Raiding in America

August 28, 1:13 PMImmigrant Community ExaminerWilfredo Rodriguez-Padilla

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Photo by Matt Bush from the Hattiesburg American.

Laurel, Mississippi – The string of mega-raids by U.S. immigration agents continued Monday in a small town just 197 miles off Jena, Louisiana, location of the last incursion. Nearly 600 people were arrested in the single, largest workplace enforcement raid in US history.

These actions by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are believed to be part of “Operation Return to Sender” (ORS). While an ICE press release claims that ORS ended in June 13, 2006, various sources contest assertion and even say that quotas of up to 1,000 illegal aliens are in place for each team. Laurel’s team should be halfway done, if there is a quota.

“[Monday’s] enforcement action is part of ICE's ongoing nationwide effort to shut down the employment magnet fueling illegal immigration,” Michael A. Holt, ICE special agent in Charge of the Office of Investigations in New Orleans, said in a statement. 

Those arrested represented various countries including: Germany, Peru, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras and Brazil.

According to the ICE press release, up to 109 of those detained where “identified as being eligible for an alternative to detention based on humanitarian reasons”.  They are either asylum-seekers, long term permanent residents with minor, non-violent criminal convictions or special cases like caregivers and juveniles.  However, they still have to appear in court and face the possibility of deportation.

The feds also claim that eight detainees will be charged with aggravated identity theft. The Hattiesburg American reported that one of the stolen IDs belonged to a deceased person. However, public defender Abby Brumley requested that Paula Gomez be freed on bond because she was the sole caregiver of her five-year-old son. According to prosecutors, Gomez had worked at Howard Industries for three years under the alias Leonor Garcia. U.S. Magistrate Mike Parker rejected Brumley’s request and all eight immigrants were held without bond.

Immigrant rights organizations are yet to comment on the development. While Daddy Yankee pumps up “Gasolina” on McCain’s campaign, immigrant communities in the South are expecting the candidates to respond to the raids. The right response will outweigh any lame celebrity endorsement.