Thread: Deportations on the rise

Deportations on the rise


By Liz Mineo/Daily News staff
GateHouse News Service
Sun May 27, 2007, 11:58 PM EDT

Sixteen years ago, the Brazilian woman sneaked across the Mexican border, made her way north and settled in Framingham. She bought a house, started a house-cleaning business and raised two children.

Two weeks ago, her past caught up with her.

Immigration officers arrested the woman, who had an order of removal issued in absentia a few years ago. Now she awaits deportation in a detention center somewhere in Massachusetts.

Immigrant advocates who are trying to help the woman said her husband, also an illegal immigrant, has gone underground. The couple's children, who are 15 and 13 years old, are staying with relatives, and did not want to be interviewed for fear of repercussions.

Deportation is illegal immigrants' worst fear, and more and more frequently, they must face it.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are increasing the number of deportations and expanding their scope by pursuing foreigners who have committed crimes or pose a threat to national security, as well as those who have received a deportation order and never left the country.


In 2006, ICE officials deported 189,924 people across the nation, 23,000 more than in 2004 - a 14-percent increase. In the New England region, officials removed 4,531 in 2006, 627 more than in 2004.

The numbers may increase even more. According to ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi in Washington, D.C., there are 620,000 people believed to be in the country with final orders of deportation, and sooner or later they will be caught. Most of those received deportation orders in absentia because they did not show up in court. Many of them were arrested after crossing the U.S.-Mexican border and given a notice to appear in court, which they never did, Raimondi said.

There are 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, government officials and immigration advocates say. An estimated 200,000 live in Massachusetts.

``There is no sanctuary for people with orders of removal,'' said Raimondi.

With more than 75 operational teams devoted to finding, detaining and removing ``fugitive aliens,'' up from 17 teams in January 2006, the agency is able to arrest more than 430 fugitives per week.

Immigrants across MetroWest and the Milford area are feeling the heat.
In the past, illegal immigrants, even those with deportation orders, could live here for many years without being bothered by immigration officers if they kept a low profile and avoided trouble with the law. After the New Bedford raid earlier this year, in which more than 300 illegal immigrants were arrested at a leather factory, the fear of deportation became real for many in Massachusetts.

Such was the case for a Brazilian woman who left the country a few days ago with her three American-born children after receiving a final deportation order. She left behind her husband, also illegal, a house the couple bought in Ashland recently, a job in a Framingham school and 10 years of the life she built since she immigrated here.
``She left in a panic,'' said a woman who didn't want to be identified and whose husband was deported to Brazil two years ago. ``She told me she was not going to wait for immigration officers to come to get her.''

Hopes for a solution that brings illegal immigrants out of the shadows are getting slim as the U.S. Senate prolongs its debate about a controversial immigration reform package until June. With raids and deportations on the rise, many are living in hiding, and others are making plans to leave earlier than scheduled.

``People are not spending,'' said Paula Mendoza, acting vice president of Breaking Barriers, a Waltham organization that helps immigrants. ``They want to save money to take it with them if they're deported.''

In Milford, Marisol Carper, who owns a store that wires money to Brazil, sells groceries and offers translation services, said her business is suffering because people are not spending money due to the climate of fear and uncertainty. In Framingham, businesswoman Vera Dias-Freitas feels the same way.

``People don't want to spend money if they're not going to be here tomorrow,'' she said.

With the rise in deportations, advocates said they have seen immigration officials using new tactics. Now, they said, it's more frequent that immigration officials, who come to a house looking for someone with a deportation order, arrest other people living in the same house who cannot prove they are here legally. It's also more common that illegal immigrants are being turned over to immigration officers after being picked up by local police, said community leaders.

Immigration attorney Liliana Mangiafico, who works in MetroWest, has witnessed the new trend and recommends her clients plan for the future in case the worst happens. ``If you know you're going to be caught and deported, you have to have a plan,'' she said.


``Now Immigration has more teams, and they're hiring more people who know how people in the immigrant community think,'' said Mangiafico.

Such was the case of a man from the Democratic Republic of Congo who lived in Framingham until recently, despite the fact he had been told to leave the country two years ago. When immigration officials recently knocked on his door, they told his wife they were looking for her husband to talk about a car accident he had witnessed. That story turned out to be a ruse. When the man came home at 6 p.m., immigration officials were waiting for him and took him away.

Deportations are also rising along the border. A new policy in place allows immigration officials to send back to their countries of origin those arrested along the border, bypassing court hearings.

A 30-year-old Brazilian man who lives in Shrewsbury can attest to that. Two years ago, he came through Mexico and was given a notice to appear in court, which he never did. Yet, he was able to work and send $600 every month to his family in Brazil during that time. The man has two daughters, ages 6 and 3.

He thought things would be the same when his wife took a similar journey two months ago, but her fate was different. After being caught at the border, she spent three weeks in a detention center in Texas before being sent back to Brazil.

The man, who works as a dish washer in a restaurant in Framingham, fears he might have a deportation order and that he's running out of time.

``After what happened to my wife, I said, that's it,'' he said in his native Portuguese. ``The American dream is over for me.''

He said he plans to return Brazil by the end of the year.

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/homepage/x27045025

``After what happened to my wife, I said, that's it,'' he said in his native Portuguese. ``The American dream is over for me.''

Why do we have to perpetually bare the expense of an interpreter, trial and detention? Illegals should be picked up and herded out. We already know why they broke the law.

They all claim to come here to live the American dream. Key word being American (dream).They have yet to APOLOGIZE for breaking the law and becoming the American taxpayers' nightmare.

As for Homeland Insecurity, who do they think they are fooling with the periodic roundups and deportations? Until there is a solid wall along the majority of our border with armed guards, those same criminals will return and the process will merely repeat itself.

We see that in South Florida all the time.

Originally Posted by swatchick

We see that in South Florida all the time.

Illinois (particularly Chicago) is getting as bad as Florida, California, Arizona and New Mexico.

If they built a wall 20 years ago, they wouldn't have to waste so much money on deporting people.

It they had built a wall 20 years ago it certainly would have been cheaper than building it today, and if they build it today it will certainly be cheaper to build it now than later on down the road, and I mean in more ways than one, BUILD THE FENCE NOW (DOUBLE FENCE) WE WERE PROMISED LIARS.


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