Thread: San Diego: Suspected Illegal Immigrant Sweep Sparks Controve

Suspected Illegal Immigrant Sweep Sparks Controversy

POSTED: 4:05 pm PDT March 26, 2007
UPDATED: 6:31 pm PDT March 26, 2007

SAN DIEGO -- A late-night raid by immigration officials has sparked controversy, after human rights activists claim arrests were made without a warrant, NBC 7/39 reported.


The raids took place Sunday night and involved several homes in the 3900 block of Hemlock Street in Mountain View and a supermarket in the Memorial area.

NBC 7/39 spoke to neighbors in the area who said people wearing police vests came to their doors, claiming to be looking for two criminals. The neighbors said the officials used a photo of a man and a woman to talk their way inside the homes.

One resident said, "After they opened the doors to their house, they started asking for their documents. They went in the houses searching for other people."

Employees at the supermarket said something similar happened there. But in this case, customers who were walking out of the store were stopped.

Human rights activists said they are outraged. Christian Ramirez of American Friends Service Committee said, "We have kids who are without their parents, wives without their husbands and entire families torn apart."

Ramirez said a total of 10 homes were raided and seven people were taken into custody. Employees at the market said at least two people were taken away.

The San Diego Police Department confirmed that did not take part in the operation Sunday night.

Activists told NBC 7/39 they believe the raid was conducted by immigrations and customs agents without warrants.

"We know that U.S. citizens were questioned. We know U.S. citizens' homes were raided," Ramirez said.

NBC 7/39 tried to contact immigrations and customs enforcement, but have not received any response.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/11390325/detail.html

Human rights activists. Hmmmmm, law and order should always come before whine bags. Criminal's human rights can not be allowed to get in the way of justice. That's excuse abuse.

Dixie

For pete's sake! It's ICE's job to look for fugitive illegals! They only went to the homes and ASKED for documents. If they found some fugitives, they were SUPPOSED TO and deport them! The Human Rights activists don't have a leg to stand on. They are all protecting criminal illegals. I have no sympathy for people who break the law.

This just isn't the norm in this area.
There is a video at the link too.
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Suspected Illegal Immigrant Raids Spark Community Meeting

POSTED: 8:31 pm PDT March 27, 2007
UPDATED: 8:48 pm PDT March 27, 2007

SAN DIEGO -- Local immigration activists organized a community meeting Tuesday night, following the third raid in as many days of suspected illegal immigrants in San Diego.

On Tuesday, representatives of the American Friends Services Committee shared video they shot with NBC 7/39 in Linda Vista.

On the tape, officials in unmarked vehicles wearing police vests and Immigration and Customs Enforcement logos are seen.

Christian Ramirez, a spokesman for the activist group, said agents randomly talked to people in the neighborhood and took three people into custody.

According to Ramirez, the raids over the past few days have left 25 families without relatives. He said communities are living in fear. Tuesday's night's meeting was designed to support families and encourage city leaders to take action, Ramirez said.

NBC 7/39 reported that homes were raided Sunday as well as a supermarket earlier in the day, resulting in several arrests. Activists claim those arrests were made without warrants.

There has been no response from immigration and customs officers on the raids, despite requests from NBC 7/39.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/1140858 ... o&psp=news

Hundreds Arrested in San Diego Immigration Raid

Apr 03, 2007
Amy Isackson


Federal immigration officials have been raiding homes in neighborhoods throughout San Diego. During the last two weeks, authorities have arrested 340 undocumented immigrants. KPBS Border Reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
It's a little after 5 a.m. and still dark outside as eight armed agents, wearing bulletproof vests, sneak up to a small white house in Vista. They surround it. Two knock on the front door. A sleepy looking woman let's them in.

They go from bedroom to bedroom searching for a 41-year-old Mexican woman on their list of people who've been ordered deported but are still in the country. Agents rouse everyone in the house and sit them in the living room for questioning. About ten minutes go by.

Neighbors drive by and stare. Eventually, the authorities lead two men out of the house in handcuffs and pajamas.

Goorden: There's no arrest warrant for me. I didn't do anything. My three month old is inside.

ICE officer Mario Ortiz explains what happened.
Ortiz: The do know the person we are looking for. They let the lady use the address. We didn't encounter her there.

Isackson: But you did encounter two other people?
Ortiz: Yeah, two other individuals who were undocumented. We interviewed them, determined they're in the United States illegally, and they were taken into custody.

Agents leave the one man's baby and eight-year-old daughter with their mom. The team climbs back into their unmarked white Suburban and travel in convoy with three other vehicles to hit the next house on their list -- where a similar scene plays out

Officers go inside. Their target is a smuggler. But it turns out he lives in Chicago. He's related to this family. But they say he's a bad guy and never lived at the house. Nevertheless, just like before, agents round up four other people, including one renter who says he crossed illegally from Tijuana two days earlier.

Standing outside, ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack says similar operations are taking place all over the country as agents look for some 620,000 immigrants who've been ordered out but still remain. Mack says it's like pulling a needle out of a haystack.

Mack: A number of different reports are reviewed in attempt to identify these people. I mean, they're in the society. They're living in their communities and they're very difficult to track down.

Since 2003, the federal government has spent $204 million on operations like these. However, a report by the Department of Homeland Security says the number of immigrant fugitives has grown in the last four years by about 200,000. And that growth has outpaced agents' ability to find and apprehend people.

In response, immigration officials plan to increase the number of teams dedicated to these sweeps from 52 to 75 by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, back at the federal building in downtown San Diego, immigration agents fingerprint and photograph the people they arrested during their early morning swing.

Javier Gonzalez, the man in his pajamas who left his two children behind, says he's been in the United States for ten years and has worked at a plastics factory in Vista the whole time. Except, he says, for the few weeks it took him to get back into the country after he was caught at vehicle checkpoints and deported.

Gonzalez says he knew he could get caught again.
Gonzalez: But I never thought they'd come to my home. No. I didn't think it would happen like that. All I can think about right now is my daughter. She was crying hard. She reached out her hand for me.

Gonzalez is deported to Tijuana a few hours later.
Three days later, I visit the home where immigration agents went looking for the smuggler who lives in Chicago. Twelve-year-old Luis Flores answers the door.

Luis says one of the men agents detained at his house is his 20-year-old brother. Luis says he's had a hard time sleeping since the agents came.

Flores: I think that they're going to come again and take everybody.

Federal immigration officials say their stepped up effort to detain people in San Diego who've been ordered deported ends today.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dubbed this recent crackdown Operation Return to Sender. But if history is any guide, the cross border ties to family and friends and decent paying jobs will cause Mexicans to return to the United States.

Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/local?id=7888

This has been a surprise. Seems like not long ago I said I couldn't recall hearing of ICE anywhere in this state. Also recently they were up north too. Must have plenty of people nervous, hope so. Illegals should always feel nervous, they aren't suppose to be here.
Wonder if ICE will be bold enough to enter LA County? I dare them!
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359 arrested in Calif. immigration sting
April 3, 2007

SAN DIEGO --U.S. authorities arrested 359 suspected illegal immigrants during a two-week operation that ended Tuesday.

Most arrested in the San Diego area were Mexican but the suspects included people from 15 countries, including Cambodia, Cuba, Israel, Laos and Thailand. They were either returned to their countries or held in jail to wait for an appearance before an immigration judge.

The arrests were part of Operation Return to Sender, which has resulted in more than 18,000 arrests nationwide since it was launched last year. The campaign targets illegal immigrants with criminal records and those who have ignored deportation orders.

"Our message is if you are ordered deported, you should obey the immigration court's order," said Robin Baker, Immigration and Customs Enforcement field director for detention and removal in San Diego. "Otherwise, ICE is going to track you down and send you home."

Fifty of those arrested had criminal records, including past convictions for child sex offenses, robbery, and drug violations, according to immigration officials.

Nearly all the arrests occurred at homes, authorities said. Only 62 people were targets in the operation -- the rest were nearby when agents appeared, known as "collateral arrests."

Critics said the operation created a climate of fear.

"They're trying to sell it as something where they target (criminals) but it's become part of a larger dragnet," said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee's San Diego office. "It's not effective, and it's not a good way to do enforcement."

The arrests come amid signs of heightened immigration enforcement away from U.S. borders. A raid at a leather factory in New Bedford, Mass., last month resulted in the arrest of 361 workers suspected of being illegal immigrants. Nearly 70 people were arrested last week during an immigration raid at a temporary employment agency in Maryland

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/artic ... ion_sting/

Originally Posted by jean

This has been a surprise. Seems like not long ago I said I couldn't recall hearing of ICE anywhere in this state. Also recently they were up north too. Must have plenty of people nervous, hope so. Illegals should always feel nervous, they aren't suppose to be here.
Wonder if ICE will be bold enough to enter LA County? I dare them!

That sums it up right there. Illegals have become complacent because there has been no reason to be "nervous" for decades. Its good to see there is once again a reason for them to understand there are consequences for their actions.

The arrests were part of Operation Return to Sender, which has resulted in more than 18,000 arrests nationwide since it was launched last year. The campaign targets illegal immigrants with criminal records and those who have ignored deportation orders.

What a poor showing this is. 18,000 in one year........it's nothing and proves that this administration and the powers that be are only doing this to attempt to look tough about security.

They're a bunch of hypocrites.

TELL US HOW MANY HAVE BEEN DEPORTED and HOW MANY HAVE BEEN LET GO.

Yes, we know this is for show. And yet anything is better than nothing.
And I'll repeat, if they really want to appear serious ICE will enter LA County! Dare, dare, dare them!

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

TELL US HOW MANY HAVE BEEN DEPORTED and HOW MANY HAVE BEEN LET GO.

And tell us how many of the deported have been kept from re-entering the country illegally...whats that, you can't because our border still isn't secured?

Deportation without a secure border is as effective as a prison with no bars, guards, or walls. Do we just work on the honor system now?