Thread: NY: Chautauqua County’s Immigration Issues

County’s Immigration Issues

By Luke Anderson

Feb 24, 2008

‘‘This is nothing new. We run into quite a few illegal aliens.’’

John Bentley

Lakewood-Busti police chief

2/24/2008 - When naming the population centers for undocumented aliens in the United States, Chautauqua County is pretty far down the list.

But officials point out that illegal immigrants can be found anywhere in the country, and Chautauqua County is no exception

Three times this month local police agencies in Lakewood, Busti and Salamanca arrested a total of 15 illegal immigrants in three separate incidents.

Law enforcement officials say turning up illegal aliens is not an every day occurrence, but also say they are not surprised when it happens.

On Feb. 8, Lakewood-Busti police pulled over a Mitsubishi Montero for speeding on Baker Street Extension in Busti and say they found three people in the car who were in the U.S. illegally from Mexico. On Feb. 11, a traffic stop on East Fairmount Avenue reportedly turned up four undocumented Mexican and Honduran immigrants. Eight more illegal immigrants were charged in raids Monday in Salamanca.

According to John Bentley, Lakewood-Busti police chief, the scenario is fairly common.

‘‘This is nothing new,’’ Bentley said. ‘‘We run into quite a few illegal aliens.’’

According to Bentley, illegal immigrants are often discovered during routine traffic stops when officers find the occupants of a car do not have proper documentation, including driver’s licenses.



Dynamics and

Demographics

According to Sheriff Joe Gerace, a variety of dynamics shapes the movement of illegal immigrants through the area.

Undocumented aliens might be transients who spend a short time in the county, perhaps working for a farm during the harvest season before moving on.

Or they could stay longer, getting jobs in restaurants or as housekeepers.

‘‘Some establish themselves and have high-paying jobs,’’ Gerace said.

Gerace said the apprehension of undocumented aliens is not confined to one part of the year.

‘‘It’s probably more common in the summer months with the farm workers,’’ Gerace said, but added deputies have arrested illegal aliens at all times of the year.

According to Mike Phillips, assistant director of the Buffalo field office of detention and removal, an office within the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, many of the illegal immigrants brought to his attention by local law enforcement are migrant workers. Phillips said the farms in Chautauqua County can offer easy opportunities for seasonal employment.

But according to Phillips and Mike Gilhooly, ICE spokesman, there is no single profile of an undocumented alien employer.

‘‘People tend to go where the work is,’’ Gilhooly said.

‘‘We’ve had them at gas stations and corner delis,’’ Phillips added.



Partners In Crime(fighting)

In combating illegal immigration, local law enforcement officials work closely with ICE, an office within the federal Department of Homeland Security charged with enforcing a wide array of laws dealing with movement of people, goods and information in and out of the country.

In addition to dealing with illegal immigration, ICE officials also investigate money laundering, drug smuggling, fraud, child exploitation, human trafficking and a number of other issues.

When police have reason to believe they have found an undocumented immigrant, they notify ICE or Border Patrol officers, who come to take custody of the suspect and initiate an investigation.

The task of overseeing the investigation of these cases falls to Lev Kubiak, special agent in charge of the Buffalo investigations office. Chautauqua County falls under the Buffalo area of operations, which also consists of the rest of the state with the exception of the five boroughs of New York City.

According to Kubiak, investigations are not just limited to finding out whether a given suspect is in the country illegally.

‘‘We look into every call like that to determine if there is a larger investigation,’’ Kubiak said. ‘‘It’s possible they have fraudulent documents, it’s possible they’re being exploited. In a large majority of cases folks are smuggled somehow, so we look to who smuggled these individuals here.’’

Kubiak said finding and removing illegal aliens is only one part of his job. The office of investigations also targets people who knowingly employ illegal immigrants.

Because of their legal status, Kubiak said undocumented aliens are easy targets of exploitation. Unscrupulous employers will often pay illegal immigrants far less than a living wage and force them to live in substandard conditions, then threaten to report them to authorities if they complain.

Sometimes, according to Kubiak, the situation can be even worse than that. Kubiak said his office recently investigated a group of underground massage parlors, where Chinese women were brought to the United States and forced to work as prostitutes to pay for their passage.

But these more serious issues have yet to be seen in Chautauqua County.

‘‘I think we’re fortunate in the Chautauqua County area. We haven’t seen a huge rash of large scale employers,’’ Kubiak said. ‘‘It’s a problem, but not as big a problem.’’

The more typical case in this area is the situation seen in the Lakewood-Busti traffic stops, or in Salamanca, where eight alleged illegal aliens were arrested in an early morning raid Tuesday by Salamanca police and ICE officials. The raid took place at 27 Elm St., and was the result of an investigation triggered by an anonymous complaint to police.

According to Gilhooly, information from the public is vital to ICE’s efforts.

‘‘Our task is a monumental task. All the help we can get we need,’’ Gilhooly said. ‘‘Tips from the general public are necessary for us to be successful.’’

For anyone suspicious of illegal immigration activity in their area, a tipline is available at (866) 347-2423

It is difficult to pin down the exact number of illegal immigrants in Chautauqua County, as ICE does not break down their activity by county. But in the last three fiscal years, 6,783 illegal aliens have been ordered removed in the Buffalo area of operations, according to Gilhooly.



Penalties

For most people found by an immigration court to be in the country illegally, the judge grants voluntary departure. That means the individual has a set period of time up to 120 days to tend to his affairs and leave the country.

If the subject leaves within the required time frame, he is then free to apply for re-entry at a U.S. Consulate.

‘‘It really behooves these individuals to leave,’’ Gilhooly said, noting that people who refuse to leave are pursued by the fugitive operations team and removed from the country by force.

‘‘If they fail to depart, they’re faced with being deported. Then there’s a bar to reentering the country,’’ said Mike Phillips, assistant director of the Buffalo field office of detention and removal.

Penalties for harboring and employing illegal immigrants range from fines if a company is merely negligent in obtaining documentation from their workers to lengthy prison terms for knowingly employing or harboring an illegal alien.

Despite the temptation to find a single set of factors in the illegal immigration issue, immigration officials tried to remind people of the complexities involved in the situation

Illegal immigrants are not only breaking the law, they are also often victims. And the people who exploit illegal immigrants can also be involved in drug smuggling, money laundering, prostitution and any number of other offenses.

‘‘It’s very rare that somebody violated just one section of the law,’’ Kubiak said.

http://post-journal.com/news/articles.a ... leID=25176

I wish that the process was as effective as they try to make out. It sounds like they are facing the problem for the first time and are not used to having deported illegal alens return repeatedly.