Tourist Trap

Homeland Security sets up a new San Jose office to apprehend immigrant fugitives

By Raj Jayadev

ELOY, Ariz., is nothing like San Jose. More than a thousand miles away, located in the middle of the desert, it is a blazingly hot, desolate and unremarkable town roughly an hour-and-a-half south of Phoenix. It's so secluded that Greyhound doesn't even go there.

Eloy is host to one of the country's largest immigration detention centers. And now, a week after the largest immigration enforcement operation in California history, the distance from San Jose and Eloy already seems significantly shorter.

An estimated 436 people were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the Bay Area, in what amounted to a sort of coming-out party for ICE's new San Jose Fugitive Operation Team (FOT).

Many of those who were picked up are likely headed to Eloy, and immigrant communities locally are on notice—the South Bay is in a new era of immigration enforcement.

ICE was established in 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. In order to expand ICE's field efforts, it created Fugitive Operation Teams to locate, arrest and remove "fugitives" from the United States. ICE defines a fugitive as "an alien who has failed to report to a Detention and Removal Officer after receiving notice to do so."

In 2003, there were eight teams created nationwide. By 2007, the first year since its inception that ICE reported a decline in its case backlog, there were 75 teams. As of Aug. 1, ICE's case backlog was just over 570,000, and the division had 95 Fugitive Operation Teams. ICE expects to have over 100 by the end of year. They have arrested 26,945 people so far in 2008.

Craig Myer, ICE's assistant field office director in San Francisco, says the recent three-week enforcement "surge" and first assignment of the San Jose Fugitive Operation Team was a major success.

"To have a team in San Jose means we can be out there more often, and have more flexibility to cover Northern California," Myers says. While Myers says they were not able to track the number of arrests specifically in San Jose, he estimates there are around 4,000 to 6,000 people locally that may be targeted by their efforts. The large number, Myers says, is why ICE in June of this year located a team in San Jose.

Will the Surge Work?

Virginia Kice, ICE's Western Regional Communications director, cannot say how large the San Jose ICE team is, but a 2007 report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) says a team typically has seven members. The report also points to significantly climbing arrest goals per team.

The goal of each team in 2003 was 125 people, by 2006 that number jumped to 1,000 per team. That jump is consistent with the Office of Detention and Removal Operations Strategic Plan, "Endgame," indicating that the national aim of the FOT is to "eliminate the backlog of fugitive aliens by the end of 2012."

Despite a sharp escalation of arrests, the OIG report documented several critiques of the Fugitive Operation Team model. Among other conclusions the 2007 report states: "Fugitive alien apprehensions reported did not accurately reflect the teams' activities. ... [T]he teams performed duties unrelated to fugitive operations, contrary to Office of Detention and Removal Operations Policy."

The review points to ways the FOT can improve, given their aggressive goals, and notes their case logs may be "growing at a rate that exceeds the teams' ability to apprehend." Considering that there are now an estimated 12 million undocumented people in the United States, according to the Pew Institute's Hispanic Center, the potential backlog of cases could be enormous.

Angie Junk, staff attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), is not surprised by the new San Jose Fugitive Operation Team or its surge strategy, but says immigrant communities in the South Bay now need to be particularly vigilant in protecting their rights.

"These enforcement increases are going to create an atmosphere of fear and terror, and will threaten due process for all in the community," Junk says. The ILRC, based in San Francisco, has created "know your rights" cards (which explain due process rights such as the right to attorney). The group has also established community raid networks and triage centers to help people deal with enforcement issues, and help families respond to an arrest.

"ICE has a history of violating people's rights by racially profiling, threatening and using unlawful interrogation techniques while picking up their targets," Junk says.

Kice points out that Fugitive Operation Teams do not conduct mass sweeps, but rather have individual targets.

However, Junk says that the teams often arrest whoever they may come upon during an operation. Myers confirms that this is common practice, and calls these actions "collateral arrests."

"If we go to a place, we are going to check everyone's identifying documents, and enforce the law," he says.

That accounts for a discrepancy of numbers. In last week's surge, ICE reported 436 arrests, and said that 185 of those were immigration fugitives. The rest, a significant majority, were collateral apprehensions or individuals that were not initially targeted by the FOT.

For now, Myers says, there is no active relationship between the federal agency and local law enforcement.

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"We notified them of our operation for courtesy, but they did not assist," he says. When asked if ICE will be employing more statewide surge tactics, given the large number of arrests, he says that he does not know of any upcoming plans.

Either way, he expects the new San Jose Fugitive Operations Team to be busy.

"While the big enforcement operations get a lot of media responses," he says, "we are out there everyday, trying to meet our goal

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTIONS AGAINST THE RAIDS & DEPORTATIONS

March and Rally for Worker & Immigrant Rights
WHEN: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2008
Indigenous Peoples Day
2pm-5pm

In front of Wells Fargo Bank
450-45 75th Street, Queens, NY
Take the #7 or the F/V to Roosevelt/74th St. Stop

Actions to be held in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Madison, Detroit, South Bend, Seattle, Phoenix, Tucson, Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and others

Why Wells Fargo?
* Wells Fargo Bank houses and profits from racist, terrorist Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona
* Wells Fargo profits from the sweat of immigrant labor making tons of money from remittances
* The Wall Street Bail Out will be stolen from the people. Wells Fargo will profit from that theft

In May of this year and then again in August, the Department of Homeland Security through the hated ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) carried out some of the biggest anti-worker raids in U.S. history. These raids are made against workers at the very same time that the super-rich get saved on Wall Street!

The raids in the immigrant community are calculated to not only terrorize immigrant workers but they are meant to break unions, divide working people and send a message to us all: don’t fight back or else.

The economy is reeling from rising unemployment, housing foreclosures, price hikes—and the crisis on Wall Street is affecting every one but the super-rich. Yet it was them that made the crisis in the first place, not the people! At the same time, fear mongering such as that by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix occurs which is meant to divert us from the real enemy. As one activist put it “Arizona has become for the immigrant rights movement what Mississippi was for the Black Civil Rights movement.”

This is a time to come together.

We call on people from every walk of life, from every nationality, black, Latin@, Asian, Arab, Native, and white, U.S. or foreign born, documented or undocumented, in a union or unorganized to come out on October 12.


October 12 is part of a national day of action in over 30 cities. This day is known in the Latino community as Dia de la Raza and is a day for Indigenous People as a counter to the racist Christopher Columbus day, which is a day of conquest and disaster for the Americas.

Join us on October 12 to tell the Bush administration and all the presidential candidates: We demand:
* Bail out the people, not the Banks!
* Immediate Legalization for undocumented workers!
* Moratorium on the ICE raids!
* Moratorium home foreclosures!
* Money for hurricane victims not for war in Iraq!
* No to ICE & police brutality. Justice for Sean Bell & all victims of brutality!
* Political asylum for Victor Toro!
* Union jobs at union wages for all!
* Solidarity not racism!
* No to Lou Dobbs & all hate-mongers!

Event initiated by the May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights. For more information visit www.may1.info or call 641.715.3900 x97869# or 212.633.6646.

ICE picks up more than 1,200 in N.J., Cali

By Patrick Young, Esq. CARECEN Program Director
October 1, 2008 12:32 PM

Widespread ICE raids have taken place this week in
California and New Jersey. In both states, raids
appeared to be focused on so-called absconders, cases
where a person was ordered deported at some point in
the past. The California raids appear to be
particularly massive with more than 1150 people
arrested. Large round-ups like the one in Cali
overwhelm local social service agencies as children
are left without parental support and find they must
rely on suddenly overburdened organizations.

Not only is the scale of the California sweep
unprecedented, the fact that it took place at the same
time as the smaller Jersey raidsis notable. Generally,
large raids have been geographically isolated as ICE
concentrated resources from around the country in one
state or region. Here, ICE was able to mount major
operation in two states at virtually the same time.
Also notable is the fact that these raids occurred
just weeks after other large raids in states in the
center of the country.

Why am I Avoiding it...

I began this blog as an informational resource, with hopes of making it more personal at some point. I have been wanting to write about my own experience. But I'm not ready.

More than 1,100 arrested throughout California in immigration raids

By Denis C. Theriault
Mercury News
Article Launched: 09/29/2008 09:28:52 PM PDT

Billing a series of raids as the largest sweep of its kind in California, federal immigration authorities Monday announced more than 1,100 arrests throughout the state this month, part of a three-week effort that saw teams from the Bay Area and beyond knocking on doors in search of fugitive immigrants.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested 1,157 men and women — 436 in Northern California — the latest splash in a five-year push targeting immigrants who have ignored deportation orders or returned to the United States illegally after being deported. The sweep, which concluded Saturday, also produced 420 arrests in the Los Angeles area and 301 in the San Diego area. Those arrested came from 34 countries.

And although ICE officials hailed the sweep as a success, particularly because of the number of arrests, they said it was only the scale of the effort that was remarkable.

"This is something we do on a daily basis," said Craig Meyer, ICE's assistant field office director in San Francisco. "This was just a big surge to get as many boots on the ground as we could."

Teams from Northern and Southern California worked together to rove the state, turning up 595 immigrants with outstanding deportation orders and 346 with criminal convictions. In Northern California, which includes the Bay Area, 185 were fugitives and 92 had criminal convictions, ranging from petty theft to more serious crimes. A breakdown of arrests by municipality and county was not available, Meyer said.

In one case, ICE agents apprehended a Fremont woman who had been ordered deported after convictions for voluntary manslaughter and threatening a witness. The onetime legal resident, whom authorities did not identify, was sent back to her native Portugal shortly after her arrest, officials said.

The sweep marked the first large-scale operation for ICE's months-old San Jose team, one of a handful added this year in California, as ICE continues its five-year crackdown against immigrants who ignore deportation orders. In patrolling Northern California, it joins two teams in San Francisco and one each in Sacramento, Fresno and Bakersfield.

"It spreads us out a little more, gives us a little more reach," Meyer said of the new South Bay crew. "They know the area better and they can get out there quicker and be on the ground more often."

Nationwide, there are now 95 teams in operation, ICE officials said, with more than 100 expected by the end of the year. In 2003, when ICE's Fugitive Operations Program was created, only 17 teams were in place.

That expansion, along with the establishment of a federal investigation center in Vermont, has led to a surge in arrests. Last year there were 30,407 arrests nationwide, nearly double the year before. This year, ICE agents are well on their way to topping that number, with 26, 945 arrests logged as of Aug. 1.

The crackdown has continued to cut into the number of immigrants nationwide who have standing deportation orders. In 2007, for the first time, the suspected number of fugitive immigrants in the United States declined. The backlog is now down to fewer than 560,000, about 34,000 fewer than on Oct. 1, 2007.

But for Basil Robledo, director of programs for the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) in San Jose, the latest arrests are one more step on a disturbing path following last year's failure by Congress to reform the nation's immigration laws.

He said federal officials have instead turned to heavy-handed enforcement — a strategy that Robledo says has led to fear and broken families.

"It is a scary situation for folks in the community," he said. "People keep their kids home from school. It creates less of a willingness to talk to police. They see ICE agents and they see a uniformed person, and that blends into all of law enforcement."

Meyer acknowledged the complaints his agency receives, particularly those concerning children and families, stressing that "when children are involved, we're very careful with that."

Still, he said, "these are the laws that are in place. And we're just following through, doing our job."

Reach Denis C. Theriault at dtheriault@mercurynews.com. or 408-920-5035.