Thread: Illegals everywhere and no Federal help (Idaho)

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2006/0 ... news01.prt

Illegals among us

JASON HUNT/Press
Idaho State Police officer Sean Prosser arrest an alleged illegal alien for driving without a drivers license Thursday during a traffic stop along Highway 95 last week. Prosser is originally from Great Britain.
By DAVE TURNER
Staff writer
As the immigration debate continues in Congress, law enforcement officials are finding little will be done about unlawful immigrants locally

COEUR d'ALENE -- A routine traffic stop nets an unlicensed driver going to work at a Coeur d'Alene Mexican restaurant.

"No license, no insurance, no registration," said Idaho State Police trooper Sean Prosser.

And no English.

And Prosser, who, despite his British accent, is a U.S. citizen by virtue of the nationality of his American father, does not habla espanole.

A further check finds the driver, Saul M. Juarez, 25, had no proof he is in the United States legally. All he is able to present to the trooper for identification is a Mexican voter's registration card.

Juarez was less than a block away from his job at a Mexican restaurant when he was netted on Thursday during a traffic emphasis patrol on U.S. 95. He missed part of that work shift because he was taken to the Kootenai County jail and booked on the misdemeanor driving charges, and another count of speeding. He was traveling 47 mph in the 35 mph zone.

During the traffic stop, Prosser asked his dispatcher to contact immigration officials. None responded.

While waiting for an interpreter, two of Juarez' co-workers walked up to the scene. One had the title of the Oregon-licensed car he was driving.

"None are legal," Prosser said.

After he was booked into jail, Juarez posted $141 and was released.

Jail officials said there was no immigration hold placed on Juarez by federal authorities.

The traffic stop shows the irony of the U.S. immigration debate raging nationally.

When Prosser left his job as a London financier to move to his father's homeland, it took a year for his Scottish wife to get permission to move here as a legal resident alien.

But for illegals, or "the undocumented" who sneak across the border, there's little that will be done on individual, or "administrative" arrests, one federal official said.

In the past week, Magistrate Eugene Marano sentenced a Brazilian man, Carlos A. DeMarco, who was living illegally in California, to 20 days in jail for driving in Idaho with no license.

DeMarco, who said he was an electrician, told Marano he was going to New Orleans to assist with the recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina.

During the hearing, the man admitted that while his lawyer was working on getting him his papers, he was in the United States illegally.

Marano ordered jailers to contact immigration officials and report the man's status.

After more than a week, there was still no detainer forthcoming from the feds.

Over the past month, as U.S. lawmakers' debate changes to immigration policy, protest rallies have raged in major and even minor cities.

However, unless it involves smuggling a large numbers of aliens, federal
officials said detaining and deporting those here illegally is not a high priority.

But as the national debate rages, Prosser's boss, ISP patrol Capt. Wayne Longo said his troopers are on the front lines.

Last week, Longo said one of his troopers stopped a carload of illegal aliens, this group from Romania who likely sneaked across the border in Washington.

He said after keeping the trooper occupied for two hours waiting for ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to respond, the trooper took down all of the group's identifying information and cut them loose.

"They were heading toward Montana," Longo said.

Longo said during that two hours troopers talked to several different ICE officials, finally one saying he would go into his office and see what he could do.

While the trooper was tied up on the stop, other duties went undone.

During the lengthy stop, Longo said the trooper was running perilously close to violating the motorist rights and setting up an allegation of unlawful detention.

"I asked him if this were any other civilian stop, would there be anything else to hold them on," Longo said. The trooper said "absolutely not."

With only a speeding ticket to support the stop, Longo ordered the trooper to let them go on their way.

Longo admits that while ICE agents are "probably stretched thinner than we are" since they were not given any different answer, or were told agents were coming to pick them up, he decided he had to let them go.

Part of the problem might be the bureaucracy of ICE, which is a division of Homeland Security.

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok, the department's central Regional Communications Director, said ICE has no agents in the Idaho Panhandle.

"We don't have an office there," said Rusnok, speaking from his office in Dallas, Texas. "That's part of the problem, but we're not saying that we wouldn't respond."

He said ICE has a 24-hour hotline for citizens to report any suspicious activity. That number is 866 347-2423.

He said ICE has offices in Boise, Twin Falls and Idaho Falls, all a good day's drive from North Idaho.

While there's a ICE office in Spokane, about a half-hour away, agents there are not allowed to cross regional borders except in extreme cases.

"We deported 167,700 illegal aliens last year," Rusnok said. "Of those, 84,000 had criminal convictions. The rest were noncriminal aliens."

But sheer numbers of illegal aliens -- estimated as 12 million nationwide -- has overwhelmed enforcement efforts.

"With the number of illegal aliens, we can't drop our criminal prosecutions to handle administrative arrests," Rusnok said. "We have to prioritize."

Dave Turner can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2009 or at dturner@cdapress.com.

All he is able to present to the trooper for identification is a Mexican voter's registration card.

that works for me ... the state can just send him to his voting precinct IN MEXICO

During the traffic stop, Prosser asked his dispatcher to contact immigration officials. None responded.

This is why things are the way they are and why they are laughing in our faces and marching in our streets.

I really am glad I do not have a high blood pressure problem, because if I did I'd be dead by now.

GRRRRR!!

We need to fire ICE.

They are worthless when it comes to border security. They are nothing but a bunch of office boys and girls.

They are not capable of deporting illegal aliens, so we need to just give them the big PINK SLIP and fund our Wall of Americans on both borders.

What we need to do is set up our Wall of Americans on both borders and then when a smart trooper like Prosser finds them; they have no valid documents; they have no citizenship; he just drives to the border and drops them on the other side--and our WALL OF AMERICANS keeps them out of here.

Very Simple.

Then Mexico and Canada can worry with them after that. Afterall, don't we have a "Security and Prosperity Partnership Pact"? We'll do our part and hand them back to the border that let them in.

What is needed besides more funding for ICE is a State Immigration Police Department among whose duties would be picking up and assembling groups of ilegals for easier deportation.

I think forget ICE...they're into contraband.

A new organization with 50 state affiliates run by the 50 Governors is what we need.

They find them; they use their local and state LEO's and National Guard Troops and Equipment to get them out of here.

We can't trust the federal government on any leg of this best I can tell.

States should pass a little itsy bitsy sales tax and use it to fund their immigration police and our Wall of Americans!!

Then send the bills to the federal government to be paid out DHS funds...best I can determine all we need is part of their money and our outstanding Border Patrol Agents. All the rest of those "shirts, suits and skirts" in DC can be PINK SLIPPED and put in the jobless lines. A few years in the jobless line might give them a badly needed new attitude, eh?