Immigration Bill Dies, Protests & Raids Continue

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 16 - June 30, 2007

1. Immigration Bill Fails
2. LA: Protesters Defend Immigrant Rights
3. Orange County Organizes Against Raids
4. Raids: Colorado, Wyoming, Florida
5. Missouri: Roofers Arrested, Indicted
6. Upstate NY Contract Workers Arrested
7. Omaha Drywall Company Raided
8. Wisconsin Hotel Operators Indicted
9. Michigan Worker Drowns, Five Arrested

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*1. IMMIGRATION BILL FAILS

On June 28, the US Senate defeated a measure that would have
limited debate on immigration reform and cleared the way for
final passage of a proposed "compromise" bill. The measure to end
debate and move forward with the bill got 46 votes, 14 short of
what it needed to pass. The measure was backed by 33 Democrats,
12 Republicans and one independent; opposing it were 37
Republicans, 15 Democrats and one independent. One senator was
absent. The measure's failure means that immigration reform is
likely dead until after the 2008 elections, according to the New
York Times.

The compromise bill had scant support among the public: in a CBS
News Survey taken earlier in the week of June 25, 13% of
respondents said they supported passage of the bill, while 35%
opposed it and 51% said they lacked sufficient information to
make a decision. The bill included many harsh and punitive
provisions which led many pro-immigrant constituencies and
organizations to oppose it, while others sought its passage in
the hopes that it could be improved along the way. President
George W. Bush had tried to win over fellow Republicans with a
personal appeal to support the reform bill, but that effort
failed.

The bill's defeat was largely credited to anti-immigrant forces,
which mustered up their grassroots lobbying strength in a fierce
campaign against what they see as "amnesty" for out-of- status
immigrants. "I think the president's approach didn't work," said
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), who saw the bill as too favorable to
out-of-status immigrants. Republicans "need to be careful we
don't walk into such an adverse circumstance again. This did not
work out well. Our own members were placed in difficult
positions." [AP 6/28/07; NYT 6/28/07]

*2. LA: PROTESTERS DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

On June 24, several thousand demonstrators, many carrying US
flags, marched through Hollywood, California to demand full
rights for immigrants. Police estimated the crowd at 1,100.
Organizer Raul Murillo said the marchers want lawmakers in
Washington to know immigration reform is essential. [Los Angeles
Times 6/25/07; Los Angeles Daily News 6/25/07] The Coalition in
Defense of Immigrant Rights (CDIR), which organized the march,
said more than 15,000 people took part. [CDIR Update No. 15,
6/24/07, via Los Angeles Indymedia, la.indymedia.org]

A day earlier, June 23, about 100 people tried to march into
Leimert Park in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, an area
seen as the cultural center of the city's Black community, to
protest "illegal immigration." The mixed group of Black activists
and members of the "Minutemen" organization was led by homeless
activist Ted Hayes, who has allied himself with the Minutemen to
push the anti-immigrant cause. The marchers were confronted by a
crowd of about 500 mostly Black and Latino pro-immigrant counter-
demonstrators, including several hundred Crenshaw residents, who
gathered inside the park; police kept the two sides apart and
blocked the anti-immigrant group from entering the park. The
standoff lasted several hours but ended without any major
incidents. Hayes and four other people were arrested. [LAT
6/24/07; Fox 11 (LA) 6/23/07; Article by Leslie Radford 6/25/07
posted on LA Indymedia]

*3. ORANGE COUNTY ORGANIZES AGAINST RAIDS

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on June 22
that it had arrested 175 people in Orange County, California,
south of Los Angeles, in a five-day operation allegedly targeting
immigrants with prior criminal records. Only 27 of those arrested
had criminal records, while 26 were considered "immigration
fugitives" who had ignored prior deportation orders. The other
122 people were presumably out-of-status immigrants caught up in
the sweeps. Federal immigration officials worked with the Orange
County Sheriff's Department and other law enforcement agencies
and received leads from the public to help locate the suspects.
The majority of those arrested were from Mexico; others were from
India, Kenya, the Philippines and Colombia. More than 100 had
been deported as of June 22. [Reuters 6/22/07; Daily Pilot
(Newport Beach & Costa Mesa, CA) 6/23/07; Los Angeles Times
6/23/07]

On June 27, a small group of immigrant rights activists hit the
streets of Santa Ana carrying signs that read "Deport ICE" and
"Alto a los Redadas" ("Stop the Raids") and handing out fliers
about a meeting called for June 28 and a march planned for June
30. The activists were told by local residents that further raids
had happened on June 22 and 23--after the five-day Orange County
operation allegedly ended--with about 15 more people arrested.
Residents also said that ICE agents were continuing to question
and harass people in the community. The activists are planning to
step up their presence in an effort to monitor ICE activity and
protect residents. [Anonymous posting on LA Indymedia 6/28/07]
The June 30 march against the raids is set to start at noon in
Santa Ana at the corner of Raitt and McFadden; it will end with a
rally and press conference at a park across from 4th and Ross.
[LA Indymedia 6/27/07; rally information posted at
myspace.com/chavezdayofaction]

*4. RAIDS: COLORADO, WYOMING, FLORIDA

Federal agents arrested 38 immigrants--including four women--in
Colorado and Wyoming in a three-day operation June 20-22. ICE
said the operation focused on immigrants with prior criminal
records and those who didn't show up for hearings or had ignored
deportation orders. On June 20, ICE arrested 17 people in Summit
county in northern Colorado, and five people in Sweetwater and
Carbon counties in Wyoming. On June 21-22, ICE arrested an
additional 11 people in Summit county and five others in
Colorado's Routt and Moffat counties. Those arrested were from
Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Czech Republic.
[AP 6/23/07; ICE News Release 6/22/07]

ICE arrested 61 immigrants in the Florida cities of Miami,
Orlando and Tampa over the week of June 18. ICE was to announce
the arrests on June 25 along with the arrests of 41 other
immigrants in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The
operations allegedly targeted people with prior convictions and
those who had failed to comply with deportation orders. In
Florida, 19 of the 61 people arrested had criminal convictions.
[Miami Herald 6/25/07]

*5. MISSOURI: ROOFERS ARRESTED, INDICTED

On June 18, ICE served arrest warrants in a raid on several
roofing companies in Kansas City, Missouri, arresting 40 people.
Six of those arrested, including several roofing company owners,
were named on federal criminal indictments announced the same day
here; another three people named on the indictment remain at
large. The other 34 people were arrested on administrative
immigration charges. The criminal case is being prosecuted by the
US Attorney's office for the Western District of Missouri. The
indictment was returned under seal by a federal grand jury on May
29 and was unsealed on June 18. Among other charges, the
indictment alleges that after 22 immigrants working for roofing
company Mid-Continent Specialists were deported in a March 2001
raid, the company paid for and arranged for 15 of them to be
smuggled back into the US so they could return to their jobs. ICE
investigated the case with assistance from the Internal Revenue
Service's Criminal Investigation division, the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation, and the Social Security Administration.
[ICE News Release 6/18/07]

*6. UPSTATE NY CONTRACT WORKERS ARRESTED

Around 3:30am on June 18, Monroe County sheriff's deputies and
federal agents arrested 12 immigrants working for a tiling
subcontractor at a construction site in Pittsford, New York, just
southeast of Rochester. US Border Patrol officials referred the
case to ICE for investigation. The workers are being detained at
the federal detention center in Batavia, Genesee County, awaiting
immigration hearings, according to Border Patrol officials.
Hearing dates have not been set. One of the men is from Honduras;
the rest are from Mexico. They apparently worked for Dynamic
Ceramic Tile Inc., a subcontractor helping to build a Cheesecake
Factory restaurant in Pittsford Plaza. [Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle 6/22/07]

*7. OMAHA DRYWALL COMPANY RAIDED

On the morning of June 26, ICE raided Tufly Drywall in southwest
Omaha, Nebraska. The raid continued into the evening of June 26,
with federal agents and Douglas County deputies removing boxes
and suitcases from the Tufly premises. ICE said it arrested one
person on the night of June 25 in connection with the operation.
In a statement, Tufly CEO Don Gatewood said the company "had a
visit from several federal agencies for a search warrant for
documentation relating primarily to employees and subcontractor
files. The investigation under way is the result of a complaint
from a third party. The agencies and Tufly company are
cooperating with each other in every way possible to answer any
questions pertaining to the investigation." Neighbors said Tufly
has occassionally been picketed by labor unions. The neighbors
said they were surprised by the raid. [KETV (Omaha) 6/27/07]

*8. WISCONSIN HOTEL OPERATORS INDICTED

On June 11, federal agents arrested Wisconsin motel operators
Siddhartha "Sam" Shah and Jignesh "Mark" Jagaria; a day later a
federal indictment was unsealed against the two, charging them
with smuggling unauthorized immigrants into the US from Guatemala
to work at their motels. They appeared in US District Court in
Madison on June 12 and were released pending trial.

Shah and Jagaria are charged with harboring a smuggled worker at
a Wisconsin Dells motel. In June 2006, according to the
indictment, Shah arranged a $6,500 bond to free the worker, who
had been caught and detained in Texas after crossing the US
border, then tried to hide his involvement in obtaining the bond.
Shah then arranged for the worker to be brought from Texas to
Wisconsin Dells, and took steps to hide the worker from law
enforcement officers, the indictment alleges. In September 2006,
Shah gave the smuggled worker a job cleaning rooms at the
Wisconsin Dells Super 8 and living quarters in a storeroom. Shah
is also charged with witness tampering for allegedly telling a
former employee to lie to federal investigators about the
circumstances surrounding the posting of bond for the smuggled
worker, according to the indictment. The investigation was
completed by ICE in cooperation with the US Department of Labor
Office of the Inspector General and the Wisconsin Dells Police
Department. [Portage Daily Register (WI) 6/13/07]

*9. MICHIGAN WORKER DROWNS, FIVE ARRESTED

Five undocumented Mexican workers employed at the VerHaar Dairy
Farm in Bad Axe, Michigan, have been arrested by Michigan State
Police to be handed over to immigration authorities after a sixth
worker, 17-year old Jose Martin Lopez Cruz, drowned in the
Saginaw Bay on June 20. Lopez and the five other workers were
reportedly walking along a breakwall when several of them,
including Lopez, decided to jump in to the water. Lopez
reportedly was pulled under by the strong current; the other men
tried to rescue him but failed. Police divers retrieved his body
nearby, just outside the entrance of the harbor.

The incident led the Michigan State Police to launch another
investigation into the employment of unauthorized immigrants at
the farm owned by Johannes and Anthonia VerHaar, where ICE agents
arrested 13 workers last May 8 [see INB 5/20/07]. According to
police, the five workers arrested on June 20 ranged in age from
16 to 33; they and Lopez had reportedly been working for the
VerHaar farm for a few weeks to a few months. An ICE team was
expected to pick up the five men at the Huron County Jail on June
22 and transport them to Detroit to face removal proceedings or
voluntary departure. "The VerHaars will be subject to federal
charges if deemed appropriate by the US Department of Homeland
Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement," Det./Sgt. Mark
Krebs said in a press release issued by the state police. [Huron
Daily Tribune 6/21/07]

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END

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