Irving woman appeals to Washington to avert deportation (KVUE-CA)

Irving woman appeals to Washington to avert deportation

by MONIKA DIAZ

Posted on March 17, 2011 at 3:44 PM

Olga Zanella, an Irving woman who is facing deportation to Mexico, continues to struggle with an uncertain future.

Now her legal team is now taking the case beyond Dallas. They are urging immigration officials in the nation's capital to take over.

"We don't feel that Olga is getting a fair shake in Dallas," said Ralph Isenberg, a Dallas businessman who has been helping Zanella since January.

Zanella, a 20-year-old Irving ISD high school graduate, was thrown into deportation proceedings two years ago after a traffic stop. Her attempts to halt her deportation have been denied twice.

Isenberg sent a letter to the Ombudsman of Homeland Security, January Contreras. In the letter, he claims that the field director at the Dallas Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office, Nuria Prendes, refused to accept the illegal immigrant's new stay of deportation application.

"This field director decides at the end to not even accept the application at all, and that's against the rules," Isenberg said. She has to accept the application."

News 8 contacted the Homeland Security department in Washington D.C., but the agency did not respond to our request.

In a statement from Dallas ICE office spokesman Carl Rusnok, the agency said it stands by its decisions:

"A federal immigration judge issued deportation orders for Olga Zanella and subsequently denied her request to reopen her case. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is responsible for enforcing the orders of immigration judges. In certain limited circumstances, the local ICE field office director has the authority to grant a request for a stay of removal. It has been determined that a stay of removal is not appropriate in this case."

Zanella's parents brought her to the U.S. illegally when she was six years old. She hasn't been to Mexico since, and says she does not know any of her relatives in the state of San Luis Potosi.

In previous interviews, Zanella told us she doesn't want to leave the United Steates. "When I hear the American anthem, I do feel something in my heart... this is my home," she said.

Isenberg believes Zanella would be in danger if deported because of the wave of drug-related crime sweeping the country. He hopes Washington gives Zanella a second chance.

"I need Washington to step in and make certain that the story of Olga Zanella is properly told so that she is not deported," Isenberg said.

Officials find undocumented immigrants in south Bexar Co. (KENS-TX)

Officials find undocumented immigrants in south Bexar Co.
by KENS 5 Staff
Posted on March 17, 2011 at 3:44 PM

SAN ANTONIO -- Deputies in South Bexar County and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have an investigation under way into a possible undocumented immigrant operation.

It was a tip that led the SAPD Blue Eagle over the home in the 23900 block of Pleasanton Road at around 1 p.m. Thursday.

As police hovered over the home, all of a sudden a van full of people fled the scene, leading authorities on a high-speed chase.

About 10 miles down the road, at I-37 and Priest, the van crashed into the medium and two people jumped out, but were quickly nabbed by deputies.

Officials also detained six other undocumented immigrants found in the vehicle.

Back at the home, authorities detained four more undocumented immigrants, aw well as the renter of the property, who they say is a U.S. citizen.

It was all part of a joint operation organized by the San Antonio Police Department, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, ICE and DPS.

Four stolen vehicles were recovered that authorities believe were used to transport the illegal immigrants.

The property renter was arrested for possession of stolen property, and may also be facing narcotics charges.

A total of twelve people were arrested. The case remains under investigation.

ICE arrests Grayslake Filipino woman on voter fraud (WGN-IL)

ICE arrests Grayslake Filipino woman on voter fraud

By Lisa Black Tribune reporter

4:46 p.m. CDT, March 17, 2011

A Filipino woman living in Grayslake was arrested and charged with 17 felony counts related to voter fraud Thursday after being accused of falsely pretending to be a U.S. citizen and voting nine times in elections dating back to 2003, federal officials announced.

Maria Azada, 53, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, which worked with an investigator for the Lake County State’s Attorney’s office.

Azada faces charges of perjury, mutilation of election materials, and tampering with voting machines in connection with illegal voting by a non-U.S. citizen, according to an ICE news release.

Azada allegedly admitted that she had voted in an election in February 2009 while attending an immigration benefit. It is illegal for foreign nationals to vote in national or state elections in the United States.

“A subsequent investigation revealed that Azada allegedly voted nine times in primary, general and consolidated elections between 2003 and 2009,” according to the news release.

According to the arrest warrant, Azada allegedly falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen on two Illinois voter registration applications.

If convicted, Azada faces up to five years in state prison on each of the two perjury counts. She also faces up to three years on each of the six counts of tampering with voting machines, and each of the nine counts of mutilation of election materials.

She is also subject to deportation, according to ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro.

Elizabeth police officer is charged with extorting money from undocumented immigrants (The Star-Ledger)

Elizabeth police officer is charged with extorting money from undocumented immigrants
Published: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 1:07 PM
Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 3:07 PM
Ryan Hutchins/The Star-Ledger By Ryan Hutchins/The Star-Ledger

An Elizabeth police officer was arrested this morning on charges he extorted undocumented immigrants, telling the victims he’d turn them in to the federal government unless they paid him a bribe, authorities said.

Rocco Malgieri, a 43-year-old Brick man with 19 years on the force, faces six counts that include a charge of participating in a pattern of official misconduct, as well as others alleging theft by extortion and bribery, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said this afternoon.

He turned himself in this morning, arriving with his attorney, Donald DiGioia, the prosecutor said. He was immediately suspended, without pay, from his job at the city police department, he said.

He has been under investigation for several weeks. His alleged crimes started in February, the prosecutor said.

Malgieri was released after posting a $20,000 property bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 30.

Detectives are still probing the case, and ask anyone with more information to call Sgt. Edward Koenig at (908) 527-4914.

Abused and Deported: Immigrant Women Face Double Disgrace (New America Media c/o La Opinion)

Abused and Deported: Immigrant Women Face Double Disgrace

La Opinión, News Report, Pilar Marrero, Translated by Elena Shore, Posted: Mar 17, 2011

María Bolaños has been fighting her deportation for more than a year, since a fight with her husband when she called the police to report that she was a victim of domestic violence. The police arrived at her home and, suspecting her of illegally selling phone cards, ordered her arrest.

Her case is the most well known, but activists say all programs that mix police work with immigration enforcement represent a growing threat to immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence.

“The Department of National Security hasn’t been very effective in identifying victims of domestic violence, even those who have already gotten benefits, such as suspension of deportation under the law VAWA (Violence Against Women Act),” Leslye Orloff, director of the immigrant women’s program at Legal Momentum, said recently before Congress.

With the expansion of the Secure Communities program, which is now operating in every county in California, along with 1,000 counties across the country, that danger is even greater, Orloff said.

Undocumented immigrants who have been victims of domestic violence can apply for residency without a sponsor, through the U Visa and T Visa programs. These are laws that benefit survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking, among other violent crimes.

But when a domestic violence victim calls the police to report a violent incident, police often arrest both the victim and the perpetrator, especially if the couple doesn’t speak English and there is confusion about what happened.

Activists in defense of immigrant women say this shows how dangerous these programs are for public safety, especially in immigrant communities.

"Our poor neighborhoods are full of immigrants; they don’t have the level of police protection. There is simply nothing more critical than the trust between the immigrant and the authorities," said Enid Gonzalez, a member of the legal team at Casa de Maryland, the first organization to help Bolaños. Gonzalez said cases like this make communities think that they shouldn’t call the police for help.

The Secure Communities program matches the fingerprints of all arrestees against a federal immigration database to determine whether they have outstanding deportation orders or are in the country illegally. If someone is arrested and booked, even if the charges are later dropped, his or her fingerprints will end up in these databases and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be notified. ICE maintains that it is focused on arresting dangerous criminals and prioritizing the most serious crimes over minor offenses. However, it doesn’t always happen this way. A recent analysis of ICE's own data showed that at least 28 percent of those processed under the program were not guilty of any crime; they were simply undocumented immigrants.

ICE recently released 15,000 documents and internal memos about its management of the program following a legal battle led by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, according to the organization’s director, Pablo Alvarado.

“They haven’t told the truth with respect to this program,” he said.

The case of women who have been victims of domestic violence is unique, not only because they have the right to immigration benefits – although many times they don’t know this – but also because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has tried to implement measures to identify these women, although the program is so wide-reaching that this has been difficult.

At the urging of activists, DHS created a list with thousands of names of women who have received domestic violence benefits or are applying for them and have been approved.

"ICE isn’t supposed to touch these women, but with programs like 287(g) or Secure Communities, this list doesn’t seem to have much effect," said Orloff.

"What we ask is that ICE is committed to ensuring that the person arrested is not the victim. Otherwise, this kind of program becomes very dangerous."

In any case, the effect is to create more fear among women of the police than of the abusers themselves, said Judy London, an attorney with Public Counsel in Los Angeles.

"Ultimately, what concerns us most is not that there are many cases of this, but that it creates fear in the community ... this has definitely damaged the trust between police and the community," said London.

In fact, as a result of cases like that of María Bolaños, some organizations that help battered women are recommending that they don’t call the police, and instead try to call someone else first.