Thread: Immigration officials arrest more than 80 in Willmar, activi

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Immigration officials arrest more than 80 in Willmar, activists say
BY NANCY YANG
Pioneer Press
04/13/2007

Federal immigration officials have arrested between 80 to 100 Latino community members in Wilmar since an investigation there began Tuesday, immigrant activists said today.

The Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network said in an e-mail to members of the media that three Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses are roaming the city, and that community members report ICE officials entering homes without warrants for detention or search.

But according to an ICE spokesman, agents are in the area looking for specific people with criminal backgrounds, the West Central Tribune reported today.

The newspaper also quoted a Willmar resident who said federal agents were asking Hispanics for their IDs outside the local Wal-Mart Thursday.

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Shocking, I dont get upset when I get asked for an ID? People who...
Break the law, go to jail or get deported. Don't like the law,...
Immigration is a civil matter. hats off to ICE for a job well done!
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Immigration officials making arrests in Willmar
4/13/2007 8:03:51 AM
Associated Press

WILLMAR, Minn. -- Federal authorities have arrested a number of illegal immigrants during an ongoing operation in Willmar, officials confirmed Thursday.

Most of the people taken into custody are illegal immigrants with criminal records, said Tim Counts, a spokesman for the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement Agency in Bloomington, Minn.

"Based on investigations, we are looking for specific individuals," Counts said. "Now having said that, we often encounter people who are in the country illegally that we were not initially looking for, and we often arrest those individuals as well."

Maria Diaz, who works with the Latino community in Willmar, said the arrests started Tuesday morning, and estimated that as many as 100 people had been detained.

"I got reports from community members that Immigration had gone to their homes and taken people to Minneapolis," Diaz said. "I thought it was just an isolated incident, one or two maybe, and then it just (kept) going for the whole day."

ICE officials said that because it was an ongoing operation, they wouldn't say when the arrests began or confirm how many people had been arrested.

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Information from: Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio News, http://www.mpr.org.

Excerpt from comments:

Shocking, I dont get upset when I get asked for an ID?

That's because you have one!

I just had my driver's license checked a police checkpoint yesterday. If checking indentification is what it'll take to catch criminal aliens - I'm fine with it.

I agree the only time it would be a problem is if you are in the country illegally. American citizens know not to leave the house without ID just in case of an accident or other mishap. Illegal aliens have no real ID that is why they are upset as they are in this country illegally and are criminals.

Meeting held to offer community information on immigrant rights
Eric Ebert West Central Tribune
Published Friday, April 13, 2007

WILLMAR — News of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents performing an investigation in the Willmar area sparked some panic in the community earlier this week.

Tim Counts, spokesman for ICE, told the Tribune earlier in the week that agents are conducting an ongoing investigation in the area for specific people, but would not elaborate on the investigation.

A meeting was organized Thursday night at the Church of St. Mary by Ra?ces and Centro Legal, Inc. — a non-profit community law office out of St. Paul — to educate the community on documented and undocumented immigrants’ rights.

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As people wandered into the room, pamphlets explaining legal rights were handed out.

Maria Diaz, the local coordinator for Ra?ces, informed the crowd that media would be taking pictures, but not asking for names of individuals.

Diaz then handed the podium over to Gloria Contreras Edin, the executive director of Centro Legal, Inc. Contreras was accompanied by two other lawyers from the firm.

Contreras addressed the audience in a flurry of Spanish. Because no translators were present, the audience could be heard deciphering Contreras’ speech in English.

Contreras told the mostly Hispanic group that legal or illegal immigrants have the right to not give their names or allow agents into their homes unless a search warrant is presented.

“Let me make one thing really clear,” Contreras said, switching back to English. “If they have a warrant, they can come in.”

Between pauses, audience members called out questions to Contreras, questioning whether agents had the right to ask individuals for identification.

“If they have a reasonable suspicion that this person is undocumented, s?,” she said.

But Mary Trevino, a Willmar resident for eight years, told the Tribune during a phone interview that federal agents were asking for IDs outside Wal-Mart Thursday morning. Trevino, who was born in Texas, said she watched white people slip by the agents, but each Hispanic was stopped and questioned.

“If they’re going to be IDing, they should be IDing everyone,” she said, not “just because you look like you’re not from around here.”

Trevino had other stories too.

“A friend of mine told me they just walked into her house,” she continued. “I just see (agents) waling like it’s nothing, and that just got to me.”

While fielding questions, Contreras asked residents to rally by photographing and videotaping any raids by federal agents. She also stressed the importance of reporting any abusive or forceful behavior by authorities.

“Some people feel threatened and that’s not right,” stated and individual translating Contreras speech.

The Church of St. Mary diocese also handed out prepared sheets in Spanish that gave instructions on how to handle being arrested or approached by agents.

The attorneys from Centro Legal also slated time at the end of the meeting to meet one-on-one with individuals. No official reports have been released by ICE about when its investigation would be wrapping up.
http://www.wctrib.com/articles/index.cfm?id=18784

I doubt that prople who have a right to be here feel threatened!!only the ones with reason to be affraid are, I just don't know what to tell you except GO HOME TO YOUR COUNTRY OF ORGIN! then you won't feel threatened.

You should feel threatened if you are here illegally. ICE has every right to ask for ID when they enter a premises and suspect people are there who are in this country illegally. If you are here illegally, you have no rights

Immigration official denies illegal tactics in Willmar arrests

Apr 13, 2007

WILLMAR, Minn. A spokesman for the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement Agency is denying reports that federal agents are using illegal tactics in arresting illegal immigrants in Willmar.

Spokesman Tim Counts says most of the people who have been taken in custody are illegal immigrants with criminal records. He wouldn't say how many have been arrested but says it's far fewer than the 100 that some activists are claiming.

Gloria Contreras Edin -- of the agency Centro Legal -- says I-C-E agents are going into homes without warrants and randomly stopping Hispanics around town. She says immigrants are scared and staying inside their homes today.

Counts disputes that and says agents are acting legally and above-board. He denies that agents are conducting a random sweep.

http://wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=6366802

When I have my ID checked, I always thank the person!

Even if it is a checker at the register doing her job.
I appreciate being protected.

Last update: April 13, 2007 – 4:28 PM

Immigrants wary after Willmar arrests

By Gregg Aamot, Associated Press


Hispanic immigrants in Willmar were staying close to home Friday after federal agents arrested several immigrants who were wanted for criminal convictions or for fleeing deportation orders.
Some Hispanic-owned businesses closed while some immigrant workers at a food-processing plant stayed home to avoid run-ins with federal agents, according to immigrant-rights activists.

"It's a devastating situation," said Gloria Contreras Edin, the director of Centro Legal, a Twin Cities-based immigrant-rights group. "At this point, some families have fled the area ... some restaurants have closed and people are afraid to go outside their homes."

The Rev. Naomi Mahler, the pastor at Paz y Esperanza Church, a Lutheran church made up mostly of Hispanic residents, said the congregation was collecting donations for people who are fearful of going to work. She said a handful had already come in for help Friday.

"There are families out there who will not have an income and will need food and gas money," she said.

The arrests raised fears among immigrants that a major sweep was under way in the town of 20,000 in west-central Minnesota. In December, federal agents raided a Swift & Company meatpacking plant in Worthington and arrested more than 200 workers, many of them Hispanic immigrants.

Edin said Friday that she believed about 50 immigrants have been arrested; a day earlier, a Willmar activist estimated that about 100 people had been detained. Edin also claimed agents were going into homes without warrants and randomly stopping Hispanics around town.

Tim Counts, a spokesman for the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement Agency, said most of the people who have been arrested are illegal immigrants with criminal records. He said agents have also arrested others who were found to be in the country illegally, such as those who had been deported but then returned.

Counts declined to say how many people have been arrested but said the number was "significantly fewer than 100." He also said rumors of agents stopping Hispanics at the Wal-Mart in Willmar were "absolutely false," and he sharply criticized the activists' characterization of the arrests, especially charges that agents have gone into homes without warrants.

"Some people who claim to have the best interests of the immigrant community at heart are the same people who spread false rumors to create confusion and fear," he said.

Willmar Police Chief Jim Kulset said he believed the claim of 100 arrests was "a gross exaggeration." Police officers helped federal agents find the correct addresses of people they were looking for, though otherwise had nothing to do with the arrests, he said.

Several thousand Hispanic immigrants have settled in the Willmar area over the past two decades, and many work at Jennie-O Turkey Store, a food processor on the western edge of town.

Edin said Friday that she visited Jennie-O and claimed the size of the work shifts had been reduced by 75 percent since federal agents began their arrests because scared workers were staying away.

In a prepared statement, Mike Tolbert, the president of Jennie-O Turkey Store, said ICE agents had been in contact with the company this week "regarding a small number of current and former employees."

The company didn't say whether any workers had been arrested.

Mahler, the pastor, said one restaurant downtown — where Hispanics run several businesses — closed early Thursday after workers claimed they had spotted ICE agents outside. A man who answered the phone at a downtown Hispanic grocery store said the arrests "were affecting a lot of people" before telling a reporter he didn't have time to talk.

"People are staying inside," Mahler said.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1119611.html