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.
Down syndrome?
I am a natural-born American citizen, and as far as I know, all of my ancestors for at least six generations were too - although there was one Cherokee whose citizenship status I'm not sure about. And I'm mostly lawful.
But the article said "All people in the United States legally must have the documentation with them at all times that permits them to be in the country". Taken literally, that would mean you and I would have to carry our "papers" everywhere. I didn't really believe that was the case, and I would oppose such a regulation.
Your papers, please - A Washington Times editorial.
...and on June 21, 2004, the USSC ruled against Dudley Hiibel.
As would I.
Take care,
L
They often don't, one for being illegal makes it hard to get married, second because they often have a first wife/children in another country.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision said - "As we understand it, the statute does not require a suspect to give the officer a driver's license or any other document. Provided that the suspect either states his name or communicates it to the officer by other means--a choice, we assume, that the suspect may make--the statute is satisfied and no violation occurs."
So neither the Nevada statue, nor the Hiibel decision, seem to be a case about "papers" per se. My impression is that the decision was primarily about States Rights, and it should not be mistaken for a non-existent federal requirement to carry and produce identification documents at all times. If Hiibell had simply stated his name accurately to the police officer who was conducting an investigation, that would have been a reasonable conclusion to the matter.
Ping!
Heaven forbid that we require someone to be here legally! /sar
That is a "spot on" commentary.
Hats off to you.
You forgot your right to privacy....after some illegal steals your ID.
ping
I keep telling people that it's time to start playing cowboys and Mexicans. It's time to take off the kid gloves and start deporting every illegal that can be found.
"He's exasperated,"
too bad.
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