Thread: 63 illegal immigrants rounded up in Michigan

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti ... 80324/1007

63 illegal immigrants rounded up
BY TAMARA AUDI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

June 8, 2006

They called it Operation Motor City, and for five days, federal agents working late-night shifts in unmarked cars shadowed illegal immigrants living in towns and cities across southeast Michigan.

By Wednesday, 63 immigrants -- most of them from Eastern European countries and ranging in age from 10 to 60 -- were in the process of being deported in one of the largest roundups yet in an ongoing effort to clear Michigan and Ohio of an estimated 4,500 illegal immigrants.

"This was just one operation, and there will be more in the future," said Rob Baker, director of detention and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Detroit.

In May, Detroit's Hispanic community was rattled by the arrests of 18 illegal immigrants -- those raids coinciding with protests over proposed congressional action to crack down on undocumented workers and their employers.

Twenty-five of the people targeted during the latest operation, which lasted from May 31 to Sunday, were from Albania, while eight were from Macedonia, officials said. The rest were from 13 other countries.

Many had jobs, and some had been in the United States as long as six years.

Two were criminals -- one convicted on a charge of auto theft and another for selling drugs, officials said.

ICE agents detained 43 of the immigrants in local county jails. Wayne, Calhoun and Monroe counties have contracts with the federal government to house immigrants awaiting deportation or hearings.

The other 20 immigrants were allowed to remain in their homes but will still be deported and must check in regularly with immigration officials until then.

Five immigrants being sought by agents already had left the country, Baker said.

In one case, Baker said, a mother and her children under deportation orders were allowed to remain in their home, but the father was taken into custody.

The entire family will eventually be deported, he said.

The immigrants lived across metro Detroit, including in Canton, Farmington Hills and West Bloomfield. The largest number of arrests occurred in Royal Oak, where eight Albanians were picked up, Baker said.

The immigrants had all received final orders of deportation from an immigration judge, Baker said, adding that they all had either appeared before an immigration judge or failed to show up for a hearing.

"People say they haven't really broken the law, but these people did violate the law. They're here illegally," Baker said.

But local immigration advocates said the recent roundups do not make a distinction between dangerous criminals and families who may be appealing deportation orders in other courts, or whose immigration status is in flux.

"I have no problem with them picking up people who are here unlawfully and all their appeals have been exhausted," said David Wenger, a Detroit immigration attorney who has clients who were picked up in earlier roundups. "The problem is there's no discretion anymore. It looks like they are just trying to get numbers for statistics to report back to Washington."

Contact TAMARA AUDI at 313-222-6582 or audi@freepress.com.

WO HOOOOOOOOO! For my state...I live around the cities mentioned and couldn't be happier to know we have some good ones on our side here...it's about time.