin Top Reviewer: Sa****o Top Voter: Renatta Top Viewer: Alberto
Recent Entries:
Campaign Highlights: La Campaña en Español.
Your art should demonstrate your position on the border fence or immigration reform to have the best chance to win. Include a description stating your position in case it is unclear from your art. You are encouraged to create your own interpretation of the fence or use the provided template below.
Some of The Reform Institute's agendas include promoting open and fair elections, climate stewardship and encouraging political discourse that rises above blatant partisanship. The Reform Institute supports comprehensive immigration reform that finds a balance between border security while upholding the status of the U.S. as the "land of opportunity." Get involved!
Parte de las agendas del instituto de la reforma incluyen promover elecciones abiertas y justas, la administración del clima y el discurso polÃtico que sobrepasa el partidismo. El instituto de la reforma sostiene una reforma completa de la inmigración que encuentra un balance entre la seguridad fronteriza mientras se mantenga las posicion the los Estados Unidos come "el pais de la oportunidad." ¡Participe!
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