Eric Zorn
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Originally posted: April 25, 2007
Heavy hands and light touches
If federal authorities are so heavy handed in dealing with immigrants, as protesters in Little Village are alleging in protests this week ("ID sweep triggers protests"), then how do they explain the serene indifference with which officials have reacted to Elvira Arellano's defiance of U.S. law?

For 253 days, Arellano, a native of Mexico, has defied a deportation order and claimed sanctuary in a West Side storefront church. For a few days after it began last August, we in the media portrayed the situation as a dramatic standoff between immigration enforcement authorities and advocates for the rights of undocumented immigrants.

I predicted imminent high drama. But what we got was interminable tedium as the feds simply walked away and have since allowed Arellano to flout the law in peace.

Strategy, I guess. They won't say. But strategy was also, surely, why agents used a strong show of force Tuesday when raiding a shopping plaza where fake ID's were allegedly being manufactured. Witnesses told the Tribune that about 60 agents on the scene were dressed in bullet-proof vests and toting rifles.

The idea in such a situation is that a show of force is often the best way to avoid actual use of force. When arrests are made and files are seized without a shot being fired or a punch being thrown, law enforcement has done its job.

UPDATE -- From the story about today's news conference by U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald:

Fitzgerald said authorities had to catch the suspects in the act and where they operated. He said the raid had "nothing to do" with the debate over immigration or disrupting a rally planned for next month.

"These are serious matters," Fitzgerald said. "I want to make clear that there is a great debate going on in our country about the immigration situation; this case is not about that debate. Whatever your views are … you do not let people masquerade as people who they are not."...

The alleged leader of the Chicago organization, Julio Leija-Sanchez, 31, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, according to Fitzgerald...

When asked about the tactics (used in the raid), Fitzgerald said it was the only way to catch the suspects in the act. He bristled when one reporter asked why authorities didn't arrest the suspects in their homes.

"You're assuming we know where everyone lives, and that's a big assumption when you're dealing with people who make fraudulent identification," Fitzgerald said.

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_co ... s_and.html