Immigration raid breaks up local family
'Here to work,' not cause 'trouble'


Omar Ornelas, The Desert Sun
Rosa cries in desperation as she talks about not knowing where her husband is after he was detained by federal immigration agents in Palm Springs on Tuesday. Rosa has four children, including 2-year-old Maria Jose, who is a U.S. citizen.

Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun
May 11, 2007
The early morning knock on the door Tuesday changed everything.

Rosa is a stay-at-home mom to her four young children.

She and her husband of 13 years, Berto, recently paid the rent. The couple had $200 to hold them over until his next check. He had slipped it in his pocket before leaving for work Tuesday, promising to stop by the grocery store on his way home.

But Berto never returned.

A phone call confirmed her worst fears: He was among 24 people U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested Tuesday as part of a week-long desert sweep of undocumented immigrants.

"People are really scared right now," Rosa told The Desert Sun in Spanish, pulling her shirt to her face to wipe tears away. "We're only here to work. We're not causing any trouble."

Her three oldest children attend school in the Coachella Valley. Her youngest is a U.S. citizen.

The Desert Sun withheld Rosa's last name because she is undocumented.

Rosa and her family represent the passionate debate unfolding in this corner of the country as Congress again considers reforming immigration laws.

On one side, the government asserts it is protecting U.S. borders and enforcing federal law. People in this country illegally are subject to deportation, it says.

On the other side, immigrants contend they come to work to carve out a better life for their children. Current immigration policy, they say, rips apart families.

Neither side appears willing to budge while lawmakers in Washington, D.C., decide how to amend immigration law.

"Fugitive operations are targeted arrests of immigration fugitives based on leads and intelligence - individuals who have received final orders of deportation by an immigration judge but have failed to comply," Lori Haley, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, said in an e-mail statement Thursday.

"The public needs to remember that those who are in this country in violation of our immigration laws are subject to arrest at any time," Haley said. "We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws."

But that position is stirring opposition from immigrants and their supporters, who take issue with the tactics being used in the nationwide arrests that started a year ago and the sweep that began in the valley on Tuesday.

They decry Berto's arrest as part of a growing trend in which immigration agents randomly ask for proof of residency.

"Anything has to be based on reasonable suspicion. If they're just approaching people at a market, on the street or at a gas station, that's racial profiling," said Nora Preciado, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles.

The Immigration and Nationality Act permits any officer, without a warrant, "to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States."

"ICE officers do not enter a residence without consent," Haley wrote. "Once in the house, officers may check government issued identification documents and conduct interviews to determine status."

Witnesses have reported seeing plain-clothed agents posing as salesmen to get people to open their doors, randomly stopping vehicles in Palm Desert and arresting customers at Cathedral City businesses.

Immigration officials have repeatedly declined to comment on their operations. Protocol, however, requires agents to identify themselves.

On Thursday, witnesses reported seeing agents in Indio and La Quinta.

The local roundup is part of a national program, "Return to Sender," that has resulted in nearly 24,000 arrests since May 2006. About 1,500 of those came from the Los Angeles area, including the valley, officials said.

Locally, about 600 protesters marched May 1, just a week before the valley raids began, for immigration reform that would not tear families like Rosa's apart.

"How do you tell a lady that she has to go back with her child?" said Karan Kler, executive director of Coachella Valley Immigration Service Assistance.

The nonprofit counseling agency offers citizenship and immigration defense.

"This is why immigration reform is such an important thing."

Response from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials
In a Thursday e-mail to The Desert Sun, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials responded to claims of racial profiling and defended their recent operations in the valley. Here’s the entire e-mail:

“As Jim Hayes and I explained yesterday, fugitive operations are targeted arrests of immigration fugitives based on leads and intelligence — individuals who have received final orders of deportation by an immigration judge but have failed to comply.

“The Department of Homeland Security has an ambitious, multi-year national plan to shore up our borders and reduce illegal immigration. A key element of that plan is stepped up interior enforcement, including expanded efforts to identify and arrest immigration fugitives — that is aliens who are ordered deported and willfully ignore those orders. The strategy also includes streamlining the deportation process to maximize our resources. Under this initiative, ICE is dedicating unprecedented resources to identifying and arresting criminal aliens and immigration fugitives.

There are currently 52 fugitive operations teams deployed nationwide. By the end of this year, that number is expected to reach 75.

“With regard to our enforcement mission, ICE’s fugitive operations teams nationwide prioritize cases involving criminal aliens and immigration fugitives, but our officers also periodically encounter other immigration violators while carrying out their duties. In those instances, ICE officers take appropriate enforcement action.

“ICE officers do not enter a residence without consent. Once consent is granted to enter the residence, officers seek to identify persons in the home to see if the target is there. Once in the house, officers may check government issued identification documents and conduct interviews to determine status.

“ICE is committed to restoring integrity to our nation’s immigration system. People who are arrested for being in the United States illegally have a right to due process. They have an opportunity to go into immigration court and fight their deportation. But if they lose, they should accept the court’s ruling and comply with the removal order.

“And finally, the public needs to remember that those who are this country in violation of our immigration laws are subject to arrest at any time. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.â€