Thread: Illegal immigrant roundup is just rumor

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Illegal immigrant roundup is just rumor
Saturday, January 28, 2006
By SEAN C. McCULLEN
Staff Writer
Rumors that federal immigration officials have been rounding up illegal immigrants in Cumberland County this week have spread throughout the area's Mexican communities.

The rumors resulted in many of the area's illegal immigrants staying inside their homes late this week -- skipping school or work -- out of fear they will be detained and then deported, according to several sources.

It appears there is no truth to the widespread rumors.

"I believe it to be a rumor. It's a really vicious rumor. It has the whole community scared," said immigration attorney Elizabeth M. Trinidad, who has an office on Bridgeton's East Commerce Street.

Trinidad did say a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official confirmed to her that immigration officials had arrested several illegal immigrants in Vineland earlier this week. But those detainees were apprehended because they had ignored prior orders to leave the country, she said, not as the result of some random documentation checks seeking illegals.

Still, the Vineland arrests, coupled with the fact Bridgeton police conducted motor vehicle checkpoints targeting unlicensed and unregistered motorists on North Pearl Street the evenings of Jan. 6 and 7 -- the majority of the traffic violators were Hispanic -- has resulted in fear of an extensive sweep among illegal immigrants, Trinidad said.

Trinidad heard a rumor that illegal immigrants were rounded up at the ShopRite in Upper Deerfield Township, just outside of Bridgeton's city limits, on Thursday. The rumor was so specific as to indicate that 29 people were loaded onto two buses.

Trinidad said she spoke with ShopRite employees, though, and none had seen or heard of any such round-up. She also noted that there were not a lot of cars abandoned in the supermarket's parking lot, as one would expect if 29 people had been apprehended there.

Rumors similar to "the ShopRite rumor" made their way through the area's Mexican communities following a multi-agency round-up of illegal immigrants affiliated with street gangs in Bridgeton on July 20, Trinidad said. Those unconfirmed rumors indicated immigration officials had rounded up illegal immigrants at the Dollar Super Store on Irving Avenue in Bridgeton.

While messages left at the ICE office in Newark Friday afternoon seeking to confirm or deny that an illegal-immigrant sweep is ongoing or was recently concluded in the county were not returned, Bridgeton police officers the News questioned Friday about the rumors said that federal immigration officials had not notified them of any such activity in the city.

Lt. Gerald Lewis, a spokesman for New Jersey State Police, said that state police had not been notified of an illegal-immigrant sweep in the county, either. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo said the same.

Trinidad reported that a Bridgeton police officer, with whom she has developed a good rapport, told her that there was not an illegal-immigrant sweep in Bridgeton or at the ShopRite in Upper Deerfield this week.

Still, the rumors, whether there is any truth to them or not, have certainly had an impact on people's lives.

Trinidad spoke Friday with an area employer -- she did not wish to identify him -- who told her that a high percentage of his employees had failed to show up for work, likely scared by the rumors.

Bridgeton Superintendent of Schools Dr. H. Victor Gilson reported that attendance at Broad Street School was at about 90 percent on Friday, down 4 percent from the school's average daily attendance. He was told that a teacher at Broad Street School had informed the school's principal to expect higher-than-normal absences, as students were planning to stay home as a result of the rumors.

"They just didn't want to be out on the streets," Gilson said.

Trinidad does not think the attendance dip at Broad Street School on Friday was a coincidence.

"I would not be surprised if parents did not let their children go to school or take them to school," she said.

Trinidad spoke Friday with an area employer -- she did not wish to identify him -- who told her that a high percentage of his employees had failed to show up for work, likely scared by the rumors.

I wonder if it now occurs to this employer then that perhaps a "high percentage" of his employees are illegal, and what does he intend to do about that?? While the illegal aliens are definately criminals, these employers are even worse.

Why not spread this rumor every Sunday evening? These kind of employers don't tend to hold jobs waiting for illegals to return.