Posted on 05/05/2003 11:18:08 AM PDT by Tancredo Fan
Deportation on the rise in central Ohio
Minor traffic violations earn illegal immigrants a quick ticket home
By Lornet Turnbull
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
May 5, 2003
For two days, Fabian's family heard nothing from him. He didn't show up at his construction job in Licking County one morning in February, and he didn't return home that night. "We realized something was wrong,'' said his sister Laura.
By the time he called his family from the Licking County jail, the undocumented Mexican immigrant had been charged with operating a vehicle without a driver's license, and immigration agents had been summoned.
Within a month, the 25-year-old was shipped back to Halisco, Mexico, leaving in Columbus a pregnant wife and baby boy.
"All he could talk about was his wife and baby and how sad and worried he was about having to leave them,'' Laura said, unwilling to give her full name for fear of reprisals. She spoke through an in terpreter.
Fabian had arrived in Columbus two years ago after hearing that jobs were plentiful, and he had been working construction in Licking County for the past 18 months. He and his wife had one child born here and a second on the way.
"He was the sole means of support for his family,'' Laura said
As the United States has strengthened enforcement of its immigration laws in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, people such as Fabian increasingly have been snagged in the net.
While illegal immigrants from largely Muslim countries have been the targets of the government's more aggressive deportation efforts, undocumented immigrants who overstay visas or who, like Fabian, sneaked into the country illegally also are being shipped home.
Nationwide, deportations through February were up 25 percent from the previous fiscal year.
In central Ohio, the enforcement is playing out not in Franklin County - where most of central Ohio's estimated 50,000 undocumented immigrants live - but in outlying counties such as Delaware and Licking, where many have found work.
The scenario often is the same: Illegal immigrants, who can't qualify for a state-issued driver's license but who must commute to jobs in construction and service, are stopped for violations ranging from broken taillights to drunken driving.
Questioned by police, most admit to being in the country illegally, and law-enforcement officials report them to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"From that point on, you try to expedite the processing (to deport them) because there's nothing you can do to stop it,'' said Joseph Mas, a Columbus immigration lawyer.
"Right now out of Licking County, among Hispanic clients, I'm seeing 100 percent deportation. In Delaware County, it's 80, 90 percent.''
Even if the stop is for a traffic violation, "the option of being given a ticket isn't being extended to these folks,'' he said.
Deputies say their routines have not changed.
"We've always called (immigration authorities),'' said Delaware County Chief Deputy Gil Borchers. "In the past, they've opted not to take any action. But there's been a definite change recently.''
Julia Arbini-Carbonell of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition said the surrounding counties are not as tolerant of the undocumented immigrant population as Franklin County has been.
"As a human being, I can't understand why law enforcement feels compelled to call immigration to pick up someone who's not done anything crimi nal,'' she said.
"I don't understand why they feel compelled to make this a deportation issue. It's a humanity issue to me.''
But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies - a Washington organization that favors immigration controls - said government officials should not selectively enforce laws.
"There's no way to have an immigration system that lets in the good, law-abiding Mexican dishwasher but keeps out the bad al-Qaida terrorist,'' he said.
Under its new configuration, the U.S. immigration bureau has "dedicated resources to remove individuals that have no legal status here,'' said bureau spokesman Greg Palmore.
Though agents previously focused on illegal immigrants who committed crimes, "we now have a dedicated goal of removing those who don't have the right to be in the country.''
Latin Americans, Russians, Africans - no group is being spared. Attorneys say they often receive calls from desperate family members who have gone days without hearing from a brother, a husband, a friend.
The practice of whisking away illegal immigrants to await deportation in a jail cell has so angered local immigration advocates that they are calling for a boycott of merchants - many of whom rely heavily on immigrants to fill jobs in outlying counties - as a way of pressuring law enforcement to back off.
"Ultimately, the impact is that we'll see fewer Hispanics moving to the area and fewer sources of labor,'' Mas said.
Krikorian is appalled that attorneys would pressure law enforcement to ignore the law.
"Illegal aliens are here in violation of the law,'' he said. "It has to be enforced.''
While she's unsure what effect a boycott might have, Ohio State University economics professor Lucia Dunn said it's clear the illegal immigrant population plays a significant role in this region's labor market.
"Their contribution to our economy in a way is underappreciated,'' Dunn said. "They take jobs that are difficult to fill with U.S. citizens. The restaurant industry would probably collapse without them.''
Lawyer Dennis E. Muchnicki preaches caution to his clients.
"I tell them you can't make a mistake out there. Make sure your car is in perfect working order. If you're going to stop, make sure you come to a complete stop. Use your signals. And if you go out and get drunk, you're finished.''
The immigration service pays $55 a day to Seneca County in northern Ohio to house each detainee in the Tiffin jail. The jail averages about 30 detainees a day.
The jail in Butler County, along the Indiana border in southwestern Ohio, has a cap of 25 detainees and has been averaging 20 to 25 daily since the contract started in November.
"We've had people in here from as many as 29 different countries,'' Seneca County Sheriff Tom Steyer said.
Though many are immigrants awaiting deportation after serving prison sentences, others are on a fast track out of the country.
"A lot of the Mexicans they pick up in Columbus . . . are in and out pretty quickly,'' he said.
Most illegal Mexicans, for example, spend less than a week in the jail before being driven to Detroit on Tuesdays, then flown to Brownsville, Texas, for a walk across the Mexican border.
Despite the sometimes-short stays in his jail, Steyer gets to know many of the detainees.
He recalled one recently who waved goodbye as he left and said: "I'll see you next year.''
lturnbull@dispatch . com
Quatro cinco.
This is better than giving out driver's licenses. You can bet they'll drive carefully now.
The gist of the article is that being a Mexican illegal alien is OK, being a Muslim illegal alien is bad (e.g., Mexicans are innocently "snagged in the net" rather than being captured, hook line and sinker).
Also, it appears that everyone else in the story is also illegal: wife, sister, everyone. Amusing that they're "afraid of reprisals," in other words capture as criminals under United States immigration law.
'As a human being, I can't understand why law enforcement feels compelled to call immigration to pick up someone who's not done anything criminal,' she said."
So coming into this country ILLEGALLY, and taking a job ILLEGALLY, and driving on our streets without a drivers license ILLEGALLY, and taking his wife and kids to the hospital so that us stupid taxpayers can give them free care, nope, no problem here.
I'll tell you what, Ms. Julia Arbini-Carbonell, why don't you go to ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD and try doing there what you do to us here. And when they have gotten done with you, you can come back here and tell us all how bad we are.
People like this are the reason why I've given up on working to get ahead. Screw it. It just doesn't pay to try to get ahead in America anymore unless you are here illegally. Since I don't pay taxes any longer I don't have to worry about my money being used to subsudize illegals, and boy does that feel good!
Not a chance. California has reached the tipping point where Latino political clout has enacted policies of law enforcement being directed to never contact the INS when they nab an illegal. They use the excuse about it not being their job to enforce federal laws, but try killing an endangered species in front of a cop and see what happens.
I call bullsh!t. Sure, maybe the price of washing dishes would rise, but it would be offset by the falling gasoline prices and falling tax burden.
Well then, as a humna being you are an idiot - the very fact that people who come here ILLEGALLY are in the country is in and of it self CRIMINAL... Hello? Anyone home????
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