Thread: Raids Escalate as Bush Encounters Pressure Over Proposed Ove

U.S. Intensifies Immigrant Raids
Escalation Comes as Bush Encounters Pressure Over Proposed Overhaul
By EVAN PEREZ
June 20, 2007; Page A4

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Jeffrey Dorant said he was rolling out of bed to wake his daughter yesterday before starting his day as a car salesman when loud knocks came at the front door.

It had taken nine years after a judge ordered Mr. Dorant to be deported to his native Trinidad and Tobago for immigration agents to finally catch up with him. The 36-year-old is now in jail pending a final decision on his deportation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1182299 ... lenews_wsj
WSJ's Evan Perez accompanies police on an immigration raid in Brooklyn, as authorities
The raid involving Mr. Dorant was part of a new initiative by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division to intensify a crackdown on fugitive aliens. These immigrants are defined as those who are living in the country illegally or who lost their legal status because of criminal convictions but have been released pending appeals or other steps in the deportation process. In the past, many fugitive aliens have disappeared into the diaspora of newcomers spread across the country before their hearings, apparently gambling federal immigration agents wouldn't be able to find them.

Because of the backlog of court cases, the government had effectively turned a blind eye to the problem in recent years as the number of these fugitive aliens increased. They are currently estimated to top 632,000.

Now, immigration officials said they are for the first time making headway in tracking down such illegal immigrants and deporting them.

The push comes as the Bush administration encounters pressure from critics of its immigration policy to show more muscle in enforcing existing laws. Conservatives, in particular, say they can't support a comprehensive immigration-overhaul proposal now on life support in the Senate on the grounds it would provide "amnesty" for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants believed to be living in the U.S.

Conservatives also say that, judging from the past, they don't trust the administration's enforcement promises made in the overhaul proposal.

The initiative is being driven by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who also is the administration's point man in promoting its immigration overhaul. The initiative is aimed at showing that the government's enforcement efforts go beyond raids of factories and immigrant neighborhoods. Those have often garnered negative publicity, with photos of parents being ripped away from their children.

The enforcement division said that as of this month it had reduced by 537 the number of fugitive immigrants to 632,189, from 632,726 in October. Between 2003 and 2006, the fugitive list increased by an average of 5,700 people a month, or more than 68,000 a year.


Of more than 15,000 illegal immigrants arrested last year, more than 10,000 were fugitives, the agency said. (The others were immigrants about whom the agency didn't previously know.)

Immigration officials said the change is coming as a result of new strategies, including ending the agency's "catch-and-release" policy, which essentially allowed immigrants to disappear. Instead, they are being housed in detention centers while they await hearings.

Officials also credit better computers, stricter detention procedures and the availability of more beds in immigration detention centers. The agency said it is deploying more "fugitive operation teams," with as many as 75 teams by the end of this year, up from 15 in 2005. Enforcement-division officials said the fugitive crackdown is a priority.

Mr. Dorant, who has lived in the U.S. since he was 7, lost his legal status after being convicted of gun possession and robbery, according to enforcement-division records. He said he has lived a clean life since his run-ins with the law in the early 1990s.

Yesterday he was tearful as he worried about his 8-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, whom he left at his apartment in the care of a sister-in-law. "I don't know what's going to happen to my little girl. I don't know if I have a chance to get before a judge to show how I've changed."

Enforcement officials said Mr. Dorant can choose whether to return to Trinidad and Tobago with his child or to leave her with a guardian in the U.S. "We will help him facilitate whichever decision he makes," said enforcement-division spokesman Marc Raimondi.

Some critics said the timing of the raids seemed aimed at winning over hard-line critics of the administration. Eric Gutierrez, Washington-based counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the new tactics often split families and the agency should allow for additional hearings in cases in which immigrants being deported are the main caregivers for their families.

"We're not saying don't deport criminal aliens, we're saying put strategies in place to do this in a humane way," he said.

Julie Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security for immigration, denied that the tougher enforcement tactics have anything to do with the debate on pending legislation.

"We cannot simply sit around and bend at the whims of public opinion," she said in an interview. She said the agency has made sure children aren't abandoned after such raids and parents are allowed to arrange for the care of their families.

Homeland Security officials are inviting reporters along on raids this week as part of a wider effort to show they can pursue tough tactics to protect Americans while also handling the processing of 12 million undocumented immigrants who may eventually attain legal status under legislation supported by President Bush.

John Torres, director of detention and removal operations for the enforcement division, acknowledged the department has fallen behind on deportations. He said the agency is trying to learn from companies that are masters of logistics, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc., to improve tracking of its deportation caseload.

"You want to be able to know where everyone is at all times," he said. "When you think of the amount of inventory that Wal-Mart keeps track of, or how UPS keeps track of packages, that's the direction we're going next year."

Some of those netted in the raids are taking it in stride. One 44-year-old man, pulled from hiding in his mother's closet in an apartment on Coney Island yesterday, exhibited bravado when agents hauled him into a detention center.

"Let me go back home to be free," he said. "In my country, I have land, I have no worries. Just let me go home."

Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1182299 ... lenews_wsj

I guess that car salesman is just another job that "Americans Won't Do".

The fact is that the illegal immigrants moved out of the cabbage patch a long time ago. They're car salesmen, foremen, managers, waiters, waitresses, and some are getting SBA loans and many Americans call them boss.

This article points out the falacy in thinking that these people don't take jobs away from Americans. Of course they do.

Yesterday he was tearful as he worried about his 8-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, whom he left at his apartment in the care of a sister-in-law. "I don't know what's going to happen to my little girl. I don't know if I have a chance to get before a judge to show how I've changed."

Why do illegals even try to use this crap? "What's going to happen to my kid..."
Well, you will take your child with you back to your home country. There's no reason the child MUST remain in the US.

Don't ya just love how the wall street journal paints them as the "innocent little victims" in this? They make me sick!

One 44-year-old man, pulled from hiding in his mother's closet in an apartment on Coney Island yesterday, exhibited bravado when agents hauled him into a detention center.

"Let me go back home to be free," he said. "In my country, I have land, I have no worries. Just let me go home."

I'm sure you have no worries in your country! You've probably been sending money you made off us stupid Americans back to your homeland and now you can rest easy. I'm surprised you didn't say "Thank you American fools" :P

How far down the priority ladder is illegal fugitive Elvira Arellano?
3 years? They better deport her now before she springs another US Citizen child at that church. Priests are capable of Fathering too... no pun.

Originally Posted by Nouveauxpoor

U.S. Intensifies Immigrant Raids
Escalation Comes as Bush Encounters Pressure Over Proposed Overhaul
By EVAN PEREZ
June 20, 2007; Page A4

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Jeffrey Dorant said he was rolling out of bed to wake his daughter yesterday before starting his day as a car salesman when loud knocks came at the front door.

It had taken nine years after a judge ordered Mr. Dorant to be deported to his native Trinidad and Tobago for immigration agents to finally catch up with him. The 36-year-old is now in jail pending a final decision on his deportation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1182299 ... lenews_wsj
WSJ's Evan Perez accompanies police on an immigration raid in Brooklyn, as authorities
The raid involving Mr. Dorant was part of a new initiative by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division to intensify a crackdown on fugitive aliens. These immigrants are defined as those who are living in the country illegally or who lost their legal status because of criminal convictions but have been released pending appeals or other steps in the deportation process. In the past, many fugitive aliens have disappeared into the diaspora of newcomers spread across the country before their hearings, apparently gambling federal immigration agents wouldn't be able to find them.

Because of the backlog of court cases, the government had effectively turned a blind eye to the problem in recent years as the number of these fugitive aliens increased. They are currently estimated to top 632,000.

Now, immigration officials said they are for the first time making headway in tracking down such illegal immigrants and deporting them.

The push comes as the Bush administration encounters pressure from critics of its immigration policy to show more muscle in enforcing existing laws. Conservatives, in particular, say they can't support a comprehensive immigration-overhaul proposal now on life support in the Senate on the grounds it would provide "amnesty" for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants believed to be living in the U.S.

Conservatives also say that, judging from the past, they don't trust the administration's enforcement promises made in the overhaul proposal.

The initiative is being driven by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who also is the administration's point man in promoting its immigration overhaul. The initiative is aimed at showing that the government's enforcement efforts go beyond raids of factories and immigrant neighborhoods. Those have often garnered negative publicity, with photos of parents being ripped away from their children.

The enforcement division said that as of this month it had reduced by 537 the number of fugitive immigrants to 632,189, from 632,726 in October. Between 2003 and 2006, the fugitive list increased by an average of 5,700 people a month, or more than 68,000 a year.


Of more than 15,000 illegal immigrants arrested last year, more than 10,000 were fugitives, the agency said. (The others were immigrants about whom the agency didn't previously know.)

Immigration officials said the change is coming as a result of new strategies, including ending the agency's "catch-and-release" policy, which essentially allowed immigrants to disappear. Instead, they are being housed in detention centers while they await hearings.

Officials also credit better computers, stricter detention procedures and the availability of more beds in immigration detention centers. The agency said it is deploying more "fugitive operation teams," with as many as 75 teams by the end of this year, up from 15 in 2005. Enforcement-division officials said the fugitive crackdown is a priority.

Mr. Dorant, who has lived in the U.S. since he was 7, lost his legal status after being convicted of gun possession and robbery, according to enforcement-division records. He said he has lived a clean life since his run-ins with the law in the early 1990s.

Yesterday he was tearful as he worried about his 8-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, whom he left at his apartment in the care of a sister-in-law. "I don't know what's going to happen to my little girl. I don't know if I have a chance to get before a judge to show how I've changed."

Enforcement officials said Mr. Dorant can choose whether to return to Trinidad and Tobago with his child or to leave her with a guardian in the U.S. "We will help him facilitate whichever decision he makes," said enforcement-division spokesman Marc Raimondi.

Some critics said the timing of the raids seemed aimed at winning over hard-line critics of the administration. Eric Gutierrez, Washington-based counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the new tactics often split families and the agency should allow for additional hearings in cases in which immigrants being deported are the main caregivers for their families.

"We're not saying don't deport criminal aliens, we're saying put strategies in place to do this in a humane way," he said.

Julie Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security for immigration, denied that the tougher enforcement tactics have anything to do with the debate on pending legislation.

"We cannot simply sit around and bend at the whims of public opinion," she said in an interview. She said the agency has made sure children aren't abandoned after such raids and parents are allowed to arrange for the care of their families.

Homeland Security officials are inviting reporters along on raids this week as part of a wider effort to show they can pursue tough tactics to protect Americans while also handling the processing of 12 million undocumented immigrants who may eventually attain legal status under legislation supported by President Bush.

John Torres, director of detention and removal operations for the enforcement division, acknowledged the department has fallen behind on deportations. He said the agency is trying to learn from companies that are masters of logistics, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc., to improve tracking of its deportation caseload.

"You want to be able to know where everyone is at all times," he said. "When you think of the amount of inventory that Wal-Mart keeps track of, or how UPS keeps track of packages, that's the direction we're going next year."

Some of those netted in the raids are taking it in stride. One 44-year-old man, pulled from hiding in his mother's closet in an apartment on Coney Island yesterday, exhibited bravado when agents hauled him into a detention center.

"Let me go back home to be free," he said. "In my country, I have land, I have no worries. Just let me go home."

Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1182299 ... lenews_wsj

Im not surprised, since ICE was spotted in the Hauppage,Suffolk County, New York area where alot of companies employ illegal aliens

Homeland Security officials are inviting reporters along on raids this week as part of a wider effort to show they can pursue tough tactics to protect Americans while also handling the processing of 12 million undocumented immigrants who may eventually attain legal status under legislation supported by President Bush.

Just as I thought.. they can enforce current laws already in the books, they just choose not to or do so only if it helps an agenda.

Some critics said the timing of the raids seemed aimed at winning over hard-line critics of the administration. Eric Gutierrez, Washington-based counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Do they want us to believe that it is just coincidence that the raids are taking place now?
This administration has done nothing for the past six years to enforce immigration laws but now that the President and some in congress want a huge amnesty...suddenly we are seeing a little enforcement. Of course it is all for show!

We do not need Amnesty but consistent Enforcement of our laws.

The problem is more people are entering this country than are being deported. It's a losing battle until you stop the flow of people entering this country by building a fence or eliminating the incentives that attract people here.