Thread: CO: Immigration raid nets 34 throughout valley, causes panic

http://www.aspendailynews.com/article_15893

Immigration raid nets 34 throughout valley
David Frey - Aspen Daily News Correspondent
Tue 09/12/2006 08:01PM

Raids cause 'panic throughout the valley'

Immigration officers seized some 34 suspected illegal immigrants in a two-day raid throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.

Observers called it the largest roundup of immigrants in the valley since major workplace arrests a decade ago carried away workers by the busload.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers hauled people away in handcuffs from homes and businesses from Aspen to Rifle in an operation targeted at immigrants who had stayed in the country despite orders by an immigration judge to leave.

The arrests were part of Operation Return to Sender, a nationwide initiative that began in June, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok. The June crackdown rounded up some 2,100 illegal workers, Rusnok said, and since then, thousands more have been deported from across the country.

The arrests on Monday and Tuesday targeted workers from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras, taking suspects from their homes and from businesses, including the Aspen City Market, where one was taken into custody, a Carbondale apartment complex where six were taken and a glass repair shop in Rifle where two were seized.

Some of those arrested were put in custody at Garfield County Jail before they could be taken to a Denver detention facility.

Although the raid was targeted at illegal immigrants with warrants, some others were also taken away when they couldn't produce valid papers, said Aspen Police Department Latino-Anglo Liaison Marie Munday. One woman without a warrant who was arrested on Monday was on a plane bound for Mexico on Tuesday, she said.

"She was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Munday said.

In another case, a woman was sent to jail with her children left at home, leaving the babysitter to visit her in jail asking what to do with the children, Munday said.

Fear of deportation caused many to hole up at home after rumors of the operation swept through the immigrant community, Munday said.

"There is panic throughout the valley," she said. "A lot of people didn't go to work today."

The operation was carried out by a regional fugitive-operations team dedicated to finding and arresting "absconders," immigrants who have refused orders to leave, Rusnok said. The current action is over, he said, but others could come later.

"The fugitive operations program operates on a daily basis," he said.

Munday said officers came with a list of some 200 suspects with warrants.

"I've been working with immigrants for 11 years and this is probably the most impactful bunch of arrests that I've seen," she said, "just because of the people that didn't have arrest warrants being scooped up as well. That's not what they used to do, but the policy has changed."

Witnesses reported seeing immigrants taken into custody at homes and businesses throughout the valley.

Hotel Jerome Human Resources Director Ann Fitzgerald said officers came to the luxury hotel on Monday looking for an ex-employee who had left in June after three months working in the kitchen.

"They had a flier and it had a picture of the person and below it said 'most wanted.' I didn't see what criminal activity (he was suspected of)," she said.

Fitzgerald said the hotel had not had any problems with the worker.

The valleywide roundup was reminiscent of workplace roundups a decade ago, she said.

"The old operations, they'd show up at a hotel and take a busload of 10 or 20 people out," said Fitzgerald, who worked in Phoenix at the time. "That was over 10 years ago. I just haven't seen any activity of anything like this for a long, long time."

At Western Valley Glass in Rifle, owner Mike Banks said he stepped into his office on Monday morning to use the phone and came out moments later to find six officers in his shop and two of his employees in handcuffs.

"All hell had broken loose," he said.

One of the workers had been a four-year employee with the company who Banks said he had believed was in the country legally because he had talked of making trips to immigration officials to get his paperwork in order.

"At least that's what he said," Banks said.

Two other foreign-born employees weren't taken into custody, he said. The officers left in a van and two SUVs.

"I don't understand," said Banks, who said he, like other employers in the valley and across the country, depend on immigrant workers. "They're working people. They're looking for a better life. I wish there was a way we could fix this immigration thing, because we're a country of immigrants."

Word of the roundup swept through the valley's Latino community.

"A lot of mothers didn't take their children to school out of fear of this," said Pedro Damaso, co-owner of Carbondale's Teresa's Market, where he said employees and customers shared stories of arrests they had seen and heard about. "A lot of guys didn't go to work, either."

In one case, he said, an individual was taken from his El Jebel home at 5 a.m. on Monday. Six others were arrested in a Carbondale apartment complex 1 1/2 hours later.

"A couple of my clients called and said, 'If we get into trouble, do you know a really good attorney?'" said Joan Baldwin, of Rio Vista Services, in Glenwood.

John Van Benthuysen, of the Labor Source temporary worker agency, said many Latinos stayed away from job sites on Tuesday.

"Legal or not," he said. "A lot of these guys, they don't want to be harassed, even if they're legal. They speak Spanish, they're gonna get grilled, or they're afraid they'll get grilled."

dfrey@aspendailynews.com

It's nice to see that they are doing something, but the employers get a pass until next year. They are almost certain that these people are illegal, but use the excuse that they didn't know. Get the employers too!

So if an employer has a bunch of employees that don't show up for work during the crackdown, does that mean when they come back they'll check to see if they're legal? I doubt it.

As far as those fearful of being rounded up for being here illegally, I say good. If you break the law you should be afraid, no more of this free pass crap. Keep the pressure on and maybe these illegals will get a clue and go home on their own.

Of course the pro-illegal groups will scream bloody genocide and racial profiling, but screw em', if you come here illegally, you get the boot, as soon as possible, then we wouldn't have this 'but you can't deport me, I have 17 U.S. born children, you can't split up our family'.

Legal immigrants and temporary visitors should be able to produce valid documentation in short order. Have that and you're good to go; our apologies for the inconvenience and embarassment, we'll trouble you no more.

Have it not and be unable to speak our language with some reasonable facsimile of fluency; you're gone. Give us your address and we'll happily sent your children after you. Return and you'll win an exciting lifelong scientific expedition exploring lunar geology.

'Tis good that the illegals fear the wrath of the American people. The more they fear, the less inclined they'll be to stay past their welcome.

Which has long since expired.

"I don't understand," said Banks, who said he, like other employers in the valley and across the country, depend on immigrant workers. "They're working people. They're looking for a better life. I wish there was a way we could fix this immigration thing, because we're a country of immigrants"

Guess that translates to: Let them stay so I don't have to hire an American and pay a living wage,

No health care, 401K match, workmans comp insurance, overtime,
sick days, vacation time or most protections provided under law.

I just love to see the word, "panic"!