Thread: Northeast Indiana Deluged with Illegal Immigrant Smuggling

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/ ... 773428.htm

Spotlight on illegal immigrants spreads to northeast Indiana
By Rick Farrant
The Journal Gazette
Posted on Sun, Jan. 30, 2005

Sergio Flores-Medina was living illegally in the United States and wanted for murder in Mexico when he was arrested Oct.29 in Goshen.

In his possession, police said, were four phony Social Security cards, four fraudulent resident alien cards and three counterfeit driver’s licenses. The identifications listed at least four aliases.

Flores-Medina, who told police he had lived in Warsaw for a time, was promptly put on the fast track for deportation and handed over to Mexican authorities Dec. 21.

His apprehension was part of stepped-up efforts nationally and regionally by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to remove some of the estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal immigrants, who are generally defined as people who enter and stay in the United States without government permission.

In 2004, ICE offices around the country removed a record 157,281 illegal immigrants, the agency said. In the Chicago region, which encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas, 6,077 illegal immigrants were deported – 24 percent more than in 2003.

The push focuses on illegal immigrants who are wanted for criminal activity in their native countries or engaging in significant criminal activities in the United States, spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said. But she said federal agents will apprehend other illegal immigrants they encounter during the course of their crackdown.

They too, she said, have broken the law merely by entering the country, “and they’re taking a risk.�

The government’s campaign has elevated fears among Indiana’s more than 45,000 illegal immigrants, many who simply want to make a decent living and some don’t commit crimes after they arrive, said Rosa Gerra, executive director of the Benito Juarez Cultural Center in Fort Wayne.

The threat of deportation for an illegal immigrant, she said, portends a “major change in their lives because they’ve invested so much here. You’re uprooting everything they’ve worked for, everything they came to accomplish.�

The federal government looks at it differently. Montenegro said that not only is unapproved immigration illegal, it leads to organized criminal enterprises that must be shut down – enterprises such as smuggling and manufacturing phony identifications.

“We have our hands full is all I can tell you,� said Michelle Mangold, acting resident agent in charge of immigration and customs enforcement in Indiana. “We have a lot of work in Indiana, a lot of immigration violations that we see here.�

And at or near the top of that violation list, she said, is smuggling.

Mangold said her 15-member office recently turned over two Indiana cases to federal prosecutors, one alleging transportation (or smuggling) of illegal immigrants and the other charging concealing, harboring or shielding illegal immigrants.

The smuggling case came to light when a van carrying 14 illegal immigrants overturned Sept. 9 on Interstate 70 in Putnam County.

Court records show the two drivers, Ramon Vasques-Balcasar and Rogelio Morales-Martinez, have each pleaded guilty to one count of transporting illegal aliens, are awaiting sentencing and under a plea agreement will be expected to pay thousands of dollars in restitution for passengers’ medical bills.

“Smuggling,� Mangold said, “is a priority, definitely a priority in Indiana. I believe that the demand for cheap immigrant labor keeps the smugglers in business.�

A change in focus

Igniting the government crackdown is an organizational change in enforcement triggered by national security concerns in the wake of 9/11.

In 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was renamed and folded into the Department of Homeland Security, and that focused the government’s enforcement of immigration laws on people wanted for criminal activities domestically or, such as Flores-Medina, in their native countries, Montenegro said.

Indeed, of the 6,077 undocumented immigrants deported in the six-state Chicago region in 2004, 2,772 had extensive criminal histories, ICE reported. Montenegro said ICE also is targeting fugitive aliens – illegal immigrants who have been ordered deported but have stayed in the United States.

ICE is intent on shutting down clandestine operations that smuggle immigrants into the country or make it easier for them to stay by manufacturing counterfeit identifications.

Both can be lucrative for the operators, expensive for the customers.

Mangold and Montenegro said a person vying for a seat on a crowded truck or van bound for the nation’s interior can pay as much as $4,000. Getting a phony green card and Social Security card can cost as much as $100.

“We’re doing everything we can to dismantle this kind of criminal activity,� Montenegro said. “We are committed to restoring the integrity of our nation’s immigration system, and we take that mission very seriously.�

Much of the focus in Indiana, as well as in other states, is on Mexican immigrants because they constitute the majority of people illegally entering the United States.

Although Indiana is by no means a hot spot for relocation, its illegal immigrant and Hispanic populations are growing and several areas of northeast Indiana – Goshen and Ligonier, among them – have become preferred landing zones, various officials say.

The influx of illegal immigrants in Indiana and elsewhere has likely been more acute in the past year, Montenegro and Mangold said, because in early 2004, President Bush proposed a program that would have allowed temporary worker status to foreigners living in the United States without government permission.

Among other things, the program would have allowed temporary workers to stay in the United States for renewable three-year periods before returning to their home countries.

No action has been taken on the proposal, but Mangold said: “I do believe that when people hear there may be another amnesty, it tends to lure people to the United States hoping they’ll be legalized in the future.�

How many have crossed the border in the last year, though, is anybody’s guess, officials say.

Deportation fears

Montenegro said the government has no plans to expand its enforcement beyond selected criminal operations or those illegal immigrants it happens to encounter.

“We certainly would not go into churches, homes and community places and do a mass roundup,� Montenegro said. “Ours is a targeted enforcement that makes the best use of our resources. We have to focus first on terrorism and after that on people who are committing crimes and threatening public safety.�

Many illegal immigrants are nevertheless worried that they will be deported simply because they entered the country illegally. Or worse, are caught possessing a phony identification they bought from an underground manufacturer.

The cultural center’s Gerra and Jose Gutierrez, once a pastor in Ligonier and now pastor of Christian Community Assemblies of God in Goshen, said they see many illegal immigrants with fraudulent identifications. Gutierrez even discovered once that his name was being used by someone else on an identification document.

Gerra and Gutierrez don’t make it their business to ask people whether they’ve immigrated illegally, although Gutierrez estimates half the 75 members of his congregation fit that category.

Both say that when they see an illegal immigrant with a phony identification, they explain to the person that possession of the document could lead to severe legal consequences.

A better solution to the problem, they say, would be to change laws and allow immigrants more privileges in the U.S. – things such as Social Security cards and driver’s licenses.

That, they say, would reduce smuggling, fraudulent ID operations and employers exploiting illegal immigrants by shorting them on wages or not paying them at all.

Illegal immigrants work, Gutierrez said. “They’re taxed. They are part of communities. I think we need a big change in immigration.�

Gerra and Gutierrez said that no matter how stern the government becomes in its scrutiny, the flow across the U.S. borders borders will not stop.

“It’s so political that nobody wants to face it head-on,� Gerra said. “But it’s not going to go away.�

Area law enforcement agencies, who play a big role in the federal government’s immigration efforts by often being the first points of contact, agree with Gerra’s assertion.

In fact, they say one of the biggest challenges is discouraging fugitive aliens, many of whom return to their adopted communities in the United States within weeks of being ordered to be deported. Some illegal immigrants are able to do that because they are merely told by a judge they must leave the country by a certain date; they are not escorted to the border, Montenegro said.

“And most of the time, ironically, when they return they’re under a different name,� Ligonier Police Chief Bryan Shearer said.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/ ... 773428.htm

Spotlight on illegal immigrants spreads to northeast Indiana
By Rick Farrant
The Journal Gazette
Posted on Sun, Jan. 30, 2005

Sergio Flores-Medina was living illegally in the United States and wanted for murder in Mexico when he was arrested Oct.29 in Goshen.

In his possession, police said, were four phony Social Security cards, four fraudulent resident alien cards and three counterfeit driver’s licenses. The identifications listed at least four aliases.

Flores-Medina, who told police he had lived in Warsaw for a time, was promptly put on the fast track for deportation and handed over to Mexican authorities Dec. 21.

His apprehension was part of stepped-up efforts nationally and regionally by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to remove some of the estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal immigrants, who are generally defined as people who enter and stay in the United States without government permission.

In 2004, ICE offices around the country removed a record 157,281 illegal immigrants, the agency said. In the Chicago region, which encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas, 6,077 illegal immigrants were deported – 24 percent more than in 2003.

The push focuses on illegal immigrants who are wanted for criminal activity in their native countries or engaging in significant criminal activities in the United States, spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said. But she said federal agents will apprehend other illegal immigrants they encounter during the course of their crackdown.

They too, she said, have broken the law merely by entering the country, “and they’re taking a risk.�

The government’s campaign has elevated fears among Indiana’s more than 45,000 illegal immigrants, many who simply want to make a decent living and some don’t commit crimes after they arrive, said Rosa Gerra, executive director of the Benito Juarez Cultural Center in Fort Wayne.

The threat of deportation for an illegal immigrant, she said, portends a “major change in their lives because they’ve invested so much here. You’re uprooting everything they’ve worked for, everything they came to accomplish.�

The federal government looks at it differently. Montenegro said that not only is unapproved immigration illegal, it leads to organized criminal enterprises that must be shut down – enterprises such as smuggling and manufacturing phony identifications.

“We have our hands full is all I can tell you,� said Michelle Mangold, acting resident agent in charge of immigration and customs enforcement in Indiana. “We have a lot of work in Indiana, a lot of immigration violations that we see here.�

And at or near the top of that violation list, she said, is smuggling.

Mangold said her 15-member office recently turned over two Indiana cases to federal prosecutors, one alleging transportation (or smuggling) of illegal immigrants and the other charging concealing, harboring or shielding illegal immigrants.

The smuggling case came to light when a van carrying 14 illegal immigrants overturned Sept. 9 on Interstate 70 in Putnam County.

Court records show the two drivers, Ramon Vasques-Balcasar and Rogelio Morales-Martinez, have each pleaded guilty to one count of transporting illegal aliens, are awaiting sentencing and under a plea agreement will be expected to pay thousands of dollars in restitution for passengers’ medical bills.

“Smuggling,� Mangold said, “is a priority, definitely a priority in Indiana. I believe that the demand for cheap immigrant labor keeps the smugglers in business.�

A change in focus

Igniting the government crackdown is an organizational change in enforcement triggered by national security concerns in the wake of 9/11.

In 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was renamed and folded into the Department of Homeland Security, and that focused the government’s enforcement of immigration laws on people wanted for criminal activities domestically or, such as Flores-Medina, in their native countries, Montenegro said.

Indeed, of the 6,077 undocumented immigrants deported in the six-state Chicago region in 2004, 2,772 had extensive criminal histories, ICE reported. Montenegro said ICE also is targeting fugitive aliens – illegal immigrants who have been ordered deported but have stayed in the United States.

ICE is intent on shutting down clandestine operations that smuggle immigrants into the country or make it easier for them to stay by manufacturing counterfeit identifications.

Both can be lucrative for the operators, expensive for the customers.

Mangold and Montenegro said a person vying for a seat on a crowded truck or van bound for the nation’s interior can pay as much as $4,000. Getting a phony green card and Social Security card can cost as much as $100.

“We’re doing everything we can to dismantle this kind of criminal activity,� Montenegro said. “We are committed to restoring the integrity of our nation’s immigration system, and we take that mission very seriously.�

Much of the focus in Indiana, as well as in other states, is on Mexican immigrants because they constitute the majority of people illegally entering the United States.

Although Indiana is by no means a hot spot for relocation, its illegal immigrant and Hispanic populations are growing and several areas of northeast Indiana – Goshen and Ligonier, among them – have become preferred landing zones, various officials say.

The influx of illegal immigrants in Indiana and elsewhere has likely been more acute in the past year, Montenegro and Mangold said, because in early 2004, President Bush proposed a program that would have allowed temporary worker status to foreigners living in the United States without government permission.

Among other things, the program would have allowed temporary workers to stay in the United States for renewable three-year periods before returning to their home countries.

No action has been taken on the proposal, but Mangold said: “I do believe that when people hear there may be another amnesty, it tends to lure people to the United States hoping they’ll be legalized in the future.�

How many have crossed the border in the last year, though, is anybody’s guess, officials say.

Deportation fears

Montenegro said the government has no plans to expand its enforcement beyond selected criminal operations or those illegal immigrants it happens to encounter.

“We certainly would not go into churches, homes and community places and do a mass roundup,� Montenegro said. “Ours is a targeted enforcement that makes the best use of our resources. We have to focus first on terrorism and after that on people who are committing crimes and threatening public safety.�

Many illegal immigrants are nevertheless worried that they will be deported simply because they entered the country illegally. Or worse, are caught possessing a phony identification they bought from an underground manufacturer.

The cultural center’s Gerra and Jose Gutierrez, once a pastor in Ligonier and now pastor of Christian Community Assemblies of God in Goshen, said they see many illegal immigrants with fraudulent identifications. Gutierrez even discovered once that his name was being used by someone else on an identification document.

Gerra and Gutierrez don’t make it their business to ask people whether they’ve immigrated illegally, although Gutierrez estimates half the 75 members of his congregation fit that category.

Both say that when they see an illegal immigrant with a phony identification, they explain to the person that possession of the document could lead to severe legal consequences.

A better solution to the problem, they say, would be to change laws and allow immigrants more privileges in the U.S. – things such as Social Security cards and driver’s licenses.

That, they say, would reduce smuggling, fraudulent ID operations and employers exploiting illegal immigrants by shorting them on wages or not paying them at all.

Illegal immigrants work, Gutierrez said. “They’re taxed. They are part of communities. I think we need a big change in immigration.�

Gerra and Gutierrez said that no matter how stern the government becomes in its scrutiny, the flow across the U.S. borders borders will not stop.

“It’s so political that nobody wants to face it head-on,� Gerra said. “But it’s not going to go away.�

Area law enforcement agencies, who play a big role in the federal government’s immigration efforts by often being the first points of contact, agree with Gerra’s assertion.

In fact, they say one of the biggest challenges is discouraging fugitive aliens, many of whom return to their adopted communities in the United States within weeks of being ordered to be deported. Some illegal immigrants are able to do that because they are merely told by a judge they must leave the country by a certain date; they are not escorted to the border, Montenegro said.

“And most of the time, ironically, when they return they’re under a different name,� Ligonier Police Chief Bryan Shearer said.

I hope they can stop it in Indiana before it overwhelms their social services, their schools and their medical centers like it has in the border states.

They won't get any help from George W. Bush, that's for sure. This war against illegal immigration will be up to the people of America, because our "elected ones" bow to the open borders lobby, they DO NOT represent us.

I hope they can stop it in Indiana before it overwhelms their social services, their schools and their medical centers like it has in the border states.

They won't get any help from George W. Bush, that's for sure. This war against illegal immigration will be up to the people of America, because our "elected ones" bow to the open borders lobby, they DO NOT represent us.

Originally Posted by janetgreen

I hope they can stop it in Indiana before it overwhelms their social services, their schools and their medical centers like it has in the border states. They won't get any help from George W. Bush, that's for sure. This war against illegal immigration will be up to the people of America, because our "elected ones" bow to the open borders lobby, they DO NOT represent us.

Maybe Indiana is taking lessons from "down South" and acting aggressively. At least it seems, from the report above, that officials aren't just turning a blind eye to the situation. More than I can say for how some states seem to handle the immigration crisis.

And I'm in agreement with you on our "elected officials."

Originally Posted by janetgreen

I hope they can stop it in Indiana before it overwhelms their social services, their schools and their medical centers like it has in the border states. They won't get any help from George W. Bush, that's for sure. This war against illegal immigration will be up to the people of America, because our "elected ones" bow to the open borders lobby, they DO NOT represent us.

Maybe Indiana is taking lessons from "down South" and acting aggressively. At least it seems, from the report above, that officials aren't just turning a blind eye to the situation. More than I can say for how some states seem to handle the immigration crisis.

And I'm in agreement with you on our "elected officials."

Spotlight on illegal immigrants spreads to northeast Indiana
By Rick Farrant
The Journal Gazette
Posted on Sun, Jan. 30, 2005 ?????