Immigration

Sixty-one illegal immigrants, including three toddlers, were discovered at a house in South Los Angeles early Wednesday by federal immigration agents serving a search warrant as part of an investigation into a human smuggling ring, authorities said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the single-family, two-story home in the 10000 block of South Normandie Avenue about 6:30 a.m. and found the Central and South American immigrants crowded into the house, with trash and rotting food piled 2 to 3 feet high in each room, agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. The immigrants told agents that they had been staying there since Friday.”*

Immigration officials in Phoenix are churning out record numbers of new U.S. citizens, with as many as 2,000 to be sworn in this month alone. The push is part of a national effort to chip away at a mountain of backlogged applications, including many thousands from immigrants who had hoped to vote in November. Despite the increase in naturalizations, however, critics say the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is not working fast enough, so many immigrants won’t become citizens in time to vote. “Instead of people being able to participate in democracy, they are being caught up in the red tape of bureaucracy,” said Monica Sandschafer, head organizer of Arizona ACORN, a grass-roots organization that holds citizenship classes. “*

Senators have approved legislation adding penalties and restrictions on illegal immigrants and employers.

Senators passed the bill 27-7 today, but it has a provision House leaders don’t like. It would allow employers who misclassify workers as “contractors” instead of “employees” to be fined up to $50,000.”*

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The stops and starts of the post-Katrina rebuilding effort, often due to bureaucratic delays in funding, still provided plenty of work to rebuild homes and businesses. But reconstruction work has slowed as projects are completed or transition to phases requiring highly specialized skills.

“In the immediate aftermath, labor demand was huge and few workers were willing to accept the labor and residential conditions that prevailed in the city,” said Elizabeth Fussell, a Washington State University professor who studied immigration after Katrina.

“Now there is less demand, and it is for workers with more skills and perhaps certification by the state. This translates to less demand for low-skill, undocumented workers.”"*

On the streets of some Latino communities on Long Island yesterday, news of Suffolk County’s bill targeting undocumented workers set off a wave of wild rumors that federal immigration agents were about to crack down on illegal immigrants.

Many people were misinterpreting Spanish-language news reports about the bill, believing it signaled a start to a round of raids, said Sister Margaret Smyth, head of the Catholic Church’s Hispanic Apostolate on the North Fork.”*

An Agriprocessors employee has returned to Postville after being detained by federal agents following the raid at the world’s largest kosher meatpacking plant on Monday. But she fears her husband has been deported, leaving her and her two children behind.

The woman, fearing retribution, asked that her name not be used. She is wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet so immigration officials can monitor her whereabouts. She was released for humanitarian reasons so she could care for her children, ages 9 and 12.”*

St. Bridget Catholic Church is a place for many of Postville’s Hispanic community to to catch their breath… to cry behind closed doors… and for illegal immigrants, like Eduardo Melendez, to hide from the law.

He says, in Spanish, “They grabbed us by the hair and said, ‘Hurry. Walk.’ Other workers were lying on the floor. Many were in handcuffs.”

Somehow, Melendez and his cousin escaped ICE agents during the raid at Agriprocessors. But eight of their family members, including Melendez’ brother, didn’t make it out. He says the church is now his only option.”*

Hundreds of northeast Iowa Hispanics are living in fear they will be targeted in federal immigration raids, in the wake of the Postville raid Monday. Local volunteers are working to calm the confused and terrified family members left behind.

The anxiety is being felt across Dubuque County, where Hispanics reportedly are not showing up for work and are afraid to leave their homes.

“We’re getting calls from people who are asking if it’s safe to go to work. They panicked when they heard what happened in Postville and walked off their jobs to go see if their families were OK,” said Terri Reynolds, immigration outreach coordinator for the Dubuque Archdiocese Catholic Charities.”*

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The government’s forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the “pre-flight cocktail,” as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.

“Unsteady gait. Fell onto tarmac,” says a medical note on the deportation of a 38-year-old woman to Costa Rica in late spring 2005. Another detainee was “dragged down the aisle in handcuffs, semi-comatose,” according to an airline crew member’s written account. Repeatedly, documents describe immigration guards “taking down” a reluctant deportee to be tranquilized before heading to an airport.”*

Federal prosecutors want a Sulphur saddle maker fined $100,000 for hiring illegal immigrants.

Billy Cook Harness and Saddle Incorporated pleaded guilty last year to a charge of providing false Social Security information.”*

Senators continued discussing a broad immigration bill after midnight Wednesday that includes a provision, which the measure’s sponsor says could kill the legislation.

But they stopped short of a vote because a slew of amendments tacked onto the bill added a price tag to the bill, which must be reviewed by a Senate committee before the immigration legislation can be voted on.”*

A little-noticed program to remove criminal immigrants from the U.S. has local immigration officials boasting about big results as they comb jails, juvenile centers and courts across Washington state in search of deportable inmates.

Since their big push began last June, immigration officials have placed 4,453 legal and illegal immigrants from throughout the state into removal proceedings. Last year, criminals represented about one-third of all immigrants who were expelled from the Northwest region and the U.S.”*

The Des Moines Register broke a story yesterday about how, prior to a raid by federal immigration authorities on a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, on Monday, the Postville Community School District was given a subpoena to turn over detailed information about students to the Iowa Division of Labor Services. The subpoena included a mandate to provide the names of students working at two apartment buildings that had been owned by a Postville school guidance counselor and sold to the CEO of Agriprocessors Inc., the same company that owns the plant that was raided this week.

I was curious if there was a connection between the subpoena and the immigration raid. In other words, did any information provided by school district officials, when they complied with the subpoena, get into the hands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents?… “*

The all-Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which includes 17 Latino members of Congress, has dug in its heels in an effort to bring relief to undocumented workers and their families who are currently being subjected to immigration raids. But in return, it is becoming the target of heavy pressure from the hotel, resort, seafood and other industries.

Last fall, the leadership of the Caucus developed a strategy to create leverage for progress on immigration reform. Concluding that the full package of “comprehensive immigration reform” was not achievable until the Democrats increased their congressional majority and replaced Bush in the White House, the Caucus decided to narrow its focus to measures that would undo the harm being done everyday by the immigration raids and other enforcement procedures ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. So the Caucus tentatively adopted a proposal from grassroots immigrants’ rights activists to provide provisional, renewable five-year visas for most undocumented immigrants now living and working in the United States.”*

An executive order signed by Gov. Janet Napolitano has prompted state police to cancel a $1.6 million agreement with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and, instead, use the money to create a fugitive task force.

The move effectively stripped two squads of Sheriff’s Office deputies from a statewide multiagency team designed to go after crimes dealing with human smuggling. It also took away Arpaio’s ability to tap some of the squad members to supplement immigration sweeps at the state’s expense.

In response, Sheriff Joe Arpaio accused the governor of orchestrating with others to pull the money from his department as political payback. House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, meanwhile, called for an audit of the Department of Public Safety.”*

Postville was already a small town of 2,300 before the raid. Now city officials say many people are fleeing in fear, not to mention the near 400 plant workers detained.

More than a third of the workers at the city’s largest business are gone. Without those workers many fear Agriprocessors will shut down. If that happens, the mayor says 95% of the shops here will dry up. Petrona Garcia’s convenience store is the only Hispanic business in town with customers the day after the raid.

“All the shops are closed. Not one is open. No one even comes to them,” said Petrona Garcia, business owner.”*

Interpreters hoping to help immigration lawyers arrived at the National Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo around 9:15 this morning, but when they had not gained access to the site an hour later, most left.

Four interpreters requested by the lawyers to arrive were told by security officers guarding the entrance to go to the other side of the site to meet with security there. Those officers told them to go back to the first entrance and wait across the street.

“They told us we’re not cleared,” said Mario Basurto, 26, a program coordinator at El Centro Latinoamerica in Waterloo. “*

A human smuggler who caused the death of 10 illegal immigrants when he crashed a sport utility vehicle while fleeing from U.S. Border Patrol agents has been sentenced to life in federal prison.

Adan Pineda Doval, 22, a Mexican citizen, was convicted by a Phoenix jury in October of 10 counts of transporting illegal immigrants causing death and two lesser charges.

A federal judge handed down the sentence Thursday, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix.”*

New York farmers say a shift in state policy is making it harder for them to hire experienced seasonal workers through federal guest-worker contracts.
During a meeting with Gov. David Paterson Monday, farmers said the state Labor Department is forcing less experienced domestic workers from Puerto Rico and elsewhere upon them by rejecting growers’ applications to hire foreign workers on H-2A visas.

“There’s been kind of a shift in the Department of Labor’s response to growers trying to get certified for the H-2A workers, and it’s been a shift from previous administrations,” Oswego apple grower Eric Behling said. “Other states have applied through the H-2A program and haven’t met the resistance.”

The H-2A program allows employers to hire foreign workers temporarily if they show that they were not able to find U.S. workers for the jobs.”*

The U.S. Congress won’t be beefing up the number of H-1B visas anytime soon, the chief legal adviser to an influential Republican predicted Monday.

Proposals to raise the annual H-1B cap would sail through Congress if called up for a floor vote, but political considerations mean that probably won’t happen anytime soon, said George Fishman, chief counsel to the Republican side of a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee panel on immigration.”*

Immigrants are assimilating faster today than in generations past and whether they speak English may not be the key to how well they integrate into the U.S. economy and civic life, according to a study published Tuesday.

Jacob Vigdor, an associate professor of public policy at Duke University, comprised an index to measure the degree to which immigrants mirrored U.S.-born residents’ labor trends, cultural habits and civic participation. What he found was that immigrants have been assimilating more quickly since 1990 than in years past despite higher levels of immigration to the United States.

“The fact that assimilation is occurring rapidly, what that’s saying is these immigrants are making up the difference,” Vigdor said, adding that an economic boom over the last 25 years and improved communications have made more opportunities available to immigrants.”*

Here are snippets from the introduction to the search warrant served on the Agriprocessors Inc., meatpacking plant in Postville on Monday:

“Over at least the last two years, (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has received information concerning immigration offenses at and by employees of Agriprocessors, including allegations of harboring illegal aliens… engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring and continuing to employ undocumented aliens… document fraud… misuse of Social Security numbers… and aggravated identity theft. This affidavit sets forth some, but not all, of the information ICE and other law enforcement officers possess concerning potential violations of the above-referenced statutes and potentially other criminal laws, but rather, is a summary of evidence in ICE’s possession sufficient to establish probable cause to support this search warrant.”*

Immigration officials raided the Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville today, arresting as many as 300 people.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered the plant at about 10 a.m. looking for evidence of identity theft, use of stolen Social Security numbers and for people who are in the country illegally, said Tim Counts, an ICE spokesman.

The raid by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the largest such operation in Iowa history, said Matt M. Dummermuth, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.”*