Thread: I.C.E. at checkpoints criticized (updated)

ICE at checkpoints criticized

Hispanic community, advocates question coordination by Jackson County Sheriff's Office

10:14 PM, May. 26, 2012
Written by Romando Dixson

TUCKASEGEE — The Hispanic community in Jackson County is frustrated and confused after the Sheriff’s Office requested the involvement of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a traffic checkpoint this month.

Community members and civil liberties advocates have questioned why the presence of ICE was needed at a seat belt checkpoint on May 16 in Tuckasegee that resulted in the arrest of 15 individuals. Some in the community have also complained about the Sheriff’s Office’s frequency of license checkpoints in other parts of the county.

Raul Pinto, racial justice attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, is concerned that checkpoints, especially those involving ICE, can lead to “rampant racial profiling,” of the Latino community.

“It begs the question why they have asked for the cooperation of ICE for a traffic safety checkpoint, which then seems to take the checkpoint from traffic safety to immigration enforcement, which is only allowed near an international border,” Pinto said. “As far as I know, Jackson County is not near a border.”

Vincent Picard, southern region communications director and spokesman for ICE, said the seat belt checkpoint in question is part of a statewide campaign under the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Initiative.

“While the principal purpose of these campaigns is to increase seat belt and child safety seat usage, it also often results in the identification of criminal violators,” he said. “As a law enforcement agency, ICE regularly works with our city, county and state partners in operations that enhance public safety.”

ICE identified 15 foreign-born individuals who did not possess proper immigration documents to be in the country legally, Picard said. The criminal convictions of the arrested persons ranged from multiple traffic violations and DUI offenses to domestic violence, ICE said. Authorities identified two people who had been previously deported from the U.S. and re-entered illegally, Picard said.

The 15 individuals were taken into ICE custody and transported to Charlotte. Picard said 12 of the 15 arrested were released under Orders of Recognizance or placed into the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program. The remaining three were booked into custody and detained by ICE.

On that same day, the Latino community complained of license checkpoints in Cashiers that led to arrests. Some of the people arrested May 16 have sought legal representation.

Marty Rosenbluth, a Durham-based attorney, is representing five of the arrested individuals. He said ICE’s involvement in the arrests does not fall in line with 2011 memorandums stating enforcement priorities and prosecutorial discretion.

“ICE has said consistently that their priority is apprehending and deporting dangerous criminals,” said Rosenbluth, who is also executive director of the N.C. Immigrant Rights Project. “So why are they participating in a road block which seems to have netted almost entirely people who were driving without a license?

“It’s difficult to stop local sheriffs from doing this type of thing, but ICE should know better.”

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Sheriff Jimmy Ashe or sheriff’s Major Shannon Queen. Picard, based in Atlanta, said ICE does not frequently get involved with seatbelt check points in North Carolina.

“I’ve been here for six months and I think that’s the only one I’m aware of,” he said.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois’ 4th District in Chicago, was in Charlotte on May 16 to attend the deportation hearing of Gabino Sanchez, a Ridgeland, S.C. man who has lived in the U.S since he was a young teenager. Sanchez’s only violations are driving without a license, Gutierrez said. While in Charlotte, Gutierrez heard about the Jackson County checkpoint controversy.

Gutierrez supports President Barack Obama’s decision a year ago to target deportation resources primarily at serious criminals and to de-emphasize the deportation of those with roots in the community and clean records.

“The president has stated his priority is to target serious criminals for deportation and to move away from raids and roundups,” Gutierrez said. “But from what I heard about what happened in Jackson County and the participation of ICE in a traffic enforcement action, that doesn’t sound consistent with the president’s policies.”

Eduardo Bernal, Hispanic coordinator for Smoky Mountain Vicariate, said people in the community would like to know the criteria for being arrested. He also said authorities checked the paperwork for everyone in the car, not just the driver.

“We’re just trying to let the community know we’re doing whatever we can to find out why this happened and try to go back to normal,” Bernal said. “People feel a little scared and are trying to go back to their routine and daily life of working and supporting their families.”

The National Immigrant Youth Alliance called the checkpoints, which resulted in arrests and tickets for not having driver’s licenses, “an aggressive and shameful attack on immigrant communities in North Carolina.” A woman who did not want to be identified said some people are just working to pay the tickets they receive for not having a driver’s license.

“There have been many checkpoints all over our community lately, especially where Latinos live,” she said. “Just now, I heard about two vans that pulled up at a gas station in Cashiers where day laborers who are seeking work are being asked for their IDs. Here, in my neighborhood, for example, the Sheriff’s Department sets license checkpoints right in the entrance, and then switches to the exit. There have been times when they set the checkpoints right in the middle of the road where I have to go pick up my son from school and I wasn't even able to do that because of them.”

ICE at checkpoints criticized | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com

“It begs the question why they have asked for the cooperation of ICE for a traffic safety checkpoint, which then seems to take the checkpoint from traffic safety to immigration enforcement, which is only allowed near an international border,” Pinto said. “As far as I know, Jackson County is not near a border.”

This idiot is actually saying that we can not enforce certain laws away from the border. What is next? We can't enforce laws against bank robbery more than 100 feet from a bank?

ADDED TO ALIPAC HOMEPAGE News with amended title ..

http://www.alipac.us/content/i-c-e-c...riticized-562/

ICE identified 15 foreign-born individuals who did not possess proper immigration documents to be in the country legally, Picard said. The criminal convictions of the arrested persons ranged from multiple traffic violations and DUI offenses to domestic violence, ICE said. Authorities identified two people who had been previously deported from the U.S. and re-entered illegally, Picard said.

This is not about race but the professional race industry wants it to be.

“The president has stated his priority is to target serious criminals for deportation and to move away from raids and roundups,” Gutierrez said. “But from what I heard about what happened in Jackson County and the participation of ICE in a traffic enforcement action, that doesn’t sound consistent with the president’s policies.”

Sorry Luis, he is President, not King.

Wednesday, 26 December 2012 14:21
Written by Caitlin Bowling
Smoky Mountain News

Federal authorities have dropped deportation proceedings against 10 Latino men, all suspected illegal immigrants, who were arrested at a Jackson County license checkpoint in May.

Immigration groups claim the roadside checkpoint by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office was an improper dragnet aimed at capturing undocumented immigrants. Legally, law enforcement can conduct roadside checkpoints, but only for limited purposes. This particular checkpoint was criticized as overreaching.

“Do they have the right to enforce traffic laws? Yes,” said Marty Rosenbluth, an immigration attorney representing 10 men arrested that day. “But, it shouldn’t be used as a pretext to put people into deportation proceedings.”

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office conducted the traffic checkpoint during morning commute hours May 16 between Cullowhee and Cashiers — a time and place when Latino workers are known to travel in large numbers up the mountain to Cashiers, where they pick up work as day laborers in the construction trade or service industry.

Fifteen people were detained, many for the minor traffic violation of driving without a license, and 10 of them were eventually placed in deportation proceedings.

The sheriff’s office had arranged for federal immigration officers to be on-site at the checkpoint, fueling criticism that the checkpoint was merely a pretense for checking immigration status.

Jackson Sheriff Jimmy Ashe denied this allegation. When reached by phone last week, Major Shannon Queen, a spokesman for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, refused to comment on the news that the charges were dropped.

Immigration charges and resulting deportation — as well as any decision to drop those charges — are handled by federal agencies and beyond the purview of local law enforcement.

The inquiry into Jackson County traffic checkpoints is far from over, however. The North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is still investigating claims of racial profiling.

“Some very serious questions were raised about whether racial profiling was involved,” said Rosenbluth, with the N.C. Immigrant Right’s Project. “From day one, our position is that their arrest was unconstitutional.”

Rosenbluth said he believes the charges were dropped against the 10 men because of the murky nature of their arrest. But also because federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, has made it clear that they are only targeting illegal immigrants who are considered criminals.

Because its caseload of illegal immigrants is so large, ICE must pick its battles, therefore illegal immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding don’t always end up being deported.

One of the men arrested at the Jackson County checkpoint, Antonio Garcia, said being released from deportation proceedings was “the best gift I could have asked for.”

“I am still trying to convince myself that this nightmare is over,” Garcia said in a news release. “I feel a great relief.”

The Jackson Sheriff’s Office has coordinated with federal immigration officers in two other roadside checkpoints during the last four years. The role of local law enforcement in proactively arresting undocumented workers has been a matter of debate nationally.

Undocumented workers arrested in Jackson traffic checkpoint now free again