Thread: CA-ICE agents target criminal fugitives

ICE agents target criminal fugitives
BY STEVE E. SWENSON
sswenson@bakersfield.com | Wednesday, May 19 2010 05:58 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, May 19 2010 06:01 PM

Fugitive Operations Teams were formed in 2003, though the Bakersfield-based team started in 2005.

In Northern California (Kern is the southern boundary), the teams arrested 3,084 people in fiscal year 2008, 2,689 in fiscal year 2009 and 442 in the first six months of fiscal year 2010.

Arrests of fugitives with criminal records were 670 in 2008, 1,287 in 2009 and 297 in 2010.

The Bakersfield office, which includes Kern, Tulare, Kings, Inyo and Mono counties, arrests about 500 people a year, mostly in Kern County.

Virtually no violence except an occasional scuffle has been involved in the fugitive teams' arrests. No officer has been hospitalized.

Priority cases include aliens who pose a threat to national security or community safety, including members of transnational street gangs, child sex offenders and those with violent felony convictions.

A fugitive illegal alien is booked at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE), office in Bakersfield Wednesday morning. It is possible he will be deported by Wednesday evening. Federal officers went out Wednesday morning to arrest two men whose criminal records make them eligible for deportation. The crying son of one in the front seat added a different element to the picture.

A woman was with the other man and she also had two small children. She was taken into custody because she had no legal identification with her, officers said.

"One of the first things we do is determine who can care for the children," said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "We never leave children unattended."

Most of the time, as was the case Wednesday, relatives are available to take the children, but "in rare instances" the children are put into protective custody while an immigration court sorts out what happens to the arrested person, she said.

It's up to the courts to determine if there is any legal relief, Kice said. If a person is deported, the children could follow him or her, or stay in the United States, depending upon how their family wants to handle the situation, she said.

On Wednesday, six members of the Bakersfield-based Fugitive Operations Team -- accompanied by newspaper and television reporters and photographers -- set out to find a Mexican national and a Guatemalan national.

Neither man, nor the woman in the car with the Mexican national, wanted their names released to the news media and under the rules they have the right to keep their names secret, Kice said. They are being arrested under an administrative proceeding, not a criminal one, she said.

Several undercover vehicles parked near the Monterey Street home of the Guatemalan national by about 7:15 a.m. and planned to wait until about 8 a.m. when he was expected to come out and drive to work, said Erik Bonnar, deputy field office director of the San Francisco office, whose jurisdiction includes Bakersfield.

It's believed the man agents were looking for works for a gang rehabilitation group based in Los Angeles, Bonnar said.

But just before 7:30 a.m., an officer urgently asked for the license number of the Chevrolet Impala associated with the Mexican national. In seconds, the officers streaked down West Drive and surrounded the Impala on Oregon Street.

They handcuffed the 31-year-old Mexican national and a 26-year-old woman in the car with him, and made sure the woman's children, ages 4 and 6, were OK with her mother. The Mexican national was not the father.

The woman was calm, but confused, asking, "What is happening, sir?"

The man asked for his car to be left on the street, not towed away; officers complied.

Within 15 minutes, the officers returned to Monterey Street to again wait for the Guatemalan national.

"Sometimes you run across people in places you don't expect," Bonnar said. The plan for the Mexican national was to try to find him later in the morning through a landscaping business he worked for, he said.

The Mexican national drove a little bit before he was stopped in order to create some distance from Williams Elementary School so children arriving there wouldn't be impacted, Bonnar explained.

Officers went back to stake out the Guatemalan's home and stopped him driving a new Cadillac Escalade at Monterey and West streets. As his 7-year-old son cried in the front seat, the Guatemalan national was handcuffed by officers. He was agitated and emotional, and talking nonstop.

"What am I going to jail for? I didn't do nothing. I'm a (expletive) U.S. citizen. Let me tell my wife, man. I'm freaking out. I don't know what is going on," he said.

His wife, Paola Lara, walked briskly to the scene, telling reporters she was "surprised" by the stop. She said they've been married two years and have children, ages 7 and 4. She took custody of the 7-year-old as her 25-year-old husband went to the ICE offices on Truxtun Avenue to be fingerprinted, interviewed and held in custody.

He is a legal permanent resident or a holder of a green card, but he has also been convicted of crimes that make him eligible for deportation, Bonnar said.

The convictions include battery in 2003, assault with a deadly weapon in 2004, criminal threats in 2007 and possession of a dangerous weapon in 2007, ICE records say.

The main purpose of the fugitive operation teams is to find immigration fugitives who pose a threat to national or community safety because of convictions for violent crimes or participation in gangs, Kice said. The heavily tattooed Guatemalan is reputed to be a member of the MS 13 street gang, Bonnar said.

The Guatemalan will have a hearing before an immigration judge to determine if he can stay in the United States or will be deported, Bonnar said.

The Mexican national, who was ordered deported in 2007, was taken to Mexico Wednesday, Kice said. His convictions included carrying a concealed weapon in 1996, possession of drugs in 2005, sex with a minor under 16 years old in 2007 and parole violations for driving offenses in 2009, ICE reported.

The woman in his car was released by early afternoon Wednesday pending further immigration hearings. She has no criminal record and has never before encountered immigration authorities, Bonnar said. She said she's been in America for 23 years. She works for a janitorial service. Someone like her who is cooperative and has no criminal record may be allowed to stay in the country, Kice said.

She had the option of a voluntary deportation to Mexico, which couldn't be used against her in any future proceedings, Bonnar said. But she and the others arrested were given a list of attorneys to contact and those attorneys would have likely advised her to take her chances in a court hearing on staying in America, he said.

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x ... -fugitives

The woman should have been deported. We don't need her working for a janitorial company. She was with an MS-13 gang member. They work by day and run their illegal activities by night. These are trained advance forces making the US the laughing stock of the globe.

Wake Up People! And ICE, you're proving yourself virtually useless. You run your mouths in public reassuring illegal aliens they've nothing to worry about unless you can catch them committing other crimes, ignoring the crime of illegal immigration and turning your backs on the tens of millions of American Victims of the crimes of illegal immigration.

Maybe what you need is a long furlough without pay so you can experience the consequences of illegal immigration personally.

Would that help you? Naaaah, probably not. You probably just need to be fired and sent on your way.