Thread: Illegal immigrants feel a post-9/11 pinch

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Illegal immigrants feel a post-9/11 pinch


Web-posted Nov 25, 2005


By ANTHONY MARTINEZ BEVEN
Special to The Oakland Press

Editor's Note: The following is a compilation of first-hand accounts and Latino advocates describing a raid conducted by the Detroit Immigration and Customs Enforcement on La Paloma, a Mexican food market on Perry Street near Martin Luther King Boulevard in Pontiac in early September:

"They went in taking everybody. They took everyone - people shopping, kids, people walking by " "The Spanish radio station, La Explosiva, in Detroit was alerting people by giving out codes and clues " "Between six and nine people were detained " "In the days following, people were terrifi ed to even leave their houses to go to work or even send their kids to school " "Why were these people victimized like this? I want answers."

When the American public was formally introduced to the reality of terrorism in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a reinvigorated sense of patriotism emerged.

Today, a more extreme form of U.S. nationalism, piggybacked from the anti-terrorist sentiment, has taken aim against undocumented migrant workers in this country.

A vivid example of such on the national front is the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps movement, a band of about 4,200 civilians patrolling states along the northern and southern U.S. borders.

"Every year, millions of illegal aliens cross our borders - only a fraction of who are identified or apprehended. God only knows whether any terrorists carrying biological, chemical or nuclear agents have snuck into our country, because the government surely does not," said Chris Simcox, group president, in a request urging for immediate declaration of a state of emergency.

Locally, Pontiac-based immigration attorney Ronald E. Kaplovitz said there has been a "doubling or tripling of focus on (the deportation of) illegal aliens" by the Detroit Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, better known as ICE. He calls it another "byproduct of the war on terrorism."

Kaplovitz, who as a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is licensed to represent clients in all 50 states, explained that undocumented workers, most from Mexico or other Latin-American countries, have become easy targets of misguided frustration over the seemingly bungled war on terror.

A former Pontiac city employee of the now-defunct Latin Affairs Office, which worked with the illegal immigrant population, said an ICE deportation unit regularly stakes out the corners of Featherstone Road and University Drive in Pontiac.

The employee, who asked not to be named, cited one instance where a man was pulled from his car because he looked "suspicious." While he was, in fact, an illegal immigrant, she still expressed her disdain over the situation: "These are people that are hard-working, and it's not fair for these people to lose everything in just one second."

Harsh tactics

In 2005, the humanitarian service organization American Friends Service Committee launched an investigation into the San Diego Border Patrol's enforcement tactics. Major fi ndings revealed an increased number of patrol sweeps and undercover home raids in migrant communities.

"A new anti-terrorist paradigm guides enforcement in general, and that immigration matters are now contextualized within the war on terrorism,' the result is an increased number of abuses of migrants and people of color and a general debilitation of constitutional protections," the report states.

The fate of those who were taken into custody during the immigrant raid at La Paloma is still unknown. Debra Ehrmann of El Centro La Familia program in Pontiac said she has not been able to get any follow-up information on the raid.

Anna Marie Reyes with the protection services division of the Mexican Consulate in Detroit, said she was also unsuccessful in obtaining any information on the raid.

"There is no information Usually when (illegals) are detained by immigration they can call me," Reyes said, noting she received no calls.

Greg Palmore, spokesman for the Detroit ICE offi ce, said there was nothing in his records to indicate the incident occurred.

Under the recentlyrenewed Patriot Act, reports of raids on illegals as well as immigration court proceedings are no longer considered public information.

While Rob Baker, ICE fi eld director for the Michigan and Ohio region, would not go into specifi c procedure regarding raids, he said illegal aliens that are detained are "provided a safe secure environment until they are granted release or deported."

Baker would not divulge any statistical information pertaining to the deportations of illegal workers in the metro Detroit area from 2000 to the current fi scal year.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C., between 100,000 and 150,000 of the nearly 323,877 Hispanics living in Michigan are here illegally.

The Web site for the U.S. Border Patrol Local 2544 in Tucson, Ariz., estimates there are between 15 million and 20 million undocumented workers living across the United States.

They're not sponging'

Most of the illegal aliens Kaplovitz said he has encountered are "basically people who are trying to either live or work in this country - doing jobs Americans don't want to do - trying to do no harm in this country."

Kaplovitz added misconceptions about the undocumented worker population, such as the idea that many are "criminals," overshadow that fact a majority of them are paying into the national Social Security system.

"People don't realize how many illegals have fake or made-up Social Security numbers," Kaplovitz said, adding because they don't fi le tax returns "they're not getting any money back.

"They're not sponging," he continued. "They've gotta pay sales tax and gasoline tax and other taxes."

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of Hispanics residing in Oakland County jumped from 19,630 to 28,999.

Pontiac has the highest percentage of Hispanics with nearly 13 percent of the city's population, according to the Hispanic Community in Metropolitan Detroit Project, a project funded by the United Way for Southeastern Michigan.

In an olive branch attempt to reach out to the Latino community, the Pontiac police force no longer asks for a person's citizenship status during routine traffi c stops. This approach was unoffi cially instituted several years ago.

In addition, outgoing City Council President Pro Tem John Bueno, who was elected president of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Offi cials, said he is working with the Bush administration on restructuring the proposed guest-worker program.

"Right now, we're trying to put policies in place," he said.

Did you know?


In recent years about 700,000 unauthorized migrants have arrived in the United States annually, compared with about 610,000 legal immigrants.
The education level of unauthorized migrants arriving in recent years is higher than the levels of those who have been in the country for a decade or more.
Incomes for unauthorized migrants are low compared to legal immigrants and the native-born, but they increase somewhat the longer an individual is in the country. The average family income in 2003 for unauthorized migrants in the country for fewer than 10 years was $25,700, while those who had been in the country for a decade or more earned $29,900.
Source: Pew Hispanic Center, www.pewhispanic.org

Well, if they were determined to be illegal then they are felons, and I can't remember the last time anyone refered to a felon as a victim. Except for maybe their lawyer.

The suppoerters of illegals are either blind, or are conducting crimes of their own, oh wait, they ARE!! If you knowingly harbor and conceal the whereabouts of illegals or hire them, or ignore their status knowingly, you are also party to the crime.

These oppostion has to start doing some mental calesthetics, but sadly they don't even know the rules of the game. g

"They went in taking everybody. They took everyone - people shopping, kids, people walking by " "The Spanish radio station, La Explosiva, in Detroit was alerting people by giving out codes and clues " "Between six and nine people were detained " "In the days following, people were terrifi ed to even leave their houses to go to work or even send their kids to school " "Why were these people victimized like this? I want answers."

Notice how they went from "They were taking everybody" to "Between six and nine people were detained".

Now that was quite a haul!

there we go again;
"it's not fair
these people are hardworking- sure their illegal but it's not fair for them to lose everything in one minute-
and they are only taking jobs other americans dont want

Yes, ILLEGALS were arrested working at Big Sky Ski Resort south of Bozeman, MT and some of these illegals were getting $22 an hour.....aaverage wage for the CITZEN worker in Montana? $11 an hour...don't give me that BULL that they do the jobs Americans don't want!