Thread: Fugitive alien teams show deportation can happen

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdail ... iens.shtml

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 2006

Fugitive alien teams show deportation can happen
By Giovanna Dell'Orto
Associated Press Writer

MABLETON, Ga. — "Police! Policia! Open the door!" shouted the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, as their loud banging on the door shut up a chorus of crickets on a pine-ringed road around 5 a.m. Tuesday in this Atlanta suburb.

They were searching for a man from El Salvador who came legally to this country but was ordered deported after re-peated drunk driving convictions.

They came away instead with two brothers from Mexico, one of whom has the same name as the fugitive, who say they came illegally and who will likely face criminal prosecution after officers found a handgun and a rifle in the house.

The new Atlanta-based fugitive team is one of seven the immigration enforcement agency is rolling out this week across the country in an effort to show Congress that it's time to focus more on legal immigration because officers are already going after those here illegally.

"If there was a way for individuals coming just to work to come out of the shadows, we could focus on those who don't want to come out and are a threat to national security and public safety," Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Julie Myers, who's in charge of ICE, told The Associated Press. AP print, photo and video journalists accompanied immigration officers on the Tuesday raid.

Bush's pledge

Combined with thousands of National Guard troops at the U.S.-Mexican border and dramatic increases in the number of bed space at detention centers to reduce "catch-and-release" cases, the teams fit President Bush's pledge to beef up enforcement.

They are also changing the odds for illegal immigrants who until recently ran virtually no risk of being caught after they established themselves in communities far from the border.

"Once people got here, they knew it was OK," said Charles Kuck, the vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "If (enforcement) had had this power and money for the last 10 years, we'd have a comprehensive immigration system now."

While the backlog of "fugitives" — immigrants still here after their final deportation orders — is more than half a million strong, the teams are beginning to change the perception that those orders were somehow optional.

The first highly trained, often-bilingual teams were created in 2003 and will more than triple to 52 this year, including new teams in Houston and Raleigh, N.C. The officers now make about 1,000 arrests each week, said ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi.

In 2003, officers arrested only 4,000 people. This year, they're up to 20,121, of which about a fifth have criminal records and 5,700 were not the target of an investigation but were found during raids, according to ICE figures.

The raids are based on detection and surveillance of those immigrants ordered deported by a judge either because they had criminal convictions or they violated their visas.

"These are individuals who had their day in court," said Larry Orton, the supervisor for a new Atlanta-based team, as he waited at dawn Tuesday for a man from Mali ordered deported in 1999 to get dressed and be escorted out of his brick suburban house. "They've had their opportunity."

The teams focus on fugitives who are threats to their communities, such as convicted drunken drivers and gang members, though they also arrest non-criminals and any other illegal immigrants they find during raids. Most are then deported within a couple weeks.

"Officers physically see the plane taking off," said Raymond Simonse, the chief of the Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina teams.

Some immigration rights advocates argue that current law makes it harder on enforcement officers because it doesn't distinguish between dangerous immigrants and those who might have been convicted for minor crimes like shoplifting or might never have gotten their deportation orders.

"They shouldn't waste their time going after busboys, some people are really bad out there," said Benjamin Johnson, director of the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center.

Until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, after which the immigration history of some of the hijackers made it urgent to get tough on immigration violations, many immigrants were simply ordered deported "in absentia" since they never showed up in court. Those there in person were told to report to an office to be removed later — something few did.

Honor system

"Once a judge issued an order of removal, it was an honor system," said Victor Cerda, former head of detention and removal operations for immigration enforcement. "We're light years ahead. The message is getting out there that it isn't a free ride."

The seven men arrested Tuesday in suburban Atlanta, of which only the Mali one had been a target, told officers they had no idea why they were being detained, even after some admitted they were in the U.S. illegally. They refused to speak with The Associated Press.

Yet the Mali man's request to stay in the U.S. had been denied nine years ago, one of the men who was from Guatemala was caught twice by the Border Patrol in Arizona, and another man, from El Salvador, had failed to renew his temporary protected status since 2005, according to federal records officers obtained after locking them all in a cell.

"If you're illegally in a country, there's always the expectation you could be held accountable one day," Simonse said. "There may be individuals who are seeking to make a better life, and people who recognize they've broken the law."

"If you're illegally in a country, there's always the expectation you could be held accountable one day," Simonse said. "There may be individuals who are seeking to make a better life, and people who recognize they've broken the law."

illegally in a country

WHAT ABOUT ILLEGAL DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? ANYONE HERE ILLEGALLY IS BREAKING OUR LAWS.

"They shouldn't waste their time going after busboys, some people are really bad out there," said Benjamin Johnson, director of the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center.

Wrong wrong wrong. No matter what job they do, no matter what their purpose is, if they are here illegaly, they need to go home and obey the laws of getting their citizenship, just like everyone else.

Sippy....I don't understand that way of thinking either. Some people act as if only someone who commits a crime AFTER illegally entering our country should be pursued. They broke the law to get here!!!! Very frustrating!

The seven men arrested Tuesday in suburban Atlanta, of which only the Mali one had been a target, told officers they had no idea why they were being detained, even after some admitted they were in the U.S. illegally.

Is this how bad it's gotten???? I guess they never expected anyone to come after them and when they did, they still didn't believe it!! Amazing!

Maybe they're being told in Mexico and their home countries before coming here illegally that, once they get past Border Patrol, unless they're stupid and commit a crime, the police and Federal Agents won't mess with them. They're home free! I guess that that's the information being disseminated south of the border (and in Europe, Asia, and Africa.)

Ostrich

"If there was a way for individuals coming just to work to come out of the shadows, we could focus on those who don't want to come out and are a threat to national security and public safety," Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Julie Myers, who's in charge of ICE, told The Associated Press.

Nice subtle push for amnesty Ms. Myers!

Sippy....I don't understand that way of thinking either. Some people act as if only someone who commits a crime AFTER illegally entering our country should be pursued. They broke the law to get here!!!! Very frustrating!

Krazy, I should have clarified this a little better. What I really meant to say is something along the lines of your statement. If they are found here illegaly, they need to go ASAP! before they can commit more crimes.