Thread: Immigrants angry over illega alien roundups

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Residents angry over immigrant roundups
Federal customs agents use questionable practices to gather and deport illegals in the area


By Tom Lochner
Article Last Updated: 01/29/2007 06:48:26 AM PST


RICHMOND RESIDENT Patricia Cadena gives an emotional testimony of when four people of her extended family were taken from their home in San Pablo and deported to Mexico. Several hundred people packed St. Mark's Church gymnasium in Richmond on Sunday for a forum on immigrants rights. (JOANNA JHANDA -- MediaNews staff)Several hundred immigrants and their supporters Sunday denounced a recent wave of arrests and deportations of immigrants in the East Bay as a violation of basic human rights.
"I do not want our residents to live under terror," said Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. That's how "hundreds of thousands of families" have lived, she said, since Immigration and Customs Enforcement began a nationwide push in immigrant communities, including Richmond, San Pablo and Concord.

The National Fugitive Operations Program targets immigrants with deportation orders, especially those who have committed crimes, ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley has said.

Church leaders and immigrant advocacy groups say ICE violates its own rules by rounding up and swiftly deporting people who are not on the list. They complain ICE trawls for immigrants around schools and Latino markets. Haley said agents have the discretion to check out people not on the ICE list.

Critics also complain about ICE agents' use of the word "police" to gain access to homes, saying it undermines immigrants' trust in local police. Haley defended the practice, saying ICE agents are federal police.

McLaughlin spoke at an immigration forum at St. Mark Catholic Church hosted by Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization. Other speakers included Richmond council members Ludmyrna Lopez, John Marquez and Tony Thurmond; San Pablo council members Genoveva Garcia Calloway and Leonard McNeil; Pinole Mayor


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Maria Alegria; West Contra Costa schools official Kaye Burnside; an aide to Rep. George Miller, Barbara Johnson; lawyer Mark Silverman; and the Rev. Ramiro Flores, St. Mark's pastor, who prayed for respect for immigrants' dignity.
Several people testified about encounters with ICE, among them Maria "Chuy" Ramos, whose daughter, 17, and son, 21, were arrested at home by ICE agents ostensibly targeting someone else. Ramos saidimmigrants who do work no one else wants to do should not be denied human rights.

"For whom are the rights?" she asked. "For those who have the money? For those who have the power?"

Patricia Cadena said armed people shouting "police" took away her brother, niece, two nephews and a family friend from their San Pablo apartment Dec. 18. The niece, 17-year-old Richmond High School senior Montserrat Cadena, eventually was released and is seeking permission to stay in the country to complete her studies, her aunt said.

The others — Jesus Cadena and his sons Hugo, 28, and Jesus Jr., 27, and another man she knows only as Rogelio — were deported to Mexico two weeks later, Patricia Cadena said.

"They didn't take the mom because she had just left for work," Cadena said.

Her story resembles others around the East Bay, but with a twist: The officers who shouted "police" were just that, San Pablo police officers, according to Cadena.

No San Pablo police official could be reached for comment late Sunday.

Cadena said there previously had been some kind of dispute between her brother's family and some neighbors, and she believes that is what brought police to the apartment. The four men were taken to the county jail in Martinez but were never charged with any crime, Cadena said, and ICE eventually stepped in.

Details of Cadena's story could not be verified Sunday.

McNeil said he does not know if San Pablo has a policy similar to Richmond's that bars local police from acting in tandem with ICE in most cases, but that if not, he would work toward one.

Immigration is a sensitive topic in San Pablo, where Mayor Paul Morris takes a tough stand on illegal immigration. In the campaign leading to his re-election to the council in November, Morris said illegal immigration is among the most serious problems facing the nation and that San Pablo police should enforce federal immigration laws.

McNeil took the historical perspective, thanking Mexicans for opposing a spread of slavery to their country, which he cited as an issue in the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. And during the 1930s, he noted, 2 million Mexicans were rounded up and deported, "much as is happening now."

McLaughlin blamed American economic and military policies for "a fair share" of the poverty and war in the world. "Our government shares in the responsibility for the forced migration for survival that has brought so many people here."

Richmond council members said they would introduce a resolution Feb. 6 for the city to write a letter to federal authorities seeking an end to ICE's current operation and its methods.

McNeil and Calloway urged residents to pressure the San Pablo council to do likewise. Pinole's Alegria said, "This is a struggle for basic human rights."

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What about BASIC LAW AND ORDER IN OUR COUNTRY!

If we went down to Mexico, took jobs, displayed our flag, didn't learn Spanish, and violated their statutes, and the Mexican government decided to deport us, would anyone down there raise their voice in our defence?

"This is a struggle for basic human rights."

They only want the "rights" to break laws. The citizens need to demand ICE not back down and do it's duty!!

COMMENTS:

It's depressing to see my old hometown catering to illegal aliens. Where is the concern for working Americans who's wages have been halved, who's children's schools have been 'bi-lingualized' to death, who's taxes have been doubled, who's hospitals have been closed, who's courthouses have been overrun, who's social services have been bankrupted?

Another few years of this invasion, another amnesty, and California will be voted into Mexico.

God help you all!!
Jeff Hermann | Homepage | 01.29.07 - 3:47 pm | #

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There appears to be a mistake in the headline, "Residents angry over immigrant roundups."

It should have been, "Citizens ecstatic over ICE Raids."

P.S. Here are some jobs that Mexicans won't do:
1) create a viable country
2) provide jobs for themselves
3) confront the drug lords
4) end the kleptocracy of their elite
Tim Aaronson | 01.29.07 - 2:47 pm | #

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These people are Mexico's shame. There are 106 million people in Mexico, and about 35 million legal and illegal Mexicans in the US, although Mexico is one of the richest countries in the world with vast natural resources and oil, and a coastline the could provide the most beautiful tourist areas in the world, bringing in untold sums of money.

In spite of that they are unable to provide jobs for 60% of their population, and nearly every official there has his pockets lined with drug pesos from the numerous drug cartels.

Why don't these people who sneak across our border and inundate us with crime and poverty fight in their own country for a better system? Of course the answer to that is because it is easier to sneak into the US than it is to straighten out their own third world nation.

And, what do they do to show their appreciate for being able to earn money here? They fly the flag of the failed, corrupt society they left and they spit on ours and claim this as their land and whites should go back to Europe.

Your puff piece won't have many supporters generally throughout the US, as 80% of our people want them gone.
Robert Kelly | 01.29.07 - 2:46 pm | #

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I spelled people wrong, will 'ya fix it? Dave.
Dave | 01.29.07 - 2:46 pm | #

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You are all wrong, these poeple have rights. The right to remain silent, the right to be deported etc. LOL!
Dave | 01.29.07 - 2:45 pm | #

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I am saddened when I read that so many Americans have turned against the laws of their own country. Why would anyone think that we should continue to close our eyes as this, and past, administrations have done? There was no reason not to close the borders after 9/11. Right now, I have the news on and they are discussing the hatred among the Latino and the African-Americans (hey, drop the hyphen please. You are American. Stand up for you own country). Our government has allowed criminals to invade and colonize our nation. If we don't need a fence on the border, how about removing the one around the White House? Until every last illegal is out of here, we'll never be a safe, united country. We've become the dumping ground of the world. It's insane.
June | 01.29.07 - 2:39 pm | #

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I find it interesting that the writer cannot disguise his bias when he states that Morris takes a "tough" stand as if favoring enforcement of existing law was anything other than the duty of an elected official in an executive position (ie. President, Governor, Mayor), and somehow McNeil, who opposes the enforcment of the law, is "compassionate" and obviously enlightened because he takes a "historical perspective".

That in and of itself makes the article opinion not news, but the business of Mexico fighting us because they opposed the "spread of slavery" that sounds like revisionist history. They were fighting against the expansion of our territory largely because American illegal aliens moved into Texas, and then fought to make it independent, and the US got pulled into the struggle in exchange for a promise to annex Texas.

Its funny though that the Mexicans in 1846 opposed slavery, but the Mexicans of 2007 have sold 15% of their population into slavery in exchange for 20 Billion dollars a year in remittances.

Where are the human rights activists who are demanding an end to this insane system? They should demand secure borders, and fines and prison time for all who hire or smuggle, or in any way aid and abet illegal aliens.

Every citizen should be called on to be vigilant and report such abuses to the proper authorities so that ICE can rescue the 21st century slaves and return them to the land they love.
Tim | 01.29.07 - 2:35 pm | #

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The Richmond Mayor is a traitor and should be arrested along with the criminal illegal aliens.The churches that get involved in political matters should forfeit their entire tax exempt status too.These criminal illegal aliens invading our country should be arrested in mass and deported all 12 to 30 million of them.
Jolene | 01.29.07 - 2:15 pm | #

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Cry me a river. What a bunch of sniveling contrived nonsense. "Oh, they used the word 'police' instead of immigration." "Oh, they picked up others not on their list." Too damned bad. They go after a burglar, find several, and just let them go because they're not on the list? Please. It always cracks me up, the "Spreading fear in the immigrant community." Oh, you mean ILLEGALS are wetting themselves because there's a microdot of enforcement going on? Well, no reason to live in fear. GET THE HELL OUT!!!
BurningAtlanta | 01.29.07 - 1:55 pm | #

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These people are here "ILLEGALLY"...what part of that do you not understand? This is not real hard people.
PAM | 01.29.07 - 12:57 pm | #

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I AGREE WITH THE LETTER UP TOP IF THEY CANNOT COME HERE LEGALY THEN THEY DONT HAVE ANY RIGHT BEING HERE ROUND THEM UP AND DEPORT THEM AND ALL THE POLITICIONS THAT GO AGAINST THEIR OATH OF OFFICE TO TAKE CARE OF US CITIZENS THAT VOTED THEM IN SHOULD BE DEPORTED WITH THE ILLEGALS
bill bryan | 01.29.07 - 10:35 am | #

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The only fearful immigrants are the illegal ones!!!
Dan | Homepage | 01.29.07 - 9:10 am | #

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yes the immigrants are angry. they should be angry at themselves. Americans are fed up with them taking our social services, crowding our schools and emergency rooms and taking our jobs etc.
how about they believe in the rule of law and come here the right way? until then i say they deserve to be deported. they can scream all they want they have no rights period. pack em up and ship em back. if they put half the effort they put into staying here into reforming where they come from, they would stay home. we are not the worlds welfare state and cannot absorb all that want to come.
also any politician that stands up for them, as the city councils are doing, should be recalled. they don't represent the majoriy and are going against their oathes of office. throw the bums out!!!!
Jim A. | 01.29.07 - 8:54 am | #

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Gayle McLaughlin
Mayor’s Office
1401 Marina Way South
Richmond, CA 94804

510-620-6503

510-412-2070 FAX

Ohhhh! Everybody have their hankys out, its crying time again.

I am thrilled to hear that the jerks are angry. I hope there are raids every week.

Kleenex please....booohooooo!

And during the 1930s, he noted, 2 million Mexicans were rounded up and deported, "much as is happening now."

more kleenex please .BOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOO

America does not deport immigrants! Only illegal aliens.

When are these people going to quit lying to themselves?

Dixie