Immigration enforcement stuns Cleveland families
Quote:
"Our goal is to restore integrity to the immigration laws, and part of that is removing individuals who do not have valid status," said Greg Palmore, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
If this is so, how about going to get Eliva Arenallo out of that church
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindeal ... xml&coll=2
Immigration enforcement stuns Cleveland families
Government no longer willing to ignore visa issues residents working and living here for years arrested
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Robert L. Smith
Plain Dealer Reporter
Those who shared Hasan Bakia's secret knew he was living in America on borrowed time. But they expected a warning, some chance at redemption, before a bitter end.
The acclaimed geologist had earned his good-neighbor credentials after arriving from Albania in 1992. He found factory work, befriended seemingly half of Lakewood, and emerged as the leader of a growing Albanian immigrant community.
Still, he lacked a more crucial credential: a current visa. On the night of Nov. 7, federal immigration agents seized Bakia and his wife, Mirjana, as they left their car outside a relative's apartment in Lakewood.
As the couple sit in jail awaiting deportation, astonished family and friends despair at the harshness of the action.
"We were not aware of how grave the situation was," said Alban Bakia, the couple's 35-year-old son, a naturalized U.S. citizen.
He had applied to sponsor his parents' citizenship, but federal authorities judged that the clock had run out. Even as new visas were being considered, immigration agents acted on a 6-year-old deportation order.
Some say the sudden arrest of a prominent, productive couple illustrates the government's new resolve to enforce immigration laws and rulings - and some say maybe to the point of overzealousness.
Not long ago, couples like the Bakias might have been cut a break, even ignored, local immigration advocates say. It was not uncommon for immigrants with visa problems to have barriers to entry waived, or to be allowed to stay while a lawyer argued their case.
But with Americans alarmed at the image of illegal immigrants spilling over the border, the Department of Homeland Security is cracking down. Its enforcement arm is showing far less patience and flexibility with people who lack the right papers.
"Our goal is to restore integrity to the immigration laws, and part of that is removing individuals who do not have valid status," said Greg Palmore, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
The numbers of people detained and deported by ICE's Detroit office - which covers Ohio and Michigan - surged 26 percent this year, to 2,518. It's part of a national effort to tighten a leaky immigration system, in part by arresting illegal immigrants who once were left alone.
A new ICE special operations team in Cleveland picked up the Bakias. A year ago, those agents most likely would have been tracking criminal aliens, illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, Palmore acknowledge.
Now, "We're going after everybody. We're an equal opportunity remover," he said.
In the small, quiet immigrant communities of Northeast Ohio, that's a shocking change.
Just before dawn,
INS knocks at the door
The Petcu house in North Royalton was just beginning to stir at 6:30 a.m. Nov. 3, a Friday. Toader and Margareta Petcu and their 23-year-old son, Emanuel, were getting ready for work. Daiana, 17, had a test that day at school.
Suddenly, they heard pounding at the door. Immigration agents handcuffed them all, according to friends of the family. Emanuel, as an adult, was separated from his parents and taken to Bedford Heights Jail. The other three Petcus were on a flight to an ICE detention facility in Texas by 7 p.m.
Margareta's mother, a U.S. citizen, was left home alone.
Friends and co-workers - who describe a close, kind, hard-working family - are still absorbing the calamity.
