Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 15 - June 24, 2007
1. Hunger Striking Detainee Force Fed
2. Undercover Border Agent Kills Migrant
3. Dallas Factory Raided
4. Poconos Plastics Factory Raided
5. California Pizzerias Raided
6. 18 Arrested in Nantucket Raids
7. New Haven Marches Against Raids
8. Atlanta: Vigil Draws Over 10,000
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. HUNGER STRIKING DETAINEE FORCE FED
On June 15, a federal judge in Trenton, New Jersey ruled that officials at the Monmouth County jail in Freehold can use intravenous or feeding tubes to force feed immigration detainee Samuel Izrailovich Shevaniya, who is on hunger strike. Shevaniya arrived at Monmouth County jail on June 7 and stopped eating on June 9. According to a petition filed on June 14 by the US Attorney's Office in Newark and obtained by The Star-Ledger, Shevaniya has "steadfastly indicated he has no intention of eating," and if he doesn't get food soon "his health will continue to deteriorate and he will ultimately die." Undersheriff Cynthia Scott, a spokesperson for the Monmouth County Sheriff's Department, said Shevaniya was cooperating with doctors, who will use either an intravenous tube or a feeding tube to deliver nourishment.
Detainee advocates and attorneys say they don't remember a time when the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency asked for a court order to make a detainee eat. "For the most part, they put them in isolation and threaten to force-feed people," said Subhash Kateel, co-director of Families for Freedom, a New York City-based group.
The Monmouth facility is mainly used to detain people picked up by ICE's New York City office. Shevaniya's hunger strike comes less than a month after a controversy over a canceled visit to the jail by a United Nations human rights inspector. Scott said the inspector, Jorge Bustamante, canceled his visit after jail officials set several conditions, including allowing jail officials to videotape his interviews with detainees. Bustamante called that statement "a lie," saying jail officials simply denied access. [Star Ledger (Newark) 6/16/07]
*2. UNDERCOVER BORDER AGENT KILLS MIGRANT
Early on May 31, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Benito A. Gonzalez after trying to handcuff him in an unincorporated area north of Escondido, California, just east of Interstate 15. Gonzalez was an out-of-status immigrant who lived in Sun City in Riverside County. The incident began when undercover Border Patrol agents pulled over a van suspected of carrying unauthorized immigrants, arrested the driver and 11 passengers and took them to a Border Patrol station. Gonzalez arrived in a separate vehicle and according to officials, confronted the lone undercover agent who had stayed behind to wait for a tow truck. The agent and Gonzalez scuffled in a parking lot and again in an adjacent lot after Gonzalez tried to run away, sheriff's investigators said. It was unclear whether Gonzalez was linked to the van stopped earlier. [San Diego Union Tribune 5/31/07; AP 6/5/07]
*3. DALLAS FACTORY RAIDED
On June 14, ICE agents raided a factory of Fossil Inc. in northeast Dallas, Texas, arresting 31 women who worked there. Dozens of people who said they were family members of the workers were outside the factory that afternoon, trying to find out the whereabouts of their relatives. Seven of the workers were from Honduras, three were Salvadoran, one was Nicaraguan and the other 20 were Mexican. Authorities interviewed a total of 63 women workers in the factory, which does repair work on Fossil watches and other products. [Dallas Morning News 6/14/07]
*4. POCONOS PLASTICS FACTORY RAIDED
On June 19, ICE agents arrested 81 suspected unauthorized immigrant workers in a raid on Iridium Industries Inc.'s Artube division, a manufacturing plant in the Poconos area of Pennsylvania. The raid took place at 6am, as night-shift workers were punching out. The company employs 130 workers. All the arrested workers were taken to detention centers for processing and have been placed in removal proceedings for eventual deportation, said ICE spokesperson Ernestine Fobbs.
The vast majority of the arrested workers--76 of them--were from Indonesia. The rest were from Malaysia, Mexico and Ecuador. Twelve women detainees were being held in Pike County Correctional Facility in Hawley. It was unclear where the other detainees were taken. Indonesia has demanded access to its citizens arrested in the raid, saying it wants to make sure they get legal assistance, a Foreign Ministry official in Jakarta said on June 22. "They have overstayed their visas and allegedly violated the US immigration law," ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo said. "We want to make sure that, as suspects, their rights are protected."
Iridium's plant manager, Wayne Migliaccio, said on June 20 that the raid was focused on a temp agency that supplied workers to the plant. "[ICE] Special Agent Jason Rundell's first words to me were, 'You are not the target here. You are the victim,'" Migliaccio said in a statement emailed to the media. "Rundell said that the raid was aimed at one particular temporary employment agency which was operating in the area." Neither Migliaccio nor government officials identified the temp agency. Fobbs said the investigation was "ongoing."
Migliaccio said Iridium uses various temp agencies and that it is their responsibility to check workers' immigration status. He said the company had no reason to question the employees' status before the raid. But an Iridium worker told the Pocono Record that "the owners, everybody there knew those people are illegals." The employee said unauthorized immigrants have worked at the plant for at least the past five years. A former Iridium employee confirmed that information, saying the company has high worker turnover and "very few" authorized workers. The sting began with complaints to Monroe County CareerLink. "We had a few remarks from past [Iridium] employees who said something fishy was going on," said John Casella, CareerLink director. Casella contacted state Rep. Mario Scavello about two weeks ago. "The federal government acted pretty quickly," Scavello said. Stroud Area Regional Police helped conduct surveillance on the company before the raid. Iridium makes plastic squeeze tubes for customers like L'Oreal and Victoria's Secret and has received more than $9 million in public assistance since it opened in 1999, including a $3.7 million tax-free bond in May 2007. [Pocono Record 6/21/07; AP 6/20/07, 6/21/07, 6/22/07]
*5. CALIFORNIA PIZZERIAS RAIDED
At 6:30pm on June 15, armed ICE agents executed search and arrest warrants in simultaneous raids on two northern California pizza parlors owned by Glenio Silva, a legal resident from Brazil. ICE arrested Silva and six of his employees, all Brazilian, in the raids on Monterey Pizza in San Francisco and the Pizza House in Hayward. Two of the workers have been charged criminally for identity theft, while four were arrested on administrative immigration violations. Another two workers charged with identity theft in the case are still being sought.
According to investigators, Silva staffed his two restaurants with unauthorized workers from Brazil, paying them in cash to conceal their employment and avoid payroll taxes. Ray Greenlee, a deputy special agent in charge at ICE's San Francisco office, said Silva also was housing some of the workers upstairs from the Hayward pizzeria. On June 18 Silva was charged in federal court with harboring unauthorized immigrants; he was released the same day on $75,000 bail and was back at work June 19 at the Hayward restaurant. Silva and his wife were also ordered to surrender their passports.
Local law enforcement agencies did not participate in the raids. San Francisco has a "sanctuary" policy that precludes local police from cooperating with immigration enforcement. Hayward has no formal policy, but Police Chief Lloyd Lowe has said it is not his department's practice to get involved in immigration issues. The California Department of Motor Vehicles Office of Investigations did collaborate with ICE during the course of a four-month investigation into Silva's businesses, and DMV officers assisted ICE in the raids. [Alameda Times-Star 6/20/07; ICE News Release 6/19/07]
Rosana Barcellos, a legal resident who has worked for Silva for about six years, said she and other employees were forced to stand between a soda cabinet and the Hayward pizzeria's front window as they were handcuffed. "There was a huge crowd outside, seeing everything," Barcellos said. "It was humiliating." [Alameda Times-Star 6/20/07]
*6. 18 ARRESTED IN NANTUCKET RAIDS
On June 20 at 4am, 30 ICE agents landed on Nantucket island, Massachusetts, on a Coast Guard ship and joined with local police in raiding several homes. By mid morning, they had arrested 16 immigrants with prior convictions for assault, theft, credit card fraud, drug dealing and other felonies. Two other immigrants were detained for being in the country without permission. The 15 men and three women face court hearings that could lead to deportation. Those arrested were handcuffed, fitted with orange life preservers, and taken to Woods Hole, Massachusetts. One woman was released to care for her child. The arrested immigrants were from Jamaica, Brazil, El Salvador, England, Lithuania, Ireland, and Cuba. [Boston Globe 6/21/07; AP 6/21/07] Yeseni Ayala, a US citizen born in Puerto Rico, said that that four or five Nantucket police officers and an equal number of immigration agents entered her home shortly after 5am on June 20 without asking permission, claiming the door had been left open a crack. "Even though we're Puerto Rican, they put us all in the same column," Ayala said. [Cape Cod Times 6/21/07]
*7. NEW HAVEN MARCHES AGAINST RAIDS
On June 16, more than 1,000 people, including large contingents from labor unions Unite Here and SEIU Local 32B-J, marched through New Haven, Connecticut to protest ICE raids carried out on June 6 in the city's Fair Haven neighborhood [see INB 6/17/07]. The marchers walked from Front Street's waterfront park down Grand Street through rain and thunder. New Haven mayor John DeStefano joined John Wilhelm, president of Unite Here's hospitality division, and members of the city's Board of Aldermen at the front of the march behind a large red and white banner reading "Stop the raids now." [Workers World 6/23/07; People's Weekly World 6/21/07] The Long Island daily Newsday said the marchers numbered "several hundred." In East Haven, the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control held a counter-rally at the local American Legion Post. [Newsday 6/16/07]
On June 20, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department was "examining" whether the New Haven raids were handled properly. Also on June 20, an immigration judge in Hartford reduced bail for 12 of the detainees from the raids to $6,000-$8,000, down from $15,000. Bail was set at $2,000 for one person who lawyers said may be eligible to become a permanent resident. The judge refused to reduce $25,000 bails for two detainees who reportedly had prior criminal records for driving under the influence. Various groups have been raising money to help those detained make bail. [Hartford Courant (CT) 6/21/07; AP 6/21/07]
*8. ATLANTA: VIGIL DRAWS OVER 10,000
On the evening of June 18, more than 10,000 people gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, for a vigil to demand "fair and comprehensive immigration reform." Many participants wore white t-shirts and carried candles for the three-hour vigil in the parking lot of the Plaza Fiesta shopping center, organized by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR). GLAHR leader and Mexican former consul general in Atlanta Teodoro Maus said DeKalb County police told him the crowd was between 11,000 and 12,000 people. Rep. Cynthia Mckinney (D-GA) was among the politicians who attended the vigil and addressed the crowd. [Atlanta Latino 6/21/07]
[Georgia was one of the few states where no major pro-immigrant demonstrations were reported during a national day of action last May 1. In Immigration News Briefs of May 6, 2007, we reported on over 100 pro-immigrant actions that took place around the US on May 1, but we missed at least a few others. In New York state on May 1, more than 200 people demonstrated in Ithaca and over 50 people rallied in Albany. [National Jobs with Justice Update 6/18/07] In North Carolina on May 1, two vigils were held in Hendersonville--one which drew 100 people to the Immaculate Conception Church and another of about 50 people at the Capilla Santa Maria. [Report from Evelyn Alarcon of the Latino Advocacy Coalition 5/10/07]]
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Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
INB 6/17/07: More Raids (New Haven, Portland & More)
Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 14 - June 17, 2007
1. Missouri: 136 Arrested at Poultry Plant
2. Forestry Workers Arrested in Idaho
3. Political Motive in New Haven Raids?
4. Portland: Raid at Produce Plant
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. MISSOURI: 136 ARRESTED AT POULTRY PLANT
On May 22, armed federal agents raided a George's Processing Inc., poultry-processing plant in rural Butterfield, Missouri, about 60 miles southwest of Springfield. The agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General (SSA-OIG) executed two federal criminal search warrants, rounding up all workers on the day shift and checking their identities and documents. Officers and agents from the Missouri Highway Patrol, US Marshals Service's Fugitive Task Force and the US Department of Agriculture assisted with the arrests.
A total of 136 George's employees were arrested, 88 of them from Guatemala and 48 from Mexico, according to an ICE press release. (News reports citing an ICE spokesperson said some of the workers were from Honduras and El Salvador.) The arrested workers included 59 women. ICE agents and medical professionals from the US Public Health Service (PHS), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, interviewed the arrested workers "to record any medical, sole-caregiver or other humanitarian situations," according to ICE.
Thirty-one workers were released for humanitarian reasons and given notices to appear at a later date before an immigration judge. Those arrested on administrative immigration charges were transported to detention facilities in Wichita, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; and St. Louis, Missouri. Hearings before federal immigration judges will be held in Kansas City. [AP 5/23/07; ICE News Release 5/23/07]
"These worksite enforcement actions help reduce the job magnet that encourages aliens to enter the country illegally," claimed Pete Baird, assistant special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Kansas City, which covers Kansas and Missouri. [ICE News Release 5/23/07]
The arrests were part of an ongoing criminal investigation into identity theft, Social Security fraud and employment of unauthorized workers. On May 24, John F. Wood, US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that eight George's employees--five Guatemalans and three Mexicans--had been criminally charged in federal court: one with Social Security fraud; one with falsely claiming to be a US citizen in order to obtain employment; and six with illegally entering the US after having been deported. Seven of the defendants were arrested in the May 22 raid at the plant; the eighth was arrested on May 7. The US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri previously charged five individuals, in separate cases dating as far back as 2005, as part of the same investigation. [ICE News Release 5/23/07, 5/24/07]
George's released a statement on May 23, saying it uses the federal government's Basic Pilot Program to verify "the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of any prospective employee prior to George's hiring." Springdale-based George's is a regional poultry processor with about 2,300 employees, according to company research service Capital IQ. [AP 5/23/07]
*2. FORESTRY WORKERS ARRESTED IN IDAHO
On May 22, ICE agents raided the Idaho City Hotel in Idaho City, Idaho, and arrested 14 undocumented employees of Cutting Edge Forestry Inc., an Oregon-based contractor for the US Forest Service. The workers were among a group of 16 who had been hired to replant trees over a 500-acre area of rugged land in the Boise National Forest that burned in 2003. The terrain--including ridge tops and steep slopes--was so rugged that workers had to be transported to the reforestation sites by helicopter. They had been working for about 10 days, with one week left.
The workers were taken to the Ada County jail, which recently contracted with ICE to detain unauthorized immigrants while they wait for deportation. Ten of the 14 workers waived their right for a hearing and were deported to Mexico. The other four were released and will go before an immigration judge in the near future.
ICE spokesperson Carl Rusnok said these cases are all "lead generated" by people who observe possible illegal activity and contact officials. The investigation is continuing, and the contractor may face criminal charges. [Associated Press 5/25/07; KTRV FOX 12 (Boise, ID) 6/4/07; Mail Tribune (Medford,OR) 5/27/07; KTVB News (Boise), 5/23/07]
*3. POLITICAL MOTIVE IN NEW HAVEN RAIDS?
Early on June 6, ICE agents arrested 29 men and two women in the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, in a raid targeting people who had previously been ordered deported by immigration judges. City officials said on June 7 that only four of the people arrested were named on ICE warrants; another 12 warrants went unserved. Most of those arrested were from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Guinea.
Lawyers and advocates for immigrants who interviewed relatives of the detainees said that in most cases, immigration officials knocked on their doors and demanded to speak with every adult in the house, then asked for identification. In several cases, agents separated the men from the women and asked which of the women had children. Those who said they did were left behind, advocates said.
New Haven officials questioned the timing of the raid, which came two days after the city's Board of Aldermen approved the creation of municipal ID cards that could be used by out-of-status immigrants to open bank accounts and access city services. Paula Grenier, a spokesperson for the ICE office in Boston, insisted the arrests were part of a routine fugitive operation that was not associated with the aldermen's vote, but Mayor John DeStefano wasn't convinced: "Now there are in America 11,000 cities, towns and villages, but somehow, by some act of circumstance or coincidence, within 36 hours, the response was in New Haven," he said.
New Haven already had a "safe haven" policy barring local police from inquiring about immigration status. City police did not assist with the ICE raid, said Jessica Mayorga, a spokesperson for DeStefano. "There is truly no safe haven for fugitive aliens," said ICE spokesperson Marc Raimondi. [AP 6/6/07; Yale Daily News 6/6/07; New York Times 6/8/07]
On June 14, 15 of the arrested New Haven residents appeared in federal immigration court, where an immigration judge determined that they will remain in federal custody. Two were held on $25,000 bonds, while most of the rest were held on $15,000 bonds. Attorneys and law students from Yale and the University of Connecticut said they would return to court on June 20 to argue for lower bonds, based on the detainees' community ties, family commitments and other factors showing they would be unlikely to flee if released.
The attorneys also plan to present evidence that immigration agents entered homes without authorization, refused to identify themselves and detained people passing by on the street who "appear to have been singled out because of their appearance," said Michael Wishnie, a Yale law professor who is representing most of those arrested. Two women held in a Boston facility had their bonds reduced to $1,500 and $3,500 during a hearing on June 13, and expected to post those bonds the next day, Wishnie said. The four people who were arrested on warrants for having been previously ordered deported are not eligible for bond and could be deported at any time, Wishnie said. The other arrestees are being held in facilities in Boston and Greenfield, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; and Cumberland County, Maine.
At least 40 supporters of the detainees rallied on June 14 outside the courthouse in Hartford, Connecticut. Groups of businesses, churches and community groups in greater New Haven also pledged to raise money to help meet the defendants' bonds and the needs of their families. Several city restaurants are giving 10 percent of their proceeds from business on June 14 to a fund to help the detainees, supporters said. A larger rally was set for June 16. [Stamford Advocate 6/14/07 from AP; Hartford Courant 6/15/07] Supporters also organized a protest June 7, the day after the raids, gathering in front of St. Rose of Lima Church and marching through Fair Haven. [Email announcement 6/5/07]
*4. PORTLAND: RAID AT PRODUCE PLANT
On June 12, more than 150 ICE agents executed search and arrest warrants at three sites in Portland connected with the Fresh Del Monte company and its Portland fruit and vegetable processing facility, arresting about 165 workers and three managers. Searches were carried out at two offices of American Staffing Resources Inc, a US recruitment company responsible for staffing at the Portland Fresh Del Monte plant. A search warrant was also executed at the Fresh Del Monte office within the plant. As part of the criminal investigation, a federal grand jury in Portland has returned indictments against three individuals alleging immigration, document fraud, and identity theft offenses.
The raid culminated an investigation that began in January 2007 with an undercover operation at American Staffing Resources and Fresh Del Monte. ICE says the staffing agency supplied workers with fake or bad social security numbers so they could work at the plant. Federal agents found that only 48 of the 596 employees had valid Social Security numbers. Another 463 were using someone else's number; 85 used invalid numbers; and four used numbers of someone previously deported. [Cayman Net News 6/15/07; ICE News Release 6/12/07; KING5.com (Seattle) 6/16/07; The Oregonian 6/12/07]
Fresh Del Monte is an international company based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; while it uses the Del Monte brand, is a separate entity from the Del Monte Foods Company. Fresh Del Monte employs more than 37,000 employees worldwide, and has 25 facilities in the US. In 2006 they hired about 3,000 temporary workers, many of them in the Portland factory. [Cayman Net News 6/15/07]
Officials say the raid was based on a federal investigation that began in January. But a local attorney and professor who represented Del Monte workers in a class-action lawsuit against the company says it was revenge. A state investigation found that eight workers were fired after complaining about safety problems. "This was a publicized settlement where immigration officials were aware that there was this group of workers who had complained about workplace violations and this is the first plant they go after in Oregon--I think it's more than coincidence," Keith Cunningham-Parmeter told KOIN News 6. [KOIN News 6 (Portland) 6/13/07]
On June 16, nearly 100 people, including friends and family members of the arrested workers, protested the raid with a demonstration at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, where federal officials say 131 of the arrested workers were to be taken after being processed at an ICE facility in Tukwila, Washington. About 30 other workers were processed and released on humanitarian concerns with an order of supervision and a notice to appear in front of an immigration judge. Immigrant rights supporters also held a protest the same day of the raid, June 12, at the federal building in downtown Portland. [KING5.com (Seattle) 6/16/07; The Oregonian 6/12/07]
Portland mayor Tom Potter issued a statement condeming the raids: "I am angered by this morning's arrest by federal officers of approximately 150 Portland residents who were working at a local produce company. ... [T]o go after local workers who are here to support their families while filling the demands of local businesses for their labor is bad policy. It also serves as a reminder of the failure of our national leaders to deliver an immigration policy that is both fair and humane to families and acknowledges the economic realities of our country." Potter clarified that no Portland police officers participated in the raid. [Potter Statement 6/12/07] Potter spokesperson John Doussard did say that the city's police bureau had been given a heads-up about the raids. [AP 6/13/07]
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Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Vol. 10, No. 14 - June 17, 2007
1. Missouri: 136 Arrested at Poultry Plant
2. Forestry Workers Arrested in Idaho
3. Political Motive in New Haven Raids?
4. Portland: Raid at Produce Plant
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. MISSOURI: 136 ARRESTED AT POULTRY PLANT
On May 22, armed federal agents raided a George's Processing Inc., poultry-processing plant in rural Butterfield, Missouri, about 60 miles southwest of Springfield. The agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General (SSA-OIG) executed two federal criminal search warrants, rounding up all workers on the day shift and checking their identities and documents. Officers and agents from the Missouri Highway Patrol, US Marshals Service's Fugitive Task Force and the US Department of Agriculture assisted with the arrests.
A total of 136 George's employees were arrested, 88 of them from Guatemala and 48 from Mexico, according to an ICE press release. (News reports citing an ICE spokesperson said some of the workers were from Honduras and El Salvador.) The arrested workers included 59 women. ICE agents and medical professionals from the US Public Health Service (PHS), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, interviewed the arrested workers "to record any medical, sole-caregiver or other humanitarian situations," according to ICE.
Thirty-one workers were released for humanitarian reasons and given notices to appear at a later date before an immigration judge. Those arrested on administrative immigration charges were transported to detention facilities in Wichita, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; and St. Louis, Missouri. Hearings before federal immigration judges will be held in Kansas City. [AP 5/23/07; ICE News Release 5/23/07]
"These worksite enforcement actions help reduce the job magnet that encourages aliens to enter the country illegally," claimed Pete Baird, assistant special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Kansas City, which covers Kansas and Missouri. [ICE News Release 5/23/07]
The arrests were part of an ongoing criminal investigation into identity theft, Social Security fraud and employment of unauthorized workers. On May 24, John F. Wood, US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that eight George's employees--five Guatemalans and three Mexicans--had been criminally charged in federal court: one with Social Security fraud; one with falsely claiming to be a US citizen in order to obtain employment; and six with illegally entering the US after having been deported. Seven of the defendants were arrested in the May 22 raid at the plant; the eighth was arrested on May 7. The US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri previously charged five individuals, in separate cases dating as far back as 2005, as part of the same investigation. [ICE News Release 5/23/07, 5/24/07]
George's released a statement on May 23, saying it uses the federal government's Basic Pilot Program to verify "the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of any prospective employee prior to George's hiring." Springdale-based George's is a regional poultry processor with about 2,300 employees, according to company research service Capital IQ. [AP 5/23/07]
*2. FORESTRY WORKERS ARRESTED IN IDAHO
On May 22, ICE agents raided the Idaho City Hotel in Idaho City, Idaho, and arrested 14 undocumented employees of Cutting Edge Forestry Inc., an Oregon-based contractor for the US Forest Service. The workers were among a group of 16 who had been hired to replant trees over a 500-acre area of rugged land in the Boise National Forest that burned in 2003. The terrain--including ridge tops and steep slopes--was so rugged that workers had to be transported to the reforestation sites by helicopter. They had been working for about 10 days, with one week left.
The workers were taken to the Ada County jail, which recently contracted with ICE to detain unauthorized immigrants while they wait for deportation. Ten of the 14 workers waived their right for a hearing and were deported to Mexico. The other four were released and will go before an immigration judge in the near future.
ICE spokesperson Carl Rusnok said these cases are all "lead generated" by people who observe possible illegal activity and contact officials. The investigation is continuing, and the contractor may face criminal charges. [Associated Press 5/25/07; KTRV FOX 12 (Boise, ID) 6/4/07; Mail Tribune (Medford,OR) 5/27/07; KTVB News (Boise), 5/23/07]
*3. POLITICAL MOTIVE IN NEW HAVEN RAIDS?
Early on June 6, ICE agents arrested 29 men and two women in the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, in a raid targeting people who had previously been ordered deported by immigration judges. City officials said on June 7 that only four of the people arrested were named on ICE warrants; another 12 warrants went unserved. Most of those arrested were from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Guinea.
Lawyers and advocates for immigrants who interviewed relatives of the detainees said that in most cases, immigration officials knocked on their doors and demanded to speak with every adult in the house, then asked for identification. In several cases, agents separated the men from the women and asked which of the women had children. Those who said they did were left behind, advocates said.
New Haven officials questioned the timing of the raid, which came two days after the city's Board of Aldermen approved the creation of municipal ID cards that could be used by out-of-status immigrants to open bank accounts and access city services. Paula Grenier, a spokesperson for the ICE office in Boston, insisted the arrests were part of a routine fugitive operation that was not associated with the aldermen's vote, but Mayor John DeStefano wasn't convinced: "Now there are in America 11,000 cities, towns and villages, but somehow, by some act of circumstance or coincidence, within 36 hours, the response was in New Haven," he said.
New Haven already had a "safe haven" policy barring local police from inquiring about immigration status. City police did not assist with the ICE raid, said Jessica Mayorga, a spokesperson for DeStefano. "There is truly no safe haven for fugitive aliens," said ICE spokesperson Marc Raimondi. [AP 6/6/07; Yale Daily News 6/6/07; New York Times 6/8/07]
On June 14, 15 of the arrested New Haven residents appeared in federal immigration court, where an immigration judge determined that they will remain in federal custody. Two were held on $25,000 bonds, while most of the rest were held on $15,000 bonds. Attorneys and law students from Yale and the University of Connecticut said they would return to court on June 20 to argue for lower bonds, based on the detainees' community ties, family commitments and other factors showing they would be unlikely to flee if released.
The attorneys also plan to present evidence that immigration agents entered homes without authorization, refused to identify themselves and detained people passing by on the street who "appear to have been singled out because of their appearance," said Michael Wishnie, a Yale law professor who is representing most of those arrested. Two women held in a Boston facility had their bonds reduced to $1,500 and $3,500 during a hearing on June 13, and expected to post those bonds the next day, Wishnie said. The four people who were arrested on warrants for having been previously ordered deported are not eligible for bond and could be deported at any time, Wishnie said. The other arrestees are being held in facilities in Boston and Greenfield, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; and Cumberland County, Maine.
At least 40 supporters of the detainees rallied on June 14 outside the courthouse in Hartford, Connecticut. Groups of businesses, churches and community groups in greater New Haven also pledged to raise money to help meet the defendants' bonds and the needs of their families. Several city restaurants are giving 10 percent of their proceeds from business on June 14 to a fund to help the detainees, supporters said. A larger rally was set for June 16. [Stamford Advocate 6/14/07 from AP; Hartford Courant 6/15/07] Supporters also organized a protest June 7, the day after the raids, gathering in front of St. Rose of Lima Church and marching through Fair Haven. [Email announcement 6/5/07]
*4. PORTLAND: RAID AT PRODUCE PLANT
On June 12, more than 150 ICE agents executed search and arrest warrants at three sites in Portland connected with the Fresh Del Monte company and its Portland fruit and vegetable processing facility, arresting about 165 workers and three managers. Searches were carried out at two offices of American Staffing Resources Inc, a US recruitment company responsible for staffing at the Portland Fresh Del Monte plant. A search warrant was also executed at the Fresh Del Monte office within the plant. As part of the criminal investigation, a federal grand jury in Portland has returned indictments against three individuals alleging immigration, document fraud, and identity theft offenses.
The raid culminated an investigation that began in January 2007 with an undercover operation at American Staffing Resources and Fresh Del Monte. ICE says the staffing agency supplied workers with fake or bad social security numbers so they could work at the plant. Federal agents found that only 48 of the 596 employees had valid Social Security numbers. Another 463 were using someone else's number; 85 used invalid numbers; and four used numbers of someone previously deported. [Cayman Net News 6/15/07; ICE News Release 6/12/07; KING5.com (Seattle) 6/16/07; The Oregonian 6/12/07]
Fresh Del Monte is an international company based in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; while it uses the Del Monte brand, is a separate entity from the Del Monte Foods Company. Fresh Del Monte employs more than 37,000 employees worldwide, and has 25 facilities in the US. In 2006 they hired about 3,000 temporary workers, many of them in the Portland factory. [Cayman Net News 6/15/07]
Officials say the raid was based on a federal investigation that began in January. But a local attorney and professor who represented Del Monte workers in a class-action lawsuit against the company says it was revenge. A state investigation found that eight workers were fired after complaining about safety problems. "This was a publicized settlement where immigration officials were aware that there was this group of workers who had complained about workplace violations and this is the first plant they go after in Oregon--I think it's more than coincidence," Keith Cunningham-Parmeter told KOIN News 6. [KOIN News 6 (Portland) 6/13/07]
On June 16, nearly 100 people, including friends and family members of the arrested workers, protested the raid with a demonstration at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, where federal officials say 131 of the arrested workers were to be taken after being processed at an ICE facility in Tukwila, Washington. About 30 other workers were processed and released on humanitarian concerns with an order of supervision and a notice to appear in front of an immigration judge. Immigrant rights supporters also held a protest the same day of the raid, June 12, at the federal building in downtown Portland. [KING5.com (Seattle) 6/16/07; The Oregonian 6/12/07]
Portland mayor Tom Potter issued a statement condeming the raids: "I am angered by this morning's arrest by federal officers of approximately 150 Portland residents who were working at a local produce company. ... [T]o go after local workers who are here to support their families while filling the demands of local businesses for their labor is bad policy. It also serves as a reminder of the failure of our national leaders to deliver an immigration policy that is both fair and humane to families and acknowledges the economic realities of our country." Potter clarified that no Portland police officers participated in the raid. [Potter Statement 6/12/07] Potter spokesperson John Doussard did say that the city's police bureau had been given a heads-up about the raids. [AP 6/13/07]
----------------------------------------------------------------
END
Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Sunday, May 20, 2007
INB 5/20/07: Senate Bill Announced, More Raids
Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 13 - May 20, 2007
INB did not publish last week, and does not expect to publish for the next three weeks. We apologize for the lapse.
1. Senate Immigration Bill Announced
2. Dairies Raided in Michigan, Texas
3. Raid at Tennessee Trailer Park
4. Arkansas National Guard Base Raided
5. Homes Raided in Long Island
6. New Jersey: 217 Arrested in Sweep
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. SENATE IMMIGRATION BILL ANNOUNCED
On May 17, key Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the administration of President George W. Bush reached a compromise agreement on a Senate immigration reform bill after months of closed-door negotiations. [Arizona Republic (Phoenix) 5/18/07] Under the plan, which the Senate is set to begin debating on May 21, out-of-status immigrants present in the US as of Jan. 1, 2007 could initially seek "probationary" status while border security improvements and a high-tech worker identification program are put in place. Applicants could then seek a renewable "Z visa" that would allow them remain here. After paying fees and fines totaling $5,000 and waiting eight to 13 years, they could ultimately get on track for permanent residency-- although heads of households would first have to return to their home countries.
The plan would also create a temporary worker system, allowing foreigners to come to the US to work for two years, then requiring them to return home for a year, for up to three cycles. A new immigration system would grant points for education, job skills and English language proficiency, while making it harder for US citizens to petition for parents, siblings and adult children. [AP 5/18/07; Washington Times 5/18/07; National Public Radio 5/18/07]
A number of advocacy organizations moved quickly to condemn the bill, while others expressed cautious hope. The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform called it "a great starting point for reform getting done this year." [CCIR Email Message 5/18/07] Sen. Edward Kennedy, the lead Democratic negotiator with Republicans and the White House, acknowledged widespread criticism of the deal on May 18 but called it "our last-gasp stand." [AP 5/18/07]
On May 17, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a key negotiator in closed-door Senate meetings on immigration reform, blasted the agreement, saying he could not support the limitations in the family reunification program, the temporary nature of the worker program, and the unrealistically high fees that undocumented immigrants would have to pay to participate. [Menendez Press Release 5/17/07] On May 18, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney also criticized the deal because it abandons "policy favoring the reunification of families" and includes "a massive guestworker program." [Sweeney Statement 5/18/07]
On May 17, just hours after the deal was announced, some 2,000 people took part in a previously scheduled march in Los Angeles to demand immigration reform. The demonstrators marched peacefully to the same park where police attacked protesters on May 1 [see INB 5/6/07]. [AP 5/18/07]
*2. DAIRIES RAIDED IN MICHIGAN, TEXAS
On the morning of May 8, about two dozen armed agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the dairy farm of Johannes and Anthonia Verhaar in Bad Axe, Michigan, in Huron county about 100 miles north of Detroit. Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Mark Krebs said agents arrested 13 workers from Mexico, hauling them away in handcuffs. [Bay City Times 5/9/07] The workers were held in Detroit while federal officials tried to verify their identities, said Detroit-based ICE spokesperson Greg Palmore. [Detroit News 5/11/07 from AP]
By May 15, 11 of the 13 workers had already been sent back to Mexico; two others were challenging their deportation. Michigan State Police are continuing their investigation of the Verhaars, natives of the Netherlands who are in this country on work visas. Krebs said he didn't know whether the Verhaars would face criminal charges for allegedly employing unauthorized immigrants. The couple claim their workers had legal status. [AP 5/15/07]
While probing an alleged crime at the Verhaar farm earlier this winter, Krebs said he obtained supposed names and Social Security numbers of various Mexican immigrants working there. "The FBI said they're all fake numbers," Krebs said. [BCT 5/9/07]
In mid-March, Huron County Sheriff's Department deputies, along with state police, arrested 13 suspected undocumented Mexican immigrants who had worked on the farm of Brian J. Ingram, near Port Austin in Bloomfield Township in northern Huron county. ICE agents came to Huron county to pick up the arrested workers, though it was unclear whether the workers were deported. [BCT 5/9/07, 5/13/07]
On May 16, ICE agents acting on federal search warrants and backed by Lamb county authorities raided the Five Star Dairy and the Milk Harvest Dairy in Amherst, Texas, arresting 12 men and five women employed by the two farms. Agents reportedly also seized personnel and tax documents. Amherst, a town of about 760 residents, is located 45 miles northwest of Lubbock. ICE spokesperson Carl Rusnok said the workers are believed to be from Mexico. ICE deported one woman and one man on May 17; the same day, Assistant US Attorney Denise Williams filed federal criminal complaints against the rest of the group in US District Court in Lubbock. Twelve of the workers were charged with fraud in connection with an immigration document; three were charged with improper entry into the US. All 15 appeared before US Magistrate Judge Nancy M. Koenig in US District Court on May 18.
Official tax records indicate that both dairies are owned by Kornelis and Piertsje Vanderlei. No charges have been filed against the owners, however, the investigation remains ongoing. Rusnok said ICE agents raided the same two dairies more than a year ago. [KCBD - NewsChannel 11 (Lubbock) 5/16/07, 5/18/07; AP 5/17/07]
*3. RAID AT TENNESSEE TRAILER PARK
Around 6am on May 15, deputies from the Maury County Sheriff's Department joined ICE agents in a raid on the Country Side Village Mobile Home Park in Columbia, Tennessee, where they arrested 24 suspected out-of-status immigrants, including two juveniles. The raid was sparked when sheriff's deputies began investigating a 14-year-old student who brought a gun to Witthorne Middle School in January. "During that... investigation, we discovered that he and some of his family members was in the country illegally," said Sheriff's department captain Nathan Johns. The agents initially intended to arrest only the boy and his family, but according to Johns, "Once we got there we was able to take these individuals into custody, also there was other illegal immigrants living in the household." The agents then spread out into neighboring homes, asking residents for documents. "It just kind of kept dominoing until we got up to 24 undocumented or illegal immigrants," said Johns.
Those arrested included co-workers of local residents who arrived expecting to give them rides to work. "There was two different vehicles that we found to have illegal immigrants in that came to these houses to go to work to the worksite... So those people was detained as well," said Johns. If ICE agents hadn't been present, local authorities would not have been able to make the arrests since those taken into custody were not suspected of any crimes. [WKRN (Nashville) 5/15/07; NewsChannel 5.com (Nashville) 5/16/07]
*4. ARKANSAS NATIONAL GUARD BASE RAIDED
On May 10, ICE special agents arrested nine men, two women and one boy, all from Mexico, who were employed by two different companies performing contract work at Camp Joseph T. Robinson Army National Guard Base in North Little Rock, Arkansas. One of the employers was identified as El Nopal, a dining facility contractor. The other company, contracted to do landscape work, was not identified. Camp Robinson was under lockdown during the raid, with the main gates closed and all traffic diverted to the Camp Pike gate about a half-mile away.
All 12 workers were being held in administrative custody in Fort Smith, awaiting removal proceedings. No criminal charges have been filed. [ICE News Release 5/10/07; KATV (Little Rock) 5/11/07] An ICE investigation revealed that the majority of the workers used fraudulent social security and alien registration numbers to complete the required forms to obtain employment. The ongoing joint worksite investigation involves ICE and the Camp Joseph T. Robinson Army National Guard Base Provost Marshall. Michael A. Holt, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in New Orleans, commended the Camp Joseph T. Robinson Army National Guard personnel and the Conway, Arkansas Police Department for their participation and support. [ICE News Release 5/10/07]
*5. HOMES RAIDED IN LONG ISLAND
ICE officials confirmed on May 11 that they raided five homes on the East End of Long Island in New York over the week of May 7, arresting 18 people who they said lacked immigration status. Some of those arrested were named on administrative warrants for having failed to comply with prior removal orders; others were found in the raided homes and were determined to lack immigration status. Southampton Village police provided two marked cars as ICE agents raided two houses in the village at 5:30am (it was not clear what day the operation took place).
The raid comes at a time when Southampton Town and Southampton Village are embroiled in a legal action over efforts by the village to allow day laborers to use a park as a gathering place to seek work. Three other houses, two in Southampton outside the village and one in Hampton Bays, also were raided, according to ICE spokesperson Michael Gilhooly. Of the 18 people arrested, six were found to have criminal records and two others were charged with re-entering the United States after previously being deported, a felony. The other 10 were determined to be in the country without permission from the federal government. Several of them were released after processing and face hearings in federal immigration court later this month, according to a source familiar with the operation. The raid follows a similar action in East Hampton earlier this year. [Newsday (LI) 5/12/07]
According to a report in the New York Spanish-language daily El Diario-La Prensa, three immigrants were arrested in a similar recent raid on a home in Westbury, Long Island, and at least two of them were deported to Mexico on May 9. All three men were married and had US- born children. Victorina Hernandez, whose husband was deported, said the agents claimed to be looking for a bearded man named "Jose," and showed a photo of him. Hernandez said her husband told the agents he didn't know the man. They asked him if he had documents and he said no, and by that time "there were already eight men in the house, entering the bedrooms, looking for people all over the place and asking us all if we had documents," Hernandez said. Her husband, Miguel Mesa, told her later by telephone that the agents followed the same routine in several other homes where they also arrested people. Mesa said in all the cases the agents initially identified themselves as police, then as immigration agents. Speaking in fluent Spanish, the agents showed the same photograph of "Jose" before searching all the rooms in the home. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/14/07]
*6. NEW JERSEY: 217 ARRESTED IN SWEEP
On May 1, ICE announced that its three New Jersey-based "fugitive operations teams" had arrested 217 people during a three-week statewide sweep Apr. 9-27. The raids were part of the agency's so-called "Operation Return to Sender," a national initiative targeting people who have failed to comply with prior deportation orders. Of the total arrested in New Jersey, only 75 had prior deportation orders; the rest were people who happened to be at the raided sites and whose undocumented status was discovered by agents. Only 37 of the 217 people arrested had criminal records. Those arrested came from Latin America and the Caribbean (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Trinidad and Uruguay); Africa (Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Morocco and Nigeria); Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines and Saudi Arabia); and Europe (Poland, Portugal and Yugoslavia). Since May 26, 2006, ICE has arrested more than 1,585 people in New Jersey in "Return to Sender" sweeps; 253 of those arrested had criminal records. [ICE News Release 5/1/07]
----------------------------------------------------------------
END
Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Vol. 10, No. 13 - May 20, 2007
INB did not publish last week, and does not expect to publish for the next three weeks. We apologize for the lapse.
1. Senate Immigration Bill Announced
2. Dairies Raided in Michigan, Texas
3. Raid at Tennessee Trailer Park
4. Arkansas National Guard Base Raided
5. Homes Raided in Long Island
6. New Jersey: 217 Arrested in Sweep
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. SENATE IMMIGRATION BILL ANNOUNCED
On May 17, key Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the administration of President George W. Bush reached a compromise agreement on a Senate immigration reform bill after months of closed-door negotiations. [Arizona Republic (Phoenix) 5/18/07] Under the plan, which the Senate is set to begin debating on May 21, out-of-status immigrants present in the US as of Jan. 1, 2007 could initially seek "probationary" status while border security improvements and a high-tech worker identification program are put in place. Applicants could then seek a renewable "Z visa" that would allow them remain here. After paying fees and fines totaling $5,000 and waiting eight to 13 years, they could ultimately get on track for permanent residency-- although heads of households would first have to return to their home countries.
The plan would also create a temporary worker system, allowing foreigners to come to the US to work for two years, then requiring them to return home for a year, for up to three cycles. A new immigration system would grant points for education, job skills and English language proficiency, while making it harder for US citizens to petition for parents, siblings and adult children. [AP 5/18/07; Washington Times 5/18/07; National Public Radio 5/18/07]
A number of advocacy organizations moved quickly to condemn the bill, while others expressed cautious hope. The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform called it "a great starting point for reform getting done this year." [CCIR Email Message 5/18/07] Sen. Edward Kennedy, the lead Democratic negotiator with Republicans and the White House, acknowledged widespread criticism of the deal on May 18 but called it "our last-gasp stand." [AP 5/18/07]
On May 17, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a key negotiator in closed-door Senate meetings on immigration reform, blasted the agreement, saying he could not support the limitations in the family reunification program, the temporary nature of the worker program, and the unrealistically high fees that undocumented immigrants would have to pay to participate. [Menendez Press Release 5/17/07] On May 18, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney also criticized the deal because it abandons "policy favoring the reunification of families" and includes "a massive guestworker program." [Sweeney Statement 5/18/07]
On May 17, just hours after the deal was announced, some 2,000 people took part in a previously scheduled march in Los Angeles to demand immigration reform. The demonstrators marched peacefully to the same park where police attacked protesters on May 1 [see INB 5/6/07]. [AP 5/18/07]
*2. DAIRIES RAIDED IN MICHIGAN, TEXAS
On the morning of May 8, about two dozen armed agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the dairy farm of Johannes and Anthonia Verhaar in Bad Axe, Michigan, in Huron county about 100 miles north of Detroit. Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Mark Krebs said agents arrested 13 workers from Mexico, hauling them away in handcuffs. [Bay City Times 5/9/07] The workers were held in Detroit while federal officials tried to verify their identities, said Detroit-based ICE spokesperson Greg Palmore. [Detroit News 5/11/07 from AP]
By May 15, 11 of the 13 workers had already been sent back to Mexico; two others were challenging their deportation. Michigan State Police are continuing their investigation of the Verhaars, natives of the Netherlands who are in this country on work visas. Krebs said he didn't know whether the Verhaars would face criminal charges for allegedly employing unauthorized immigrants. The couple claim their workers had legal status. [AP 5/15/07]
While probing an alleged crime at the Verhaar farm earlier this winter, Krebs said he obtained supposed names and Social Security numbers of various Mexican immigrants working there. "The FBI said they're all fake numbers," Krebs said. [BCT 5/9/07]
In mid-March, Huron County Sheriff's Department deputies, along with state police, arrested 13 suspected undocumented Mexican immigrants who had worked on the farm of Brian J. Ingram, near Port Austin in Bloomfield Township in northern Huron county. ICE agents came to Huron county to pick up the arrested workers, though it was unclear whether the workers were deported. [BCT 5/9/07, 5/13/07]
On May 16, ICE agents acting on federal search warrants and backed by Lamb county authorities raided the Five Star Dairy and the Milk Harvest Dairy in Amherst, Texas, arresting 12 men and five women employed by the two farms. Agents reportedly also seized personnel and tax documents. Amherst, a town of about 760 residents, is located 45 miles northwest of Lubbock. ICE spokesperson Carl Rusnok said the workers are believed to be from Mexico. ICE deported one woman and one man on May 17; the same day, Assistant US Attorney Denise Williams filed federal criminal complaints against the rest of the group in US District Court in Lubbock. Twelve of the workers were charged with fraud in connection with an immigration document; three were charged with improper entry into the US. All 15 appeared before US Magistrate Judge Nancy M. Koenig in US District Court on May 18.
Official tax records indicate that both dairies are owned by Kornelis and Piertsje Vanderlei. No charges have been filed against the owners, however, the investigation remains ongoing. Rusnok said ICE agents raided the same two dairies more than a year ago. [KCBD - NewsChannel 11 (Lubbock) 5/16/07, 5/18/07; AP 5/17/07]
*3. RAID AT TENNESSEE TRAILER PARK
Around 6am on May 15, deputies from the Maury County Sheriff's Department joined ICE agents in a raid on the Country Side Village Mobile Home Park in Columbia, Tennessee, where they arrested 24 suspected out-of-status immigrants, including two juveniles. The raid was sparked when sheriff's deputies began investigating a 14-year-old student who brought a gun to Witthorne Middle School in January. "During that... investigation, we discovered that he and some of his family members was in the country illegally," said Sheriff's department captain Nathan Johns. The agents initially intended to arrest only the boy and his family, but according to Johns, "Once we got there we was able to take these individuals into custody, also there was other illegal immigrants living in the household." The agents then spread out into neighboring homes, asking residents for documents. "It just kind of kept dominoing until we got up to 24 undocumented or illegal immigrants," said Johns.
Those arrested included co-workers of local residents who arrived expecting to give them rides to work. "There was two different vehicles that we found to have illegal immigrants in that came to these houses to go to work to the worksite... So those people was detained as well," said Johns. If ICE agents hadn't been present, local authorities would not have been able to make the arrests since those taken into custody were not suspected of any crimes. [WKRN (Nashville) 5/15/07; NewsChannel 5.com (Nashville) 5/16/07]
*4. ARKANSAS NATIONAL GUARD BASE RAIDED
On May 10, ICE special agents arrested nine men, two women and one boy, all from Mexico, who were employed by two different companies performing contract work at Camp Joseph T. Robinson Army National Guard Base in North Little Rock, Arkansas. One of the employers was identified as El Nopal, a dining facility contractor. The other company, contracted to do landscape work, was not identified. Camp Robinson was under lockdown during the raid, with the main gates closed and all traffic diverted to the Camp Pike gate about a half-mile away.
All 12 workers were being held in administrative custody in Fort Smith, awaiting removal proceedings. No criminal charges have been filed. [ICE News Release 5/10/07; KATV (Little Rock) 5/11/07] An ICE investigation revealed that the majority of the workers used fraudulent social security and alien registration numbers to complete the required forms to obtain employment. The ongoing joint worksite investigation involves ICE and the Camp Joseph T. Robinson Army National Guard Base Provost Marshall. Michael A. Holt, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in New Orleans, commended the Camp Joseph T. Robinson Army National Guard personnel and the Conway, Arkansas Police Department for their participation and support. [ICE News Release 5/10/07]
*5. HOMES RAIDED IN LONG ISLAND
ICE officials confirmed on May 11 that they raided five homes on the East End of Long Island in New York over the week of May 7, arresting 18 people who they said lacked immigration status. Some of those arrested were named on administrative warrants for having failed to comply with prior removal orders; others were found in the raided homes and were determined to lack immigration status. Southampton Village police provided two marked cars as ICE agents raided two houses in the village at 5:30am (it was not clear what day the operation took place).
The raid comes at a time when Southampton Town and Southampton Village are embroiled in a legal action over efforts by the village to allow day laborers to use a park as a gathering place to seek work. Three other houses, two in Southampton outside the village and one in Hampton Bays, also were raided, according to ICE spokesperson Michael Gilhooly. Of the 18 people arrested, six were found to have criminal records and two others were charged with re-entering the United States after previously being deported, a felony. The other 10 were determined to be in the country without permission from the federal government. Several of them were released after processing and face hearings in federal immigration court later this month, according to a source familiar with the operation. The raid follows a similar action in East Hampton earlier this year. [Newsday (LI) 5/12/07]
According to a report in the New York Spanish-language daily El Diario-La Prensa, three immigrants were arrested in a similar recent raid on a home in Westbury, Long Island, and at least two of them were deported to Mexico on May 9. All three men were married and had US- born children. Victorina Hernandez, whose husband was deported, said the agents claimed to be looking for a bearded man named "Jose," and showed a photo of him. Hernandez said her husband told the agents he didn't know the man. They asked him if he had documents and he said no, and by that time "there were already eight men in the house, entering the bedrooms, looking for people all over the place and asking us all if we had documents," Hernandez said. Her husband, Miguel Mesa, told her later by telephone that the agents followed the same routine in several other homes where they also arrested people. Mesa said in all the cases the agents initially identified themselves as police, then as immigration agents. Speaking in fluent Spanish, the agents showed the same photograph of "Jose" before searching all the rooms in the home. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/14/07]
*6. NEW JERSEY: 217 ARRESTED IN SWEEP
On May 1, ICE announced that its three New Jersey-based "fugitive operations teams" had arrested 217 people during a three-week statewide sweep Apr. 9-27. The raids were part of the agency's so-called "Operation Return to Sender," a national initiative targeting people who have failed to comply with prior deportation orders. Of the total arrested in New Jersey, only 75 had prior deportation orders; the rest were people who happened to be at the raided sites and whose undocumented status was discovered by agents. Only 37 of the 217 people arrested had criminal records. Those arrested came from Latin America and the Caribbean (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Trinidad and Uruguay); Africa (Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Morocco and Nigeria); Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines and Saudi Arabia); and Europe (Poland, Portugal and Yugoslavia). Since May 26, 2006, ICE has arrested more than 1,585 people in New Jersey in "Return to Sender" sweeps; 253 of those arrested had criminal records. [ICE News Release 5/1/07]
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END
Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Sunday, May 6, 2007
INB 5/6/07: Coverage of May Day 2007
Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 12 - May 6, 2007
Special Issue: Coverage of May Day 2007
On May 1, 2007, thousands of people around the US marched and rallied for immigrant rights. Media coverage focused on the fact that the demonstrations were much smaller than similar actions last spring--even though advocates knew well in advance that the numbers in the streets this May 1 wouldn't match last year's mass mobilizations. Organizers and policy analysts offered several reasons for the lower numbers: conflict over the STRIVE Act, a legislative proposal which some groups support but many see as far too punitive; the fact that harsh anti-immigrant legislation like HR4437, which spurred last year's protests, is no longer on the table; and fear among immigrants stemming from a major increase in raids over the past year. Immigrants and supporters rallied this year around legalization as well as an end to the raids. In all, more than half a million people demonstrated in over 100 cities and towns in 26 states and the District of Columbia. The following summary is based on available news reports.
1. Capital Area: DC, Maryland, Virginia
2. Southeast: Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky
3. Northeast: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts
4. Midwest: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas
5. Southwest & Rockies: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado
6. Pacific Coast & Northwest: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. CAPITAL AREA: DC, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA
WASHINGTON DC: About 450 people gathered at Taft Park for a rally in front of the US Capitol. The group included some 300 Asian activists brought in by bus from other areas. Activists also visited elected officials in a lobbying effort. A crowd demonstrated outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters before marching three blocks to the Republican National Committee headquarters. The demonstration was co-sponsored by the National Capital Immigrant Coalition and the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC). [Washington Times 5/2/07; Washington Post 5/2/07; Campus Progress (Center for American Progress, DC) 5/3/07] Immigrant supporters also rallied at Meridian Hill Park (Malcolm X Park) in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. [WT 5/2/07]
MARYLAND: Several hundred people took part in a public forum in support of immigrant rights at Union Bethel AME Church in Brandywine. The event was organized by a coalition of Maryland pastors, as part of a new partnership among the workers' rights group CASA de Maryland, the Partnership for Renewal in Southern and Central Maryland (PRISCM) and the National Capital Immigrant Coalition. [WP 5/5/07]
VIRGINIA: A rally was held on May 1 in front of Alexandria's city hall. [WT 5/2/07]
*2. SOUTHEAST: FLORIDA, NORTH CAROLINA, KENTUCKY
FLORIDA: In Miami, more than 1,000 people rallied at the government center before marching downtown. [Miami Herald 5/2/07; South Florida Sun-Sentinel 5/2/07, some from AP] In West Palm Beach, about 1,000 people marched from the Kravis Center to the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building. In Belle Glade, about 200 people, mostly second- and third-generation teenagers from Glades Central High, marched past sugar cane fields and through the city's downtown to a rally at Pioneer Park. Last year's May 1 action in Belle Glade drew 5,000 people. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel 5/2/07, some from AP] In Immokalee, more than 500 workers formed a human chain along a busy road in a three-hour demonstration culminating at Farmworker's Village. [News-Press (Fort Myers) 5/2/07]
[According to media reports, no rallies were planned or took place in Atlanta, or elsewhere in Georgia, even though 50,000 marched in Atlanta on May 1 last year. [AP 5/2/07]]
NORTH CAROLINA: In Raleigh, about 500 people turned out for a rally at the capitol on the evening of May 1. [AP 5/2/07] In Charlotte, organizers said more than 600 people gathered at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center for a bilingual evening rally. [Charlotte Observer 5/2/07] About 50 people gathered in song and prayer at a vigil in the parking lot of Calvary Baptist Church in Asheville. [Asheville Citizen-Times 5/2/07] Events also took place in Burlington, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro, Hickory, Lumberton, Siler City and Wilmington. [Workers World 5/3/07]
KENTUCKY: In Louisville, more than 250 people took part in a 5pm rally at the federal courthouse before marching to Jefferson Square Park. Last year on May 1 more than 1,000 people attended a midday rally in Louisville. [Louisville Courier-Journal 5/2/07] On Apr. 29 in Lexington, hundreds attended a "Solidarity Sunday!" cultural event at a local park. [Lexington Herald-Leader 4/30/07]
*3. NORTHEAST: NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND, MASSACHUSETTS
NEW YORK: In New York City, two feeder marches converged at a rally at Union Square in Manhattan. Nearly 4,000 people rallied in Chinatown and at least another 1,000 took part in an interfaith vigil in Washington Square Park. Both groups then marched to Union Square to join a larger demonstration, followed by a march along Broadway back downtown to Foley Square, behind the Federal Building. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/2/07; amNewYork 5/2/07] According to the New York Daily News, organizers estimated that a total of 20,000 people attended the Union Square rally, while police sources put the crowd count closer to 3,000. [DN 5/2/07]
As a section of the march passed the intersection of Broadway and 8th Street around 6pm, without warning a police officer attacked a demonstrator who was wearing a traditional Mexican wrestler's mask, and tried to forcibly remove his mask. A melee ensued between police and demonstrators. The masked man's cousin, Rosendo Bonifacio, was arrested; it was not clear whether there were any other arrests. Bonifacio said three or four agents jumped on top of him and beat him, then pepper-sprayed him in the face after handcuffing him. Bonifacio spent the night in jail and was charged with obstruction of government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Alberto Lezama, a member of Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio who witnessed the scene, said police attacked the crowd like "rabid dogs," indiscriminately beating up men and women with their nightsticks. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/3/07] [On May 1 in 2000 and 2001, police arrested people at New York City immigrant rights marches on the pretext of enforcing a state law that barred the wearing of masks at public demonstrations. In the 2001 incident, which involved a wrestling mask being used in a street theater performance, police beat up demonstrators, legal observers and journalists. The anti-mask law was overturned in November 2002; it is unclear why the police thought they had the right to remove someone's mask at this year's demonstration.]
On Long Island, 1,000 people rallied in Hempstead. [Workers World 5/3/07] In White Plains, in Westchester County just north of New York City, about 100 mostly Latino students walked out of classes at White Plains High School and marched to Renaissance Plaza, where they held a peaceful demonstration for immigrant rights. [Journal News 5/2/07] About 80 people turned up for a march and rally in the village of Spring Valley, in Rockland County in the lower Hudson Valley area. Starting at about 10:15 am, the march led from the parking lot of International Food Mart on Route 59 up Main Street to Memorial Park. Last year, an estimated 1,500 people marched in Spring Valley. Factors contributing to this year's lower turnout included doubt as to whether the village would issue a permit for the march and immigrants' fear of exposure, said Hugo Jimenez of the Spring Valley May Day Coalition, which organized the event. [Journal News 5/2/07]
In Rochester, more than 50 people carried signs and marched outside the Kenneth B. Keating Building. Last year, hundreds of immigrant rights advocates marched on the Rochester federal building. [Rochester Democrat & Chronicle 5/2/07]
In Buffalo, a group of students demonstrated at their high school on May 1 to protest the school's administration, oppose military recruiters and support immigrant rights. They were joined by students and teachers from other high schools and from the University at Buffalo (part of the state university system, SUNY). The protesters then drove to City Hall and to the Buffalo office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to protest the criminalization of students and immigrants. [Workers World 5/3/07]
NEW JERSEY: About 200 protesters gathered in downtown Morristown, in north Jersey, according to organizers. This year protesters were motivated by anger over Morristown mayor Donald Cresitello's proposal to have the Department of Homeland Security train local police officers to enforce immigration laws. Last year 1,500 demonstrated in Morristown. [Bergen Record 5/2/07] At least 60 people (or 150 according to El Diario-La Prensa) gathered in Paramus to protest outside the office of Republican Rep. Scott Garrett, who supports legislation that would criminalize undocumented immigrants. [Herald News 5/2/07; BR 5/2/07; ED-LP 5/2/07]
Some 30 people rallied in a park in Jersey City before marching to Union City. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/2/07] The Jersey City rally was sponsored by New Jersey members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Dudley Griffith, president of ACORN's political committee, drew a parallel with the slave trade. "History teaches us that the same thing happened to black people," he said. "My people were brought here in chains. Families were torn apart. And America overcame that. We must have a conscience as human beings and remember where we came from." [Asbury Park Press 5/2/07 from AP] More than 200 people, many of them farmworkers, marched in Bridgeton in south Jersey. The Bridgeton demonstration was organized by the Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas (Committee to Support Agricultural Workers, CATA). [Al Dia (Philadelphia) 5/2/07, some from EFE]
PENNSYLVANIA: About 175 protesters, including many from Delaware, marched through the streets of Kennett Square on May 1. The demonstration was organized by the Kaolin Workers Union, which represents mushroom workers in Kennett Square, and by CATA. [News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware) 5/2/07; Al Dia (Philadelphia) 5/2/07, some from EFE] About 50 people took part in a vigil in Allentown on Apr. 30. [Al Dia 5/2/07, some from EFE]
CONNECTICUT: Hundreds of people marched in downtown New Haven and rallied on the New Haven Green. Police said 250 to 300 people took part in the rally. [AP 5/1/07]
RHODE ISLAND: An estimated 500 to 600 people marched through Providence to the State House. Last year, 15,000 to 20,000 people marched in Providence. This year about 20 members of a group called Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement held a counter-demonstration. [Providence Journal 5/2/07]
MASSACHUSETTS: In Boston, about 500 people rallied on the Common in a demonstration organized by the Boston May Day Coalition. [Workers World 5/3/07; Boston Globe 5/2/07] There were 25 anti-immigrant counter-demonstrators at the scene. [BG 5/2/07] As many as 2,000 immigrants and supporters (or "several hundred," according to WCVB-TV) held a separate rally in the Central Square of East Boston after marching from the nearby towns of Everett and Chelsea. The march started at the Everett town hall with about 60 people, according to the Boston Herald, but picked up more people as it passed through Chelsea to East Boston. Chelsea Collaborative, a coalition of grassroots community groups, organized the East Boston demonstration. [Workers World 5/3/07; Daily Free Press (Boston Univ. student newspaper) 5/2/07; Boston Herald 5/2/07; TheBostonChannel.com (WCVB-TV) 5/1/07]
About 200 people attended a rally on the Town Common in Amherst, and about 50 rallied in Court Square in Springfield. [The Republican (Springfield) 5/2/07] The Amherst rally included more than 50 students from Amherst High School who walked out of class to attend. Many students from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst also walked out of class. [Workers World 5/3/07] Smaller demonstrations were also held in Lowell, Fitchburg, and Worcester. [BG 5/2/07; TheBostonChannel.com 5/1/07]
*4. MIDWEST: ILLINOIS, WISCONSIN, MINNESOTA, MICHIGAN, INDIANA, IOWA, KANSAS
ILLINOIS: The largest event nationwide was in Chicago, where police estimated 150,000 people took part in an afternoon march. Organizer Jorge Mujica said he believed 250,000 to 300,000 people participated. [Democracy Now 5/2/07; Hoy (Chicago) 5/2/07] Several marchers told reporters that anger over an Apr. 24 raid in the Little Village neighborhood [see INB 4/28/07] motivated them to march. Morning feeder marches set off from the predominantly Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen and the traditionally Puerto Rican neighborhood of Humboldt Park. [Chicago Tribune 5/1/07]
The Humboldt Park feeder march left from the Adalberto United Methodist Church, where Mexican immigrant Elvira Arellano has been in sanctuary since last August, resisting deportation and separation from her US-born son. As she broke a 25-day hunger-strike on May 1, Arellano stood at the window of the church with a microphone and led the crowd of 50 or so marchers in a prayer before they started off. The feeder marches joined other groups gathering in Union Park; from there, demonstrators marched through the Loop and packed into Grant Park for the main 3pm rally, where Chicago mayor Richard Daley addressed the crowd. The march tied up afternoon traffic in the city center. [Chicago Tribune 5/1/07; New America Media 5/3/07; EFE 5/1/07; Article by Leslie Radford, posted on Aztlan News Network 4/29/07]
Initially, the Centro Sin Fronteras and the March 10 Coalition, which disagreed over whether to support the STRIVE Act, had planned to organize two separate marches in Chicago, but after meeting in April, the two groups decided to unite in a single march. [Chicago Tribune 5/1/07; New America Media 5/3/07] The united march was supposed to end in Daley Plaza, in the heart of downtown, but a day before the march police decided to shift it to Grant Park, along the waterfront. Police said Daley Plaza was too small for the expected crowd. [CT 5/1/07; AP 5/2/07] Police reported that two people were arrested for painting graffiti. [Hoy 5/2/07]
WISCONSIN: Tens of thousands of immigrants formed a march stretching more than a mile through downtown Milwaukee on May 1. The march started at the offices of Voces de la Frontera and culminated in a rally at Veterans' Park on the Lake Michigan shore, where Ricardo Chavez, the brother of Cesar Chavez, urged persistence in the struggle for immigrant rights. Milwaukee police would not give an estimate of the crowd size, but Voces volunteers estimated that the number of demonstrators was close to last year's total of around 65,000.
Many immigrants said their employers supported their participation in the march. The Wisconsin Restaurant Association urged its 7,000 members to support workers who wanted time off to attend the rally or otherwise recognize the cause, association president Ed Lump said. "We're not encouraging a boycott or that people walk off the job," Lump cautioned. "We're encouraging employees to work with their employers to find meaningful ways to show their support." [WFRV.com (Green Bay) 5/1/07 from AP; Janesville Gazette 5/2/07 from AP; Marquette Tribune 5/2/07]
A rally at the state capitol in Madison drew about 500 people, according to local police. Alex Gillis, a spokesperson for the Immigrant Workers Union, said between 2,500 and 3,500 people took part in the day's activities, which also included the sharing of music and food in Brittingham Park. [La Crosse Tribune 5/2/07, some from AP]
Organizers led some a convoy of some 60 demonstrators from the Plaza Azteca in Appleton to a rally in Green Bay. The event, called "Protest Convoy," included cars and trucks painted with pro-USA signs as drivers circled downtown Green Bay blocks for about 20 minutes, honking their horns. [Appleton Post-Crescent 5/2/07, some from AP & Green Bay Press-Gazette] Another rally was held in Racine, near Milwaukee. [Janesville Gazette 5/2/07 from AP]
MINNESOTA: In Minneapolis, more than 2,000 people marched from Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue South to Powderhorn Park, stretching along three blocks. The group, about half Latino, included a large group of high school and college students, as well as many families and workers. Many Latino businesses closed their doors at that hour so their workers could attend the events. The march came in the wake of recent immigration raids in nearby Worthington and Willmar. A message on one of the many placards read: "You can't deport all of us." [Workday Minnesota 5/2/07; Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 5/2/07]
Elsewhere in Minneapolis, about 100 people, most carrying wooden crosses representing people deported during immigration raids, gathered on the steps of the Basilica of St. Mary. From there they embarked on a several-block procession to Westminster Presbyterian Church. Outside Westminster, many participants took out cell phones and called the offices of Minnesota congressional members, asking them to approve immigration reforms.
Several hundred high school and college students left their classes to attend an afternoon rally at the state capitol in St. Paul or other events. The St. Paul School District reported that about 70 high school students skipped classes in connection with the rallies. In Minneapolis, about 90 students left Southwest High School at noon, said officials in that district. They said they didn't have numbers for other schools in the district. [Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 5/2/07]
MICHIGAN: In Detroit, thousands marched from Patton Park, in the heart of the city's Mexican- American community, to Clark Park, led by a banner reading "Stop the Raids and Deportations." Police estimated the crowd at 15,000. Organizers said some businesses shut down for the day and others made do with fewer employees so they could take part in the event. Only about 50 of the 450 students at the Cesar Chavez Academy in southwest Detroit attended class on May 1; others skipped to attend the rally. [Detroit Free Press 5/2/07; Detroit News 5/2/07] School officials said about 200 students from Detroit Public Schools left their schools to participate in the rally.
Detroit was the only city where this year's May 1 demonstration far surpassed last year's in size; in 2006, Detroit's May 1 march drew about 700 people, according to news sources at the time. The Detroit Free Press claims this year's march was smaller than a March 2006 rally in Detroit which police apparently say was attended by more than 50,000 people; at the time, the New York Times reported that 4,000 people attended the Mar. 27 rally in Detroit [see INB 4/2/06, 5/7/06]. [Detroit Free Press 5/2/07]
INDIANA: Some 7,000 to 8,000 people marched down Meridian Street in downtown Indianapolis in a "Justice for Immigrants March" from St. Mary Catholic Church to Monument Circle. At least 20,000 people attended a similar demonstration in Indianapolis last year. [Indianapolis Star 5/2/07; AP 5/2/07]
IOWA: About 80 people attended an immigrant rights rally in Iowa City. Organizers said they had instead asked people to display US flags or call their lawmakers to call for immigration reform. [AP 5/2/07]
KANSAS: A rally in Topeka drew 50 people. The Topeka Center for Peace and Justice was one of the participating groups. [Topeka Capital Journal 5/1/07]
*5. SOUTHWEST & ROCKIES: TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA, NEVADA, COLORADO
TEXAS: In Austin, thousands took part in a May 1 rally at the state capitol building, organized by the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition. After an hour of speeches, music and cultural festivities, the crowd marched down Congress Avenue in the rain to Austin City Hall, where a theatrical performance focused on the harsh realities of immigrant life. [Daily Texan 5/2/07] Last year at least 8,500 people took part in May 1 actions in Austin. [Austin American-Statesman 5/2/07]
On May 1, about 100 people demonstrated for immigrant rights in downtown Houston. Last year on May 1, some 10,000 marched. [Houston Chronicle 5/2/07] About 300 to 400 people marched in Houston on Apr. 28, while about 20 held a counter-protest. [AP 4/28/07]
Between 3,000 and 5,000 people marched through the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas on the evening of May 1. Demonstrators started off with a prayer at St. Cecilia's Catholic Church, then marched past the office of Rep. Pete Sessions, who opposes legalizing undocumented immigrants. The march kicked off a three-day phone lobbying effort for legalization. [Dallas Morning News 5/2/07; New America Media 5/3/07]
In El Paso, some 150 people marched from the foot of the Paso del Norte Bridge to San Jacinto Plaza. The crowd included some 20 to 30 students from Austin High School. The Border Network for Human Rights, which helped organize last year's May 1 events in El Paso, declined to participate this year; organizers apparently felt that May 1 events alienate Americans and are counterproductive. [El Paso Times 5/2/07]
A rally in McAllen, sponsored by La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), attracted between 1,200 and 1,500 people, said Juanita Valdez, director of LUPE's South Texas chapter. Last year about 3,000 to 4,000 people took part, Valdez said. [The Monitor (McAllen) 5/1/07]
In Corpus Christi, about 500 people marched from Sherrill Park along Shoreline Boulevard to the federal courthouse, then back to Sherrill Park for a closing rally. Organizacion Fuerza Comunitaria, an immigrants rights group, organized the event working with the League of United Latin American Citizens Council No. 1, the American G.I. Forum and several other groups, said group secretary Juany Martinez. [Corpus Christi Caller-Times 5/2/07]
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people marched through downtown San Antonio from Milam Park to Travis Park. Che Lopez from the Southwest Workers Union put attendance at 7,000 to 10,000. Rough estimates from police officers stationed along the route ranged from several hundred to 1,000. Planned walkouts by dozens of high school students across the city apparently never materialized. Chief William McManus said organizers didn't obtain the necessary march permit, but he allowed them to take to the streets because he didn't think they would stir up any trouble. Last year's march drew about drew about 18,000. [San Antonio Express-News 5/2/07]
About 100 demonstrators marched through downtown Brownsville from Dean Porter Park to the Jacob Brown Auditorium. [Brownsville Herald 5/2/07]
NEW MEXICO: Music, speeches and a free dinner drew about 400 people to a downtown park in Santa Fe. At least 1,200 people gathered at a park in Albuquerque. And in Clovis, more than 100 people dressed in white marched carrying colorful signs. [AP 5/2/07]
ARIZONA: About 15,000 to 20,000 people marched 2.5 miles in nearly triple-digit heat to the state capitol in Phoenix, waving signs that read "Stop the roundups" and "The sleeping giant woke up forever." A few dozen counter-protesters turned out. In Tucson, police said up to 2,500 pro-immigrant demonstrators marched to the federal courthouse and then to a park in the downtown area. One man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for throwing a water bottle at counter-demonstrators. [Douglas Dispatch 5/2/07 from AP]
NEVADA: About 4,500 people rallied outside the US Courthouse in Las Vegas, police on the scene told reporters. Many were waving American flags and signs. About a dozen people held a counter- protest across the street. Last year on May 1, some 7,000 people marched in Las Vegas. [AP 5/1/07] This year's protest began with kids walking out of as many as a dozen schools, and marching for four hours to Jaycee Park. [KVBC.com 5/2/07]
In Reno, about 2,000 people marched from Miguel Ribera Park into downtown--a 90-minute trek in the midday sun--carrying US flags and signs and banners calling for "Full rights for all immigrants." The crowd included many children, and parents pushing strollers and carrying infants. Participants were led in a rendition of "God Bless America" after reaching the front of the Bruce R. Thompson Federal Building. On May 1 last year, about 7,000 people took part in an evening march in Reno. [Reno Gazette-Journal 5/2/07]
COLORADO: Thousands of people marched through downtown Denver, capping the demonstration by lifting their cell phones in the air and calling Colorado's US senators. The crowd grew after they left a park near downtown and marched past the state capitol on the way to a rally at another park. Police estimated the crowd at 2,000; organizers said the number was more like 10,000. Last year, 75,000 marched in Denver, according to police. [AP 5/4/07; New York Times 5/2/07]
*6. PACIFIC COAST & NORTHWEST: CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, IDAHO
CALIFORNIA: More than 100,000 immigrants and advocates took part in two separate demonstrations in Los Angeles on May 1. In the morning, the March 25 Coalition led demonstrators from the intersection of Broadway and Olympic to a rally in front of City Hall. By the time the marchers reached City Hall, the crowd had grown to an estimated 25,000. According to the Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights, another 60,000 people led by Cardinal Roger Mahoney and the Multiethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network (MIWON) marched from Vermont Ave and 3rd St to Macarthur Park. The
Los Angeles Times reported the size of the second march as 10,000. [LA Times 5/2/07; Post on Bay Area Indymedia by Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights 5/3/07] Among the marchers were hundreds of students who ignored pleas from school administrators and left Los Angeles-area campuses to take part in the events. School district officials said the largest group came from Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, where about 150 students ditched classes. [LAT 5/2/07] By midday, 640 students had walked out of 12 schools, said LA Unified School District spokesperson Monica Carazo. Last year more than 51,000 students walked out of class. [AP 5/2/07]
At both rallies in LA, several counter-protesters gathered. The LA Police Department deployed hundreds of officers on foot, horseback, bicycles, motorcycles and cars along both march routes; helicopters flew overhead. Sgt. Lisa Turvey said the extra policing would cost about $300,000, the same as last year. [LAT 5/2/07]
At 5:30pm, as the MIWON rally and festival in MacArthur Park was starting, some 600 riot police agents stormed the park, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. A witness said the chaos began after one person threw something at the agents. Cops pushed through the park, indiscriminately shoving and beating people in their wake and forcing demonstrators to disperse. National Lawyers Guild observer Sanjukta Paul
was beaten repeatedly, including a blow to the kidneys, as she attempted to separate the police from the crowd. Police also attacked members of the press who were covering the event, including a local Fox news team. Reporters were hit with batons, pushed to the ground, shot at with rubber bullets, and their camera and recording equipment damaged. Video footage of the police attack, including an angry report by the local Fox anchor, was distributed widely on YouTube.com, the free internet video site. [LA Daily News 5/5/07; Article by Leslie Radford posted 5/2/07 on LA Indymedia]
On May 6, LAPD Chief William Bratton said that up to 60 members of the Metropolitan Division's B Platoon--the elite squad that stormed the park--have been taken off the street. Bratton said he spent the weekend viewing video of the MacArthur Park incident and he said LAPD failures were widespread, and that officers from the top on down were to blame. "I'm not going to defend the indefensible," Bratton told journalists during a meeting at a television studio in Hollywood. "Things were done that shouldn't have been done." Cops fired 148 rubber bullets at the rally. [AP 5/6/07]
In San Diego, an afternoon march from San Diego City College to Pantoja Park drew several hundred participants, and about 1,500 people took part in an evening march that started at Chicano Park, according to police estimates. Jack Brandais, a spokesperson for the school district, said about 45 students walked out of Morse High School and 75 to 100 more out of Hoover High School. A smaller rally took place in nearby Vista. [San Diego Union Tribune 5/2/07] About 20 members of the San Diego Minutemen staged a counter-demonstration outside the federal courthouse. [NBC San Diego 5/1/07, some from AP]
About 1,500 people marched in Santa Ana. [Orange County Register 5/2/07] Late in the afternoon, more than 100 people, mainly youth, marched through Pomona. [Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA) 5/1/07] In San Bernardino, about 150 to 200 students marched from Arroyo Valley High School to an early afternoon rally at San Bernardino City Hall. [San Bernardino County Sun 5/2/07]
In San Francisco, thousands of people gathered in Dolores Park before marching to the Civic Center. Major streets--Valencia and Market--were closed for a procession that stretched along four blocks. [San Jose Mercury News 5/2/07] Inside the Muni underground station at Civic Center, security guards were demanding proof of payment--a rare moved that seemed to target Latino families headed to the march. When activists Lisa Gray-Garcia and Angel Garcia asked the security guard for directions, they were asked for their ID and given a citation for resisting arrest. [BeyondChron.org 5/2/07]
About 6,000 people marched in downtown Oakland along International Boulevard from 100th Avenue to City Hall. [San Jose Mercury News 5/2/07] Anti-immigrant protesters meanwhile held a series of May 1 counter-demonstrations in East Bay towns: Fremont (where 13 people attended), Palo Alto, Pleasanton and Santa Rosa. A counter-rally had been planned for Hayward, but no one showed up. [The Argus 5/2/07]
Some 12,000 people, including hundreds of school-age children, marched in San Jose on the afternoon of May 1. Last year's May 1 march in San Jose drew some 125,000 people. This year's march was timed to avoid conflicts with school hours, but 120 students from Academica Calmecac Charter School in East San Jose left campus early with permission from staff and escorted by a few teachers. The kids held their own makeshift rally at City Hall, hours before the main march. [San Jose Mercury News 5/2/07] Nearly 1,000 people rallied in San Jose on Apr. 29. Another 200 people marched on Apr. 29 in the tiny agricultural town of Mendota. [AP 4/30/07]
In Santa Cruz, hundreds of students and workers rallied at Baytree Plaza on the University of California-Santa Cruz campus before marching to downtown, where they were joined by families from the Beach Flats. The demonstrators then marched back to end the mobilization at the Beach Flats. [Santa Cruz Indymedia 5/3/07] Thousands of families marched through the streets of Watsonville and Pajaro, according to Santa Cruz Indymedia. The Santa Cruz Sentinel said the crowd was about 2,000 at the height of the march. The Sentinel reported that some 150 students from Pajaro Valley High School and about 35 to 50 students from Watsonville High School also held an 11am rally at City Plaza. According to Indymedia, about 500 students walked out of Pajaro Valley High School. The march was organized by MigraWatch Network, which came together last September following raids in Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Hollister on Sept. 7-8. [Santa Cruz Indymedia 5/4/07; Santa Cruz Sentinel 5/2/07] Several thousand people gathered on May 1 in front of St. Mary of the Nativity Catholic Church before marching through East Salinas. According to police estimates, about 3,000 people took part. The local march was sponsored by the Alianza Primero de Mayo (First of May Alliance). [Monterey Herald 5/2/07; Salinas Californian 5/2/07]
Several thousand people gathered on May 1 at the capitol in Sacramento. [AP 5/2/07] In Davis, about 350 people protested, and activists reportedly staged a civil disobedience action blocking Freeborn Hall, where the Department of Homeland Security hosted a public meeting to receive comments on a proposed rule governing drivers license identification. There were 25 arrests. [Central Valley Indymedia 5/1/07, 5/2/07; Sacramento Bee 5/2/07]
About 1,000 people marched through downtown Stockton on the morning of May 1, according to police estimates. Event organizers said 1,500 to 2,000 people participated. The march began at 10:30am at the Mexican Community Center on Lincoln Street and ended three hours later after a rally at De Carli Square. [Stockton Record 5/2/07, some from AP] In Modesto, about 3,000 people marched from south Modesto to the downtown government center. [ABC News 10 5/1/07] In Fresno, between 3,000 and 5,000 people marched from a "free speech" site at the Fulton Mall to the downtown federal building. Last year around 20,000 people marched and rallied on May 1 in front of Fresno's city hall. [Central Valley Indymedia 5/1/07, 5/2/07]
In San Rafael, hundreds of immigrants and their supporters gathered on May 1, including high school students angry over recent immigration raids and the Iraq war. [SJMN 5/2/07] In St. Helena, in the Napa Valley, local immigrant rights groups organized a march for Apr. 28, the Saturday before May 1. The march started at Crane Park and swelled to about 100 people by the time it ended at Lyman Park. Last year an estimated 3,000 people walked from Crane Park to Lyman Park. [Napa Valley Register 5/2/07; St. Helena Star 5/3/07] Protests were also reportedly held in Mountain View, Riverside, Berkeley, Santa Rosa, Madera, Martinez and other California towns. The ILWU reportedly stopped work in six west coast ports. [Monterey Herald 5/2/07; Central Valley Indymedia 5/1/07; Post on Bay Area Indymedia by Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights 5/3/07]
OREGON: About 4,000 people marched through Portland on the evening of May 1. Earlier in the day, about 2,000 people rallied at the capitol in Salem, according to police estimates. Salem organizers told Capital Press they estimated the crowd there at about 6,000. [Capital Press 5/2/07] In Eugene, about 30 people rallied at the Blair Boulevard office of Community Alliance of Lane County in the morning to send off a handful of local activists to join the demonstration in Salem. Locally organized by CAUSA, an immigrant rights coalition, the group carried signs in opposition to state legislation that would narrow the list of documents applicants can use to prove their identity when applying for an Oregon driver's license. [Register-Guard (Eugene) 5/2/07, partly from AP]
WASHINGTON: About 5,000 people marched in Seattle on May 1 from Seattle Center to Westlake Park. The demonstration was organized mainly by El Comite Pro-Amnistia General y Justica Social, a non-profit organization composed mostly of local social, labor and religious groups. Last year, as many as 30,000 people marched in Seattle. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer 5/2/07; Seattle Times 5/2/07]
About 4,000 demonstrated in Yakima on May 1. [Capital Press 5/2/07] Police estimated the crowd at 3,000. Last year, police pegged the crowd at 3,000 to 5,000 while organizers said it was 10,000. This year marchers passed a group of 75 to 80 counterdemonstrators, including representatives of the Minutemen. [Yakima Herald-Republic 5/2/07]
More than 400 people marched in Mount Vernon and rallied in front of the Skagit County Courthouse. Organic livestock farmer George Vojkovich, co-owner of Skagit River Ranch, marched with three of his workers, Diego, Victor and Jesus Bernal. "I'm here to show my respect for them," he said of the three brothers. "They came here just like my family, not speaking English and looking for work. They're the best workers I've ever had." [Capital Press 5/2/07]
About 250 people marched through Bellingham to the Whatcom County Courthouse, then marched back to Cornwall Park for a potluck fiesta. The event, which started at noon, was sponsored by Community to Community Development, the Whatcom County Human Rights Task Force and Whatcom County Democrats. [Bellingham Herald 5/2/07; Capital Press 5/2/07]
IDAHO: In Boise on April 30, about 500 people marched to Julia Davis Park. [Capital Press 5/2/07]
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Vol. 10, No. 12 - May 6, 2007
Special Issue: Coverage of May Day 2007
On May 1, 2007, thousands of people around the US marched and rallied for immigrant rights. Media coverage focused on the fact that the demonstrations were much smaller than similar actions last spring--even though advocates knew well in advance that the numbers in the streets this May 1 wouldn't match last year's mass mobilizations. Organizers and policy analysts offered several reasons for the lower numbers: conflict over the STRIVE Act, a legislative proposal which some groups support but many see as far too punitive; the fact that harsh anti-immigrant legislation like HR4437, which spurred last year's protests, is no longer on the table; and fear among immigrants stemming from a major increase in raids over the past year. Immigrants and supporters rallied this year around legalization as well as an end to the raids. In all, more than half a million people demonstrated in over 100 cities and towns in 26 states and the District of Columbia. The following summary is based on available news reports.
1. Capital Area: DC, Maryland, Virginia
2. Southeast: Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky
3. Northeast: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts
4. Midwest: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas
5. Southwest & Rockies: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado
6. Pacific Coast & Northwest: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
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*1. CAPITAL AREA: DC, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA
WASHINGTON DC: About 450 people gathered at Taft Park for a rally in front of the US Capitol. The group included some 300 Asian activists brought in by bus from other areas. Activists also visited elected officials in a lobbying effort. A crowd demonstrated outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters before marching three blocks to the Republican National Committee headquarters. The demonstration was co-sponsored by the National Capital Immigrant Coalition and the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC). [Washington Times 5/2/07; Washington Post 5/2/07; Campus Progress (Center for American Progress, DC) 5/3/07] Immigrant supporters also rallied at Meridian Hill Park (Malcolm X Park) in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. [WT 5/2/07]
MARYLAND: Several hundred people took part in a public forum in support of immigrant rights at Union Bethel AME Church in Brandywine. The event was organized by a coalition of Maryland pastors, as part of a new partnership among the workers' rights group CASA de Maryland, the Partnership for Renewal in Southern and Central Maryland (PRISCM) and the National Capital Immigrant Coalition. [WP 5/5/07]
VIRGINIA: A rally was held on May 1 in front of Alexandria's city hall. [WT 5/2/07]
*2. SOUTHEAST: FLORIDA, NORTH CAROLINA, KENTUCKY
FLORIDA: In Miami, more than 1,000 people rallied at the government center before marching downtown. [Miami Herald 5/2/07; South Florida Sun-Sentinel 5/2/07, some from AP] In West Palm Beach, about 1,000 people marched from the Kravis Center to the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building. In Belle Glade, about 200 people, mostly second- and third-generation teenagers from Glades Central High, marched past sugar cane fields and through the city's downtown to a rally at Pioneer Park. Last year's May 1 action in Belle Glade drew 5,000 people. [South Florida Sun-Sentinel 5/2/07, some from AP] In Immokalee, more than 500 workers formed a human chain along a busy road in a three-hour demonstration culminating at Farmworker's Village. [News-Press (Fort Myers) 5/2/07]
[According to media reports, no rallies were planned or took place in Atlanta, or elsewhere in Georgia, even though 50,000 marched in Atlanta on May 1 last year. [AP 5/2/07]]
NORTH CAROLINA: In Raleigh, about 500 people turned out for a rally at the capitol on the evening of May 1. [AP 5/2/07] In Charlotte, organizers said more than 600 people gathered at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center for a bilingual evening rally. [Charlotte Observer 5/2/07] About 50 people gathered in song and prayer at a vigil in the parking lot of Calvary Baptist Church in Asheville. [Asheville Citizen-Times 5/2/07] Events also took place in Burlington, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro, Hickory, Lumberton, Siler City and Wilmington. [Workers World 5/3/07]
KENTUCKY: In Louisville, more than 250 people took part in a 5pm rally at the federal courthouse before marching to Jefferson Square Park. Last year on May 1 more than 1,000 people attended a midday rally in Louisville. [Louisville Courier-Journal 5/2/07] On Apr. 29 in Lexington, hundreds attended a "Solidarity Sunday!" cultural event at a local park. [Lexington Herald-Leader 4/30/07]
*3. NORTHEAST: NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND, MASSACHUSETTS
NEW YORK: In New York City, two feeder marches converged at a rally at Union Square in Manhattan. Nearly 4,000 people rallied in Chinatown and at least another 1,000 took part in an interfaith vigil in Washington Square Park. Both groups then marched to Union Square to join a larger demonstration, followed by a march along Broadway back downtown to Foley Square, behind the Federal Building. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/2/07; amNewYork 5/2/07] According to the New York Daily News, organizers estimated that a total of 20,000 people attended the Union Square rally, while police sources put the crowd count closer to 3,000. [DN 5/2/07]
As a section of the march passed the intersection of Broadway and 8th Street around 6pm, without warning a police officer attacked a demonstrator who was wearing a traditional Mexican wrestler's mask, and tried to forcibly remove his mask. A melee ensued between police and demonstrators. The masked man's cousin, Rosendo Bonifacio, was arrested; it was not clear whether there were any other arrests. Bonifacio said three or four agents jumped on top of him and beat him, then pepper-sprayed him in the face after handcuffing him. Bonifacio spent the night in jail and was charged with obstruction of government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Alberto Lezama, a member of Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio who witnessed the scene, said police attacked the crowd like "rabid dogs," indiscriminately beating up men and women with their nightsticks. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/3/07] [On May 1 in 2000 and 2001, police arrested people at New York City immigrant rights marches on the pretext of enforcing a state law that barred the wearing of masks at public demonstrations. In the 2001 incident, which involved a wrestling mask being used in a street theater performance, police beat up demonstrators, legal observers and journalists. The anti-mask law was overturned in November 2002; it is unclear why the police thought they had the right to remove someone's mask at this year's demonstration.]
On Long Island, 1,000 people rallied in Hempstead. [Workers World 5/3/07] In White Plains, in Westchester County just north of New York City, about 100 mostly Latino students walked out of classes at White Plains High School and marched to Renaissance Plaza, where they held a peaceful demonstration for immigrant rights. [Journal News 5/2/07] About 80 people turned up for a march and rally in the village of Spring Valley, in Rockland County in the lower Hudson Valley area. Starting at about 10:15 am, the march led from the parking lot of International Food Mart on Route 59 up Main Street to Memorial Park. Last year, an estimated 1,500 people marched in Spring Valley. Factors contributing to this year's lower turnout included doubt as to whether the village would issue a permit for the march and immigrants' fear of exposure, said Hugo Jimenez of the Spring Valley May Day Coalition, which organized the event. [Journal News 5/2/07]
In Rochester, more than 50 people carried signs and marched outside the Kenneth B. Keating Building. Last year, hundreds of immigrant rights advocates marched on the Rochester federal building. [Rochester Democrat & Chronicle 5/2/07]
In Buffalo, a group of students demonstrated at their high school on May 1 to protest the school's administration, oppose military recruiters and support immigrant rights. They were joined by students and teachers from other high schools and from the University at Buffalo (part of the state university system, SUNY). The protesters then drove to City Hall and to the Buffalo office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to protest the criminalization of students and immigrants. [Workers World 5/3/07]
NEW JERSEY: About 200 protesters gathered in downtown Morristown, in north Jersey, according to organizers. This year protesters were motivated by anger over Morristown mayor Donald Cresitello's proposal to have the Department of Homeland Security train local police officers to enforce immigration laws. Last year 1,500 demonstrated in Morristown. [Bergen Record 5/2/07] At least 60 people (or 150 according to El Diario-La Prensa) gathered in Paramus to protest outside the office of Republican Rep. Scott Garrett, who supports legislation that would criminalize undocumented immigrants. [Herald News 5/2/07; BR 5/2/07; ED-LP 5/2/07]
Some 30 people rallied in a park in Jersey City before marching to Union City. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/2/07] The Jersey City rally was sponsored by New Jersey members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Dudley Griffith, president of ACORN's political committee, drew a parallel with the slave trade. "History teaches us that the same thing happened to black people," he said. "My people were brought here in chains. Families were torn apart. And America overcame that. We must have a conscience as human beings and remember where we came from." [Asbury Park Press 5/2/07 from AP] More than 200 people, many of them farmworkers, marched in Bridgeton in south Jersey. The Bridgeton demonstration was organized by the Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas (Committee to Support Agricultural Workers, CATA). [Al Dia (Philadelphia) 5/2/07, some from EFE]
PENNSYLVANIA: About 175 protesters, including many from Delaware, marched through the streets of Kennett Square on May 1. The demonstration was organized by the Kaolin Workers Union, which represents mushroom workers in Kennett Square, and by CATA. [News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware) 5/2/07; Al Dia (Philadelphia) 5/2/07, some from EFE] About 50 people took part in a vigil in Allentown on Apr. 30. [Al Dia 5/2/07, some from EFE]
CONNECTICUT: Hundreds of people marched in downtown New Haven and rallied on the New Haven Green. Police said 250 to 300 people took part in the rally. [AP 5/1/07]
RHODE ISLAND: An estimated 500 to 600 people marched through Providence to the State House. Last year, 15,000 to 20,000 people marched in Providence. This year about 20 members of a group called Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement held a counter-demonstration. [Providence Journal 5/2/07]
MASSACHUSETTS: In Boston, about 500 people rallied on the Common in a demonstration organized by the Boston May Day Coalition. [Workers World 5/3/07; Boston Globe 5/2/07] There were 25 anti-immigrant counter-demonstrators at the scene. [BG 5/2/07] As many as 2,000 immigrants and supporters (or "several hundred," according to WCVB-TV) held a separate rally in the Central Square of East Boston after marching from the nearby towns of Everett and Chelsea. The march started at the Everett town hall with about 60 people, according to the Boston Herald, but picked up more people as it passed through Chelsea to East Boston. Chelsea Collaborative, a coalition of grassroots community groups, organized the East Boston demonstration. [Workers World 5/3/07; Daily Free Press (Boston Univ. student newspaper) 5/2/07; Boston Herald 5/2/07; TheBostonChannel.com (WCVB-TV) 5/1/07]
About 200 people attended a rally on the Town Common in Amherst, and about 50 rallied in Court Square in Springfield. [The Republican (Springfield) 5/2/07] The Amherst rally included more than 50 students from Amherst High School who walked out of class to attend. Many students from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst also walked out of class. [Workers World 5/3/07] Smaller demonstrations were also held in Lowell, Fitchburg, and Worcester. [BG 5/2/07; TheBostonChannel.com 5/1/07]
*4. MIDWEST: ILLINOIS, WISCONSIN, MINNESOTA, MICHIGAN, INDIANA, IOWA, KANSAS
ILLINOIS: The largest event nationwide was in Chicago, where police estimated 150,000 people took part in an afternoon march. Organizer Jorge Mujica said he believed 250,000 to 300,000 people participated. [Democracy Now 5/2/07; Hoy (Chicago) 5/2/07] Several marchers told reporters that anger over an Apr. 24 raid in the Little Village neighborhood [see INB 4/28/07] motivated them to march. Morning feeder marches set off from the predominantly Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen and the traditionally Puerto Rican neighborhood of Humboldt Park. [Chicago Tribune 5/1/07]
The Humboldt Park feeder march left from the Adalberto United Methodist Church, where Mexican immigrant Elvira Arellano has been in sanctuary since last August, resisting deportation and separation from her US-born son. As she broke a 25-day hunger-strike on May 1, Arellano stood at the window of the church with a microphone and led the crowd of 50 or so marchers in a prayer before they started off. The feeder marches joined other groups gathering in Union Park; from there, demonstrators marched through the Loop and packed into Grant Park for the main 3pm rally, where Chicago mayor Richard Daley addressed the crowd. The march tied up afternoon traffic in the city center. [Chicago Tribune 5/1/07; New America Media 5/3/07; EFE 5/1/07; Article by Leslie Radford, posted on Aztlan News Network 4/29/07]
Initially, the Centro Sin Fronteras and the March 10 Coalition, which disagreed over whether to support the STRIVE Act, had planned to organize two separate marches in Chicago, but after meeting in April, the two groups decided to unite in a single march. [Chicago Tribune 5/1/07; New America Media 5/3/07] The united march was supposed to end in Daley Plaza, in the heart of downtown, but a day before the march police decided to shift it to Grant Park, along the waterfront. Police said Daley Plaza was too small for the expected crowd. [CT 5/1/07; AP 5/2/07] Police reported that two people were arrested for painting graffiti. [Hoy 5/2/07]
WISCONSIN: Tens of thousands of immigrants formed a march stretching more than a mile through downtown Milwaukee on May 1. The march started at the offices of Voces de la Frontera and culminated in a rally at Veterans' Park on the Lake Michigan shore, where Ricardo Chavez, the brother of Cesar Chavez, urged persistence in the struggle for immigrant rights. Milwaukee police would not give an estimate of the crowd size, but Voces volunteers estimated that the number of demonstrators was close to last year's total of around 65,000.
Many immigrants said their employers supported their participation in the march. The Wisconsin Restaurant Association urged its 7,000 members to support workers who wanted time off to attend the rally or otherwise recognize the cause, association president Ed Lump said. "We're not encouraging a boycott or that people walk off the job," Lump cautioned. "We're encouraging employees to work with their employers to find meaningful ways to show their support." [WFRV.com (Green Bay) 5/1/07 from AP; Janesville Gazette 5/2/07 from AP; Marquette Tribune 5/2/07]
A rally at the state capitol in Madison drew about 500 people, according to local police. Alex Gillis, a spokesperson for the Immigrant Workers Union, said between 2,500 and 3,500 people took part in the day's activities, which also included the sharing of music and food in Brittingham Park. [La Crosse Tribune 5/2/07, some from AP]
Organizers led some a convoy of some 60 demonstrators from the Plaza Azteca in Appleton to a rally in Green Bay. The event, called "Protest Convoy," included cars and trucks painted with pro-USA signs as drivers circled downtown Green Bay blocks for about 20 minutes, honking their horns. [Appleton Post-Crescent 5/2/07, some from AP & Green Bay Press-Gazette] Another rally was held in Racine, near Milwaukee. [Janesville Gazette 5/2/07 from AP]
MINNESOTA: In Minneapolis, more than 2,000 people marched from Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue South to Powderhorn Park, stretching along three blocks. The group, about half Latino, included a large group of high school and college students, as well as many families and workers. Many Latino businesses closed their doors at that hour so their workers could attend the events. The march came in the wake of recent immigration raids in nearby Worthington and Willmar. A message on one of the many placards read: "You can't deport all of us." [Workday Minnesota 5/2/07; Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 5/2/07]
Elsewhere in Minneapolis, about 100 people, most carrying wooden crosses representing people deported during immigration raids, gathered on the steps of the Basilica of St. Mary. From there they embarked on a several-block procession to Westminster Presbyterian Church. Outside Westminster, many participants took out cell phones and called the offices of Minnesota congressional members, asking them to approve immigration reforms.
Several hundred high school and college students left their classes to attend an afternoon rally at the state capitol in St. Paul or other events. The St. Paul School District reported that about 70 high school students skipped classes in connection with the rallies. In Minneapolis, about 90 students left Southwest High School at noon, said officials in that district. They said they didn't have numbers for other schools in the district. [Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 5/2/07]
MICHIGAN: In Detroit, thousands marched from Patton Park, in the heart of the city's Mexican- American community, to Clark Park, led by a banner reading "Stop the Raids and Deportations." Police estimated the crowd at 15,000. Organizers said some businesses shut down for the day and others made do with fewer employees so they could take part in the event. Only about 50 of the 450 students at the Cesar Chavez Academy in southwest Detroit attended class on May 1; others skipped to attend the rally. [Detroit Free Press 5/2/07; Detroit News 5/2/07] School officials said about 200 students from Detroit Public Schools left their schools to participate in the rally.
Detroit was the only city where this year's May 1 demonstration far surpassed last year's in size; in 2006, Detroit's May 1 march drew about 700 people, according to news sources at the time. The Detroit Free Press claims this year's march was smaller than a March 2006 rally in Detroit which police apparently say was attended by more than 50,000 people; at the time, the New York Times reported that 4,000 people attended the Mar. 27 rally in Detroit [see INB 4/2/06, 5/7/06]. [Detroit Free Press 5/2/07]
INDIANA: Some 7,000 to 8,000 people marched down Meridian Street in downtown Indianapolis in a "Justice for Immigrants March" from St. Mary Catholic Church to Monument Circle. At least 20,000 people attended a similar demonstration in Indianapolis last year. [Indianapolis Star 5/2/07; AP 5/2/07]
IOWA: About 80 people attended an immigrant rights rally in Iowa City. Organizers said they had instead asked people to display US flags or call their lawmakers to call for immigration reform. [AP 5/2/07]
KANSAS: A rally in Topeka drew 50 people. The Topeka Center for Peace and Justice was one of the participating groups. [Topeka Capital Journal 5/1/07]
*5. SOUTHWEST & ROCKIES: TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA, NEVADA, COLORADO
TEXAS: In Austin, thousands took part in a May 1 rally at the state capitol building, organized by the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition. After an hour of speeches, music and cultural festivities, the crowd marched down Congress Avenue in the rain to Austin City Hall, where a theatrical performance focused on the harsh realities of immigrant life. [Daily Texan 5/2/07] Last year at least 8,500 people took part in May 1 actions in Austin. [Austin American-Statesman 5/2/07]
On May 1, about 100 people demonstrated for immigrant rights in downtown Houston. Last year on May 1, some 10,000 marched. [Houston Chronicle 5/2/07] About 300 to 400 people marched in Houston on Apr. 28, while about 20 held a counter-protest. [AP 4/28/07]
Between 3,000 and 5,000 people marched through the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas on the evening of May 1. Demonstrators started off with a prayer at St. Cecilia's Catholic Church, then marched past the office of Rep. Pete Sessions, who opposes legalizing undocumented immigrants. The march kicked off a three-day phone lobbying effort for legalization. [Dallas Morning News 5/2/07; New America Media 5/3/07]
In El Paso, some 150 people marched from the foot of the Paso del Norte Bridge to San Jacinto Plaza. The crowd included some 20 to 30 students from Austin High School. The Border Network for Human Rights, which helped organize last year's May 1 events in El Paso, declined to participate this year; organizers apparently felt that May 1 events alienate Americans and are counterproductive. [El Paso Times 5/2/07]
A rally in McAllen, sponsored by La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), attracted between 1,200 and 1,500 people, said Juanita Valdez, director of LUPE's South Texas chapter. Last year about 3,000 to 4,000 people took part, Valdez said. [The Monitor (McAllen) 5/1/07]
In Corpus Christi, about 500 people marched from Sherrill Park along Shoreline Boulevard to the federal courthouse, then back to Sherrill Park for a closing rally. Organizacion Fuerza Comunitaria, an immigrants rights group, organized the event working with the League of United Latin American Citizens Council No. 1, the American G.I. Forum and several other groups, said group secretary Juany Martinez. [Corpus Christi Caller-Times 5/2/07]
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people marched through downtown San Antonio from Milam Park to Travis Park. Che Lopez from the Southwest Workers Union put attendance at 7,000 to 10,000. Rough estimates from police officers stationed along the route ranged from several hundred to 1,000. Planned walkouts by dozens of high school students across the city apparently never materialized. Chief William McManus said organizers didn't obtain the necessary march permit, but he allowed them to take to the streets because he didn't think they would stir up any trouble. Last year's march drew about drew about 18,000. [San Antonio Express-News 5/2/07]
About 100 demonstrators marched through downtown Brownsville from Dean Porter Park to the Jacob Brown Auditorium. [Brownsville Herald 5/2/07]
NEW MEXICO: Music, speeches and a free dinner drew about 400 people to a downtown park in Santa Fe. At least 1,200 people gathered at a park in Albuquerque. And in Clovis, more than 100 people dressed in white marched carrying colorful signs. [AP 5/2/07]
ARIZONA: About 15,000 to 20,000 people marched 2.5 miles in nearly triple-digit heat to the state capitol in Phoenix, waving signs that read "Stop the roundups" and "The sleeping giant woke up forever." A few dozen counter-protesters turned out. In Tucson, police said up to 2,500 pro-immigrant demonstrators marched to the federal courthouse and then to a park in the downtown area. One man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for throwing a water bottle at counter-demonstrators. [Douglas Dispatch 5/2/07 from AP]
NEVADA: About 4,500 people rallied outside the US Courthouse in Las Vegas, police on the scene told reporters. Many were waving American flags and signs. About a dozen people held a counter- protest across the street. Last year on May 1, some 7,000 people marched in Las Vegas. [AP 5/1/07] This year's protest began with kids walking out of as many as a dozen schools, and marching for four hours to Jaycee Park. [KVBC.com 5/2/07]
In Reno, about 2,000 people marched from Miguel Ribera Park into downtown--a 90-minute trek in the midday sun--carrying US flags and signs and banners calling for "Full rights for all immigrants." The crowd included many children, and parents pushing strollers and carrying infants. Participants were led in a rendition of "God Bless America" after reaching the front of the Bruce R. Thompson Federal Building. On May 1 last year, about 7,000 people took part in an evening march in Reno. [Reno Gazette-Journal 5/2/07]
COLORADO: Thousands of people marched through downtown Denver, capping the demonstration by lifting their cell phones in the air and calling Colorado's US senators. The crowd grew after they left a park near downtown and marched past the state capitol on the way to a rally at another park. Police estimated the crowd at 2,000; organizers said the number was more like 10,000. Last year, 75,000 marched in Denver, according to police. [AP 5/4/07; New York Times 5/2/07]
*6. PACIFIC COAST & NORTHWEST: CALIFORNIA, OREGON, WASHINGTON, IDAHO
CALIFORNIA: More than 100,000 immigrants and advocates took part in two separate demonstrations in Los Angeles on May 1. In the morning, the March 25 Coalition led demonstrators from the intersection of Broadway and Olympic to a rally in front of City Hall. By the time the marchers reached City Hall, the crowd had grown to an estimated 25,000. According to the Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights, another 60,000 people led by Cardinal Roger Mahoney and the Multiethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network (MIWON) marched from Vermont Ave and 3rd St to Macarthur Park. The
Los Angeles Times reported the size of the second march as 10,000. [LA Times 5/2/07; Post on Bay Area Indymedia by Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights 5/3/07] Among the marchers were hundreds of students who ignored pleas from school administrators and left Los Angeles-area campuses to take part in the events. School district officials said the largest group came from Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, where about 150 students ditched classes. [LAT 5/2/07] By midday, 640 students had walked out of 12 schools, said LA Unified School District spokesperson Monica Carazo. Last year more than 51,000 students walked out of class. [AP 5/2/07]
At both rallies in LA, several counter-protesters gathered. The LA Police Department deployed hundreds of officers on foot, horseback, bicycles, motorcycles and cars along both march routes; helicopters flew overhead. Sgt. Lisa Turvey said the extra policing would cost about $300,000, the same as last year. [LAT 5/2/07]
At 5:30pm, as the MIWON rally and festival in MacArthur Park was starting, some 600 riot police agents stormed the park, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. A witness said the chaos began after one person threw something at the agents. Cops pushed through the park, indiscriminately shoving and beating people in their wake and forcing demonstrators to disperse. National Lawyers Guild observer Sanjukta Paul
was beaten repeatedly, including a blow to the kidneys, as she attempted to separate the police from the crowd. Police also attacked members of the press who were covering the event, including a local Fox news team. Reporters were hit with batons, pushed to the ground, shot at with rubber bullets, and their camera and recording equipment damaged. Video footage of the police attack, including an angry report by the local Fox anchor, was distributed widely on YouTube.com, the free internet video site. [LA Daily News 5/5/07; Article by Leslie Radford posted 5/2/07 on LA Indymedia]
On May 6, LAPD Chief William Bratton said that up to 60 members of the Metropolitan Division's B Platoon--the elite squad that stormed the park--have been taken off the street. Bratton said he spent the weekend viewing video of the MacArthur Park incident and he said LAPD failures were widespread, and that officers from the top on down were to blame. "I'm not going to defend the indefensible," Bratton told journalists during a meeting at a television studio in Hollywood. "Things were done that shouldn't have been done." Cops fired 148 rubber bullets at the rally. [AP 5/6/07]
In San Diego, an afternoon march from San Diego City College to Pantoja Park drew several hundred participants, and about 1,500 people took part in an evening march that started at Chicano Park, according to police estimates. Jack Brandais, a spokesperson for the school district, said about 45 students walked out of Morse High School and 75 to 100 more out of Hoover High School. A smaller rally took place in nearby Vista. [San Diego Union Tribune 5/2/07] About 20 members of the San Diego Minutemen staged a counter-demonstration outside the federal courthouse. [NBC San Diego 5/1/07, some from AP]
About 1,500 people marched in Santa Ana. [Orange County Register 5/2/07] Late in the afternoon, more than 100 people, mainly youth, marched through Pomona. [Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA) 5/1/07] In San Bernardino, about 150 to 200 students marched from Arroyo Valley High School to an early afternoon rally at San Bernardino City Hall. [San Bernardino County Sun 5/2/07]
In San Francisco, thousands of people gathered in Dolores Park before marching to the Civic Center. Major streets--Valencia and Market--were closed for a procession that stretched along four blocks. [San Jose Mercury News 5/2/07] Inside the Muni underground station at Civic Center, security guards were demanding proof of payment--a rare moved that seemed to target Latino families headed to the march. When activists Lisa Gray-Garcia and Angel Garcia asked the security guard for directions, they were asked for their ID and given a citation for resisting arrest. [BeyondChron.org 5/2/07]
About 6,000 people marched in downtown Oakland along International Boulevard from 100th Avenue to City Hall. [San Jose Mercury News 5/2/07] Anti-immigrant protesters meanwhile held a series of May 1 counter-demonstrations in East Bay towns: Fremont (where 13 people attended), Palo Alto, Pleasanton and Santa Rosa. A counter-rally had been planned for Hayward, but no one showed up. [The Argus 5/2/07]
Some 12,000 people, including hundreds of school-age children, marched in San Jose on the afternoon of May 1. Last year's May 1 march in San Jose drew some 125,000 people. This year's march was timed to avoid conflicts with school hours, but 120 students from Academica Calmecac Charter School in East San Jose left campus early with permission from staff and escorted by a few teachers. The kids held their own makeshift rally at City Hall, hours before the main march. [San Jose Mercury News 5/2/07] Nearly 1,000 people rallied in San Jose on Apr. 29. Another 200 people marched on Apr. 29 in the tiny agricultural town of Mendota. [AP 4/30/07]
In Santa Cruz, hundreds of students and workers rallied at Baytree Plaza on the University of California-Santa Cruz campus before marching to downtown, where they were joined by families from the Beach Flats. The demonstrators then marched back to end the mobilization at the Beach Flats. [Santa Cruz Indymedia 5/3/07] Thousands of families marched through the streets of Watsonville and Pajaro, according to Santa Cruz Indymedia. The Santa Cruz Sentinel said the crowd was about 2,000 at the height of the march. The Sentinel reported that some 150 students from Pajaro Valley High School and about 35 to 50 students from Watsonville High School also held an 11am rally at City Plaza. According to Indymedia, about 500 students walked out of Pajaro Valley High School. The march was organized by MigraWatch Network, which came together last September following raids in Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Hollister on Sept. 7-8. [Santa Cruz Indymedia 5/4/07; Santa Cruz Sentinel 5/2/07] Several thousand people gathered on May 1 in front of St. Mary of the Nativity Catholic Church before marching through East Salinas. According to police estimates, about 3,000 people took part. The local march was sponsored by the Alianza Primero de Mayo (First of May Alliance). [Monterey Herald 5/2/07; Salinas Californian 5/2/07]
Several thousand people gathered on May 1 at the capitol in Sacramento. [AP 5/2/07] In Davis, about 350 people protested, and activists reportedly staged a civil disobedience action blocking Freeborn Hall, where the Department of Homeland Security hosted a public meeting to receive comments on a proposed rule governing drivers license identification. There were 25 arrests. [Central Valley Indymedia 5/1/07, 5/2/07; Sacramento Bee 5/2/07]
About 1,000 people marched through downtown Stockton on the morning of May 1, according to police estimates. Event organizers said 1,500 to 2,000 people participated. The march began at 10:30am at the Mexican Community Center on Lincoln Street and ended three hours later after a rally at De Carli Square. [Stockton Record 5/2/07, some from AP] In Modesto, about 3,000 people marched from south Modesto to the downtown government center. [ABC News 10 5/1/07] In Fresno, between 3,000 and 5,000 people marched from a "free speech" site at the Fulton Mall to the downtown federal building. Last year around 20,000 people marched and rallied on May 1 in front of Fresno's city hall. [Central Valley Indymedia 5/1/07, 5/2/07]
In San Rafael, hundreds of immigrants and their supporters gathered on May 1, including high school students angry over recent immigration raids and the Iraq war. [SJMN 5/2/07] In St. Helena, in the Napa Valley, local immigrant rights groups organized a march for Apr. 28, the Saturday before May 1. The march started at Crane Park and swelled to about 100 people by the time it ended at Lyman Park. Last year an estimated 3,000 people walked from Crane Park to Lyman Park. [Napa Valley Register 5/2/07; St. Helena Star 5/3/07] Protests were also reportedly held in Mountain View, Riverside, Berkeley, Santa Rosa, Madera, Martinez and other California towns. The ILWU reportedly stopped work in six west coast ports. [Monterey Herald 5/2/07; Central Valley Indymedia 5/1/07; Post on Bay Area Indymedia by Coalition in Defense of Immigrant Rights 5/3/07]
OREGON: About 4,000 people marched through Portland on the evening of May 1. Earlier in the day, about 2,000 people rallied at the capitol in Salem, according to police estimates. Salem organizers told Capital Press they estimated the crowd there at about 6,000. [Capital Press 5/2/07] In Eugene, about 30 people rallied at the Blair Boulevard office of Community Alliance of Lane County in the morning to send off a handful of local activists to join the demonstration in Salem. Locally organized by CAUSA, an immigrant rights coalition, the group carried signs in opposition to state legislation that would narrow the list of documents applicants can use to prove their identity when applying for an Oregon driver's license. [Register-Guard (Eugene) 5/2/07, partly from AP]
WASHINGTON: About 5,000 people marched in Seattle on May 1 from Seattle Center to Westlake Park. The demonstration was organized mainly by El Comite Pro-Amnistia General y Justica Social, a non-profit organization composed mostly of local social, labor and religious groups. Last year, as many as 30,000 people marched in Seattle. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer 5/2/07; Seattle Times 5/2/07]
About 4,000 demonstrated in Yakima on May 1. [Capital Press 5/2/07] Police estimated the crowd at 3,000. Last year, police pegged the crowd at 3,000 to 5,000 while organizers said it was 10,000. This year marchers passed a group of 75 to 80 counterdemonstrators, including representatives of the Minutemen. [Yakima Herald-Republic 5/2/07]
More than 400 people marched in Mount Vernon and rallied in front of the Skagit County Courthouse. Organic livestock farmer George Vojkovich, co-owner of Skagit River Ranch, marched with three of his workers, Diego, Victor and Jesus Bernal. "I'm here to show my respect for them," he said of the three brothers. "They came here just like my family, not speaking English and looking for work. They're the best workers I've ever had." [Capital Press 5/2/07]
About 250 people marched through Bellingham to the Whatcom County Courthouse, then marched back to Cornwall Park for a potluck fiesta. The event, which started at noon, was sponsored by Community to Community Development, the Whatcom County Human Rights Task Force and Whatcom County Democrats. [Bellingham Herald 5/2/07; Capital Press 5/2/07]
IDAHO: In Boise on April 30, about 500 people marched to Julia Davis Park. [Capital Press 5/2/07]
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END
Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Saturday, April 28, 2007
INB 4/28/07: More Raids, Border Agent Charged
Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 11 - April 28, 2007
1. Chicago Mall Locked Down in Raid
2. Military Contractor Raided in Oakland
3. NY: Return to Sender Hits Mid-Hudson
4. Border Agent Charged
5. Agent Spared Prison for Theft
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. CHICAGO MALL LOCKED DOWN IN RAID
On Apr. 24, some 60 federal agents armed with rifles and dressed in bulletproof vests raided the Little Village Discount Mall on Chicago's southwest side. The agents closed off exits, locked down the mall and stopped about 150 shoppers and workers. Witnesses said as many as 16 people were taken away. Baltazar Enriquez, a construction worker who was at the mall buying shoes when the raid took place, said the agents were carrying pictures of suspects and lined people up against a wall to compare them to the photos. "It was everybody who looked Latino," he said. Marisol Iniguez, an employee at the mall, said agents kicked open bathroom doors with guns drawn. "They treated us like criminals," she said.
Word of the raid quickly spread through Little Village, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, drawing angry community residents and immigrant rights organizers to the scene with signs, drums and megaphones. A crowd of some 300 people shut down the intersection of 26th Street and Albany Avenue for hours in a noisy protest as Chicago police directed traffic away. [Chicago Tribune 4/24/07, 4/25/07]
At an Apr. 25 news conference at the Chicago US attorney's office, Patrick Fitzgerald, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced charges against 22 people in connection with the previous day's raid, which he said targeted a massive fraudulent ID ring run out of the shopping plaza. Fitzgerald said 12 of those charged were arrested on Apr. 24 in Chicago, though it was not clear whether the arrests took place at the mall or at one of three other raided sites. The other 10 people named in the indictment remain fugitives.
Fitzgerald was joined at the news conference by Elissa Brown, Special Agent-in-Charge of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations in Chicago, Tim Viertel, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the US Secret Service, and Robert Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). According to an ICE news release, the Chicago Police Department and the US Postal Inspection Service also assisted in the investigation, which is continuing.
Fitzgerald defended the tactics used in the raid, saying authorities had to catch the suspects in the act and where they operated. He said the raid had "nothing to do" with the debate over immigration, or with immigrant rights demonstrations planned for May 1. When a reporter asked why authorities didn't arrest the suspects in their homes, Fitzgerald snapped back: "You're assuming we know where everyone lives, and that's a big assumption when you're dealing with people who make fraudulent identification." When Chicago immigrant rights leader Emma Lozano pressed Fitzgerald with the same question, the US attorney said the agents came in during a "shift change" of runners and salespeople where more evidence could be seized. [CT 4/25/07; ICE News Release 4/25/07]
During the raid, agents from ICE, FBI and Secret Service executed search warrants simultaneously at four locations, including the Nuevo Foto Munoz photo shop inside the Discount Mall. At a basement apartment about 25 blocks south of the mall, agents seized two computer towers, printers, scanners, a cutting board, hundreds of blank identification cards and approximately $1,300 in cash; authorities say the apartment was the primary office for the fake ID operation.
Agents also raided the residence of alleged ringleader Julio Leija-Sanchez in Oak Lawn, a suburb south of Chicago, and the residence of Elias Marquez, described by ICE as the operation's "office manager and shift supervisor," on West 64th Street on Chicago's far south side. Leija-Sanchez is charged with conspiracy to commit murder; he allegedly ordered the killing in Mexico of a competitor and was planning the killing of another competitor. At the two residences, agents seized two laptop computers and cash preliminarily estimated in excess of $200,000. ICE did not mention whether any evidence was seized at the raided mall. [ICE News Release 4/25/07]
Alderman Ricardo Munoz, who represents the 22nd ward that includes Little Village and whose father owns the Nuevo Foto Munoz shop in the Discount Mall, said agents confiscated two cameras from his father's store. No charges were filed against the photo shop's owner or employees. [CT 4/25/07]
*2. MILITARY CONTRACTOR RAIDED IN OAKLAND
On Apr. 20, ICE agents arrested 13 Mexican immigrant workers employed at the Eagle Bag Corporation factory in East Oakland, California. Twelve of the workers were arrested at the factory; one was picked up at a residence. The workers were taken to the ICE office in San Francisco to be interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted; they are being held on administrative immigration violations while ICE continues its investigation to determine whether any will face federal prosecution for aggravated identity theft. [ICE News Release 4/20/07; Insidebayarea.com (article by staff writers for ANG Newspapers, representing six Bay Area newspapers including the Oakland Tribune) 4/24/07]
Seven of the arrested workers had used social security numbers belonging to others in order to obtain their jobs, according to ICE. The raid followed an ICE audit of Eagle Bag's employment records, which found 47 of the company's more than 70 employees had submitted counterfeit immigration documents to obtain their jobs, and that 33 of the unauthorized workers were using stolen social security numbers. ICE said Eagle Bag Corporation sought to comply with current hiring laws and is not facing any charges at this time.
The Eagle Bag Corporation makes packaging products for industry, agribusiness and the US government. On its website, the company says it manufactures "polypropylene (P.P.) woven fabric and bags" and is approved by the US Department of Agriculture to supply bags to the US government. The company supplies sand bags to the US military, and bags to the US government for use in food distribution to "Third World" countries. [ICE News Release 4/20/07] Federal contract data analyzed by OMB Watch, a Washington-based nonprofit government watchdog organization, indicates Eagle Bag had $53.1 million in federal contracts from fiscal year 2000 through the first quarter of fiscal year 2006.
ICE Special Agent Jennifer Holman said she wasn't sure "how we gained the intel on this particular company," but it's possible Eagle Bag was targeted for investigation because of its "critical infrastructure" as a military supplier. The arrests didn't result in any children left without caretakers, said Holman: "We definitely aren't trying to take people away from their children at this point." [Insidebayarea.com 4/24/07]
During the first six months of the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2006, ICE apprehended 2,763 unauthorized immigrants in worksite operations. In the previous fiscal year, ICE logged 3,667 worksite apprehensions, , a more than three-fold increase compared to fiscal year 2005. So far this fiscal year, criminal charges have been filed against 527 people in worksite operations, compared with 718 for all of fiscal year 2006. [Houston Chronicle 4/23/07; ICE News Release 4/20/07]
*3. NY: RETURN TO SENDER HITS MID-HUDSON
On April 4, ICE agents searched apartments and stopped people on the street in the mid-Hudson community of Valatie, New York, arresting eight out-of-status immigrants. In nearby Chatham, ICE arrested two men on the street. ICE spokesperson Mike Gilhooly verified that there were 42 arrests in the Capital District of New York over the week of Apr. 2 as part of "Operation Return to Sender," a nationwide program targeting immigrants who have failed to comply with deportation orders. However, only 18 of the 42 people arrested had already been ordered removed by an immigration judge; the other 24 were just picked up on suspicion of being out of status. Six of those arrested reportedly had criminal records. ICE received support from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, and state police were also on the scene.
Immigrant rights supporters protested the raids with a demonstration on April 6 in Albany. Leaders from ARISE, a congregation-based social justice organization, said dozens of immigrants had been arrested over the past week in Albany, Latham, Ravena, Chatham and Valatie. The protesters accused ICE of using "Gestapo tactics" and called on elected officials to halt the raids. Another activist compared the situation of immigrants today to that faced by Japanese Americans in World War II, and said the movement to help the detainees has built on the tradition of the Underground Railroad.
Bail was set at $5,000 for at least some of the detainees, and at least four raised the funds and were released beginning on Apr. 9. On Apr. 11, ICE agents were reportedly seen in the town of Hudson, but no arrests were reported there. [The Independent (Hudson Valley) 4/12/07; Troy Record 4/7/07]
The mid-Hudson area newspaper The Independent interviewed a local resident (who asked not to be identified) who knows two of the men arrested in Chatham, both of them Mexicans who have worked at restaurants. "They want to be legal--I feel bad for them--they want to pay their taxes," said the resident. "I feel horrible about it--they work their ass off, they want to see their families and they can't." [The Independent 4/12/07]
In March, 20 immigrants from Central America were arrested at a motel in Colonie, just north of Albany, after some of them were pulled over by police. They were working on a construction project. [The Independent 4/6/07]
*4. BORDER AGENT CHARGED
On Apr. 23 in Arizona, Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer filed a felony complaint against US Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett, charging him with four counts of homicide: first- and second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. On Jan. 12, Corbett shot to death Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera from the southern Mexican state of Puebla, about 150 yards north of the border between Bisbee and Douglas [see INB 2/4/07, 3/4/07]. The shooting occurred while Corbett was trying to apprehend Dominguez and three others who had entered the country without permission.
While initial news reports said the agent who shot Dominguez had been placed on paid administrative leave, in fact Corbett returned to full duty three days after the shooting. On Apr. 24, a day after being charged, he was removed from active duty and assigned administrative work. He has not been arrested.
A concurrent civil-rights investigation by the FBI has not been completed, said Deborah McCarley, FBI spokesperson in Phoenix. The FBI continues to send information, including the felony complaint filed in Cochise County, to the US Justice Department, which will decide whether to pursue charges, said McCarley. [Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) 4/25/07]
*5. AGENT SPARED PRISON FOR THEFT
On Apr. 24, former ICE agent Anthony Reyes was sentenced for stealing $4,000 in cash from the family of an immigration detainee who died at a detention facility in Broadview, Illinois. Reyes pleaded guilty last November to embezzlement and admitted he lied to investigators who were checking into what happened to the money. US District Judge John Darrah sentenced Reyes to five years' probation, ordered him to pay full restitution and fined him $1,000. Reyes worked as an agent for ICE and its predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), for over a decade.
According to court records, Reyes was working at the detention facility in Broadview when an immigrant from Cameroon died there--allegedly from complications from a pre-existing medical condition. A supervisor instructed Reyes to send the money via wire transfer to the dead man's relatives in Cameroon. Repeated complaints from the family in Cameroon led to the discovery of the theft, Judge Darrah revealed in court.
Reyes resigned from ICE in August 2006, and was charged with the theft in September. (It was not clear from available sources when the detainee died, or when the theft took place.) "There's no words to explain how sorry I am for my actions," said Reyes, a former Marine who served in the Gulf War. Reyes' lawyer, Michael Monico, called the theft "a spontaneous decision" by Reyes at a time of financial difficulties. "It has cost his job, his career in law enforcement and unfortunately led to the breakup of his marriage," Monico said. [Chicago Tribune 4/24/07; Chicago Sun-Times 9/23/06]
----------------------------------------------------------------
END
Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Vol. 10, No. 11 - April 28, 2007
1. Chicago Mall Locked Down in Raid
2. Military Contractor Raided in Oakland
3. NY: Return to Sender Hits Mid-Hudson
4. Border Agent Charged
5. Agent Spared Prison for Theft
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. CHICAGO MALL LOCKED DOWN IN RAID
On Apr. 24, some 60 federal agents armed with rifles and dressed in bulletproof vests raided the Little Village Discount Mall on Chicago's southwest side. The agents closed off exits, locked down the mall and stopped about 150 shoppers and workers. Witnesses said as many as 16 people were taken away. Baltazar Enriquez, a construction worker who was at the mall buying shoes when the raid took place, said the agents were carrying pictures of suspects and lined people up against a wall to compare them to the photos. "It was everybody who looked Latino," he said. Marisol Iniguez, an employee at the mall, said agents kicked open bathroom doors with guns drawn. "They treated us like criminals," she said.
Word of the raid quickly spread through Little Village, a predominantly Latino neighborhood, drawing angry community residents and immigrant rights organizers to the scene with signs, drums and megaphones. A crowd of some 300 people shut down the intersection of 26th Street and Albany Avenue for hours in a noisy protest as Chicago police directed traffic away. [Chicago Tribune 4/24/07, 4/25/07]
At an Apr. 25 news conference at the Chicago US attorney's office, Patrick Fitzgerald, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced charges against 22 people in connection with the previous day's raid, which he said targeted a massive fraudulent ID ring run out of the shopping plaza. Fitzgerald said 12 of those charged were arrested on Apr. 24 in Chicago, though it was not clear whether the arrests took place at the mall or at one of three other raided sites. The other 10 people named in the indictment remain fugitives.
Fitzgerald was joined at the news conference by Elissa Brown, Special Agent-in-Charge of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations in Chicago, Tim Viertel, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the US Secret Service, and Robert Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). According to an ICE news release, the Chicago Police Department and the US Postal Inspection Service also assisted in the investigation, which is continuing.
Fitzgerald defended the tactics used in the raid, saying authorities had to catch the suspects in the act and where they operated. He said the raid had "nothing to do" with the debate over immigration, or with immigrant rights demonstrations planned for May 1. When a reporter asked why authorities didn't arrest the suspects in their homes, Fitzgerald snapped back: "You're assuming we know where everyone lives, and that's a big assumption when you're dealing with people who make fraudulent identification." When Chicago immigrant rights leader Emma Lozano pressed Fitzgerald with the same question, the US attorney said the agents came in during a "shift change" of runners and salespeople where more evidence could be seized. [CT 4/25/07; ICE News Release 4/25/07]
During the raid, agents from ICE, FBI and Secret Service executed search warrants simultaneously at four locations, including the Nuevo Foto Munoz photo shop inside the Discount Mall. At a basement apartment about 25 blocks south of the mall, agents seized two computer towers, printers, scanners, a cutting board, hundreds of blank identification cards and approximately $1,300 in cash; authorities say the apartment was the primary office for the fake ID operation.
Agents also raided the residence of alleged ringleader Julio Leija-Sanchez in Oak Lawn, a suburb south of Chicago, and the residence of Elias Marquez, described by ICE as the operation's "office manager and shift supervisor," on West 64th Street on Chicago's far south side. Leija-Sanchez is charged with conspiracy to commit murder; he allegedly ordered the killing in Mexico of a competitor and was planning the killing of another competitor. At the two residences, agents seized two laptop computers and cash preliminarily estimated in excess of $200,000. ICE did not mention whether any evidence was seized at the raided mall. [ICE News Release 4/25/07]
Alderman Ricardo Munoz, who represents the 22nd ward that includes Little Village and whose father owns the Nuevo Foto Munoz shop in the Discount Mall, said agents confiscated two cameras from his father's store. No charges were filed against the photo shop's owner or employees. [CT 4/25/07]
*2. MILITARY CONTRACTOR RAIDED IN OAKLAND
On Apr. 20, ICE agents arrested 13 Mexican immigrant workers employed at the Eagle Bag Corporation factory in East Oakland, California. Twelve of the workers were arrested at the factory; one was picked up at a residence. The workers were taken to the ICE office in San Francisco to be interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted; they are being held on administrative immigration violations while ICE continues its investigation to determine whether any will face federal prosecution for aggravated identity theft. [ICE News Release 4/20/07; Insidebayarea.com (article by staff writers for ANG Newspapers, representing six Bay Area newspapers including the Oakland Tribune) 4/24/07]
Seven of the arrested workers had used social security numbers belonging to others in order to obtain their jobs, according to ICE. The raid followed an ICE audit of Eagle Bag's employment records, which found 47 of the company's more than 70 employees had submitted counterfeit immigration documents to obtain their jobs, and that 33 of the unauthorized workers were using stolen social security numbers. ICE said Eagle Bag Corporation sought to comply with current hiring laws and is not facing any charges at this time.
The Eagle Bag Corporation makes packaging products for industry, agribusiness and the US government. On its website, the company says it manufactures "polypropylene (P.P.) woven fabric and bags" and is approved by the US Department of Agriculture to supply bags to the US government. The company supplies sand bags to the US military, and bags to the US government for use in food distribution to "Third World" countries. [ICE News Release 4/20/07] Federal contract data analyzed by OMB Watch, a Washington-based nonprofit government watchdog organization, indicates Eagle Bag had $53.1 million in federal contracts from fiscal year 2000 through the first quarter of fiscal year 2006.
ICE Special Agent Jennifer Holman said she wasn't sure "how we gained the intel on this particular company," but it's possible Eagle Bag was targeted for investigation because of its "critical infrastructure" as a military supplier. The arrests didn't result in any children left without caretakers, said Holman: "We definitely aren't trying to take people away from their children at this point." [Insidebayarea.com 4/24/07]
During the first six months of the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2006, ICE apprehended 2,763 unauthorized immigrants in worksite operations. In the previous fiscal year, ICE logged 3,667 worksite apprehensions, , a more than three-fold increase compared to fiscal year 2005. So far this fiscal year, criminal charges have been filed against 527 people in worksite operations, compared with 718 for all of fiscal year 2006. [Houston Chronicle 4/23/07; ICE News Release 4/20/07]
*3. NY: RETURN TO SENDER HITS MID-HUDSON
On April 4, ICE agents searched apartments and stopped people on the street in the mid-Hudson community of Valatie, New York, arresting eight out-of-status immigrants. In nearby Chatham, ICE arrested two men on the street. ICE spokesperson Mike Gilhooly verified that there were 42 arrests in the Capital District of New York over the week of Apr. 2 as part of "Operation Return to Sender," a nationwide program targeting immigrants who have failed to comply with deportation orders. However, only 18 of the 42 people arrested had already been ordered removed by an immigration judge; the other 24 were just picked up on suspicion of being out of status. Six of those arrested reportedly had criminal records. ICE received support from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, and state police were also on the scene.
Immigrant rights supporters protested the raids with a demonstration on April 6 in Albany. Leaders from ARISE, a congregation-based social justice organization, said dozens of immigrants had been arrested over the past week in Albany, Latham, Ravena, Chatham and Valatie. The protesters accused ICE of using "Gestapo tactics" and called on elected officials to halt the raids. Another activist compared the situation of immigrants today to that faced by Japanese Americans in World War II, and said the movement to help the detainees has built on the tradition of the Underground Railroad.
Bail was set at $5,000 for at least some of the detainees, and at least four raised the funds and were released beginning on Apr. 9. On Apr. 11, ICE agents were reportedly seen in the town of Hudson, but no arrests were reported there. [The Independent (Hudson Valley) 4/12/07; Troy Record 4/7/07]
The mid-Hudson area newspaper The Independent interviewed a local resident (who asked not to be identified) who knows two of the men arrested in Chatham, both of them Mexicans who have worked at restaurants. "They want to be legal--I feel bad for them--they want to pay their taxes," said the resident. "I feel horrible about it--they work their ass off, they want to see their families and they can't." [The Independent 4/12/07]
In March, 20 immigrants from Central America were arrested at a motel in Colonie, just north of Albany, after some of them were pulled over by police. They were working on a construction project. [The Independent 4/6/07]
*4. BORDER AGENT CHARGED
On Apr. 23 in Arizona, Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer filed a felony complaint against US Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett, charging him with four counts of homicide: first- and second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide. On Jan. 12, Corbett shot to death Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera from the southern Mexican state of Puebla, about 150 yards north of the border between Bisbee and Douglas [see INB 2/4/07, 3/4/07]. The shooting occurred while Corbett was trying to apprehend Dominguez and three others who had entered the country without permission.
While initial news reports said the agent who shot Dominguez had been placed on paid administrative leave, in fact Corbett returned to full duty three days after the shooting. On Apr. 24, a day after being charged, he was removed from active duty and assigned administrative work. He has not been arrested.
A concurrent civil-rights investigation by the FBI has not been completed, said Deborah McCarley, FBI spokesperson in Phoenix. The FBI continues to send information, including the felony complaint filed in Cochise County, to the US Justice Department, which will decide whether to pursue charges, said McCarley. [Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) 4/25/07]
*5. AGENT SPARED PRISON FOR THEFT
On Apr. 24, former ICE agent Anthony Reyes was sentenced for stealing $4,000 in cash from the family of an immigration detainee who died at a detention facility in Broadview, Illinois. Reyes pleaded guilty last November to embezzlement and admitted he lied to investigators who were checking into what happened to the money. US District Judge John Darrah sentenced Reyes to five years' probation, ordered him to pay full restitution and fined him $1,000. Reyes worked as an agent for ICE and its predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), for over a decade.
According to court records, Reyes was working at the detention facility in Broadview when an immigrant from Cameroon died there--allegedly from complications from a pre-existing medical condition. A supervisor instructed Reyes to send the money via wire transfer to the dead man's relatives in Cameroon. Repeated complaints from the family in Cameroon led to the discovery of the theft, Judge Darrah revealed in court.
Reyes resigned from ICE in August 2006, and was charged with the theft in September. (It was not clear from available sources when the detainee died, or when the theft took place.) "There's no words to explain how sorry I am for my actions," said Reyes, a former Marine who served in the Gulf War. Reyes' lawyer, Michael Monico, called the theft "a spontaneous decision" by Reyes at a time of financial difficulties. "It has cost his job, his career in law enforcement and unfortunately led to the breakup of his marriage," Monico said. [Chicago Tribune 4/24/07; Chicago Sun-Times 9/23/06]
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END
Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Sunday, April 22, 2007
INB 4/22/07: Raids in South, Midwest
Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 10 - April 22, 2007
1. Bridge Projects Raided in South
2. Janitors Arrested at Illinois Meat Plant
3. North Dakota Dairy Farm Raided
4. Colorado: Raid at Potato Farm
5. Iowa: Concrete Factory Raided
6. San Diego: Party Rental Co. Raided
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. BRIDGE PROJECTS RAIDED IN SOUTH
On Mar. 29, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 77 immigrants--76 men and one woman--in a raid targeting bridge construction sites in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas. The raid culminated a five-month ICE investigation into alleged criminal misconduct on the part of Tarrasco Steel, a company based in Greenville, Mississippi, launched after the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General confirmed that the majority of the company's employees were using unauthorized social security numbers. ICE has accused Tarrasco Steel owner Jose S. Gonzalez of falsifying and altering information on I-9 Employee Eligibility Forms.
In its investigation into Tarrasco Steel, ICE also found that the Massman Construction Company had employed unauthorized immigrant workers in New Orleans. That company is now under investigation as well.
ICE special agents executed federal search warrants on the Tarrasco Steel business office complex in Greenville, and arrested 36 workers at a Greenville construction site for the Mississippi-Arkansas bridge. Another seven workers were arrested at a construction site for the US-90 bridge in Gulfport, Mississippi. It was not clear where the remaining 34 workers were arrested, but at least three other construction projects were affected by the raids: the reconstruction of the Huey P. Long bridge in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; the I-40 Seismic retro fit in Memphis, Tennessee; and the Louisiana 1 bridge in Leeville, Louisiana. ICE billed the raid as focusing on "critical infrastructure protection." [ICE News Release 3/29/07; WJTV 3/30/07]
ICE said it will seek criminal prosecution of up to 10 immigrants who used counterfeit or fraudulent social security information. The rest will be charged with being in violation of US immigration laws, and will remain in ICE custody awaiting the outcome of their cases.
Michael A. Holt, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in New Orleans, thanked a number of federal, state and local agencies for their "outstanding cooperation" in the operation: the US Coast Guard, the US Department of Labor and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP); in Mississippi, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI), Mississippi Highway Patrol; Mississippi Department of Transportation, the Harrison County Sheriff's Office and the Biloxi Police Department; in Louisiana, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office; the Jefferson Parish Levee Police, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office and the Greater Lafourche Harbor Police; in Arkansas, the Lake Village Police Department and the Chicot County Sheriff's Department; and in Tennessee, the Memphis Police Department and the Memphis Police Department's Harbor Patrol. [ICE News Release 3/29/07]
*2. JANITORS ARRESTED AT ILLINOIS MEAT PLANT
On Apr. 4, ICE special agents executed a criminal search warrant and 27 criminal arrest warrants at Quality Service Integrity Inc. (QSI), a cleaning service operating within the Cargill Meat Solutions Plant in Beardstown, Illinois, under contract by Cargill. Neither Cargill Meat Solutions nor its employees have been charged with any crime. The court-authorized warrants allowed ICE agents to search for evidence and to apprehend any unauthorized immigrant workers encountered at the facility.
In the operation, ICE detained 49 immigrant workers on immigration violations and arrested two managers and 11 employees on criminal charges of aggravated identity theft. The other 14 employees named in the criminal arrest warrants, who are also charged with aggravated identity theft, were not apprehended. The investigation began in January and is ongoing, said ICE.
QSI Beardstown plant manager Gerardo Dominguez-Chacon and QSI personnel administrator Maria del Pilar Marroquin de Ramirez are charged with aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft in connection with alleged hiring of unauthorized immigrants. In the criminal complaint, filed March 30 and unsealed by the court following the Apr. 4 arrests, ICE claims that from Dec. 18 through Mar. 22, Dominguez-Chacon and Marroquin de Ramirez knowingly hired illegal aliens to work at QSI, and that Dominguez-Chacon provided assumed identities to several new employees and provided others with information about how to obtain false documents. Dominguez-Chacon was arrested at his home in Beardstown; all the other arrested workers were picked up during third-shift hours at the plant. The 13 people with criminal warrants were scheduled to appear in federal court in Springfield, Illinois, on April 5.
Ten of the workers arrested for administrative violations were released on humanitarian grounds on Apr. 4 because they have minor children at home; another person was released who requires kidney dialysis, according to ICE assistant field office director Chris McDaniels. The remaining arrestees were to be processed at an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, and likely detained in Chicago area jails pending the outcome of their cases. [ICE News Release 4/4/07; State Journal-Register (Springfield) 4/5/07] Of the total 62 people arrested, 54 are thought to be from Mexico, five from Guatemala, two from El Salvador and one from Argentina.
About 10 officers with the Beardstown Police Department were involved in the raid, said police chief Tom Schlueter, although Schlueter was the only one from the department who entered the plant. Beardstown mayor Bob Walters responded to the raid by urging Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, to "quit giving us lip service and come up with [an immigration] bill that we can all live with." "Quit bickering in Washington, D.C.," added Walters. "Get off Wall Street and get on Main Street and see what's really going on in this world." [SJ-R 4/5/07]
*3. NORTH DAKOTA DAIRY FARM RAIDED
On Apr. 10, ICE agents backed by state and local law enforcement officers arrested 13 of the 20 employees at Sandhills Dairy in Towner, North Dakota, accusing them of being in the US illegally. [Dakota Farmer 4/12/07] Mike Zimmerman, one of the principals of Sandhills Dairy, said agents searched every building on his ranch, and even put his son in handcuffs as he came out of a shower. Zimmerman said the agents threw at least one worker to the ground. [KXMB-TV (Bismarck) 4/11/07] In an appearance on KFGO Radio's "News and Views" show and in interviews with the Minot Daily News and the Dakota Farmer, Zimmerman also said officers kicked in doors to buildings and homes on the farm; damaged furniture; forced his daughter from her home into the snow in her pajamas and with an ill child in her arms; and held a gun to the head of one of his long-time friends and demanded that he produce a birth certificate. In a press conference on Apr. 11 at the federal building in Fargo, US Attorney Drew Wrigley denied Zimmerman's accusations. [DF 4/12/07]
Two of the arrested employees appeared in court in Minot on Apr. 13 to face criminal charges for "knowingly possessing and using fake identification cards." Investigations are continuing on the other 11 employees, including one woman who was released for humanitarian reasons to care for a child. [Dairy Herd Management Magazine 4/16/07; KXMC-TV (Minot) 4/13/07]
The dairy milks about 700 cows three times a day and also raises its own calves; Zimmerman said if the company can't replace the workforce it will likely be forced to sell the animals. The dairy received state and federal aid in the past as part of economic development efforts. Sandhills was operating on Apr. 11 with the labor of family members and volunteers. [DF 4/12/07]
*4. COLORADO: RAID AT POTATO FARM
On Apr. 17, ICE agents raided the Worley & McCullough Inc. potato farm and processing plant in Monte Vista, Colorado. After interviewing about 70 workers, ICE arrested 19 workers on administrative immigration violations and three other employees, including the general manager and a company foreman, on charges of obtaining and possessing false identifications and aggravated identify theft. Two of the three arrested on criminal charges are US citizens; the third is a legal permanent resident. ICE agents also seized employee personnel files, four computers, a computer hard drive from the company surveillance camera, and various correspondence relating to hiring, recruiting, and identity documents.
Of the 19 workers arrested administratively, three were from Guatemala and 16 were from Mexico, according to ICE. They included eight women, 10 men and a boy under the age of 18. The juvenile was handed over to the custody of Mexican authorities on Apr. 18. Two women were conditionally released for humanitarian reasons, said ICE spokesperson Carl Rusnok. The other detainees were transferred to an ICE contract detention facility in Denver.
Rusnok said a tip led ICE to launch an investigation into hiring practices at the farm. During the 11-month investigation, an ICE special agent posing as an unauthorized immigrant paid one of the employees now facing criminal charges to provide him with false identification documents so he could get a job at Worley & McCullough. The six-count criminal indictment dating from November 2006 was unsealed late on Apr. 18, according to ICE. [Denver Post 4/18/07; Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 4/20/07; ICE News Release 4/19/07]
The Mexican consul and advocates from Denver traveled to the San Luis Valley late on Apr. 17 to address the crisis, and immigrant rights supporters held vigils in Alamosa and Denver. "There have been immigration raids all over the state and we knew it was just a matter of time before they came here," said Flora Archuleta, executive director of the San Luis Valley Immigrant Resource Center. "We tried to prepare the best we could but you are never really prepared." [DP 4/18/07]
Colorado's farm industry expressed concern about the raid. "We have a chronic labor shortage here," complained Jim Ehrlich, executive director of the Colorado Potato Executive Committee in Monte Vista. "Legal immigrants are even afraid to come to the state because they feel Colorado has jumped out in front of the rest of the nation and targeted them... Spanish-speaking radio in other states [sends out the message] that you shouldn't come to Colorado." [RMN 4/20/07]
*5. IOWA: CONCRETE FACTORY RAIDED
On Apr. 19, ICE agents raided the Iowa Prestressed Concrete factory in West Burlington, Iowa, to serve warrants on 17 workers accused of visa fraud and falsifying a Social Security number. Another worker not named in the warrants was also arrested. One of the 18 workers facing charges was arrested at a West Burlington residence; the rest were arrested at the plant. The detainees were loaded into a bus and brought to Davenport for court appearances. An additional five workers were apparently also picked up at the plant; they are not charged with a crime but face deportation hearings in Cedar Rapids. Federal officials did not charge Iowa Prestressed Concrete with any violations, noting that the company "cooperated fully with the arrests." [Associated Press 4/20/07; The Hawk Eye (Burlington, IA) 4/21/07]
*6. SAN DIEGO: PARTY RENTAL CO. RAIDED
On Apr. 19, ICE agents raided the San Diego offices of Classic Party Rentals Inc. and arrested nine workers on immigration violations. The five women and four men were to be returned to Mexico, said ICE spokesperson Lauren Mack. The company performs work at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, where immigration authorities recently began reviewing contractors' employee records as part of a crackdown on high-security workplaces. An audit of Classic Party Rentals found 30 of the company's 105 San Diego employees were not authorized to work in the US. The workers gave the company fake legal resident cards when they applied for jobs, Mack said. Authorities do not plan to pursue charges against the company. Since 2003, immigration authorities in San Diego have targeted companies that work on military bases, airport tarmacs and other high-security workplaces. A recent audit of 93 contractors at Camp Pendleton Marine base resulted in 168 arrests. [AP 4/20/07]
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Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
Vol. 10, No. 10 - April 22, 2007
1. Bridge Projects Raided in South
2. Janitors Arrested at Illinois Meat Plant
3. North Dakota Dairy Farm Raided
4. Colorado: Raid at Potato Farm
5. Iowa: Concrete Factory Raided
6. San Diego: Party Rental Co. Raided
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com.
INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com for info. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe.
*1. BRIDGE PROJECTS RAIDED IN SOUTH
On Mar. 29, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 77 immigrants--76 men and one woman--in a raid targeting bridge construction sites in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas. The raid culminated a five-month ICE investigation into alleged criminal misconduct on the part of Tarrasco Steel, a company based in Greenville, Mississippi, launched after the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General confirmed that the majority of the company's employees were using unauthorized social security numbers. ICE has accused Tarrasco Steel owner Jose S. Gonzalez of falsifying and altering information on I-9 Employee Eligibility Forms.
In its investigation into Tarrasco Steel, ICE also found that the Massman Construction Company had employed unauthorized immigrant workers in New Orleans. That company is now under investigation as well.
ICE special agents executed federal search warrants on the Tarrasco Steel business office complex in Greenville, and arrested 36 workers at a Greenville construction site for the Mississippi-Arkansas bridge. Another seven workers were arrested at a construction site for the US-90 bridge in Gulfport, Mississippi. It was not clear where the remaining 34 workers were arrested, but at least three other construction projects were affected by the raids: the reconstruction of the Huey P. Long bridge in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; the I-40 Seismic retro fit in Memphis, Tennessee; and the Louisiana 1 bridge in Leeville, Louisiana. ICE billed the raid as focusing on "critical infrastructure protection." [ICE News Release 3/29/07; WJTV 3/30/07]
ICE said it will seek criminal prosecution of up to 10 immigrants who used counterfeit or fraudulent social security information. The rest will be charged with being in violation of US immigration laws, and will remain in ICE custody awaiting the outcome of their cases.
Michael A. Holt, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in New Orleans, thanked a number of federal, state and local agencies for their "outstanding cooperation" in the operation: the US Coast Guard, the US Department of Labor and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP); in Mississippi, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI), Mississippi Highway Patrol; Mississippi Department of Transportation, the Harrison County Sheriff's Office and the Biloxi Police Department; in Louisiana, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office; the Jefferson Parish Levee Police, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office and the Greater Lafourche Harbor Police; in Arkansas, the Lake Village Police Department and the Chicot County Sheriff's Department; and in Tennessee, the Memphis Police Department and the Memphis Police Department's Harbor Patrol. [ICE News Release 3/29/07]
*2. JANITORS ARRESTED AT ILLINOIS MEAT PLANT
On Apr. 4, ICE special agents executed a criminal search warrant and 27 criminal arrest warrants at Quality Service Integrity Inc. (QSI), a cleaning service operating within the Cargill Meat Solutions Plant in Beardstown, Illinois, under contract by Cargill. Neither Cargill Meat Solutions nor its employees have been charged with any crime. The court-authorized warrants allowed ICE agents to search for evidence and to apprehend any unauthorized immigrant workers encountered at the facility.
In the operation, ICE detained 49 immigrant workers on immigration violations and arrested two managers and 11 employees on criminal charges of aggravated identity theft. The other 14 employees named in the criminal arrest warrants, who are also charged with aggravated identity theft, were not apprehended. The investigation began in January and is ongoing, said ICE.
QSI Beardstown plant manager Gerardo Dominguez-Chacon and QSI personnel administrator Maria del Pilar Marroquin de Ramirez are charged with aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft in connection with alleged hiring of unauthorized immigrants. In the criminal complaint, filed March 30 and unsealed by the court following the Apr. 4 arrests, ICE claims that from Dec. 18 through Mar. 22, Dominguez-Chacon and Marroquin de Ramirez knowingly hired illegal aliens to work at QSI, and that Dominguez-Chacon provided assumed identities to several new employees and provided others with information about how to obtain false documents. Dominguez-Chacon was arrested at his home in Beardstown; all the other arrested workers were picked up during third-shift hours at the plant. The 13 people with criminal warrants were scheduled to appear in federal court in Springfield, Illinois, on April 5.
Ten of the workers arrested for administrative violations were released on humanitarian grounds on Apr. 4 because they have minor children at home; another person was released who requires kidney dialysis, according to ICE assistant field office director Chris McDaniels. The remaining arrestees were to be processed at an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, and likely detained in Chicago area jails pending the outcome of their cases. [ICE News Release 4/4/07; State Journal-Register (Springfield) 4/5/07] Of the total 62 people arrested, 54 are thought to be from Mexico, five from Guatemala, two from El Salvador and one from Argentina.
About 10 officers with the Beardstown Police Department were involved in the raid, said police chief Tom Schlueter, although Schlueter was the only one from the department who entered the plant. Beardstown mayor Bob Walters responded to the raid by urging Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, to "quit giving us lip service and come up with [an immigration] bill that we can all live with." "Quit bickering in Washington, D.C.," added Walters. "Get off Wall Street and get on Main Street and see what's really going on in this world." [SJ-R 4/5/07]
*3. NORTH DAKOTA DAIRY FARM RAIDED
On Apr. 10, ICE agents backed by state and local law enforcement officers arrested 13 of the 20 employees at Sandhills Dairy in Towner, North Dakota, accusing them of being in the US illegally. [Dakota Farmer 4/12/07] Mike Zimmerman, one of the principals of Sandhills Dairy, said agents searched every building on his ranch, and even put his son in handcuffs as he came out of a shower. Zimmerman said the agents threw at least one worker to the ground. [KXMB-TV (Bismarck) 4/11/07] In an appearance on KFGO Radio's "News and Views" show and in interviews with the Minot Daily News and the Dakota Farmer, Zimmerman also said officers kicked in doors to buildings and homes on the farm; damaged furniture; forced his daughter from her home into the snow in her pajamas and with an ill child in her arms; and held a gun to the head of one of his long-time friends and demanded that he produce a birth certificate. In a press conference on Apr. 11 at the federal building in Fargo, US Attorney Drew Wrigley denied Zimmerman's accusations. [DF 4/12/07]
Two of the arrested employees appeared in court in Minot on Apr. 13 to face criminal charges for "knowingly possessing and using fake identification cards." Investigations are continuing on the other 11 employees, including one woman who was released for humanitarian reasons to care for a child. [Dairy Herd Management Magazine 4/16/07; KXMC-TV (Minot) 4/13/07]
The dairy milks about 700 cows three times a day and also raises its own calves; Zimmerman said if the company can't replace the workforce it will likely be forced to sell the animals. The dairy received state and federal aid in the past as part of economic development efforts. Sandhills was operating on Apr. 11 with the labor of family members and volunteers. [DF 4/12/07]
*4. COLORADO: RAID AT POTATO FARM
On Apr. 17, ICE agents raided the Worley & McCullough Inc. potato farm and processing plant in Monte Vista, Colorado. After interviewing about 70 workers, ICE arrested 19 workers on administrative immigration violations and three other employees, including the general manager and a company foreman, on charges of obtaining and possessing false identifications and aggravated identify theft. Two of the three arrested on criminal charges are US citizens; the third is a legal permanent resident. ICE agents also seized employee personnel files, four computers, a computer hard drive from the company surveillance camera, and various correspondence relating to hiring, recruiting, and identity documents.
Of the 19 workers arrested administratively, three were from Guatemala and 16 were from Mexico, according to ICE. They included eight women, 10 men and a boy under the age of 18. The juvenile was handed over to the custody of Mexican authorities on Apr. 18. Two women were conditionally released for humanitarian reasons, said ICE spokesperson Carl Rusnok. The other detainees were transferred to an ICE contract detention facility in Denver.
Rusnok said a tip led ICE to launch an investigation into hiring practices at the farm. During the 11-month investigation, an ICE special agent posing as an unauthorized immigrant paid one of the employees now facing criminal charges to provide him with false identification documents so he could get a job at Worley & McCullough. The six-count criminal indictment dating from November 2006 was unsealed late on Apr. 18, according to ICE. [Denver Post 4/18/07; Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 4/20/07; ICE News Release 4/19/07]
The Mexican consul and advocates from Denver traveled to the San Luis Valley late on Apr. 17 to address the crisis, and immigrant rights supporters held vigils in Alamosa and Denver. "There have been immigration raids all over the state and we knew it was just a matter of time before they came here," said Flora Archuleta, executive director of the San Luis Valley Immigrant Resource Center. "We tried to prepare the best we could but you are never really prepared." [DP 4/18/07]
Colorado's farm industry expressed concern about the raid. "We have a chronic labor shortage here," complained Jim Ehrlich, executive director of the Colorado Potato Executive Committee in Monte Vista. "Legal immigrants are even afraid to come to the state because they feel Colorado has jumped out in front of the rest of the nation and targeted them... Spanish-speaking radio in other states [sends out the message] that you shouldn't come to Colorado." [RMN 4/20/07]
*5. IOWA: CONCRETE FACTORY RAIDED
On Apr. 19, ICE agents raided the Iowa Prestressed Concrete factory in West Burlington, Iowa, to serve warrants on 17 workers accused of visa fraud and falsifying a Social Security number. Another worker not named in the warrants was also arrested. One of the 18 workers facing charges was arrested at a West Burlington residence; the rest were arrested at the plant. The detainees were loaded into a bus and brought to Davenport for court appearances. An additional five workers were apparently also picked up at the plant; they are not charged with a crime but face deportation hearings in Cedar Rapids. Federal officials did not charge Iowa Prestressed Concrete with any violations, noting that the company "cooperated fully with the arrests." [Associated Press 4/20/07; The Hawk Eye (Burlington, IA) 4/21/07]
*6. SAN DIEGO: PARTY RENTAL CO. RAIDED
On Apr. 19, ICE agents raided the San Diego offices of Classic Party Rentals Inc. and arrested nine workers on immigration violations. The five women and four men were to be returned to Mexico, said ICE spokesperson Lauren Mack. The company performs work at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, where immigration authorities recently began reviewing contractors' employee records as part of a crackdown on high-security workplaces. An audit of Classic Party Rentals found 30 of the company's 105 San Diego employees were not authorized to work in the US. The workers gave the company fake legal resident cards when they applied for jobs, Mack said. Authorities do not plan to pursue charges against the company. Since 2003, immigration authorities in San Diego have targeted companies that work on military bases, airport tarmacs and other high-security workplaces. A recent audit of 93 contractors at Camp Pendleton Marine base resulted in 168 arrests. [AP 4/20/07]
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END
Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted: they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)
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