Thread: CA-Coalition forms to combat immigration raids

Coalition forms to combat immigration raids
Stephen Wall
Posted: 07/03/2009 07:07:14 AM PDT


A group of community activists has formed a coalition to push for an end to what they say is an acceleration of "raids" by the Border Patrol against day laborers and other illegal immigrants.
The Border Patrol's Riverside station has conducted more than 30 raids since December targeting day laborers, customers of Latino markets and public transit riders, members of the group say.

"We thought that with the Obama Administration, the raids would stop," said Jose Zapata Calderon, a professor of sociology and Chicano Studies at Pitzer College. "We're telling President Obama to keep your promise, stop the raids, and focus on the legalization of the 12 undocumented immigrants who are contributing much more than they are taking away."

The Justice for Immigrants Coalition of Inland Southern California held a rally Thursday in front of the Border Patrol office located in a Riverside business park.

About 80 people carrying signs with words such as "We Are Human" and "Stop the Raids" sang and chanted in Spanish. They were met by a handful of counterprotesters from the Minuteman Project, who waved American flags and "Stop Illegal Immigration" signs.

Shouts of "Take your march to Mexico" competed with chants of "Si Se Puede" (Yes, we can). There were heated face-to-face exchanges between members of the two groups.

"This is a criminal element protesting the law being enforced on them," said Raymond Herrera, national rally spokesman for

the Minuteman Project.
Maria Newton, also a member of the Minuteman Project, called on Mexico to do more to help its people.

Illegal immigrants are "a slap in the face to those of us who came here the right way," said Newton, a Mexican immigrant who came to the United States legally in the 1980s and is now a U.S. citizen. "They know they are breaking the law."

Chris Newman, legal programs director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Inspector General are conducting an investigation of the Riverside station.

The day laborer network has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get answers about how the enforcement actions are being carried out.

"People who have worked in the station have said there are self-imposed arrest quotas," Newman said. "They have been stopping, investigating and arresting people in a manner that appears to be unlawful."

Border Patrol spokesman Gerardo Gonzalez said the Riverside station has been operational since the mid-1960s.

"It's business as usual," said Gonzalez, who works out of the El Centro office that oversees the Riverside station. "We've been performing arrests of people who are here illegally for quite a long time. We're going to continue."

Gonzalez said the Border Patrol doesn't have arrest quotas or engage in racial profiling.

A White House official said Thursday that Obama believes raids aren't a long-term solution to a broken immigration system.

The official said Obama has asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to conduct a thorough review of the practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division within her department.

-stephen.wall@inlandnewspapers.com

http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/sanbe ... i_12748320

Group calls for federal probe of Border Patrol raid tactics
PAUL YOUNG • July 3, 2009

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RIVERSIDE — Members of an organization that alleges Riverside-based U.S. Border Patrol agents randomly round up suspected illegal immigrants on street corners, buses and markets, using “vigilante-style tacticsâ€

“We are humanâ€

Why should it be any different then our officers in any of our states giving a certain amount of traffic tickets as a quota?

So anytime a Hispanic gets arrested or questioned it is in violation of some rights they presume to have as an "ILLEGAL ALIEN" in which they scream racial profiling.

What they are doing and mind you ,with the help of some American citizens, taking full advantage of our legal system we have in place. Let them go back to their country of origin if they feel oppressed!

After all we would not want to OPPRESS, HUMANS!