Posted on 05/23/2009 6:01:24 PM PDT by South40
Parents of three high school students who say their children were deported to Mexico by immigration officials after they were detained at the Old Town Transit Station spoke out against authorities' tactics Friday.
The parents spoke at a news conference at the American Friends Service Committee office in the Stockton neighborhood. Along with Pedro Rios, director of the group's border program, they questioned whether authorities had followed proper procedure when they made the detentions Wednesday morning.
Rios said agents with the Transportation Security Administration and the Border Patrol questioned a 16-year-old girl and two boys, ages 15 and 17, about their residency status at the trolley station before taking them into custody and sending them to Mexico later that day.
Authorities said that they followed correct procedure and that the detentions are part of what their agencies are supposed to do.
Border Patrol Agent Jose Morales said the youths were taken to a station in San Ysidro after they admitted to being in the country illegally during questioning by federal agents at the trolley station.
Morales said the teens were allowed to speak with their parents and Mexican Consulate officials while being detained.
The Consulate arranged for the youths to be received by relatives or guardians in Tijuana. Alberto Diaz, a consulate spokesman, confirmed the removal of the youths and said none of them reported mistreatment by U.S. authorities.
The families of the teenagers and Rios, however, characterized the incident at the trolley station as a raid.
Rios said their concern is the speed and manner in which authorities removed the teens from the country. “It is an issue of accountability and oversight in the way the deportations took place,” he said.
The girl told Rios and her family that she was sitting at a bench at the trolley station about 6:30 a.m. waiting for a friend when agents surrounded her.
According to the girl, the agents also boarded the trolley cars and questioned passengers.
Twenty-one people, including the minors, were detained, according to Rios and Border Patrol officials.
Morales, the Border Patrol agent, said the Border Patrol agency assisted TSA in a standard operation. TSA agents, he said, are trained to look for suspicious behavior at mass-transit stations as part of their routine operations.
The agents have conducted such operations since 2005, Morales said.
Rios and the parents of the youths said such tactics can be characterized as racial profiling. Rios said agents directed themselves at “people who looked Latino and asked them for papers.”
Morales said Border Patrol agents conducted some of the interviews in which the people detained admitted to being illegally in the country. He said interviews are conducted based on a person's behavior, not their skin color.
The TSA did not return calls seeking comment. Rios said human rights activists are seeking information on how Wednesday's incident at the trolley station developed, but TSA officials have not returned his inquiries.
“We don't know the status of the others detained. We don't know if they were deported as well,” Rios said. Diaz said the Mexican Consulate is requesting the same information from U.S. authorities.
David J. Valladolid, president and chief executive officer of Parent Institute for Quality Education, sat next to the parents at the news conference and said such action by authorities is questionable because the people deported included minors who “are not required to carry documentation.”
Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said ICE agents were not involved
Aw cry me a river. Sounds like they were considerate of the youth’s needs on each side of the border. Case closed.
If folks don’t want to be subject to the law, then live within it.
Since they’re illegals, deport their a**es back to where they came from. We’re tired of the illegals getting a free ride. They should be in jail. Illegal means against the law.
The fact that ILLEGAL aliens can hold a news conference and not be rounded up and driven to the border speaks to just how twisted and ineffective our immigration laws have become.
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Wash DC.
Has he filed his I-9? Is that FOIA able?
Isn’t that the truth...
This is standard procedure in Great Britain where their immigration agents go to large train and bus stations and when they see someone who doesn't fit in-ask them for proof of residency. It's a very sucessful tactic and if it were done in places like NYC it would result a huge bag of illegals.
Just stealing an education no one else would steal. Send the flea bag parents down to stay with the kids.
This is one reason why California is going broke: Illegal Aliens attending schools and using resources.
Send the parents back too, if they have no papers.
It’s not racial profiling. It’s not “mean spirited.” It’s called “following the law.” The Illegal Aliens have no respect for the USofA because the USofA has no respect for its own laws.
Build The Fence . . . NOW.
they questioned whether authorities had followed proper procedure when they made the detentions Wednesday morning.
__________________________________________
I “question whether (the parents and their children) had followed proper procedure when they” entered the United States...
YEs, yes, yes. Right on.
Were they illegal?
They they should be thrown out... how about those parents?
That is a crappy piece of journalism. The reporter never once questioned how the parents — whom we have to assume are in our country illegally — could have had the unmitigated gall to convene a press conference along with the Quakers and complain about ANYTHING? The Border Patrol did its job, that is to round up people who are in the country illegally, and guide them back across the border. The good part: those kids were fingerprinted and photographed before they were send back to Mexico. If they find them in this country again, they will be in even more trouble. I only hope ICE is busy as we write tracking down the pinche parents and arranging for their transport home, too.
Mowing grass, I'm guessing...
WOW! They actually arrested illegals near the SD Trolley!
They could arrest and deport 10,000 illegals a day who ride it without even paying.
Yep...where is IKE when we reeeeeeeeeeely need him.
What I want to know is did Rios say this from our side of the river, and if so, why is he still here?
Screw these invading locusts, questioning how we apply OUR laws. GO HOME!
They did. And I am surprised. I have ridden the trolly at times and I'm sure have you. English is not the first language.
I've seen people (ILLEGALS) getting cited for not having a valid pass/ticket to ride but when they have no ID what are the chances they gave their real names?
As you know the Trolley ends 50 feet from the border in San Ysidro. It could be a handy deportation tool, instead of the Illegal Alien Express Ride North. (And for free too.)
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