[A-List] Fw: INB 4/28/07: More Raids, Border Agent Charged

[Nicaragua Solidarity and Fair Trade Resource]

From: "Weekly News Update" <wnu at igc.org>
Subject: 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; fax 212-674-9139; wnu at igc.org. INB
> is also distributed free via email; contact nicajg at panix.com for info. You
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> 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
>
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