Thread: TX - Local noncitizen probationers face threat of arrest by federal immigration agenc

Local noncitizen probationers face threat of arrest by federal immigration agency

169 people currently on probation have indicated to the Brazos County Community Supervision and Corrections Department that they are not U.S. citizens

By KELAN LYONS 21 hrs ago

The director of Brazos County's probation department said she hasn't noticed an increase in federal immigration enforcement activity out of her office since the beginning of the Trump administration.

Jennifer Goerig, the director of the Brazos County Community Supervision and Corrections Department, said her office is in contact with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents regularly and that the federal agency generally focuses on crimes more serious than probation violations.

More than 150 people on probation in Brazos County who aren't U.S. citizens could be arrested by immigration officials because of their criminal activity, regardless of the severity of their crimes.

Goerig said there are 3,527 individuals either being supervised in Brazos County or who have been placed on probation here and moved elsewhere. Of those, 252 individuals -- 155 of whom committed felonies -- were born in a country other than America; 169 probationers have indicated to the probation department that they are not U.S. citizens.

Lawrence Rushton, an attorney with an office in Bryan, said he has seen a crackdown on his clients who have been convicted on misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charges, which he said has been "developing since even under the last administration." He said he has seen an increased federal immigration presence for low-level marijuana charges and traffic violations, noting that "any criminal offense" seemed to trigger an interaction between his clients and ICE.

A report recently released by ICE detailing enforcement and removal operations over its 2017 fiscal year makes note of President Donald Trump's executive order on Jan. 25, 2017, and a Department of Homeland Security memo released the following month that broadened the scope of the agency's enforcement focus to include undocumented immigrants "who have been convicted of any criminal offense," "have been charged with any criminal offense that has not been resolved" and who, "in the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a risk to public safety or national security," among other qualifications.

According to the report, ICE agents arrested 110,568 people over its 2017 fiscal year, a 42 percent increase over the same time frame in the previous year, during the Obama administration. ICE removed fewer immigrants from the U.S. over its 2017 fiscal year compared to 2016, but the report notes that this is mostly because of the decline in the number of immigrants apprehended at the border, since people found at the border are deported quicker than those who are arrested within the country's borders because of lengthy court hearings and appeals.

The report notes that ICE conducted 143,470 overall administrative arrests, the highest of its past three fiscal years. Of those, "92 percent had a criminal conviction, a pending criminal charge, were an ICE fugitive or were processed with a reinstated final order."

The decrease in removals of immigrants at the country's borders, the report states, "shows the deterrent effect of strong interior enforcement, while the increase in interior removals restores the integrity of our nation's immigration system and enhances the safety and security of the United States."

Goerig said foreign-born probationers living in Brazos County are on probation for a "wide variety of offenses," from felony-level driving while intoxicated charges to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

"It's kind of hard to separate violent versus nonviolent," she said.

"Depending on how we classify it, some of these could be violent," Goerig said, questioning whether a driving while intoxicated charge should be classified as violent, considering there could be a violent result of driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Goerig said it was important to note that not everyone taken into ICE custody is deported, and that some county probationers have been released and returned to the local community after being taken before an immigration judge. If a probationer is deported, Goerig said, they could continue their probation via mail or phone, or return to the country and continue their probation.

Jody Rodriguez, an attorney in Bryan, said last month that he had heard that ICE would be present in Brazos County from Jan. 22-28 and had notified the county's Community Supervision and Corrections Department, which he said had "caused panic and anxiety."

"In the immigrant community, once they hear ICE is in town, it spreads like wildfire," Rodriguez said. "People get afraid. They don't drive; they stay in their houses."

Rodriguez declined to say where he had gotten his information.

"I wouldn't want to put anybody's job at risk," he said.

Goerig declined to confirm the raid but said, "them coming would not have been something out of the ordinary."

"What a law enforcement agency decides to do is not something we can share," she said.

Goerig said that her office has been notifying ICE "for many years" when a probationer indicates on their personal data form that they were not born in the U.S.

"If [ICE] doesn't come to the office, they might meet with the defendant when they're leaving or at their home," she said, noting that probationers do not have to be in violation of their probation for ICE to detain them. Rushton said it was questionable whether defense attorneys have an obligation to tell their clients who are on probation that ICE is conducting an enforcement operation out of a local office.

"Anybody who asks me what's going on, I can share that information like any other private citizen," Rushton said, but he can't counsel one of his clients to violate the law by not adhering to the terms of their probation. In other words, he said, he can tell them, but they have to make their own decision.

Rushton said he questions whether cooperation between probation departments and ICE is a "wise use of resources" and a "reasonable policy."

"Paradoxically," Rushton said, that cooperation could make probationers who are most in need of the supervision less likely to comply with the terms of their probation.

Plus, he added, "a lot of these people are lawful permanent residents," not undocumented immigrants. "They've been residents for years and years and years."

Many are in the process of getting their U.S. citizenship, Rushton said, and have already been vetted by the local criminal justice system and deemed neither a flight risk nor a threat to community; getting arrested by a federal immigration agency forces them to go through that process again.

Rushton said it seemed as though ICE focused on individuals convicted of violent crimes under the previous administration, but "under this administration, it's indiscriminate," which he said increases the backlog of those awaiting hearings to determine whether they will be deported. That, Rushton said, means people convicted of serious crimes will wait longer to be deported because "you're filling the system up with so many petty offenders."

Goerig said the court and her office each warn defendants about the possible immigration-related consequences of having a criminal conviction. She said there's "potential" that cooperating with ICE could harm the relationship between probation officers and probationers, "but that could be a potential in any offender that we're dealing with."

"With any case on probation, there's always the possibility someone might have another warrant for something," Goerig said. "We as officers hold defendants accountable for their actions."

ICE released the following statement in response to a request for comment:

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officers carry out targeted enforcement actions daily nationwide as part of the agency's mission to protect public safety, border security, and the integrity of the nation's immigration system. ICE also periodically conducts expanded enforcement actions as operational needs demand. The agency's pursuit of criminal aliens is motivated by our commitment to promote public safety and enforce U.S. immigration laws. Aliens who are administratively arrested by ICE officers for violating U.S. immigration laws as part of the agency's targeted enforcement actions have access to all legal due process afforded to them under the law."

http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/l...e5c8a997a.html

"In the immigrant community, once they hear ICE is in town, it spreads like wildfire," Rodriguez said. "People get afraid. They don't drive; they stay in their houses."

Sounds like we could do a lot of good just rumoring that ICE is in town. Sort of like to communities that put a uniformed manikin in a patrol car so people think there are more officers than there are.