Bond Help Heartens Immigrants
Workplace Raids' Frequency Propels Fundraising Effort




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By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 7, 2008; Page A03

Boston financier Robert Hildreth has been contributing to immigrant service groups around his home state for nearly two decades. So when federal immigration agents raided a garment factory in New Bedford, Mass., last year and began transferring the workers to Texas detention centers thousands of miles from the community organizations trying to help them, Hildreth quickly stepped in with what he thought was a modest offer:

"I just told [their lawyers], 'You know, if you ever need bond money for someone, let me know,' " the 57-year-old multimillionaire recalled during an interview. "I was just following my nose on this. . . . I had no idea of the scale of what I was getting into."

Within a matter of weeks, Hildreth had posted bond for 40 detainees, contributing $116,800 of his own money and launching the pilot version of a national bond assistance program immigrant advocates hope will prove the linchpin of an emerging strategy to counter the recent increase in government workplace raids, including the arrest of nearly 600 workers at a manufacturing plant in Laurel, Miss., on Aug. 25.

Already, the National Immigrant Bond Fund has attracted more than $300,000 in contributions and helped bail out nearly 90 immigrants detained in six worksite raids, including 10 of the 46 workers detained during a raid on a painting company in Annapolis in June.

Days before the Mississippi raid, at the first sign that immigration agents appeared to be massing there, representatives of the fund were on the phone to immigrant advocates in the state. The fund stands ready with at least $150,000 for bond hearings and is trying to raise more.

"This is exactly what we hoped the fund would do," said Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and a member of the bond fund's steering committee. "I don't see this as bringing about the end of these raids, but I'm optimistic that the fund is going to make a difference for a lot of people."


Although workplace arrests bring in only a fraction of the nation's estimated 8 million illegal immigrant workers, they have risen sharply in recent months, growing from 510 in 2002 to nearly 5,000 a year.

Unlike defendants in the criminal justice system, foreigners facing deportation in immigration court do not have a right to a government-provided attorney if they cannot pay for their own. And when they are moved to remote holding facilities far from their families, it is more difficult for them to find attorneys, advocates contend. Without access to legal advice, immigrants often have a tough time determining if they have a viable defense against deportation, let alone collecting the evidence needed to present their case. So many simply agree to deportation.

The bond fund aims to change that pattern by offering to pay up to half of an immigrant's bond, increasing the number who can afford bail while insuring the immigrant has a financial incentive to show up in court. Those awaiting a deportation hearing are generally eligible for release on bond if they have no criminal convictions, were not previously ordered deported and can convince a homeland security official or an immigration judge that they pose no danger to national security or the community and are not a flight risk, which they often demonstrate by providing evidence of long-standing community ties through their children, spouses and other relatives.

Raising enough cash to keep up with the spike in workplace raids could be challenging, advocates say.

"The decision to grant bond and the amount of the bond that is set seems to follow a wildly arbitrary process that totally differs from one judge to another," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum and another member of the bond fund committee. "I've seen everything from $2,000 to $24,000 bonds for essentially the same circumstances."

Three Guatemalan brothers who were arrested in June's raid on the Annapolis painting company, for instance, received substantially different bond amounts even though they shared the same family ties and living arrangements. Sergio Gonzalez, 32, the first to go before an immigration judge, was granted a $6,500 bond. When his brothers Hugo Gonzalez, 27, and Juan Carlos Gonzalez, 41, went before a different judge about a week later, their bonds were set at $3,500 each.


All three said they send most of their earnings back to family in Guatemala and did not have enough savings to cover their bonds. Their brother Obdulio Gonzalez, who is a legal permanent resident and has lived in the United States for 10 years, was able to come up with the $6,500 needed to bail out Sergio and $3,500 toward the other two. But he said he probably would have had to leave one of the brothers in detention if the bond fund had not covered the remaining $3,500.

As it was, Obdulio, 37, who is self-employed as a house painter and has a wife and U.S.-born daughter, used up his entire rainy-day fund, which he saves over the summer to cover his mortgage and other bills during the winter season, when jobs are scarce.

"Honestly, I don't know how I'm going to survive this December," Obdulio said during an interview at the kitchen table of his ranch house in an Annapolis suburb on a recent evening. "I'm just asking God for more clients to give me more work, and I'm lowering my prices to get as many jobs as I can."

Sergio and Hugo, who share Obdulio's burly build and reserved demeanor, listened with a mixture of guilt and gratitude. If they hadn't been able to bond out, Hugo said, they would almost certainly have agreed to deportation rather than trying to contest their case from detention.

"It's hard to explain how terrible it felt to be locked up in that tiny, hot room, with just a bed and a metal toilet," he said. "You lose all hope. You just feel despair."

It remains to be seen whether the bond fund will ultimately help such immigrants gain anything beyond a few extra months to get their affairs in order before they are ordered deported. Several of the Guatemalans picked up in New Bedford have requested asylum based on dangers they faced as members of persecuted indigenous groups back home. Others are seeking relief from deportation on the grounds that it would cause extreme hardship to their U.S.-born children. Attorneys also pointed to a number of other potential lines of defense, including negotiating a temporary stay of deportation in exchange for testimony against a former employer or, in the case of immigrants who initially entered legally and have a U.S. citizen relative eligible to sponsor them, persuading a judge to let them apply for residency.


Still, the number of people likely to qualify for each type of relief is probably low, said Mark Krikorian, of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors limits on immigration. And he said this suggests that the true goal of the bond fund is to "lawyer up illegal immigrants" and "obstruct enforcement of immigration law until Congress passes an amnesty."

"If the anti-enforcement folks are successful in tying up enough of these hearings, then it will become impossible to do enforcement," he said.


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