Mount Kisco immigration raids are among many across U.S.
By LEAH RAE
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: April 8, 2007)


On the Web
For more information on the fugitive operations teams, visit www.ice.gov/pi/dro/nfop.htm.


MOUNT KISCO - The recent immigration sweeps in this village are just a small indication of what's happening across the nation.

Large-scale arrests are being carried out by an increasing number of what officials call "fugitive operations teams," whose targets are more than 600,000 people who were ordered deported or who failed to show up for immigration proceedings.

The effort was described in a March 14 letter from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House immigration subcommittee. The number of fugitive operations teams has risen from 18 to 53 since the last fiscal year, with funds set aside for 75 teams in all, wrote Karen Lang, ICE director of congressional affairs. The effort has resulted in 18,860 arrests since May, according to the letter.

In Mount Kisco, where some 39 people were arrested in pre-dawn operations March 19 and 22, the roundups are having a lasting effect on immigrant workers.

"Now there's the fear that they're not safe in their own homes," said Carola Bracco, executive director of the Neighbors Link Community Center. The center, which helps immigrants find employment and learn English, has been advising workers about their rights - namely, that they can ask for a warrant if the authorities come to their homes.

At two village apartment buildings last month, immigration officers and local police rousted tenants from their bedrooms in search of a fugitive.

"There is stress among us, because we don't know when they might return again and do something similar," said Carlos Hernandez, who lives in a Spring Street building that was raided March 22. While seven residents of the building were cuffed and detained on immigration violations, Hernandez said, he presented his work authorization card and was allowed to stay behind with his wife and baby.

A local police report on the first raid, at 165 Main St., said ICE was searching for Estanislau Lopez, a 48-year-old Guatemalan citizen with a criminal history.

He was not found.

The fugitive teams place priority on those deemed national security threats or convicted criminals, Lang said in her letter. At private residences, officers must obtain consent to enter, she wrote. They may question anyone at the location about their immigration status and, if they deem someone to be living in the United States illegally, arrest the person without warrant. Such "nonfugitives" accounted for about 6,990 of the 18,860 arrests, according to ICE.

Fugitive teams have carried out operations from Santa Fe, N.M., to Yakima, Wash., to Newark, N.J.

Some of the Mount Kisco defendants were meeting with immigration officers in Manhattan last week. On Monday, Bracco accompanied five men to 26 Federal Plaza. They were given another appearance date after a brief meeting, then planned to get back to work, she said.

In interviews at the Main Street building, tenants said they had come from Guatemala and Honduras and worked in construction, painting, masonry and maintenance at a local horse farm.

"It's never been any of their intentions to actually break the law," Bracco said. "There's almost no other choice for them, given the kind of life they had."

She said a common problem is that immigrants miss the notices sent to them by mail and are unaware their names are on a list.

"People move a lot," she said.

Neighbors Link and the Westchester Hispanic Coalition are among the groups advising immigrants about their legal rights in the wake of the raids.

In criminal proceedings, undocumented immigrants are granted the same constitutional rights to remain silent and have attorneys as U.S. citizens, said Benita Jain, staff attorney at the Immigrant Defense Project in New York City. But immigration proceedings, a matter of civil law, are somewhat different. There is no right to an attorney in the immigration courts, and most immigrants go before an immigration judge unrepresented, she said.

There is a requirement that immigrants keep their green cards or other documentation with them. But at home, residents may ask to see a warrant when immigration officers come to question them, Jain said.

"For immigration agents to lawfully enter your home, they need to have a warrant or be invited in," she said. Advocates generally advise immigrants not to speak to anyone or sign anything until they speak to a lawyer.

ICE obtains administrative warrants when its agents report to a location in search of a fugitive, spokesman Mark Thorn said.

"What we have are administrative warrants," he said. "Once we gain entry into the house or the premises, we are going to check that premises because we need to know who's there."

The nationwide crackdown comes as President Bush is trying to gain Republican support to allow more guest workers into the country and offer a path to citizenship. The raids are being viewed with skepticism even by immigration-control proponents, who note the political context. Congress is expected to renew its discussion this year on immigration reform and the contentious issue of whether to offer legalization to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

"It's not really the type of systematic enforcement that I'd like to see," said Jim Russell of Westchester-Rockland Citizens for Immigration Control.

"It's really ineffective over the long run. It gives a false impression to some people who say, 'Oh, wow, the government's finally doing something about this.' And it really doesn't resolve the issue for anyone."



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