Thread: Random Illegal Immigration raid, Pomona, Ca.

http://www.sbsun.com/ci_5148968


Many arrested randomly in immigration raids
Monica Rodriguez, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/03/2007 12:00:00 AM PST


POMONA - The recent roundup of 338 illegal immigrants across Southern California targeted those who had ignored deportation orders, criminals, fugitives and others.
But out of those arrests, about half - 159 - involved random people who officials came across and found to be in the country illegally but without any other criminal record, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It appears Pomona resident Joel Baltazar Reyes, 27, was among those people randomly stopped by immigration officials.

Maria Morales said the father of her two younger daughters left home the morning of Jan. 20 and never returned.

The native of the Mexican state of Veracruz, who was in the United States illegally, was able to call Morales the next day from Tijuana after being deported.

He told Morales he was walking near Holt Avenue and Reservoir Street when a car pulled up by him.

The people inside the car then asked him if he had immigration documents, Morales said.

When he said no, Baltazar Reyes was arrested.

"They came up to him in a normal- looking car, but he never imagined it was immigration," she said in Spanish.

Baltazar Reyes calls
Morales periodically.
"He's exasperated," Morales said. "He calls and asks about our daughter."

Morales has three daughters. The youngest is 9 months old and has Down syndrome.

Baltazar Reyes is the breadwinner for the family, and Morales is worried about making the rent payment and putting food on the table.

Morales said Baltazar Reyes hasn't had problems with the law of any type or with immigration authorities.

Kice said that in the course of looking for specific people "it's not uncommon to find other immigration law violators."

When that happens, it is the duty of immigration officials to arrest the individuals, Kice said.

Pomona Mayor Norma Torres said city staff has gathered information involving the arrests of four other men near the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, also known as the Pomona Day Labor Center, on West Mission Boulevard. That data has been referred to federal officials.

Late last week Torres met with representatives of several immigrant-rights groups concerned about the ICE activities. She said she will help arrange a meeting with ICE officials and asked the representatives to provide questions and concerns they have so she can present them to federal officials.

"I would rather give it to them up front so they can come prepared to answer the questions," Torres said.

Jose Calderon, president of the Latino/Latina Roundtable of San Gabriel and Pomona Valley, said he and representatives of other organizations, including the Latino Student Union of the Claremont Colleges and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, are also working to arrange a meeting with ICE representatives within the next week.

The purpose of the meeting would be to create an avenue for communicating with ICE officials and "stopping what we consider raids," Calderon said.

It's when immigration officials make random arrests that chances increase of civil-rights violations, he said.

When officials begin to arrest people who aren't fugitives and for whom they don't have warrants, those operations take on a new dimension, Calderon said.

"They should call it what it is - raids," he said.

Kice said before immigration agents go out to make arrests, they've completed research on the persons they will arrest to carry out the arrest in a safe and effective manner.

When agents approach a person for whom they don't have a warrant, they do so because they have probable cause, she said.

"Our officers are trained," she said. "They have to have articulable facts that they must present."

The facts vary with each case, Kice said, but "it could be any one of different things."

All people in the United States legally must have the documentation with them at all times that permits them to be in the country, she said.

If someone can't produce documents, agents will take the person to immigration offices where immigration records will be looked up, she said. If someone is found to be in the country illegally, an arrest will be made.

If American citizens are detained, they'll be questioned to determine if they are in fact citizens, she said.

In the weeklong mid-January ICE operation, 761 foreign nationals were taken into custody. Many have already been deported. In addition to the 338 arrested at large in Southern California, another 423 were arrested in county jails throughout the region.

It's a very tiny dent here in California but it's a start!!!!!

Originally Posted by cvangel

It's a very tiny dent here in California but it's a start!!!!!

It only takes one bather being eaten by a shark to clear a beach. These sorts of raids have a bigger impact than the raw numbers indicate.

I hope these guys scare businesses worse than what the nice folks at OSHA do.