Bill pushed to assist immigrants facing deportation

BOSTON -- Showing continued concern over a deportation program, advocates on Tuesday pressed their case to a legislative committee for a law limiting state and local law enforcement's cooperation with the program.

Gov. Deval Patrick resisted implementation of Secure Communities in Massachusetts, but his protestations did not stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement from commencing the program in May 2012, and Patrick said then that he would "uphold the law." There was lengthy debate over whether Massachusetts should join the program, but it has generated little debate on Beacon Hill since last May.

Activists and lawmakers are now seeking to change state law with legislation that would limit state enforcement of ICE detainers, provide attorney privileges to individuals before they are interviewed by ICE and require reimbursement for the expense of participation.

Gabriel Camacho, of the American Friends Service Committee, told the Joint Committee on the Judiciary the program is a "dragnet" that he alleged encourages "racial profiling" and sows distrust of local police in immigrant communities, hampering the chances for crime-solving..................................... About that hampering the chances for crime-solving. Two Colombian nationals face charges of sex trafficking and running a house of prostitution in Allston following a yearlong, ongoing investigation, authorities said.

A judge ordered Hector Gallego, 50, and Wider Gomez Agudelo, 41, held on $75,000 bail and on immigration detainers at their arraignments last week in Brighton District Court, said Renee Nadeau Algarin, spokeswoman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office.

Both men pleaded not guilty to charges of trafficking a person for sexual servitude, deriving support from prostitution, and keeping a house of prostitution, Algarin said by e-mail Wednesday.

“From what we’ve been able to determine about the operation thus far, it exploited numerous women, almost all of them immigrants,” Algarin said.

Further into story...investigators raided an apartment at 255 Cambridge St., where prosecutors said the prostitution operation was being run, said Algarin...Things that make you go hummmm..How many illegals knew about this and never reported it ? ?http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/07/10/two-colombian-nationals-charged-with-running-prostitution-house-allston/8LiqaPFVMYl3k0tnt5mkRL/story.html

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