Thread: WA-Immigration agency may allow bail for longtime drug infor

Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 12:06 AM



Immigration agency may allow bail for longtime drug informant

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador, who worked as a major drug informant for 13 years, appeared before an immigration judge last week, more than a month after the federal government arrested him and began the process to deport him.

By Lornet Turnbull


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TACOMA — Ernesto Gamboa, the illegal immigrant from El Salvador who worked with law enforcement as a drug informant for 13 years before the federal government abruptly arrested him last month, made initial appearances before an immigration judge last week.

Dressed in the blue overalls of nonviolent detainees at Northwest Detention Center, Gamboa shuffled his way into the courtroom, his hands and feet in shackles — standard practice for all detainees being held in isolation.

He smiled occasionally at his brother, sister, a friend and a retired law-enforcement officer who were in court to support him.

Nearly six weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him and began the process of deporting him, an ICE attorney on Thursday left open the possibility the agency might reconsider its decision to deny him bail.

ICE has never publicly discussed Gamboa's case, and during court appearances on Monday and Thursday it offered no real clues as to why it wants him out of the country.

Beyond releasing him from detention, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell believes the government owes Gamboa some kind of legal status, given his years of service to this country.

In recent letters on his behalf to federal and state authorities, she wrote that allowing him to remain in the U.S. legally would "benefit the community at large," given the extent of his service.

"Mr. Gamboa cooperated with law enforcement, not because of any threat of criminal prosecution but simply out of a desire to improve the community that he lived in," she wrote.

Since 1996, Gamboa worked under ICE's watch as a confidential informant for local, state and federal law enforcement on major national and international drug investigations, which resulted in more than 90 federal convictions.

All along, he'd hoped — and said he'd been led to believe — such work might eventually earn him an "S" visa, a kind of legal status the federal government extends to illegal immigrants who assist law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting crimes.

But July 7, days after ICE and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) wrapped up a major drug investigation in which Gamboa was a key informant, ICE arrested him.

In fact, documents show that as ICE was asking Gamboa to work undercover with it on that case more than a year ago, the agency was drafting paperwork to have him deported.



For his protection, Gamboa is being held in isolation at the detention center.

Part of ICE's legal argument in Gamboa's case began to emerge in court Thursday.

During Gamboa's years as an informant, ICE, a division of Homeland Security, had granted him a rare status known as humanitarian parole — a special allowance for entry into the U.S. to those who offer a "significant public benefit."

Over the years, Gamboa used this parole to return to the U.S. after visits to family in El Salvador and after traveling to Mexico in November to seek medical care.

Legally, humanitarian parole is granted only to "arriving aliens" — people physically outside the U.S. It's issued at the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security, which has sole authority to revoke it or to deny bail to a holder who has been detained while in the U.S.

In court last week, ICE attorney Neil Floyd argued that Gamboa, by virtue of having been granted humanitarian parole, must be regarded as an arriving alien. And as such, it's Homeland Security — not the immigration court — that has final say on his release.

The court, he said, lacks jurisdiction to "redetermine" Gamboa's bail, which ICE denied after his arrest last month.

Jorge Barón, executive director of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and Gamboa's attorney, called it the "arriving-alien fiction."

"It's unfair for the government to say that we'll treat you like you're outside the country for purposes of bond, but when it comes to helping the government, you're inside."

In other words, he said, the government wants to have Gamboa both outside and inside the country to suit its interests.

Floyd asked for more time so the government could build an argument on the jurisdiction question, telling the judge, "We're trying to reach a resolution without a full battle."

Another bond hearing is set for Friday, and a hearing on Gamboa's deportation is scheduled for Sept. 1.

Gamboa quit ICE's yearlong drug investigation near its end, a few weeks before ICE arrested him last month. He said the ICE agent heading up the investigation had threatened to deport him if he left the state to take a job so he could support himself.

That investigation led to the arrest of 31 people and seizure of drugs, cash and weapons. DEA Special Agent John Satchell referred to Gamboa in code in charging documents from the case: "(Gamboa) has been working with law enforcement officers for approximately fourteen years. On all occasions, (he) has proven to be highly reliable and accurate when providing information."

In her letters to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the State Patrol supporting a visa for Gamboa, Cantwell wrote: "If an individual who has provided such extensive cooperation to law enforcement agencies ... is not only not granted legal status but is actually deported to a place where they will face harm as a result of the cooperation, the almost-certain result will be that fewer individuals will be willing to come forward and cooperate with the authorities.

"This, in turn, will only make it harder for agencies such as yours to bring drug traffickers and other criminals to justice and would be contrary to fairness, common sense, and good public policy."

Lornet Turnbull: lturnbull@seattletimes.com


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This one is too hard to call. Not enough facts or info. The gov't could very well be acting in bad faith or their boy could have screwed up.

If in fact he was serving in the best interest of United States, he should be granted legal status IMO, 14 years putting his life on the line, not a tough call at all.