Local
CASA helping suspected illegals nabbed at work to post bail

Kathleen Miller, The Examiner
2008-08-12 07:00:00.0
Current rank: # 50 of 4,376
WASHINGTON -

Leaders of a local immigrant advocacy group are trying to help suspected illegal immigrants arrested in work site raids access bail money.

CASA de Maryland is working with the National Immigrant Bond Fund to help immigrants detained in raids get out of jail and fight the charges against them. The fund has already put up the cash to help free 10 of the 46 people detained by federal immigration authorities during a June raid on an Annapolis painting company. Their bail amounts ranged from $3,500 to $20,000. Detainees were asked to provide half the money themselves.

Robert Hildreth, the founder and president of International Bank Services Inc., a Boston-based company that trades and services international bank loans, has put up most of the $200,000 in the fund.

He helped 40 of 200 immigrants caught in a New Bedford, Mass., raid last year make bail, he says, because “something had to be done to get clients and their lawyers together.â€