do you not pick up loose change from the ground or do you wait for twenty dollar bills to come along???
Posted on 02/03/2007 7:46:05 PM PST by NormsRevenge
POMONA - The recent roundup of 338 illegal immigrants across Southern California targeted those who had ignored deportation orders, criminals, fugitives and others. But out of those arrests, about half - 159 - involved random people who officials came across and found to be in the country illegally but without any other criminal record, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It appears Pomona resident Joel Baltazar Reyes, 27, was among those people randomly stopped by immigration officials.
Maria Morales said the father of her two younger daughters left home the morning of Jan. 20 and never returned.
The native of the Mexican state of Veracruz, who was in the United States illegally, was able to call Morales the next day from Tijuana after being deported.
He told Morales he was walking near Holt Avenue and Reservoir Street when a car pulled up by him.
The people inside the car then asked him if he had immigration documents, Morales said.
When he said no, Baltazar Reyes was arrested.
"They came up to him in a normal- looking car, but he never imagined it was immigration," she said in Spanish.
Baltazar Reyes calls Morales periodically.
"He's exasperated," Morales said. "He calls and asks about our daughter."
Morales has three daughters. The youngest is 9 months old and has Down syndrome.
Baltazar Reyes is the breadwinner for the family, and Morales is worried about making the rent payment and putting food on the table.
Morales said Baltazar Reyes hasn't had problems with the law of any type or with immigration authorities.
Kice said that in the course of looking for specific people "it's not uncommon to find other immigration law violators."
When that happens, it is the duty of immigration officials to arrest the individuals, Kice said.
Pomona Mayor Norma Torres said city staff has gathered information involving the arrests of four other men near the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, also known as the Pomona Day Labor Center, on West Mission Boulevard. That data has been referred to federal officials.
Late last week Torres met with representatives of several immigrant-rights groups concerned about the ICE activities. She said she will help arrange a meeting with ICE officials and asked the representatives to provide questions and concerns they have so she can present them to federal officials.
"I would rather give it to them up front so they can come prepared to answer the questions," Torres said.
Jose Calderon, president of the Latino/Latina Roundtable of San Gabriel and Pomona Valley, said he and representatives of other organizations, including the Latino Student Union of the Claremont Colleges and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, are also working to arrange a meeting with ICE representatives within the next week.
The purpose of the meeting would be to create an avenue for communicating with ICE officials and "stopping what we consider raids," Calderon said.
It's when immigration officials make random arrests that chances increase of civil-rights violations, he said.
When officials begin to arrest people who aren't fugitives and for whom they don't have warrants, those operations take on a new dimension, Calderon said.
"They should call it what it is - raids," he said.
Kice said before immigration agents go out to make arrests, they've completed research on the persons they will arrest to carry out the arrest in a safe and effective manner.
When agents approach a person for whom they don't have a warrant, they do so because they have probable cause, she said.
"Our officers are trained," she said. "They have to have articulable facts that they must present."
The facts vary with each case, Kice said, but "it could be any one of different things."
All people in the United States legally must have the documentation with them at all times that permits them to be in the country, she said.
If someone can't produce documents, agents will take the person to immigration offices where immigration records will be looked up, she said. If someone is found to be in the country illegally, an arrest will be made.
If American citizens are detained, they'll be questioned to determine if they are in fact citizens, she said.
In the weeklong mid-January ICE operation, 761 foreign nationals were taken into custody. Many have already been deported. In addition to the 338 arrested at large in Southern California, another 423 were arrested in county jails throughout the region.
Which way do they want it....random or profiling?
I'm not aware of any law that requires me to carry such documentation with me at all times.
That's how its supposed to work; you're here illegally, you get arrested and ultimately you get to return to where you shouldn't have come from in the first place. It happens to Europeans as well when they break our laws.
Related article:
Feds posting more immigration officers at local jails to catch illegal immigrants
Sweeps of jails over the past seven months by ICE agents have netted more than 5,500 people nationwide, and a new system designed to track federal inmates has flagged about 6,000 people at 119 prisons, the agency said.
Great news.
Damned if we do and damned if we dont. I feel for the children and families but you must respect the law. The rest of us do.
Has this costly chaos been the semi-official policy of our government for the last 25 years? I think at this point, it is fair to ask, "Is THIS the way our politicians in fact WANT it?????WHY couldn't a policy be put in place, say, in 1980-81 so that a few years later President Reagan didn't have to throw up his hands and declare AMNESTY??
Here we are 25 years and maybe 25-30 MILLION new citizens
(illegal, for the most part)later, still talking about working about a comprehensive "plan". And meanwhile Mexico , which has less and less people to worry about within its own borders owing to the crafty immigration plan they themselves facilitate , rakes in billions in remittances from money earned in the US. ALL of these stories SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF OUR OWN POLITICIANS WOULD EVER HAVE DECIDED TO DO WHAT SHOULD BE DONE!
We read stories like this and THERE IS NO GOOD SOLUTION: we are forced into ONLY BAD AND WORSE "SOLUTIONS".
It applies to foreign nationals on a visa, not U.S. citizens. It's been that way since time immemorial...
do you not pick up loose change from the ground or do you wait for twenty dollar bills to come along???
Thios stuff ain't 'zactly rocket science in San Diego ~
Exactly, my wife is precisely the reason I don't do the bone headed things i did when i was a single man. I imagine those of you with kids would agree.
Having a family to support is the reason not to commit a crime in a foreign country, not the reason to get away with it.
Well I guess he wouldn't. Not if he's never been caught before.
Deport EVERYONE who is in the U.S. illegally, THAT is all the criminal activity that should be required!
Wife doesn't like it?
Join him in Mexico, and take the brats with you, or put them up for adoption.
I have ZERO sympathy for these damn invaders.
Yes, because as we all know, being in the country illegally, isn't really a crime....
Probably because he has been doing his best to avoid immigration officials and their bothersome laws. He's an illegal.
Yep, and when they make targeted arrests, they're profiling.
Don't I have a civil right for ER treatment when I have health insurance deducted from my paycheck and pay taxes to support these services? Not if the ERs are closed due to being swamped by illegals who can't or won't pay what I am expected to pay for at least thrice (through taxes, insurance and service charges).
Don't I have a civil right not to have my vote diluted or cancelled by illegal aliens posing as citizens?
Don't I have a right to ensure my taxes for social services benefit fellow citizens who pay into these costs rather than illegal invaders who simply consume them?
Doesn't my country have a right to choose who it will accept as citzens and define the proper pathway thereto rather than to be forced and intimidated into favoring certain groups who came here illegally in large enough numbers to have their own lobby to dilute the value of American Citizenship of all those who aspire to get it the legal way?
"and found to be in the country illegally "
I was in Viet Nam during the conflict. Some people in major cities would wheel up a baby carriage with a baby inside. There was also a bomb inside (that was illegal). Taking a baby for a stroll was great, trying to kill or debilitate other people was not ok.
This article is attempting to advance excuses for the people seeking illegal entry into this Greatest Country on God's Green Earth (Thanks Michael).
"Wife doesn't like it?"
I don't think they were married. They don't have the same last names.
Those here on visas must have documentation of that with them at all times. That is the law.
L
He is/was here illegally....that's a problem. Immigration into this country, without following procedure, is illegal....he broke the law the moment he set foot on this country.
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