No valid driver license offense getting immigrants deported in Collier (Naples Daily News)

No valid driver license offense getting immigrants deported in Collier

By TARA E. McLAUGHLIN
Naples Daily News
Posted April 23, 2011 at 5 p.m.

NAPLES — Achsah Ortiz said goodbye to her husband in a way she never imagined she’d have to — in a detention center days before he boarded a one-way flight to Mexico.

He had lived quietly under the radar in the United States for 10 years without immigration documentation. One day last fall, Guillermo Ortiz Juarez, then 30, made a costly mistake.

He got behind the wheel of his Ford Mustang after drinking. He swerved into a mailbox near his home in Naples Park and walked away from the car that was stuck in a swale. His charges, including a DUI, were misdemeanors, but his punishment was more than fines and driving restrictions.

He was separated from his wife and 7-year-old daughter and sent back to Mexico without knowing if the family would ever be reunited.

His departure left two American citizens heartbroken, facing hunger and financial insecurity.

“He’s our sole provider,” the 40-year-old Ortiz said, choking back tears.

She’d lost her job six months earlier. Her husband had been working two jobs to provide for the family.

“He’s not a bad person. Now you’re taking him away. Now America has to pay for me and my daughter,’’ she said. “I have to be totally destitute with my family.”

* * * * *

The deportation of Ortiz Juarez isn’t an uncommon story in Collier County for people who get arrested, even if they’re not charged with a felony offense.

A Daily News review of Collier arrest records for a several month period showed that one out of every five people turned over for deportation was charged with not having a valid driver license.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office is one of four Florida law enforcement agencies, and about 70 across the country, that participate in a collaborative program with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The program, called 287(g), came out of a 1996 immigration law, which amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Section 287(g) extended powers to trained local law enforcement staff to aid in “the investigation, apprehension, or detention of aliens in the United States.”

In Collier, illegal aliens can be pursued in two ways — via corrections procedures at the jail or by special investigations.

Detectives investigate tips they’ve received indicating a person not in custody might be in this country illegally.

Or, when anyone is arrested and taken to jail, they’re questioned about their nationality. Those born outside of the U.S. are checked against a database for immigration status. Additionally, a program implemented in February 2009 called Secure Communities runs a fingerprint check on people in the jail.

The Daily News reviewed several months of jail records and charges, involving 121 men and women detained by the Sheriff’s Office for ICE prior to deportation proceedings.

By far, the most common among 43 types of charges was for not having a valid driver license. Twenty-six immigrants were charged with the offense. For 19 of those, that was their only charge.

About a third of all charges, 57 of 178, dealt with driver licenses — no valid license, driving with a suspended or expired license, or producing false identification or a license from out of state though the person lived in Florida.

* * * * *

Ortiz and Ortiz Juarez met in the restaurant business.

“I’ve never met anyone who is so honest, hard-working,” Ortiz said. “He puts family first. ... He’s always been there for me.”

They had little money or time for dates, but they cherished romantic backyard dinners. The relationship grew and the couple had a daughter, Angeline.

About a year later, Ortiz and Ortiz Juarez married.

In the beginning of their relationship, they met with Naples immigration attorney Casey Wolff, searching for a way to change his immigration status.

“We were trying to do the right thing but there are no laws in place,” Ortiz said. “That’s what I’m trying to wrap my head around.”

Marriage to an American and fathering an American child doesn’t give an undocumented immigrant rights to be in this country.

When immigrants try to make their stay legal, Wolff said, they are stymied by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

If an illegal alien was in the country for less than a year, he or she could leave for three years and then apply for re-entry. If they were in the United States for more than a year, immigrants must wait 10 years before trying to return.

The law was meant to scare illegal immigrants into going home, Wolff said, but it did the opposite.

“It trapped people here,” he said. “They decided to stay here and take their chances.”

* * * * *

Being in the country illegally isn’t a crime, Wolff said, defining it as an administrative offense, meaning a person cannot be jailed because they overstayed a legal visa or surreptitiously entered the country.

Even so, aliens have been targeted for removal.

However, those like Ortiz Juarez aren’t a top priority for deportation, according to federal standards.

A memo from ICE Director John Morton set priorities for catching, holding and removing foreign nationals.

“The removal of aliens who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety shall be ICE’s highest immigration enforcement priority,” Morton wrote in the June 2010 memo.

Among ICE’s top priorities are those engaged in terrorism, convicted of violent crimes and teens in gangs. ICE next focuses on felons and those with three or more misdemeanor convictions. Finally, ICE said, it will turn its attention to aliens convicted of a misdemeanor, such as a DUI.

Ortiz Juarez appeared to fall into the lowest-priority category because there was no other offense on his record, said Nicole Navas, an ICE spokeswoman.

It’s these types of deportations that frustrate immigration attorney Wolff.

“The national government’s own policy, articulated by ICE, is (to round up) convicted felons or those with standing orders of deportation,” he said. “But that’s not what they’re doing at all.”

* * * * *

Wolff maintains government agencies, including those in Collier County, are “grabbing anybody that looks like a Hispanic in a pickup truck.”

That’s an allegation that deputies are familiar with, but say is untrue.

Collier sheriff’s Lt. Keith Harmon said deputies on the street can’t arrest people on the suspicion of being illegal.

Deputies also hear complaints that people they hand over to ICE were good people and never committed any crimes.
Point

“We’re talking about people whose lives have been evolved in the United States,” Naples immigration attorney Casey Wolff said. “In Achsah’s case, do we really need to put (these) people on welfare? Does that spur economic growth? ... What is being served by destroying a family that is making its way in the world?”
Counterpoint

“If you enter this country illegally, you have already committed a crime,” Collier sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Dasher said.

“If you enter this country illegally, you have already committed a crime,” Collier sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Dasher said.

In Collier County, between October 2006 and December 2010, about 3,100 people were identified as illegal aliens. So far, about 2,400 of those have left the country, according to data provided by ICE.

The Sheriff’s Office said those arrested had been charged with a total of some 2,000 felonies and 3,000 misdemeanors.

ICE provided figures from Collier County’s Secure Communities program and found that from February 2009 through November 2010, 94 of the 959 aliens handed over to ICE were among the lowest-priority immigrants.

They were people like Ortiz Juarez.

An immigration judge granted Ortiz Juarez a voluntary departure, meaning he could leave the country of his own accord instead of being deported and put on a plane by the federal government.

“It’s an immigration benefit that ... if he reapplies to enter the United States, he’s not barred from applying,” ICE spokeswoman Navas said.

Ortiz Juarez was forced to leave the country by mid-January. His wife scraped together money to buy his one-way ticket to Mexico City. It was a tricky task considering she’d already spent their savings as well as money she borrowed from family, and thousands of dollars given to her by Ortiz Juarez’s employer to stay afloat during Ortiz Juarez’s three months in custody.

The ordeal has worn on Ortiz Juarez, who said in a telephone interview that sometimes it feels like life is becoming too painful.

“It’s hard but I have to keep going,” he said by phone before he left the U.S.

Ortiz and Angeline saw Ortiz Juarez two times after his arrest – once at his visitation on Christmas. The next time the three were together was Jan. 9, two days before Ortiz Juarez’s flight to Mexico.

Ortiz Juarez is in Mexico now, his wife reported and ICE confirmed. He’s staying with family and trying to get used to life in a place he hadn’t seen since he was 20 years old.

Ortiz is missing her companion, her daughter’s father, and the security of the life they built together.

Angeline is happy that her father is “free” and not “locked up” anymore, but she misses him and wrote on a drawing: “I just need my papa back.”

The mother and daughter took a two-week trip to Mexico and plan to go there again when Angeline is on summer break.

Their attorney is hopeful Ortiz Juarez can file an application for a hardship waiver that could allow him to return to the United States.

Though all involved acknowledge Ortiz Juarez’s mistakes, they question the law involving a person without a felony background, who has worked hard and raised a family.

Removing felons from the country is a valid endeavor, Wolff said, but a law that keeps good people apart isn’t accomplishing goals America stands for.

“We’re talking about people whose lives have been evolved in the United States,” Wolff said. “In Achsah’s case, do we really need to put (these) people on welfare? Does that spur economic growth? ... What is being served by destroying a family that is making its way in the world?”

Calif. congresswoman: Immigration officials lied (AP c/o San Jose Mercury News)

Calif. congresswoman: Immigration officials lied
The Associated Press
Posted: 04/23/2011 02:56:31 PM PDT
Updated: 04/23/2011 04:15:09 PM PDT

SAN JOSE, Calif.—A Northern California congresswoman has accused federal immigrations officials of lying when they said counties and states could opt out of a program that checks the immigration status of people arrested and booked into local jails.

Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose on Friday called for an investigation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials following a review by her office of internal correspondence about the Secure Communities program.

That correspondence—recently released by the Department of Homeland Security in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit—shows the Obama administration gave communities no choice but to participate in the program after some refused.

Santa Clara County, where San Jose is the county seat, and San Francisco were among the communities that sought to opt out of Secure Communities.

Additionally, ICE officials continued discussing whether the program was voluntary even after telling Congress and law enforcement agencies that participation wasn't required, according to the documents.

"It is inescapable that the (Department of Homeland Security) was not honest with the local governments or with me," Lofgren told the Los Angeles Times. "You can't have a government department essentially lying to local government and to members of Congress. This is not OK."

Lofgren said she wants the probe to include Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton. ICE falls under the Department of Homeland Security.

In a statement, the department said the program was never voluntary.

"Unfortunately, this was not communicated as clearly as it should have been to state and local jurisdictions by ICE when the program began," the statement said. "Thanks to outreach with local jurisdictions and members of Congress, we have since made the parameters of the program clear to all stakeholders involved."

Supporters say Secure Communities has led to the deportation of thousands of immigrants convicted of major violent offenses.

Critics say it has ensnared immigrants who were never charged or charged with minor offenses. They also say it makes illegal immigrants reluctant to cooperate with authorities and can lead to racial profiling.

Eastlake: Mom jailed by immigration agents (WKYC-OH)

Eastlake: Mom jailed by immigration agents
4:35 AM, Apr 20, 2011

EASTLAKE -- An Eastlake mother of three has spent the last 11 days in the Bedford Heights city jail because of what her family and friends say is a "paperwork mistake" by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Beatrice Kiarie, 38, was taken into custody April 8 because her family says she missed a meeting with immigration officials.

The family says the notice about the meeting was mailed to the wrong address.

"She's been going every time, as required," Kiarie's husband George said from the family's Eastlake home, about her regular appointments with immigration. "So I believe she should at least have been told what is going on before being detained."

The Kiaries came to Cleveland from Nairobi, Kenya in 1996 as students. George earned an MBA from Cleveland State University. Beatrice also earned her degree from CSU. They married in 1998 and have three children.

"This has been very hard on the children," George Kiarie tells WKYC. "The kids are always asking where she is, and it's very hard for me to explain to them that Mommy's not coming tonight. That Mommy won't be here."

The Kiaries bought a house in Eastlake about a year ago, moving from Warrensville Heights. The family's pastor, who has been visiting Beatrice in jail, says immigration officials have acknowledged their error, but said that it could take three months to fix.

Officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service were not available for comment Tuesday evening.

"This family is what everyone says they are," Pastor Don Morris of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Orange Village tells WKYC. "They're just the sweetest people, doing everything right, and yet bureaucracy has gotten the best of them."

At a Tuesday evening Bible study, church members raised up prayers for Beatrice and the family.

"I see the kids every day, and we are very worried about the children," says family friend and fellow church member Myrtis Walker. "This has been affecting their school work."

Walker says she and Beatrice became fast friends when both joined the church about three years ago.

"Bea is such a soft, tender-hearted person," Walker says. "She's a wonderful lady. She's very kind, very soft-spoken. She's easy to talk to. A very, very nice lady."

Pastor Morris says Beatrice has had both good and bad days as a prisoner at the Bedford Heights jail.

"But she's trying to make the best of it by ministering to the other prisoners," he offered. "We hope to have her home by Easter."

At the family home, the children struggle to concentrate on homework while their father prepares meals.

"My wife did the cooking," he explains. "She loved to cook and took care of us."

"I really miss mom because she's been gone for a long time," says Lauren, 7, as her brothers, Jeffrey, 13, and Patrick, 5, take a break from homework and distract themselves with a video game.

Lauren spoke for herself and her family.

"Every time we check with the people to see if she's free to go," the little girl earnestly explained, "they keep saying no, that she hasn't finished her papers yet. So we're still keeping her in our prayers."

Mill Valley police log (Mill Valley Herald)

Mill Valley police log

By Herald staff
Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 12:11 PM PDT

Solicitor: Whole Foods Market at 11:54 a.m. Caller complained of female solicitor with a child by the front produce section of store. Woman wais holding a sign reading, “Help me I’m poor starving.” Child appeared to be about 7 years of age. Officer contacted solicitors and told them not to return to the store. Officer contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Connecticut Pols Want ICE to Halt Deportation of Mexican Student (Fox News)

Connecticut Pols Want ICE to Halt Deportation of Mexican Student
Published April 21, 2011

| Fox News Latino

Mariano Cardoso, a Mexican-born college student who Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy describes as "for all intents and purposes" an American, is at the center of an immigration tussle between that state's highest-ranking elected officials and the federal government.

The student, 23-year-old Mariano Cardoso, has lived in the United States since his family entered the country illegally when he was a toddler. He is due to graduate next month from Capitol Community College in Hartford with an engineering degree.

In discussions with federal immigration officials, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, have highlighted Cardoso's personal achievements in asking for him to be allowed to stay. On Wednesday, Malloy wrote a letter formally asking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to defer his deportation.

Cardoso, in an interview Wednesday, said, "I'm really surprised and glad there is something happening for me and I'm not alone."

Cardoso is facing deportation any day after losing a legal battle to stay in the country. Blumenthal, however, said discussions with federal officials have made him optimistic there is no imminent plan to send Cardoso back to Mexico. He said his office will remain vigilant.

"We have been involved very closely," Blumenthal said. "I happened to meet Mariano and learned about what he's done, his studies and his background, and his story is a very compelling one."

The office of Sen. Joe Lieberman also has sought a solution to the case, according to spokeswoman Whitney Phillips, who said it highlights why the independent U.S. senator supports comprehensive immigration reform.

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he could not immediately comment on the case.

Cardoso said his troubles started in August 2008, when immigration agents went into his uncle's backyard during a family gathering. The agents said they were looking for a woman identified as a drug dealer and asked to search the house, but he and his uncle refused because they didn't have a search warrant. The agents then demanded their documents and arrested Cardoso after discovering his illegal status.

He said he was optimistic the deportation order would be reversed up until two months ago, when his attorney advised him that any further appeals would be fruitless. In a last-ditch effort to stay, he decided to begin telling his story publicly.

A national advocacy organization, United We Dream, started a petition on his behalf, and a student group at Trinity College, Stop the Raids, has demonstrated to support his cause.

Malloy and both senators say they support the DREAM Act, legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for certain young people such as Cardoso who were brought to this country at a young age. It has failed to pass Congress several times, most recently in December. A week ago, Blumenthal was among senators who wrote President Barack Obama to ask that he grant a stay of removal for all young people who meet the requirements of the proposed legislation.

"For all intents and purposes, Mariano is American," Malloy said in a statement. "To send him back to a country he has no recollection of and did not grow up in makes little sense, particularly as he is finishing his degree and looking to contribute to his community and this state."

"Congress needs to address immigration reform in a comprehensive and commonsense manner, but until that happens, we cannot allow young men and women like Mariano, who, through no fault of their own, were brought here as children, lose this chance at a better life," Malloy said.

Cardoso, whose family hails from Puebla in southern Mexico, said his grandfather and a few aunts still live there but he doesn't really know them.
"If I were to go there I don't really know what I'd do," he said. "I wouldn't know where to go to school, where to find a career."

If allowed to stay in the United States, he said, he hopes to become a civil engineer and eventually a math teacher.