Thread: Chief: 'We don't treat anybody different'

August 20, 2006
Advocates see coastal immigrants as vulnerable to arrests

By Julie Goodman
jgoodman@clarionledger.com

If Hispanic immigrants get picked up by Gulf Coast-area law enforcement, the Rev. Sally Bevill knows she must get them bonded out as soon as possible.

The longer they sit in jail, the more likely they are to draw the attention of immigration officials, says Bevill, the seashore district coordinator for Hispanic/Latino Ministries of the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Bevill has had car titles signed over to her in the past, to help someone behind bars who needs to sell a vehicle to send money back home.

For Bevill, immigration reform is needed to let people live in the United States legally and leave behind impoverished countries and difficult lives.

"People should be able to have the human right to live with dignity," she said.

Advocates such as Bevill see coastal immigrants as vulnerable. Others just see them as illegal.

Biloxi Assistant Police Chief Rodney McGilvary said his department does not target them. His officers don't specifically patrol areas such as construction sites where immigrants work, and he says roadblocks primarily are set up at the mall for safety informational purposes.

But if immigrants are pulled over and get caught without insurance or a driver's license, they should be prepared to face the consequences like anyone else, McGilvary said. And if police suspect someone is here illegally, they will notify immigration officials.

"We don't treat anybody different, no matter what nationality they are," he said.

Temple Black, a New Orleans-based spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said ICE conducts unannounced enforcement operations but gears its efforts more toward the owners of companies who hire illegal immigrants.

Black would not say that undocumented immigrants have nothing to worry about when it comes to raids, because it is illegal for them to be here. "But I will say that we prioritize our resources, and we are most interested in aggravated felons and criminals who menace the population and who will be hurtful to the citizenry."

A national debate raged over immigration earlier this year, as immigrants and supporters held massive rallies in cities throughout the country pushing immigration reform. Around the same time, federal agents arrested seven current and former managers of IFCO Systems, a manufacturer of crates and pallets, on criminal charges, and more than 1,100 people were arrested on administrative immigration charges at more than 40 IFCO sites in the United States, including one in Jackson.

Black said that case is ongoing, and the workers were deported, given a notice to appear before an immigration judge or allowed to return home voluntarily at their own expense.

Managers were to be prosecuted by U.S. attorneys offices.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 136,530 illegal immigrants nationwide this year, 63,799 of whom were criminal and 72,731 of whom were noncriminal.

During the first part of the current federal fiscal year - from October to June - about 3,076 illegal immigrants were deported from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. Roughly 3,323 were deported from those states during the last fiscal year.

Although there is no breakdown on Mississippi, Black noted that the July number for those states was 758 - up from the usual 500 the region saw pre-Hurricane Katrina.

The deportees, some of whom had been convicted of violent crimes, were from Mexico, Colombia, Haiti, Nigeria, Slovakia and Lebanon, ICE reports show.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pb...NEWS/608200392

Biloxi Assistant Police Chief Rodney McGilvary said his department does not target them. His officers don't specifically patrol areas such as construction sites where immigrants work, and he says roadblocks primarily are set up at the mall for safety informational purposes.

I was in Biloxi in July and I would guestimate that at least 80% of construction workers there were hispanic....which does not make them illegal. However, I was at local bar and met a couple of construction workers. They said they were only working there because they had no other place to work in Biloxi. They said they were making only $10 per hour because of influx of hispanic workers after Katrina. One man told me he was slowly learning Spanish because no one else on his crew spoke fluent English.

Personally, I think the construction sites should be patrolled specifically. I wonder how many of those construction companies there check out the legal status of their employees???? Shouldn't the worker's inability to speak English tip them off that something is suspicious and they should check into it? It's all about money....

Right you are are krazynbama.
The people displaced from the area are being replaced. There aren't jobs for Americans there. Illegal Mexicans and Visa workers from South and Central America are being supplied by this government administration. The means to know this was happening was in the Washington Times on April 10, 2006 for any one concerned with enforcing our law. We should take back this portion of the United States.

Managers were to be prosecuted by U.S. attorneys offices.

They were? Anybody know how this turned out?

I haven't found a thing on the managers. The illegal aliens are on a stay right now at the request of Congress. I think we know we'll never hear any more about the managers.

*4. CHICAGO'S IFCO ARRESTEES WIN STAY

On July 31, immigration judge Carlos Cuevas in Chicago granted a one-year stay of deportation to 11 undocumented immigrants who were arrested in a mass nationwide raid last April of the IFCO Systems pallet company [see INB 4/22/06]. The 11 were among 26 workers arrested Apr. 19 at an IFCO facility in Chicago. Cuevas had previously given the 11 workers a two-month stay when they appeared at a June 1 hearing.

The workers had strong backing from the community; about 120 supporters greeted them as they emerged from immigration court. Alderman Daniel Solis, who joined the workers in the immigration courtroom, and members of Congress had lobbied the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on their behalf. Attorneys also presented a petition with hundreds of signatures supporting the workers. One of the "IFCO 26," Flor Crisostomo, led a hunger strike from May 10 to June 1 to demand a moratorium on deportations [see INB 5/28/06, 6/4/06]. [Chicago Tribune 8/1/06]
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