Thread: 4 charged as illegal workers in Palm Bay

http://www.floridatoday.com

August 4, 2006

4 charged as illegal workers

BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE
FLORIDA TODAY

Just before the City Council on Thursday debated a law to punish those who employ undocumented workers, a police officer arrested four day laborers for being in the U.S. illegally.

In what Palm Bay Police called a routine traffic stop on South Babcock Street, Officer Butch Palmer reported that he stopped a white Chevy Suburban traveling south at 60 miles an hour in a 45-mile-an-hour zone, south of Eldron Boulevard.

Miguel Gonzalez, a cousin of one of the men arrested, said Palmer pulled over the vehicle and asked all eight men in the truck to produce green cards. The officer stated that Carlos Billalba, 20, Bernabe Camarena, 24, Alfredo Camarena, 23, and Edgar Gonzalez, 19, all Fellsmere residents, admitted to being in the U.S. without documentation.

The arrest came several hours before the City Council approved a controversial immigration law that would hold employers responsible for undocumented workers, fining them up to $250 and prohibiting the employers from working for the city for two years.

Councilman Andy Anderson proposed the legislation.

"If they had probable cause, they were doing what they were hired to do," Anderson said just before the meeting. "If somebody would do something at the federal level, those people might be legal as a guest worker."

Sam Lopez, president of United Third Bridge, said the men were stopped because they were "brown."

Gonzalez said he feels badly about his cousin and friends' arrests.

"There's nothing to prove that there's a law that they can pull them over and ask for their green card," said Gonzalez. Fellsmere, in North Indian River County, is a small town with a large migrant population.

Mary Gundrum, an attorney for the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center out of Miami, said Palm Bay Police would not allow her to speak to the men.

"I think the local officers are a little nervous," Gundrum said in the lobby of the Palm Bay Police station. "They told me to contact border patrol."

John Garcia, a spokesman for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, attended Thursday's city council meeting to promote civil rights for all segments of society.

"This is exactly the type of thing we're afraid of, with this ordinance creating an atmosphere of fear, harassment and tension," Garcia said.

Palm Bay Police Spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez said the men would be transferred to the county jail in Sharpes, where they will wait for the U.S. Border Patrol to take them into custody.

Contact Moore at 321-480-5166 or kmoore@flatoday.net.

Sam Lopez, president of United Third Bridge, said the men were stopped because they were "brown."

Some people throw the race card out and get away with it.
They were pulled over for going 60 mph in a 45 mph area. And the police asked if they had green cards. I applaud the police for doing their job. This is totally blown out of proportion.

"There's nothing to prove that there's a law that they can pull them over and ask for their green card," said Gonzalez. Fellsmere, in North Indian River County, is a small town with a large migrant population.

Is there a law that says they can't pull them and ask for a green card, if they are breaking the law? (Going 60 in a 45 zone?)