Dec 4, 2007 9:47 pm US/Pacific
ICE Reports Over 1,900 NorCal Arrests In 2007
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a record number of undocumented immigrants in Northern California in the past year, as part of a national illegal immigration enforcement effort by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE reported Tuesday.
According to ICE, 1,936 people in Northern California, in areas ranging from Bakersfield to the Oregon border, were taken into custody in the 2007 fiscal year—through Sept. 30 -- up nearly 80 percent from the previous year.
More than 430 of those arrested had criminal records in addition to being in the United States illegally, ICE reported.
According to ICE, its Fugitive Operations Program, which began in 2003, gives priority to "cases involving immigration violators who pose a threat to national security and community safety." Such cases include child sexual exploitation, gang activities and violent crime, ICE reported.
The ICE program is part of Homeland Security's multi-year strategy to secure the country's borders and reduce illegal immigration, the agency reported.
Specifically, the enforcement targets those who have ignored deportation orders from an immigration judge, have overstayed their visa, or have been arrested for criminal conduct, according to Tim Aitken, an ICE deputy field office director in San Francisco.
"As a country, we welcome law-abiding immigrants, but foreign nationals who violate our laws and commit crimes in our communities should be on notice that ICE is going to use all of the tools at its disposal to find you and send you home," Aitken said.
Julia Harumi Mass, a San Francisco-based attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, is among a number of immigration rights advocates who have raised questions about ICE's tactics.
"We're deeply concerned about the patterns we've seen," Mass said Tuesday. She alleged that undocumented immigrants who are not fugitives from the law are getting swept up in ICE raids, causing upheaval to some of the estimated 12 million people in the United States who are otherwise "living and working in this community without the protections of legal society."
In some cases, Mass said, mothers and fathers have been arrested and separated from their children.
"It really has a devastating effect on families," Mass said.
Aiken admitted that if immigration agents, in the course of investigating one person at a specific residence, find others who are in the country illegally, "we will probably arrest them."
However, agents have been trained to consider "humanitarian issues" such as recent mothers, those seriously ill or sole caregivers, and will allow such cases to make future arrangements to leave the country, Aiken said.
"Every case is evaluated on its own merits," Aiken said.
Mass also alleged that ICE agents have posed as police in order to gain entry into people's homes, and in some cases have made "illegal entries into people's homes without warrants and consent," she claimed.
Aiken acknowledged that ICE agents often identify themselves as police, and added that agents' jackets also identify them as "police."
"We say 'police' because police is an internationally recognized term," Aiken said.
Aiken denied any ICE consent violations.
"We have to have consent before we enter someone's house," he said. "That's a matter of law."
ICE officials attributed the increase in arrests in Northern California in 2007 in part to its deployment of Fugitive Operations Teams to the Sacramento and Fresno areas. Other teams are based in San Francisco and Bakersfield, the agency reported.
Nationwide, ICE teams arrested 30,408 people in fiscal year 2007, according to the agency.
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