Thread: TX: Officials hail success of fugitive squad teams, but...

Officials hail success of fugitive squad teams, but critics say numbers don't tell full story

By Juan Castillo

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Sunday, December 09, 2007

Immigration enforcement teams who target criminals and fugitives increased their arrests of illegal immigrants more than sevenfold in Central and South Texas during the past fiscal year, the majority in metropolitan areas including Austin and San Antonio.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who announced the figures last week also said that for the first time since records have been kept, the nation's fugitive immigrant population is on the decline. Arrests across the country almost doubled as the agency stepped up crackdowns and deployed more enforcement teams.

The agency classifies as "fugitives" people who are in the country illegally and have failed to appear for immigration hearings or leave the country despite a judge's order. Though arrests whittled down the fugitive case backlog by 38,000, nearly 600,000 illegal immigrants who are termed fugitives remain in the U.S.

Officials in the San Antonio immigration enforcement office, which oversees Travis, Bexar and 52 other counties in Central and South Texas, said they made 1,326 fugitivearrests in 2007, up from 176 the previous year. They didn't provide breakdowns of where the arrests took place.

Fewer than half of those arrested, 575 people, had criminal records.

Marc J. Moore, field office director for detention and removal operations in San Antonio, said the teams' principal targets are immigrants who are threats to national security or to the community, including convicted criminals and gang members, sexual predators, aggravated felons and murderers.

Moore attributed the increase in arrests to partnerships with state and local police, and to expansion of fugitive operations teams: from 52 last year to 75 in 2007. Moore also hailed a new support center in Vermont for gathering data on cases across the country and providing agents with fruitful leads.

The San Antonio field enforcement office has four fugitive teams: one posted in Austin, one in Harlingen and two in San Antonio. At any time, all can work in one area depending on the intelligence they have gathered, said Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman.

The fugitive squads were established in 2003. "The growing number of arrests made by the ICE fugitive operations teams should serve as a deterrent to people attempting to side-step our nation's laws," said Julie Myers, assistant secretary for the agency.

An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants live and work in the United States. The fugitive operations program is part of a multiyear plan by the Department of Homeland Security to reduce illegal immigration.

But some immigrant rights groups question whether all those accused of immigration violations have actually received their final orders to leave the country, and they object to so-called collateral arrests of immigrants who are neither criminals nor fugitives from the law.They claim that some may be U.S. citizens or have other legal rights to remain in the country.

Moore said that with rare exceptions, enforcement agents have a duty to arrest all illegal immigrants they encounter in their investigations, even if they are not their principal targets.

"Otherwise, we would not be doing the job that the public expects us to," Moore said.

Critics, like Austin-based immigration attorney Dan Kowalski, said that although they support efforts to go after criminals, they object to the agency's use of the terms "fugitives" and "absconders."

"As far as I know, most of the people they call fugitives are not running or hiding. They are living, working, going about their daily business and hoping they don't get caught," said Kowalski, editor of Bender's Immigration Bulletin, a national journal for immigration lawyers.

Kowalski questioned whether fugitive teams are having a significant effect in reducing illegal immigration.

In April 2006, rumors that immigration agents were picking up immigrants in massive, random raids swept Austin and Central Texas. Fearing arrest, large numbers of immigrants stayed home for days from work and school and avoided going out in public, even to the grocery store or the doctor.

Moore said the reports were "absolutely not true."

"We're using intelligence-driven, case-specific leads, and we're looking for particular individuals. We're not out there randomly scouring the neighborhood or the community," he said.


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As far as I know, most of the people they call fugitives are not running or hiding. They are living, working, going about their daily business and hoping they don't get caught," said Kowalski, editor of Bender's Immigration Bulletin, a national journal for immigration lawyers.


I love it when someone makes such a statement as if they are making a pronouncement from the mountain. It is true, but has nothing to do with the situation. I don't care if they are camping out on the WH lawn, they are in violation of the law and need to be sent back to Mexico - or wherever.

I think "their" (the power elites) plan is to go after some IA criminals, but not the IA general population...

The power elites certainly don't want anything meaningful done about illegal immigration.