And after the election next Tuesday I wonder how many will believe these sweeps will continue?!!!
Too little to late!
GOP in 2004 => Gullible Obstinate Panderers
Posted on 10/29/2004 8:50:23 AM PDT by iheartusa
Edited on 10/29/2004 10:19:12 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Immigration goal is to nab alien fugitives
But communities fear indiscriminate 'sweeps'
Friday, October 29, 2004
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Dirt-poor Mexican teen Rodrigo Perez Sanchez illegally crossed the border into the United States in 1971 in search of a good job and found his way to the Northwest.
Since then, he's worked hard, acquired a house and a few thousand dollars in savings. He's also acquired a long criminal rap sheet, including convictions for first-degree rape, felony assault and two instances of DUI.
That criminal history -- and three previous deportations -- made Perez Sanchez a target for investigators with Immigration and Customs Enforcement based in Seattle, who arrested him and 54 other illegal immigrants last month.
Since June, arrests of illegal immigrants such as Perez Sanchez around Washington have fueled rumors of wholesale dragnets in which ICE officers indiscriminately arrest any Latino lacking proper papers. But high-level ICE officials say they have neither the interest nor the resources to conduct "sweeps" targeting otherwise law-abiding, undocumented immigrants.
"We never, ever pull anyone over just because we think they might be illegal," said Blake Brown, supervisor of a six-person Detention and Removal squad that covers Washington, Oregon and Alaska. "Our interest is in arresting fugitives."
A review by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of arrests by this squad between June 1 and Oct. 26 does not support the contention that ICE has been conducting indiscriminate dragnets.
In that time period, the squad has arrested 94 people. Ninety-one of them were fugitives, defined as those who have failed to comply with a final order that they present themselves to be deported. Of the 91, 41 have criminal histories beyond immigration offenses, and 12 have been deported before. Three people without proper documentation that had neither a criminal history nor a fugitive warrant were arrested.
Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of ICE criminal investigations, also has responsibility for enforcing immigration laws. Winchell has fielded many calls generated by rumors of sweeps.
"They are rumors -- no substance to them," Winchell said.
And like his colleagues at ICE's Detention and Removal Operations, Winchell has to prioritize how his agents spend their time within their vast three-state turf.
Winchell's agents are responsible for seaport security, anti-terrorism operations, money laundering, child pornography, narcotics, commercial fraud and illegal exports. "I need to have my agents focus on those persons who pose a threat either to national security or to the community at large. Therefore, when my agents start arresting people (on immigration charges), their focus is on those people who have a criminal impact on the community."
But Magdaleno Rose-Avila, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, is not convinced by statements from ICE executives or the arrest statistics.
"As soon as we found out they were doing these sweeps, community groups raised their voices," said Rose-Avila. "Their statistics would have been very much different if we of the ICE Melt Coalition hadn't raised our voices. We were looking over their shoulder."
ICE Melt is an ad hoc coalition of community organizations that came together to speak out for the rights of immigrants in the face of what they characterized as "sweeps" by ICE officers. Its leader is Carlos Marentes of the Committee for General Amnesty and Social Justice.
Marentes says he is concerned about the fear the arrests have generated in the community. ICE officers "were going to apartment complexes, they were hanging out in shopping areas, even outside (English as second language) classes," Marentes said. "By doing these types of activities without any information at these types of locations, it was causing fear within the community."
When asked how immigration arrests can be conducted within a community that includes a large number of illegal immigrants without causing fear, Marentes said:
"There is no simple answer. We understand that they are doing their job. What we object to is their inability to communicate with the community that is impacted by their operations."
Marentes said ICE Melt suggested to ICE officials that they conduct a forum with the community, but did not get one.
"We declined to do a public forum," ICE spokesman Mike Milne said. "When you have community forums, the meetings generally are contentious and not a lot of good comes from them."
But Milne said ICE did agree to meet with community "and we gave them assurances that we weren't doing random, wholesale sweeps."
It was a targeted operation, based on investigative work, which led to the arrest in late September of convicted rapist Rodrigo Perez Sanchez on immigration charges.
In an interview at ICE's Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Perez Sanchez described how easy it has been for him to return to the United States despite being deported three times.
On one occasion, Perez Sanchez said, he "got drunk with a friend and was driving like this" and raised his hands aloft to demonstrate a weaving motion. "They stopped and arrested me and immigration showed up and deported me to Tijuana.
"I just came back right away. I just walked around the gates at night."
Perez Sanchez, now 54, said he had been back just two weeks when the same two immigration officers spotted him and deported him again to Tijuana.
"I waited exactly one week and then me and another guy walked three or four hours, climbed a fence" and took a bus back to the Northwest.
A few weeks ago, Perez Sanchez was on the job at a vitamin factory in Vancouver when a supervisor called him into the office.
Two immigration officers where there to arrest him. "I said: 'What are you doing? I don't even have a parking ticket.' "
But Perez Sanchez does have a conviction for felony assault as well as for first-degree rape of his 16-year-old stepdaughter.
Perez Sanchez said he was drinking one day while his stepdaughter was using marijuana when he had sex with her. He admitted "having sex with her just one more time and that's it."
When asked if the United States should allow someone with his criminal history to stay in the country, Perez Sanchez said: "A country is like a house. If you let bad people get into your house, you're going to corrupt your own people. I understand that."
But since Perez Sanchez got out of prison in 1995, "I don't even have a parking ticket. I've tried to fix myself. Why don't they give me a chance."
This time, it's not likely that Perez Sanchez will simply be deported again. Perez Sanchez was in U.S. District Court yesterday facing a felony charge of unlawful entry into the United States.
If convicted, he's looking at two years in federal prison followed by deportation to Mexico.
P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky can be reached at 206-448-8072 or paulshukovsky@seattlepi.com
"Immigration goal is to nab alien fugitives"
Please look into the red light.
everhearofparagraphsandspacesandpunctuation
ping (needs formatting)
Sorry guys, for overlooking punctuation. I get so enraged I forget myself.
On the other hand, the attendees at such fora make for great "persons of interest"...
In all seriousness, the ICE is doing exactly the proper thing here, just not enough of it. There is no program, as many FReepers want, to arrest all Latino-appearing people and deport them. They are seeking out those persons who have proven themselves to be trouble and who don't have the privilege to be in this country. Once they're taken care of...
Considering how out of hand the situation has become and the grave security danger illegal aliens pose for this country, there's nothing wrong with sweeps.
Most Americans are fed up with illegal immigration and want the sweeps to escalate. We're fed up that our own government refuses to effectively enforce existing immigration laws.
Agreed.
And after the election next Tuesday I wonder how many will believe these sweeps will continue?!!!
Too little to late!
GOP in 2004 => Gullible Obstinate Panderers
Let me guess: You have blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Hey, waitaminute, that sounds like an illegal immigrant from Sweden! Into the truck with you!
It is impossible to determine someone's immigration status (citizen, naturalized citizen, resident alien, some variety of visitor, or illegal) by just looking at them.
Is it your proposal that a person's mere appearance become probable cause for arrest by ICE?
Not true, such proposals have been made. That's exactly what America's legal Latinos reasonably fear. This is why the ICE is doing exactly the right thing - targeting their enforement activity on known illegals.
Let's take and arrest you based merely on appearance, then see how you feel about it.
Can I send you the bill for what it costs me here in California every year to support these leeches? I hope so, I don't want to pay it anymore, and there's millions more coming...
"Otherwise law-abiding" is a coded way for ICE officials to say that they are going to overlook the fact that a foreigner has entered the US illegally, is illegally working, is using fraudulent documents, is illegally driving, is illegally receiving welfare and food stamps, etc.
Actually we only want to deport foreigners who are in the US illegally, regardless of their ethnicity, race, or country of origin. We don't want to "arrest all Latino-appearing people and deport them."
Repatriate the SOB ... from 35,000 ft.
If they're legal they have nothing to worry about.
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