Thread: "ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS A FORM OF ORGANIZED CRIME"

Frederick Co. Sheriff Lauds Immigration Enforcement Program

Posted on October 13, 2011
By ANDREW DAMSTEDT

WASHINGTON (October 13, 2011) -- Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins Wednesday joined other law enforcement officials on Capitol Hill to laud a strict immigration enforcement program that some groups have criticized as ineffective.

"This is about the rule of law," Jenkins said. "This is about saving America. This is about public safety and national security."

In 2008, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office became authorized to act as field agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the 287(g) program. Since then, 965 individuals have been detained in Frederick County with 940 of those transferred to federal officials, according to Jenkins.

Wednesday's meeting was sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies and House Immigration Reform Caucus to highlight issues law enforcement officials face with illegal immigration, including drug-running, gangs and homicides.

The sheriffs all said securing the border must become a top national priority.

The others attending the program were: Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa; North Carolina county sheriffs Alan Jones, Graham Atkinson, Sam Page, Rick Oliver, Tracy Carter and Terry Johnson; Sioux County, Iowa, Sheriff Dan Altena; Chief Deputy Steve Henry of Pinal County, Ariz., and Jessica Vaughn with the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonprofit immigration research group.

Frederick County is the only Maryland jurisdiction to participate in the program in which local law enforcement agencies partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to act as field agents.

The Frederick County Sheriff's Office has 10 law enforcement deputies and 16 correctional officers trained in the program.

Frederick County Sheriff's records show most of the illegal immigrants detained there come from Latin America, with the highest number coming from Mexico, totaling 244.

Frederick County doesn't have the border problems some counties are facing, such as Mexican drug cartels, however, drug smuggling is an increasing problem for law enforcement agencies across the nation.

Arizona's Henry, whose county is 70 miles north of Mexico, called the Mexican drug cartel "terrorists," and said not enough was being done to fight that war.

"We have terrorists in our backyard that operate with impunity each and every day to the demise of Americans," Henry said. "We go to Libya, we go to Afghanistan, we go to Pakistan, for lack of a better word, we punish the terrorist organizations because we are at war with terrorism, ... well it's in our backyard and we are doing nothing about it."

Jenkins said there isn't the political will in Maryland to get more jurisdictions into the program.

Casa de Maryland's Political Director Kim Propeack told Capital News Service that's for the best -- that sending "dozens of deputies" off to immigration training is a waste of resources.

Casa de Maryland has sued the Frederick County Sheriff's office for racial profiling on behalf of Roxana Orellana Santos, who was stopped while eating her lunch on a park bench, Propeack said. A native of El Salvador, Orellana Santos' deportation order was stayed this month for a year, in part because she is the sole plaintiff of a federal lawsuit.

"We have a broken immigration system, not just in Frederick County," Propeack said. "Most parties have decided to deal with that by ensuring in local communities that residents are safe. To the extent that local police are perceived as immigration agents that undermines the goal."

At Wednesday's meeting, Jenkins said immigration enforcement programs are only used after a person has been arrested. In Frederick County, of those detained, 733 were arrested for misdemeanor offenses and 75 were arrested for felonies, including attempted second-degree murder, second-degree rape, theft and participating in a criminal gang.

Jessica Vaughn, Center for Immigration Studies policy director, said there has been no evidence that immigrants commit more or less crime than the American population, but she said there are public safety issues with illegal immigration.

"Illegal immigration is a form of organized crime," Vaughn said. "It's not a random thing that just happens. It's controlled by organized groups who control crossing, transport and access to employment in many cases. It's become a very violent business."

http://somd.com/news/headlines/2011/14431.shtml

Illegal immigration = organized crime = cartels. anyone see the pattern?

Originally Posted by BillCunnane

Illegal immigration = organized crime = cartels. anyone see the pattern?

I think you folks are on to something with the criminals starting from outside our National Borders with a network from the Third World Countries through to the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS with everyone taking their cut along the way. The Mafia always covered their trail with fake enterprises. All of the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS realize that many subcontractors or employment agencies are organized exclusively to hire ILLEGALS and they persist in seeking out these subcontractors or employment agencies and the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS use their supposed ignorance of the subcontractor’s hiring practices to "end run" the law. Construction, Oil Refineries, Retailers, and many others use the services of these subcontractors or employment agencies to secure their ILLEGAL labor at the expense of United States Citizens. As long as the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS are able to claim ignorance of the law without penalty they will maintain their effort to secure ILLEGAL labor resulting in the ILLEGALS continuing to scurry across our unsecured national borders.

Indeed it is, and here's an example:

Ukrainian brothers convicted in human-trafficking case

By Nathan Gorenstein

Inquirer Staff Writer

Two Ukrainian brothers were found guilty Wednesday of running a ring that used Eastern European immigrants as slaves to clean suburban big-box stores.
Omelyan Botsvynyuk, 52, and Stepan Botsvynyuk, 36, were on trial for a month in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on federal charges of conspiring to engage in racketeering and extortion.

Both men were found guilty of one count of conspiracy. Omelyan Botsvynyuk was also found guilty of one count of extortion. The jury found Stepan Botsvynyuk not guilty of extortion.

Omelyan Botsvynyuk faces up to life in prison, prosecutors said. Stepan Botsvynyuk could be sentenced to up to 20 years' imprisonment.

Prosecutors argued that starting around 2001, the men were key participants in a human-trafficking operation involving about 30 victims that operated until 2007.

Using a route that stretched from Ukraine to Mexico, Los Angeles, and then to this region, the workers were brought in illegally, and then were allegedly beaten and threatened to keep them in indentured servitude.

They worked 16-hour days for little pay, say prosecutors. At least one female immigrant was raped by Omelyan Botsvynyuk, according to the grand jury indictment, handed up in June 2010.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Velez said the brothers were part of an organization that forced the illegal immigrants into "debt bondage," cleaning stores such as Target, Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Safeway for the Botsvynyuks' company.

"The verdict is a just vindication of seven years of hard work, especially by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security," Velez said. "This encourages my office and the investigative agencies to continue looking into these types of cases."

Asked about the harm done to the victims, Velez said, "They live in fear. They live in fear of the defendants and the defendants' associates."

Omelyan Botsvynyuk was arrested in Berlin last year and extradited to the United States to stand trial. Three other brothers were also charged with participating in what prosecutors call the Botsvynyuk Organization. Their cases await resolution.

The younger Botsvynyuk's defense attorney, Joshua Briskin, had told jurors that discrepancies and commonsense contradictions in the testimony of government witnesses justified acquittal.

The older Botsvynyuk's attorney, Howard Popper, said prosecution witnesses lacked credibility and testified in the hope of getting "T visas" to remain in this country. Those visas are given to victims of human trafficking.

Eight of the workers, six men and two women, cooperated with the government.

Some of the Botsvynyuks concocted a fake political party that they claimed was being persecuted in Ukraine in order to win asylum here.

Human-trafficking trials are not common, but immigrant-rights groups estimate that more than 14,500 people a year are brought into the United States to work as virtual peons.

Many of the illegal immigrants came from the same region of Ukraine as the Botsvynyuk brothers, and in at least some cases knew the men before coming to the United States. Defense attorneys said that suggested that whatever the working
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/penns ... _case.html

RELATED

Illegal Mexican immigration more professional, dangerous

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-252598.html

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-6672--0-0.html

Originally Posted by BillCunnane

Illegal immigration = organized crime = cartels. anyone see the pattern?

Illegal immigratiion = organized crime = cartels....... = power elite = political corruption = ........... illegal immigration.

Yes, I see the pattern...

Illegal immigration is organized crime at its worse.
Ironic that its always the catholics that coem here to set up mafias,not saying anythign about mainstream catholics,but they do bring them in and protect them.Of course now we have all the other chrisitans asst.helping them too.Guess somebody has to fill their pews,since most Americans have abandoned their God for the gods of atheletes and Hollyhood.
We knew very little crime organizations before the italians came ,and again nothing about all italians,it just seems that they are the ones who get into this sort of thing.