New Jersey Illegal Immigration Deported

Our federal government seems to be deceiving unsuspecting illegal immigrants by granting entry to their homes, a large number of lawyers and civil rights groups state.

They explain that in an huge effort to deport illegal aliens, federal immigration agents bypass necessary search warrants, but use ruses and intimidation to gain permission to enter and search private homes. In a growing number of lawsuits, immigrants and those against of the raids say that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is going against the U.S. Constitution.

"They're armed agents showing up at 5 a.m., banging on doors, kicking them in, going into people's bedrooms, ripping covers off people in their beds, asking them questions when they're half asleep, and seizing them and taking them away," said Patrick Gennardo of Englewood, New Jersey, and one of several area lawyers who have filed suits of late asking that such ICE tactics be shown unconstitutional. "These aren't fine lines between consent and storming in; these are scary, major violations of the Constitution."

But Scott Weber, the field director for ICE's office in Newark, New Jersey, has a different opinion.

"We all operate under the same Constitution," Weber said. "My officers are not involved in sweeps or random searches. We're looking for specific individuals that we have specific information for and active and valid warrants for their removal [from the U.S.] Our officers have extensive training in which they're taught constitutional law, statutory law and immigration law."

Immigration arrests made in NJ as part of the National Fugitive Operations Program, established in March 2003.

2007: 2,079

2006: 1,094

2005: 657

2004: 557

2003: 76

Note: These statistics are for fiscal years, which run from October to September. But because the program was begun in March 2003, the figure for that year does not cover a full fiscal year.

In a scene commonly told in interviews and court papers, immigrants claimed they have awakened to loud, continuous knocks on their doors, the shout of "Police," flashlights right in their faces and guns hanging from holsters.

At those times, immigrants allowed them in, expecting the local police and wondered if were news about a tragedy, or some criminal afoot in the neighborhood.

Surprisingly, they found themselves faced by immigration agents, many times asking about someone whose picture or name they did not know. Then, the agents interrogated them, they claim, handcuffing, holding them and getting them ready for deportation those who could not lawfully show U.S. residence.

"I don't see it as storming a home," Weber said. "We see it as trying to locate someone."

After 9/11, the U.S. government beamed on finding immigrants with outstanding deportation orders. ICE teams in New Jersey did arrest more than 2,000 like this in 2007, compared with 1,094 in 2006. And nationally, the arrests also doubled -- 30,408 in 2007, up from 15,462 in 2006. Some 500,000 illegal immigrants are estimated to be residing in New Jersey; with at least 12 million in the United States.

Deporting Innocent People

We want the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to nab the criminals and gang members and send them packing to their own countries, but what happens when this becomes indiscriminate and some undocumented immigrants who some deem good get caught up in the chaos?

Many feel that the Bush administration has to do something now about these raids which as we've reported, separate families, and it creates a great fear in the neighborhood - this by Federal Agents (ICE) - local polices efforts are undermined as they trust parts of the illegal immigrant community.

In Mountain View, California, the arrest of Catholic youth pastor, Lucio Caciano Miranda, has started a controversy. He was handcuffed and detained in a raid last week at his home in nearby Sunnyvale. He was release but pending further hearings which might lead to his deportation. ICE officials probably had a warrant for a previous resident at Miranda's address - and he was caught up because he is undocumented.

Miranda has been in the U.S. for 15 years as a gardener. And he also works with the youth at church. He has a GED diploma that he worked for here. And he trained three years at the San Jose Diocese to become a lay minister. Trying to become part of the community, yet at the same time we have no word on whether he was trying to become legal here.

ICE has recently stepped up their mission after Congress failed to pass the comprehensive immigration reform bill. ICE does a great job with felons and gang members, but at times people simply without documents yet trying to do good get caught in the snare. Many officials in cities throughout the country have called on ICE to calm down their raids.

What Happened at Koch Foods

Koch Foods processes chickens for fast food restaurants across the Southeast. Koch Foods was being investigated for federal crimes including encouraging, inducing or harboring illegal aliens. Federal agents pulled 161 suspected illegal aliens from Koch Foods Tuesday, but did not find all of them. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized documents and other materials at the Koch Foods plant in southwest Ohio and at Koch Foods Inc.

Immigration agents raided a poultry packaging facility in Fairfield, Ohio, yesterday morning and arrested scores of illegal immigrants at the Koch Foods. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. Immigration spokesman Richard Rocha said the operation was the end result of a two-year investigation. Immigration agents surrounded the chicken processing plant where Danny Alvarez-Reyes works, he did the only thing he could think of: he gave his coat to a scared friend determined to hide in the walk-in freezer. The attorney for Koch Foods has issued a statement regarding the immigration actions at the Fairfield plant on Tuesday. The statement says that the company is fully cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and furthermore that the company is complying with all immigration laws and looking to resolve the current matter quickly.

Moskowitz said employees faced a range of charges including illegal reentry to the United States, identity theft, document fraud, social security fraud and forgery. The raid was the latest targeting businesses employing illegal workers. "Unlawful employment is one of the key magnets drawing illegal aliens across our borders," said Julie L. They knew those were illegal criminal aliens they were hiring. There are 12-20 million illegal aliens presently in the country. Lawsuits and Department of Labor enforcement actions aimed at illegal pay practices in the meat and poultry processing industries are quite common.

The 700 poultry workers here, most of them Mexicans, might seem ripe for organizing, but labor's efforts at resurgence face daunting obstacles. That pace means that many workers make 18,000 cuts during their eight-hour shifts as they prepare breasts, wings, tenders and cutlets for restaurants and consumers. Smith said she and the two other workers in her unit often could not go to the bathroom for hours at a time because the pace was so demanding and there was nobody to replace them. Back in Morristown, the Koch poultry workers are so united behind a union and have generated so much community support that they persuaded Koch to pledge not to mount an anti-union campaign. 'While rumors flew among Hispanics that some had been hurt or even frozen to death during the raid, ICE spokesman Greg Palmore said there were no significant injuries and that workers who hid in freezers had quickly been found. Palmore said everything possible had been done to ensure children would not be left unattended if parents had been arrested, and ICE officials said some workers may be released for humanitarian reasons if caregivers could not be found. Interviews with the owner of the plant that is now complaining that there are no workers to do the jobs (left unsaid, at the wages he is willing to pay).

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones has been one of the country's most outspoken opponents of illegal immigrants and employers who use them, and has lobbied Washington for better enforcement and deportation of undocumented workers. "THESE RAIDS ARE AN OUTRAGE," advocates for immigrants said the raid was an arbitrary and unfair action that hurts immigrant families and does nothing to solve fundamental flaws in American immigration law. "Deportation is a revolving door," said Elias Bermudez, the founder of Immigrants Without Borders, an advocacy group which works with thousands of illegal immigrants in the border state of Arizona. Some town leaders say such immigrants account for most of those seeking work. Nearly 2 million jobs that are important to [California] are held by illegal immigrants. All but four of the 29 illegal immigrants arrested last week in a raid targeting workers at the world’s largest hog processing plant had stolen the identities of American citizens, federal prosecutors said Tuesday as they announced identity theft charges. Twenty of the 161 suspected illegal immigrants that federal agents detained after raiding a poultry packaging plant in Fairfield are in jail today on charges of falsifying identities.

Koch Foods will face federal charges for crimes of inducing, encouraging and harboring illegal aliens, among others. Koch Foods said it was cooperating with Federal agents in the investigation. The actions come after a two-year ICE investigation yielding evidence suggesting Koch Foods may have knowingly hired illegal workers at its poultry processing and packaging plant, according to an ICE statement.