Ellensburg Community Members Outraged Over Immigration Raid

January 22, 2011
ELLENSBURG, Wash.

The Ellensburg community met Friday night to confront authorities on the recent immigration raids that shook up a small central Washington community.

Ricardo Gonzalez, 17, of Ellensburg told KIRO 7 that both of his parents were arrested in the raid that took place early Thursday morning.

"My mom opened the door and I heard her screaming 'Why, why?' and then I heard someone say 'Everybody come out with your hands up in the air," Gonzalez said.

Several community members expressed outrage at the tactics used by federal agents and questioned whether another raid was planned. The county under sheriff said there are currently no plans for another immigration raid.

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The Ellensburg Daily Record reported earlier this week that agents with police and Kittitas County sheriff's deputies using a helicopter served 11 search warrants and made an undisclosed number of arrests.

The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that they arrested 14 people and taken another 16 into custody.

The 14 arrested were scheduled to make initial court appearances on Friday, DHS officials said.

Thirteen of the people arrested were charged with visa fraud and government identification fraud, and three of the 13 have also been charged with a false claim to U.S. citizenship, DHS said.

The one remaining person of the 14 has been charged with re-entry into the U.S. after deportation, according to DHS.

"Those who create and sell fraudulent documents compromise our nation's legal identification system and provide counterfeit identities to those who may otherwise be ineligible to live or work legally in the United States," said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Washington.

"Targeting those who commit this type of crime is an enforcement priority for HSI."

DHS said the 16 others were taken into custody on administrative immigration violations. Three of them were released "for humanitarian reasons" while they await a hearing before an immigration judge, and the rest are in the custody, according to DHS.

In addition to the activism by the local community, a Seattle-based immigration rights group said it is sending volunteers to Ellensburg to help the families of those who were arrested.

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