Immigration News Briefs: Raids in Kentucky, Atlanta, NYC & NJ

1. More Kentucky Construction Raids
2. Atlanta Airport Raid
3. More Raids in NYC, NJ

Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network. Contact nicajg@panix.com for info.

1. MORE KENTUCKY CONSTRUCTION RAIDS
On Nov. 29, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents
arrested 32 suspected undocumented workers--including one woman--
in northern Kentucky. Thirteen of the workers were arrested at
two parking lots near a construction site in Covington, Kentucky,
just south of Cincinnati, Ohio. The other 19 were arrested in a
parking lot at the Home Depot store in Florence, in Boone County,
Kentucky, where they were waiting for transportation to the
Covington construction site. ICE spokesperson Gail Montenegro
said those arrested were taken to the Boone County jail. They
were to appear in US District Court in Covington on Nov. 30.

The immigrants had been contracted to do commercial drywall work
for the Spectrum Interiors firm. Dugan and Meyers is the main
contractor on the Covington construction site, where a $55
million, 21-story condominium project--the "Ascent at Roebling's
Bridge"--is being built. "Home Depot was a pickup location where
they all got in a van and went to Covington," explained Tom
Scheben of the Boone County Sheriff's Department.

Scheben said the ICE agents are "not trying to pick up one or two
here or there. They're trying to get large numbers and they're
trying to get the people who are employing them." The arrests
followed a coordinated investigation by ICE, the Internal Revenue
Service's Criminal Investigation Division, the Department of
Labor, and the US Marshals Service. ICE was also assisted in the
investigation by the Florence, Covington and Lexington police
departments, the Boone County Sheriff's Office, the Kenton County
Sheriff's Office and Boone County Jail. [WCPO.com 11/29/06;
Cincinnati Enquirer 11/30/06; Cincinnati Post 11/30/06; ICE News
Release 11/29/06]

Between May 9 and June 2, ICE arrested at least 89 people in the
same area of northern Kentucky in a raid targeting immigrants
employed by subcontractors for the Fischer Homes construction
firm [see INB 5/14/06, 5/21/06, 6/18/06]. Five Fischer Homes
supervisors were indicted on federal charges in connection with
the arrests, but on Nov. 15 US District Court Judge David Bunning
dismissed the charges because a key witness, subcontractor Nelson
Trejo, could not be found. Trejo had said he would cooperate with
federal prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence. Two other
subcontractors who made similar deals are still facing charges.
Fischer Homes as a corporation was not implicated or charged in
the case. [WCPO.com 11/29/06; Cincinnati Enquirer 11/16/06]

2. ATLANTA AIRPORT RAID
On Nov. 29, ICE agents arrested six undocumented Mexican
immigrants who worked installing drywall at the Hartsfield-
Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. They worked
for T.C. Drywall, Inc. of Alpharetta, according to ICE. The
workers had security badges that gave them access to restricted
areas of the airport, including the tarmac. None of the men was
considered a security threat. They were arrested in Hartsfield's
south terminal as they arrived for work in the morning. [Atlanta
Journal-Constitution 11/29/06] The operation was conducted with
the assistance of the Hartsfield Department of Aviation and the
Atlanta Police Department and coordinated with the Department of
Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration. [ICE
News Release 11/29/06]

3. MORE RAIDS IN NYC, NJ
In a seven- or eight-month investigation ending Nov. 30, ICE
agents joined with officers of the New York City Department of
Probation in arresting 81 immigrants with prior criminal records
in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. The raids were part
of "Operation Retract," an ongoing effort by ICE's New York
office to arrest immigrants on probation for prior misdemeanor or
felony convictions and place them in removal proceedings. Of the
total number arrested, 45 were legal permanent residents and 36
were out of status. All but nine of the arrested immigrants were
from either Latin America (52) or the English-speaking Caribbean
(20). They came from the Dominican Republic (28), Mexico (13),
Jamaica (10), China (5), Trinidad (4), Colombia (4), Guyana (3),
Ecuador (3), El Salvador (3), Korea (2), Antigua (1), Barbados
(1), India (1), Grenada (1), Honduras (1) and the United Kingdom
(1). ICE agents transported the immigrants to detention
facilities where they will be held during removal proceedings.
[ICE News Release 11/30/06]

On Nov. 29, ICE arrested 45 immigrants in Brooklyn, Queens, the
Bronx and Manhattan who according to ICE are "child predators and
criminal alien sex offenders." The arrests were made under ICE's
"Operation Predator" and were separate from those made under
"Operation Retract," although the arrested immigrants were also
on probation in New York City for prior misdemeanor or felony
convictions. Those arrested were citizens of Bangladesh, Bosnia,
Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana,
Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico,
Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Romania and Trinidad. [ICE News Release
11/29/06]

Another 137 people were arrested in New Jersey between Nov. 13
and 18 in "Return to Sender" raids, which target people with
prior removal orders. ICE said 54 of those arrested had been
ordered removed by an immigration judge; the other 83 were simply
without status. Only 17 of the 137 had criminal records. Those
arrested came from 21 countries, including Poland, Mexico,
Honduras, Guatemala, Pakistan, Egypt, India, Slovakia, Costa
Rica, Albania, Macedonia and the United Kingdom. [Press of
Atlantic City 11/21/06; ICE News Release 11/20/06]