Thread: 154 Suspected Illegal Immigrants In Cincinnati Arrested

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2006/local/07/14/ice.html

Suspected Illegal Immigrants In Cincinnati Arrested During Statewide Raid


Reported by: Shannon Kettler
Web produced by: Mark Sickmiller
Photographed by: 9News
First posted: 7/14/2006 5:56:53 PM
Federal agents have rounded up illegal immigrants in Greater Cincinnati in a first of its kind raid.

The new operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is called "Return to Sender." 9News was given access for part of the sweep.

ICE agents spent this last week in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. In all, 154 arrests were made. Twenty of those were in Cincinnati.

The agents' focus was on fugitives or immigrants already ordered by a judge to leave the country.

At an apartment on Anthony Wayne in Carthage, agents were searching for an illegal from West Africa.

"We located him in the apartment we thought he had lived in. We also located was another subject or fugitive that was also wanted by the Department of Homeland Security," said Ryan Morris, ICE Agent.

The two were taken into custody. Eighteen more arrests would follow in Greater Cincinnati. Similar raids also took place this week in Cleveland and Columbus.

"This is the first time anything like this has been done in Ohio," said Rob Baker of ICE.

He's the field office director for ICE's detention and removal operations for Ohio and Michigan.

"In this operation it was 154 people from 30 different countries. We're not focusing on any particular group. If you are in the country and in violation of our laws it doesn't matter where your from we are going to get you," said Baker.

Agents also came across other illegal immigrants not on their list, like one woman in Forest Park. She and the others will go before a judge. The fugitives in custody have or will be put on a plane.

"Almost half of the people we apprehended are already out of the United States. They were taken out on an aircraft within two days of them being apprehended," said Baker.

"This is just the first of many operations. There will me more in the future," he added.

ICE now has a plan in the works to have a fugitive operations team dedicated to finding fugitives in Ohio.

Their office will be based in Cleveland and should be up and running by September.

"This is the first time anything like this has been done in Ohio," said Rob Baker of ICE.

He's the field office director for ICE's detention and removal operations for Ohio and Michigan.

It's OK Rob we've only had the law since 1986 and there're fifty states. You'll get there by about 2086.

"In this operation it was 154 people from 30 different countries. We're not focusing on any particular group. If you are in the country and in violation of our laws it doesn't matter where your from we are going to get you," said Baker.

Liar, liar, liar, pants on fire! ICE even admitted they were only targeting what they consider fugitives. Sure, if they run into another one or two illegals here and there they might or might not send them before the judge. That shouldn't be necessary in the first place. If they're illegal, they should be deported immediately. My question to ICE and the Bush administration is, WHEN ARE YOU GOING AFTER THE OTHER 10 MILLION ILLEGALS? Keep your word ICE, you said, "If you are in the country and in violation of our laws it doesn't matter where your from we are going to get you". There are plenty of those in violation of our immigration laws. How about meaning what you say and saying what you mean!

I think the federal government has this whole thing wrong. They should be pursuing those that have been in violation of our immigration laws the longest first. If they've lived here 10, 15, even 20 years - they should be lined right up with the so-called fugitives, because they have been long time criminals that have evaded the law for years. Heck, I don't care if you have a home (financed by Bank of America), Lexus (financed through Wells Fargo), and 2 kids going to Notre Dame (financed by U.S citizens taxpayers), if you're illegal, you're illegal and should be deported.

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php? ... E1-01.html

Ohio sweep nets 154
Federal authorities track down immigrants from 30 countries living illegally in the state
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Kevin Mayhood
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Homeland Security agents took to Ohio streets the past week, arresting 154 undocumented immigrants.

The agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Detroit came heavily armed and loaded with files and warrants for deportation.

They took in immigrants from 30 countries and every continent save Antarctica. Among those arrested, 82 were from Mexico, followed by 19 from El Salvador and seven from Mauritania.

The men and women had been caught entering the country illegally and were ordered to court but never showed or had been ordered deported but never left, authorities said. Twenty had been charged with crimes. One was a reputed member of the Mexican street gang MS13.

No recent event spurred the sweep, government officials said.

"Sept. 11 showed us that, to have security, we have to have an immigration system with integrity," said Marc A. Raimondi, national spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Most of the Sept. 11 terrorists had taken advantage of lax enforcement, he said.

"You can’t have integrity if there is no consequence for abusing the laws or ignoring a court order."

Among those taken were immigrants who had been in the U.S. for a decade or more. They must leave homes, jobs and maybe children born here who are U.S. citizens.

"If they had complied and left 10 or 15 years ago, that wouldn’t be the case," said Rob Baker, field office director in charge of detention and removal for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Ohio and Michigan.

He noted that, by the end of September, seven agents will be based permanently in Cleveland to cover such operations throughout Ohio.

James E. Brown Jr., a deportation officer for the Immigration Fugitives Operation Unit in Boston, said agents received leads from other law-enforcement agencies and by running database searches against immigration court files.

Once in Ohio, the agents tapped local police and sheriffs to help confirm identities and homes of the immigrants.

Agents looking for a Mexican man found he had a barbershop in his basement. There they arrested several waiting men who had no proper documents. More came through the door, were questioned and taken in as well.

The agents can check names against an immigration database that lists who is in the country legally, who has overstayed a visa and more, Baker said.

In all, the agents arrested 68 they’d sought and 86 they came across.

The arrested were taken to the Seneca County jail; 72 Mexicans have already been flown home. Agents escorted them and handed them over to authorities in their homelands.

The agents were within their legal rights, said Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and a founder of the Network of Immigrant Organizations in Ohio. "People who enter the country illegally have committed a misdemeanor.

"The effectiveness of how we use the resources of this country is another matter."

A policy that would allow those seeking work to register and obtain a permit and the ability to travel would go a long way toward solving the perceived immigration problem, he said.

The vast majority of those who come here would register, allowing the border patrols and inland agents to concentrate on criminals, Velasquez said.

The government and immigrant study centers estimate that 9 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants are in the United States.

If the goal is to remove them all, "it will take some time," Raimondi said.

Velasquez said, "As many years it takes to find them all, more will come over the border."


kmayhood@dispatch.com