Workers Detained In Massive Tennessee Immigration Raid Sue ICE

Written by Walter Ewing

Workers who were detained during the first large-scale workplace immigration raid under the Trump administration filed a class action lawsuit against the government on Thursday. The raid, which took place in April 2018, decimated a meat processing plant in Bean Station, a rural community outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. 

The raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents resulted in the detention of almost 100 primarily Mexican workers. The suit alleges violation of the workers’ rights against illegal seizures and to equal protection under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. 

This raid was a response to a criminal investigation of the family-owned plant for tax evasion, filing false tax returns, and hiring undocumented immigrants. The owners pled guilty to the charges in August 2018. 

The suit alleges that, even though federal officers only had a search warrant to investigate the owners’ tax evasion, ICE agents used the warrant as a pretext to carry out a discriminatory mass immigration enforcement. Officers allegedly raided the plant and detained every worker in the plant who looked Latino, regardless of their actual citizenship or documentation. 

In fact, many of the workers weren’t asked about documentation until hours into the raid, at which point many had already been handcuffed, transported to a new location, and held in isolation, unable to contact family members or attorneys. At the same time, white workers were neither detained nor questioned about their documentation and were allegedly permitted to leave. 

Two of the named plaintiffs also allege that they were assaulted by ICE officers, including one plaintiff who was punched in the face and another plaintiff who had a gun pointed to his head without reason. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages due to the governments’ violation of their rights. 

However, the impact of the raid extends beyond the fate of the detained workers or the owners of the plant. According to Meredith Stewart, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center: 

“What happened in East Tennessee was law enforcement overreach, plain and simple. We as a nation have a shared set of ideals, rooted in the Bill of Rights: we have a right to be free from racial profiling and unlawful arrests. If we are not willing to uphold those ideals for everyone in this country, then we are all at risk of losing our rights.” 

History has taught us that these sorts of immigration raids will do little to deter unauthorized immigration. Raids have devastating effects on families, businesses, and local economies. They also generate trauma in children who are separated from their parents. Reports indicate that a day after the Bean Station raid, at least 600 students did not show up for school. Another negative outcome is that these tactics make immigrant communities less safe. In communities where crackdowns take place, residents are less likely to cooperate with the police or report crimes for fear of being arrested or deported. 

Raids not only affect the social fabric of communities, but their economies as well. In Tennessee, immigrant-led households paid $1.5 billion in federal taxes and $493.9 million in state and local taxes in 2014 alone. If immigrants are unable to go to work for fear of being apprehended and deported, their economic contributions are greatly diminished. 

As the Trump administration pursues its strategy of spreading fear throughout immigrant communities, more large-scale worksite raids like Bean Station’s are a real possibility. The unfortunate truth is that the administration is willing to sacrifice families, communities, and local economies throughout the country in its quest for greater levels of immigration enforcement. 

Source: http://immigrationimpact.com/

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4028-Workers-Detained-in-masiive-raid-sue-ICE.html

Border Towns Are Among The Safest In The United States

Written by Melissa Cruz

On Monday evening in El Paso, Texas, two very different images of the U.S.-Mexico border emerged.

President Trump held a rally to make the case for his border wall again, repeating his usual talking points on the supposed dangers lurking in the region. Just a block away, former Democratic Representative from El Paso, Texas Beto O’Rourke held an opposing rally to counter the president’s claims on immigrants, refugees, border town safety, and the need for a wall. Both events were characterized as a final attempt to sway congressional leaders, who must come to an agreement on whether to provide border wall funding by Friday.

These two demonstrations show just how easy it is to stir up the public around the issue of immigration, particularly when the backdrop is the southern border region. However, the truth is the communities along the U.S.-Mexico border are among the safest in the United States.

El Paso, the site of the two rallies, has been considered one of the safest cities in the nation for the last 20 years, long before any border fencing was built.

In fact, in the last week, two governors of border states ordered their National Guard troops to withdraw from patrolling the border, calling Trump’s recent decision to deploy troops there as nothing but “political theater.”

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham was the first to withdraw troops from her state’s southern border last week. In total, 118 National Guard troops had been called to New Mexico, traveling from Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

In a statement announcing the withdrawal, Grisham said:

“I reject the federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border, along which are some of the safest communities in the country. …New Mexico will not take part in the president’s charade of border fear-mongering by misusing our diligent National Guard troops.”

On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom also ordered troops to be withdrawn from his state’s southern border with Mexico. He echoed Grisham’s sentiment, saying the president had created “a manufactured border crisis.”

Other elected officials from border regions have opposed Trump’s rhetoric on the state of the border. Republican congressman Will Hurd, whose Texas district has the longest border with Mexico, called a concrete border wall “the most expensive and least effective way to do border security.” And Texas Representative Vincente Gonzalez recently pointed out that the border town of McAllen, Texas had zero murders in 2018 and ranks as the seventh safest city in the United States.

Government statistics back this up. FBI data shows that border towns have statistically lower violent crime rates than other parts of the country. Former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner David Aguilar even testified that “border communities are safer than the interior locations of each of the border states.”

The reality of many of these border communities is simple—they have low crime rates, residents feel safe, and their elected officials understand border security does not mean a border wall. In making its decision on border security funding this week, Congress should take a closer look at where the real problems are.

 

Source: http://immigrationimpact.com/ 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4019-Border-Towns-The-Safest-In-The-United-States.html 

2018 Closes On a Week Filled With Immigration Victories and New Challenges

Written by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

2018 proved that the only thing you can predict about the Trump administration’s immigration policy is it’s unpredictable. On Wednesday, two separate court decisions dealt blows to the Trump administration’s efforts to deter asylum seekers. On Thursday, the administration announced an unprecedented new plan to force asylum seekers to remain in Mexico, overturning current practices in use for decades And on Friday, the president held Congress hostage as he continued to threaten to shut down the government over $5 billion in border wall funding

The most recent rollercoaster began on Wednesday morning when a federal court in Washington, DC struck down part of former Attorney General Jeff Session’s efforts to prevent victims of domestic violence or gangs from receiving asylum. The ruling prevents the administration from applying the new limits at the credible fear interview stage, the initial screening for many asylum seekers apprehended at the border. However, the ruling did not prevent Sessions’ limits on asylum from being applied in affirmative asylum interviews or immigration court proceedings. 

Later on Wednesday, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction in a case challenging the Trump administration’s asylum ban for individuals who entered the United States between ports of entry. The injunction extends a previous order which had halted the plan only days after it went into effect. On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject the Trump administration’s request to put the decision on hold, a further blow to the asylum ban. 

On Thursday morning, the Trump administration announced that it had taken yet another major action to halt asylum seekers from coming to the United States. It rolled out a new plan to return to Mexico those asylum seekers who arrive at U.S-Mexico border for the duration of immigration court proceedings in the United States. Details of the plan, including who it will apply to, how it will work, and where it will be used in Mexico, remain vague. 

Mexican officials expressed total surprise at the announcement, and many were wary about the effects the plan might have on border cities. One official in Tijuana told Buzzfeed News that “We don’t want that. It will create a huge problem for us.” However, the government of Mexico responded by announcing they would issue humanitarian visas and work permits to asylum seekers waiting for U.S. immigration court hearings. 

Finally, by the end of the week, the President made yet another surprising move to shut down the government over a bipartisan plan that would have funded the government into February without providing any additional money for a border wall. Despite declaring last week that he would take proud ownership of a government shutdown, on Friday morning the President instead tried to shift the blame to Democrats for voting against a bill that would provide an additional $5 billion to build a wall along the southern border. It is possible that a shutdown would continue through January 3rd, when Democrats take control of the House of Representatives. 

Rather than offering well-reasoned plans that can both survive court challenges and advance American prosperity, the administration remains relentlessly focused on obstructing asylum seekers and attacking the immigrant community. As we move into 2019, we should expect more of the same. But the time and energy spent on these efforts should instead be directed toward working with Congress to build legislative compromise to achieve what is best for the nation.

 

 

Source: http://immigrationimpact.com/ 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3976-2018-a-year-of-immigration-victories-and-new-challenges.html

This Citizenship Day Marred by Government’s Focus on Stripping People of Their Citizenship

Written by Emily Creighton

Each year on September 17, America marks Citizenship Day, an annual opportunity to reflect on the benefits and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. In years past, it was used as a day to celebrate new Americans and encourage others who are eligible to become U.S. citizens. However, this year is different, as the security associated with becoming a U.S. citizen may be slipping away. 

A new focus on “denaturalization” by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) takes the agency’s mandate in a troubling direction. Instead of finding ways to preserve, they are devoting resources to stripping people of their citizenship. In June, USCIS Director Francis Cissna revealed the agency’s efforts to staff a new office in Los Angeles focused on evaluating whether individuals should have been naturalized in the first place. 

The targets of this focus on denaturalization are individuals such as Norma Borgoño, a U.S. citizen and grandmother originally from Peru. A denaturalization suit was filed against her alleging she should have revealed her role in a fraud scheme during her citizenship process—a scheme that benefitted her boss, not her—and where she cooperated with the FBI in making a case against her former boss. At the time she applied for naturalization, she had not been charged with any crime, yet the agency will attempt to use this as a way to strip her of her citizenship. 

The Trump administration’s decision to reinvigorate and coordinate denaturalization efforts also comes with a hefty price tag. 

In its proposed 2019 budget , the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explains that $207 million will be used to fund hundreds of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents focused on “the prevention and detection of immigration benefit fraud and the investigative work necessary to adjudicate applications.” 

Initiatives include Operation Second Look —an attempt to review approximately 700,000 case files of naturalized individuals to find who may be ineligible for citizenship—and Operation Janus, an initiative that formally began in 2010 where USCIS refers cases to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue denaturalization. 

Though a 2016 government inspection detailed some improper naturalizations as a result of incomplete fingerprint record keeping by USCIS (approximately 800 citizenship grants were reportedly made to individuals who were previously ordered deported), the number of individuals stripped of their citizenship has been very low. According to some reporting , only about 300 denaturalization cases were pursued between 1990 to 2017. 

More information is being sought about the administration’s denaturalization efforts through requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 

One FOIA request asks for documents detailing organized efforts to review naturalized citizens’ files in order to identify misrepresentations in their naturalization applications. The request highlights “denaturalization complaints” filed in the Middle District of Florida, District of Connecticut, and District of New Jersey “against two men of Pakistani origin and one man of Indian origin.” After DOJ and ICE failed to respond to the request, Muslim Advocates filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington D.C. 

Another request asks for information about the process of denaturalization review, the establishment of any new offices focused on denaturalization, and any new recommendations for denaturalization. 

There is a history of revoking citizenship in this country, but this administration’s hyper focus on immigration fraud gives good reason for concern that denaturalization initiatives will be overzealous and that minor mistakes in the citizenship application process may result in a person having to defend their citizenship in court. 

In addition, there is a great and demonstrated need for USCIS to address citizenship cases that are already pending. A recent report pointed out there has been a 35 percent increase in the backlog of citizenship applications from July 2017 to July 2018 and a 77 percent increase since July 2016. 

Given the extraordinarily small number of individuals against whom denaturalization cases are brought, there should be widespread agreement that the focus of USCIS resources should be on processing immigration benefits, not rooting out imaginary fraud.

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com  

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3908-Citizenship-Day-on-Stripping-People-of-Their-Citizenship.html

USCIS’ Wait Times For Citizenship Have Doubled

Written by Melissa Cruz

The average wait time on a U.S. citizenship application was about five months in 2014. Today, the average time a green card holder will wait for their citizenship application to be processed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is 10 months. 

With the increased wait time, the backlog of pending applications has also grown considerably. In September of 2013, a little over 300,000 citizenship applications were pending. Now more than 750,000 applications are awaiting processing. 

This means that permanent residents are waiting longer than in years passed. For those who live in areas where many permanent residents are applying, the wait time can reach up to 17 months. 

There are likely a few reasons why the agency’s wait time and backlog has risen so significantly. 

Changes under both the Obama and Trump administration have created an application process that is lengthy, expensive, and in many ways difficult for non-native English speakers. 

This began under President Obama , when in 2014 he instructed USCIS to make significant changes to the application form. It shot up from a 10-page document to 21 pages. 

Much of this increased length was due to new questions regarding applicants’ links to terrorist groups, genocide, and military training, among other topics. These questions were added despite the fact very few naturalized citizens come from countries with terrorist ties. The new test also included more difficult questions on U.S. history and civics. 

These types of questions in the new form, along with its use of more technical terms, left advocates afraid non-English speakers may be discouraged from applying for citizenship. 

The average wait time and backlog have also increased under President Trump. 

According to a report from the National Partnership for New Americans, there has been a 35 percent increase in the backlogfrom July 2017 to July 2018. There has been a 77 percent increase since July 2016. 

The report also found that USCIS has decreased its processing rate and increased the number of denials under the current administration, and that it has done so in a way that is “arbitrary and lacks geographic uniformity.” For example, the processing rate for some states is much longer than others. In Florida, the time a person waits for an application has decreased by 5 percent. Over the same time frame, Alabama’s backlog increased by 213 percent. 

In fact, instead of addressing the growing backlog, USCIS is actually spending resources looking through thousands of old citizenship applications for any potential signs of fraud. If it finds fraud in an application, the agency plans to rescind citizenship. 

It’s obvious from these lengthy wait times that the agency needs to focus on the backlog instead of old applications. USCIS should want to welcome more U.S. citizens, not less.

 

Source: www. immigrationimpact.com  

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3883-Wait-Times-for-Citizenship-Have-Doubled.html 

Continúan Atropellos De Agentes De Inmigración A Familias De Inmigrantes

En Texas, guardias armados se llevaron por la fuerza a 16 padres del centro de detención de Kames County, donde estaban detenidos con sus hijos luego de que sus familias fueran separadas en la frontera y se volvieran a reunir. 

Las autoridades habrían tomado la medida de volver a separar a estos padres e hijos como represalia por haber organizado una protesta no violenta en el centro de detención. 

Muchos de los padres encarcelados denunciaron haber sido engañados por el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE) que les hizo firmar acuerdos de deportación en inglés diciendo que eran los papeles para la reunificación familiar. Las familias ya han sido nuevamente reunificadas y algunas han sido liberadas. 

A continuación la entrevista con CASEY MILLER y MANOJ GOVINDAIAH del colectivo de asistencia jurídica para inmigrantes RAICES, con sede en Texas. 

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m AMY GOODMAN, as we turn now to Texas, where armed guards forcibly removed 16 fathers from an immigrant jail where they were held with their sons after being separated at the border and then reunited. A boy held at the Karnes County detention center, who’s under the age of 10, spoke to reporters Friday and described what happened through an interpreter. 

INTERPRETER: [translating IMMIGRANT CHILD] He recalls that he was in the school playground playing with his friends and that he was called. He was asked to go into an office, and that’s where he was hold that his dad would meet him soon, but didn’t know when. The child said that he asked for his dad and that he was crying, but nobody told him anything. He kept begging. He kept asking for some result, for some responses, and nothing was told to him. He mentions that he was taken into another room with other kids. And like I mentioned before, nothing was responded to them. He says, “I was crying. I cried the whole day. And I knew that my dad was crying. I saw the other kids crying, and the kids knew that their dads would be crying, as well.” 

AMY GOODMAN: The child was speaking to reporters on the phone through an interpreter from the detention center. The reseparation of more than a dozen fathers and sons came in apparent retaliation for their plans to organize a nonviolent protest calling for all of them to be released. This is one of the fathers speaking to reporters by phone from detention Friday. 

IMMIGRANT FATHER: [translated] I was talking to other detainees, and there is a plan. We will not be eating, and everyone has agreed. We are doing so because we do not know what will happen to us, and we need to know if we will be deported or given an opportunity to stay here. We are asking the government to free us. We want to be freed. We are not criminals. We want to be freed, because, as a human being, we deserve to be. 

AMY GOODMAN: Many of the imprisoned fathers said they had been tricked into signing deportation agreements in English that ICE told them were reunification papers. Hillary Clinton tweeted about their reseparation, writing, quote, “This is a heart-wrenching disgrace.” Late on Friday, the fathers were reunited with their sons, and on Saturday some were released. 

For more, we go to San Antonio, about an hour north of the Karnes County detention center, where we’re joined by MANOJ GOVINDAIAH, director of family detention services for RAICES, a Texas-based legal aid group for IMMIGRANT CHILDren, families and refugees, and by CASEY MILLER, legal assistant for RAICES, who was denied access to their child clients after the fathers were taken away. 

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Casey, let’s begin with you. Describe exactly what has taken place here in this last week. 

CASEY MILLER: Oh, it’s just been terror, honestly. So, from reports from the father, we have heard that 60 to a hundred ICE agents, who were armed, stormed the building with riot gear, and these men were forcibly taken from their rooms and not told where they were going. And then they were taken to another detention center, which was—told to me by a few men, was the worst of any of the detention centers they’ve been to, in Pearsall, Texas, not told the whereabouts of their sons, and their sons were actually not told the whereabouts of their fathers. So, ICE is just keeping them in the dark and continually torturing them psychologically. 

AMY GOODMAN: How old are the children? 

CASEY MILLER: Oh, you know, they are so resilient, so they are hanging in there. I think they’re relieved to be reunited with their fathers. And they’re, you know, getting through these multiple traumas the best that they can. You know, a lot of them feel to be a little numb. There’s a lot of sadness still and, I think, a lot of fear that this might happen again. So, they’re just trying to get through each day, really. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, explain what went down on Wednesday. Talk about the ICEraid on Karnes. 

CASEY MILLER: So, we don’t have—I was not actually there on Wednesday. All I have are stories from the fathers. So, what it sounds like is the men were gathered. There was a group of men gathered outside of the lunchroom, and they were talking about coming to see us at RAICES, their legal services, to find out the status of like their cases. And a guard for the private prison company GEO came up to them and asked them what they were talking about, and they told him. And after that, he walked off. 

And a few hours later, some of them were in their rooms, got a knock on the door. Again, men with shields, helmets, some of them armed, forcibly pulled them out of their room and told them nothing, just took them to a room where they sat for six hours. Many of them asked for water. They weren’t even given water. And they weren’t told anything of where they were going. And then they got on a bus. And I read a report from one of the men that there was another little microvan behind them, and they were hoping and praying that their children were in that van, which to no avail. 

And they were taken to the other detention center and put into isolation, into, what I said before, some of the worst conditions that these men had been in so far, were not able to leave the room. Heard two reports of one man vomiting blood, another man trying to hang himself with a bed sheet while he was there. They couldn’t speak between cells. And all of their food was brought to the cell and put through a slot. And they were eventually—

AMY GOODMAN: And then? 

CASEY MILLER: The next day, they were eventually taken to—back to Karnes, where they were eventually reunited with their sons. 

AMY GOODMAN: ICE spokesperson Nina Pruneda said about 40 men were involved in what she called a “disturbance” at Karnes, and said, quote, ”ICE San Antonio deployed additional law enforcement resources to control the situation, and a precautionary measure, instructed all visitors to leave the facility.” MANOJ GOVINDAIAH, can you respond to that statement, that description of what took place from ICE? 

MANOJ GOVINDAIAH: Well, from our understanding in talking to our staff and our volunteers who were present on Wednesday and who were escorted out of the building around 12:30 in a haste manner, and then from talking to the fathers and the children, it appears the dads were not involved in any particular kind of disturbance. As Casey mentioned, many of the fathers were in their rooms when ICEagents came to their rooms, knocked on the door, verified their identity, and then immediately took them into a separate room away from their kids. 

It’s also our understanding that the children were in school at the time, so the kids, many of—many of the kids did not even see any of this happening, and that the children were denied access to RAICES. We tried to see them multiple times on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. They were denied access to come and see us. It’s our understanding that the kids also tried to come see us. 

Our staff went to Pearsall on Thursday, where the 16 men were being held. They were denied access there, as well. Our staff were denied access to the men at Pearsall. And even after they were reunited at Karnes Thursday evening, during legal visitation hours, we were unable to see them there. 

An ICE agent confirmed to our—one of our attorneys that the disruptive behavior was that the men were refusing to “go with the flow” and that they were—some of them were not sending their kids to school. Some of them were not participating in activities at the detention center. And that was exactly the type of protest that the men were hoping to do, which was to choose not to avail themselves of services at the detention center, to choose not to have their children go to school. Some were choosing not to eat. And so, it clearly sounds like this is retaliation against nonviolent, lawful protest. And whatever ICE is saying to justify this seems completely, completely untrue. 

AMY GOODMAN: Is it illegal for the authorities not to allow you to speak to the children or the parents? We’re talking about—you’re their legal representative. 

MANOJ GOVINDAIAH: Yes, we are their lawyers. And, yes, it is, actually. ICE has brought discretion over, you know, visitation hours, and if somebody is in a particular type of housing, then when they can actually see their lawyers. But, you know, especially in terms of the children, ICE flat-out told us, you know, “Oh, it’s Thursday afternoon. The kids are eating pizza and watching a movie. Do you really want to talk to them?” After we pushed and pushed, ICE agreed to go and ask the children, “Do you want to see the lawyers at RAICES?” And they went and asked the kids, and came back and told us, apparently, that the children wanted to wait until their fathers were returned, and that dad and son together would come and see us. 

Additionally, there is an outtake processing and an intake processing, both of which take a couple of hours. And even though our clients are physically in the building, if they’re going through outtake, which is what the dads were going through when they were transferred to Pearsall, or if they’re going through intake, which is what the dads were going through when they were returned to Karnes, we are also unable to see our clients during that time. 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn back to the jailed boy at Karnes County detention center who was separated from his dad, not once, but twice, and has been detained for months since they first came to the U.S. border. The boy had this message for President Trump. 

IMMIGRANT CHILD: [translated] I want to tell the president to, please, please let us out. Please release us. Give us the opportunity to stay here to have a better future. … Don’t deport us, please. Please don’t deport us from here, because I want to go forward with my dad and not take a step backwards. 

AMY GOODMAN: MANOJ GOVINDAIAH, we didn’t identify him because he’s not identifying himself. Do you know who he is and if he’s still in or has been released? 

MANOJ GOVINDAIAH: Yes, we do know who he is. He is one of our clients, as is his father. I believe, as of Friday last week, they, he and his father, were still detained at the Karnes detention center. We will be checking this morning to see if they have been released over the weekend. 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for—

CASEY MILLER: And I—

AMY GOODMAN: Oh, Casey, last words? 

CASEY MILLER: I was just going to say, and I met with both him and his father after the interview, and they both seemed in better spirits and hopeful about their release. 

AMY GOODMAN: Some of the fathers in your meeting broke down crying? 

CASEY MILLER: Yes, yes, all of them did. They’ve just been tortured psychologically by ICE time and time again, and they’re just fearful that anything like this could happen again at any time. And they’ve just had everything, you know, pushed upon them and are at the breaking point. So, yes, every man I met with at some point did break down in tears. 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. We’ll continue to be on this story. CASEY MILLER and MANOJ GOVINDAIAH, with RAICES, the Texas-based legal aid group for immigrants. 

De otra parte en San Bernardino, California, agentes del Servicio estadounidense de Inmigración y control de Aduanas (ICE por su sigla en inglés), arrestaron el miércoles a un hombre que conducía a su esposa embarazada al hospital para dar a luz. 

La escena generó gran indignación social. Los agentes del ICE detuvieron a Joel Arrona-Lara cuando paró el auto en una estación de gasolina y obligaron a su esposa parturientta, María del Carmen Venegas, a manejar ella misma hasta el hospital donde tenía programada su cesárea. 

La pareja vive en Estados Unidos hace más de 10 años y tienen cinco hijos e hijas, contando el que acaba de nacer. 



Para ampliar esa información, vea (en inglés) nuestra conversación con el abogado de Joel Arrona-Lara, RUSSELL JAUREGUI, integrante del equipo jurídico del Centro de Servicio Comunitario de San Bernardino. 

AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in California, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained and arrested a man who was taking his pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth. Joel Arrona-Lara was driving his wife MARIA DEL CARMEN VENEGAS to a San Bernardino hospital Wednesday morning for a scheduled C-section when ICE agents detained him at a gas station. Surveillance video shows two ICE vehicles surrounding the couple’s car immediately after they pulled into the station to get gas. MARIA DEL CARMEN VENEGAS said agents asked the couple for identification, but that her husband had left his documents at home in the rush to get to the hospital. ICE agents then handcuffed him and took him into custody, leaving the 9-month-pregnant Venegas at the gas station sobbing in distress. She then drove herself to the hospital and gave birth alone several hours later. 

ICE said, in a statement, Joel Arrona-Lara was detained because he’s wanted in Mexico on homicide charges. But Arrona-Lara’s lawyer says the charges are unconfirmed and that he has no criminal record. Videos of the incident circulated online over the weekend, sparking national outrage. But ICE issued a statement saying, quote, ”ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.” 

Here’s MARIA DEL CARMEN VENEGAS speaking about her husband’s detention from the hospital. 

MARIA DEL CARMEN VENEGAS: [translated] It’s very difficult, because he’s always been there. And he told me that everything was going to be OK, that I shouldn’t worry, that we were going to meet the baby, things like that. So, to be alone yesterday as I was, I felt terrible. 

AMY GOODMAN: Arrona-Lara and his wife have been living in the United states for 12 years. They have five children, three of whom are U.S. citizens. Arrona-Lara is the sole breadwinner for his family. His wife Maria is asking for his immediate release. 

For more, we go to RUSSELL JAUREGUI, staff attorney at the San Bernardino Community Service Center, lawyer for Joel Arrona-Lara, Maria’s husband. 

Welcome to Democracy Now! Russell, can you start off by explaining exactly what took place last week? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Well, what happened on August 15th, Wednesday morning, about 10:00, was Mr. Lara was taking his wife to the hospital because she was going to give birth to a baby via C-section. They stopped at a gas station in San Bernardino on the corner of Mountain View and Highland. It was an ARCO station. He got out to get gas, and immediately he was—they were surrounded by two SUVs. ICE agents then approached his wife, asked for her ID, which she produced. And then the ICE agents approached him and asked for his ID, which he did not have, because in the haste of leaving his home to get his wife to the hospital, he just forgot it. And so his wife pleaded with the officers to allow him to go home and to get his ID, because, in fact, they live just right down the corner from the glass—excuse me, from gas station. He was not allowed to do so. He was immediately arrested. And as you said, she basically panicked and had to drive herself to the hospital. And that’s basically what happened on that day. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, both she and he had ID, had a form of documents? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Correct. He had some kind of form. It probably was a—we don’t know exactly what kind of ID that he had. I’m guessing it was probably a driver’s license here in California, because here in California all people, including undocumented, have the right to have—apply for and obtain a California driver’s license. So, he may have had a California driver’s license. He may have a Mexican ID. So he did have a form of ID, but they did not allow him to go and get it. And he just lived down the block from the gas station. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, Maria went to—drove herself to the hospital, and she gave birth—

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Correct. 

AMY GOODMAN: —a few hours later? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: She gave birth, and, yeah, a few hours—I don’t know exactly when, but she did give birth to the baby, and the baby was born, you know, thank God, safely. And she was released from the hospital just this last Saturday. 

AMY GOODMAN: So she was alone when she gave birth? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Yes. Well, yeah, she was without her husband, correct, and the baby’s father. 

AMY GOODMAN: We see her inside the gas station, it seems hysterical, speaking on the phone, just through the closed-circuit video. 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Right. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you explain why ICE has said they picked him up? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Well, at first, he was just arrested for not having an ID. And it wasn’t until Thursday—almost three days later, where they made a statement about him—them detaining him because of him having an arrest warrant in Mexico for a homicide. Well, number one, he’s been here 12 years, and this has never been an issue with him before. Number two, he completely denies that, saying that “I’ve never had any kind of arrest warrant in Mexico.” And number three, we have reviewed the charging documents from him, from the immigration—from the ICEagents, and the—just basically, the charging documents allege that he came without status, that he is from Mexico, and therefore he is removable from the United States. Does not mention anything about any kind of homicide arrest in Mexico. And since he’s been detained, what he tells me is no one’s ever brought this to his attention. 

AMY GOODMAN: So, what rights does he have right now? Where is he being held? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: He’s being held at the Theo Lacy detention center. He does have a right to a bond hearing before an immigration judge in immigration court. He does have the right to counsel. We’re going to represent him pro bono. He does have the right to pursue a bond hearing to see, determine if he can be released. We’re hoping that he can, given his length of time here in the United States and the fact that he does have three U.S. citizen children. And then, if he is, hopefully, released on bond, then his case will continue with the immigration courts, where he’ll be pursuing his, hopefully, relief during a removal hearing before an immigration judge, where he’ll have to prove that, you know, his U.S. citizen kids will suffer exceptional and extreme and unusual hardships without him if he’s removed. 

AMY GOODMAN: Has he—

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: And this process could take one or two years. 

AMY GOODMAN: Has he gotten to see his infant son and his wife? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: No, he has not. I know he’s been in touch with his wife, but he has not been able to see his son. So, that’s—

AMY GOODMAN: Could he—

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: Our main goal is to get him released, so he can be with his family and see his son. That’s our main goal right now. 

AMY GOODMAN: Is it possible he would be deported before seeing his son? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: I don’t think that’s going to—I don’t believe that’s going to happen. You know, his wife, she’s a family member, so she does have visitation rights to see him. But right now, given her condition, because the baby was just born, I don’t think she’s in a condition to go see him right now. 

AMY GOODMAN: Was this issue of a homicide charge brought up after the outcry grew over that day and the next day, when people saw the video? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: That’s a very good question. I think, yeah, it was. It was. And so, the timing of this is kind of odd, because this happened, I believe, after the video went viral, after the public outcry. And so, that’s when this announcement was made, on Saturday, which is almost what? Three days after he was arrested. 

AMY GOODMAN: “Zero tolerance.” Is this under the “zero tolerance” policy? And can you see this policy changing? 

RUSSELL JAUREGUI: I think this is more—”zero tolerance” is what’s happening with the—on the border with the unaccompanied minors. This is more, I think, of the Trump administration’s policy of basically everyone now being at risk of being—anybody here without status as being at risk of being detained and arrested. But as you can see, this has human consequences. It affects, you know, U.S. citizen kids. There’s nothing in—I don’t think ICE has any protocol for dealing with people who are transporting their spouses, you know, who are about to give birth. And so, you know, as we can see with other situations, this reminds me of the case where the—I think it was a young girl who was passing through a border checkpoint in Texas, who had serious disabilities, and ICE followed her all the way to the hospital. And this is like the children at the border who have been detained, separated from their parents, with no plan for reunification. This is just—this is egregious acts, and they’re cruel. And so, there needs to be some kind of change in policy, and, if not, some kind of change in—some change in administration. 

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us, RUSSELL JAUREGUI, staff attorney at the San Bernardino Community [Service] Center. He is the lawyer for Joel Arrona-Lara, who was picked up by ICE agents as he was driving his wife to the hospital to give birth.

Fuente: www.democracynow.org 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3878-continuan-arrestos-a-familias-de-inmigrantes-por-parte-de-ICE.html