Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Mercury News Editorial
Article Launched: 10/17/2007 01:35:03 AM PDT

What federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have described as fugitive operations to deport criminals and gang members have turned into indiscriminate arrests of undocumented immigrants.

The Bush administration must put a halt to these random detentions, which are separating families, creating fear in neighborhoods and hurting the efforts of local police to win the trust of the immigrant community.

The latest incident led to the chance arrest and now possible deportation of a beloved Mountain View Catholic church youth lay minister. Lucio Caciano Miranda, 37, was handcuffed in an early morning raid last week at a home in Sunnyvale. He was released, pending further hearings, after appearing in immigration court on Tuesday.

ICE officials apparently had a warrant for a previous resident. They questioned Miranda about his status, then hauled him off to a jail in Yuba County. They can do this because immigration officials don't need to seek warrants or read people their rights.

But just because they can treat non-citizens under a different standard doesn't mean they should. Reports of armed midnight raids into wrong homes that terrorized families have been too numerous to discount. San Jose's police and other departments have publicly disassociated themselves from ICE, because witnesses who fear deportation will not come forward to help the police solve crimes.

Miranda has been in America for 15 years and works as a gardener.

But he's best known for his work with Juvenos para Cristo (Youths for Christ) at St. Athanasius parish and the Peninsula Interfaith Alliance.
He obtained his high school GED diploma and was trained for three years through the San Jose Diocese to be become a lay minister. He is the type of leader who offers hope to young people and stability to the community -a person the government should be praising, not deporting.

Hundreds of his admirers, many of them teenagers, filled church pews Monday night in a prayer service. Some held a vigil outside court Tuesday. They wore Lucio name tags to underscore their anxiety that they could be next; as the poster on the church wall said, "Today, Lucio. Tomorrow, Us."

ICE has stepped up its aggressive approach after Congress' and the president's failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The agency should be deporting felons and gang members, but indiscriminate arrests only create unnecessary fear in our communities.

Officials in several cities and counties have called for ICE to be reined in. Local communities of faith and everyone concerned about justice and safety should join them in protesting the federal government's heavy-handed tactics.
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