[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
ICE WORKPLACE RAIDS: THEIR IMPACT ON
U.S. CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON WORKFORCE PROTECTIONS
COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND LABOR
U.S. House of Representatives
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MAY 20, 2008
__________
Serial No. 110-92
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
Available on the Internet:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/education/index.html
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
GEORGE MILLER, California, Chairman
Dale E. Kildee, Michigan, Vice Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,
Chairman California,
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Senior Republican Member
Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Virginia Peter Hoekstra, Michigan
Lynn C. Woolsey, California Michael N. Castle, Delaware
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas Mark E. Souder, Indiana
Carolyn McCarthy, New York Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan
John F. Tierney, Massachusetts Judy Biggert, Illinois
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
David Wu, Oregon Ric Keller, Florida
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Susan A. Davis, California John Kline, Minnesota
Danny K. Davis, Illinois Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Kenny Marchant, Texas
Timothy H. Bishop, New York Tom Price, Georgia
Linda T. Sanchez, California Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Charles W. Boustany, Jr.,
Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Louisiana
David Loebsack, Iowa Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Mazie Hirono, Hawaii John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania York
John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky Rob Bishop, Utah
Phil Hare, Illinois David Davis, Tennessee
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Timothy Walberg, Michigan
Joe Courtney, Connecticut [Vacancy]
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire
Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director
Vic Klatt, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON WORKFORCE PROTECTIONS
LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California, Chairwoman
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Joe Wilson, South Carolina,
Timothy H. Bishop, New York Ranking Minority Member
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire Tom Price, Georgia
Phil Hare, Illinois John Kline, Minnesota
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on May 20, 2008..................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Hare, Hon. Phil, a Representative in Congress from the State
of Illinois, questions for the record and the responses.... 90
Hinojosa, Hon. Ruben, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Texas, letter, dated April 29, from the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent to Immigration and
Customs Enforcement........................................ 60
Wilson, Hon. Joe, ranking minority member, Subcommittee on
Workforce Protections...................................... 5
Additional submissions:
``Immigration Raid in Iowa Largest Ever in U.S.,''
Associated Press article........................... 6
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: FY07
Accomplishments.................................... 83
Detention and Removal Operations: Alternatives to
Detention.......................................... 86
Frequently Asked Questions About Worksite Enforcement 86
``ICE Fugitive Operations Program,'' from ICE Fact
Sheets, December 4, 2007........................... 88
Woolsey, Hon. Lynn C., Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Workforce
Protections................................................ 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 4
Additional submissions:
Statement of the American Psychological Association
(APA).............................................. 64
APA Resolution on Immigrant Children, Youth, and
Families........................................... 65
APA Factsheet........................................ 78
``The Protection of Children During Immigration
Enforcement Actions: Lessons from Recent Large
Scale Worksite Raids,'' by Randy Capps, Rosa Maria
Castaneda, Ajay Chaudry and Robert Santos, the
Urban Institute.................................... 67
Statement of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Service and Bishop Steven Ullestad, Northeastern
Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America............................................ 80
Statement of First Focus............................. 72
Letter, dated May 27, 2008, from the National
Education Association.............................. 82
Statement of Witnesses:
Gibney, Kathryn M., San Pedro Elementary School principal.... 22
Prepared statement of.................................... 24
Additional submissions:
``ICE Raids on Homes Panic Schools, Politicians,''
from the San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, May 7,
2008............................................... 31
``30 Illegal Immigrants Targeted in Canal
Neighborhood Raid,'' from the San Rafael, CA,
Independent Journal, March 7, 2007................. 32
``Canal Community Fearful After Immigration Raids,''
from the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March
8, 2007............................................ 33
``Second Day of Immigration Raids Includes Novato and
San Rafael,'' from the Marin, CA, Independent
Journal, March 8, 2007............................. 34
``Fate of Detained Becomes Clearer,'' from the Marin,
CA, Independent Journal, March 8, 2007............. 35
``Immigration Raids Handled Poorly,'' from the San
Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 9, 2007..... 36
``Immigration Raids Draw Dawn Protest,'' from the San
Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 9, 2007..... 37
``March and Rally Draw Hundreds in San Rafael,'' from
the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 13,
2007............................................... 38
``Marin Officials Rip Immigration Tactics,'' from the
Marin, CA, Independent Journal, March 14, 2007..... 40
``65 Arrested, 23 Deported in Raids, North Bay
Congresswoman Says,'' from the San Rafael, CA,
Independent Journal, March 15, 2007................ 41
``Civic Leaders Prepare for Likelihood of Future
Raids,'' from the San Rafael, CA, Independent
Journal, April 5, 2007............................. 42
``ACLU Sues Over Seizure of Boy in Immigration
Raid,'' from the San Rafael, CA, Independent
Journal, April 26, 2007............................ 43
Murguia, Janet, president and CEO, National Council of La
Raza....................................................... 12
Prepared statement of.................................... 14
``Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on
America's Children,'' published by the Urban Institute. 13
Romo, Simon, chief counsel, New Mexico Child Protective
Services................................................... 44
Prepared statement of.................................... 46
Spero, Hon. James C., Deputy Assistant Director, Office of
Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
Department of Homeland Security............................ 9
Prepared statement of.................................... 11
Responses to questions for the record.................... 91
ICE WORKPLACE RAIDS: THEIR IMPACT ON U.S. CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND
COMMUNITIES
----------
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
Committee on Education and Labor
Washington, DC
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in
room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Lynn Woolsey
[chairwoman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Woolsey, Payne, Bishop, Hare,
Wilson, Hinojosa, Kline and McKeon (Ex Officio).
Staff Present: Aaron Albright, Press Secretary; Tylease
Alli, Hearing Clerk; Tico Almeida, Labor Policy Advisor; Alfred
Amado, Legislative Fellow for Education; Jordan Barab, Health/
Safety Professional; Jody Calemine, Labor Policy Deputy
Director; Lynn Dondis, Senior Policy Advisor, Subcommittee on
Workforce Protections; Brian Kennedy, General Counsel; Sara
Lonardo, Junior Legislative Associate, Labor; Ricardo Martinez,
Policy Advisor, Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong
Learning and Competitiveness; Alex Nock, Deputy Staff Director;
Joe Novotny, Chief Clerk; Megan O'Reilly, Labor Policy Advisor;
Robert Borden, Minority General Counsel; Cameron Coursen,
Minority Assistant Communications Director; Ed Gilroy, Minority
Director of Workforce Policy; Rob Gregg, Minority Senior
Legislative Assistant; Alexa Marrero, Minority Communications
Director; Jim Paretti, Minority Workforce Policy Counsel; Molly
McLaughlin Salmi, Minority Deputy Director of Workforce Policy;
Linda Stevens, Minority Chief Clerk/Assistant to the General
Counsel; Hannah Snoke, Minority Legislative Assistant; and
Loren Sweatt, Minority Professional Staff Member.
Chairwoman Woolsey. A quorum is present. The hearing of the
Workforce Protections Subcommittee on ICE Workplace Raids:
Their impact on U.S. Children, Families and Communities will
come to order.
Pursuant to committee rule 12(a), any member may submit an
opening statement in writing, which will be made part of the
permanent record.
I now recognize myself, followed by Ranking Member Joe
Wilson, for an opening statement.
I personally wanted to thank our witnesses for being here
today and participating in this very important hearing. While I
am pleased to welcome all of you--I must give a particular
welcome to all of you, because every one of you virtually means
something to me--but there's a woman here from my district and
San Pedro Elementary School, Katherine Gibney, who is the
principal. She has come a long way, and I am so honored that
you have come here to do this with us. Thank you very much.
Today, we will explore the effects of the ICE raids on
children of immigrant parents. The U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, known as ICE, is the interior enforcement arm of
the Department of Homeland Security.
Before 2006, the Bush administration's record on
enforcement was not particularly good. According to the GAO, in
the fiscal year 2004 there were only 445 unauthorized workers
arrested, a drop from fiscal year 1999 by 84 percent.
In 2005, ICE made about 1,300 work site arrests of
undocumented immigrants. But, by 2006, ICE had increased its
enforcement activities and made about 4,400 work site arrests,
more than triple the year before.
In December of 2006, ICE launched Operation Wagon Train,
the largest work site operation in history. More than 1,000 ICE
agents arrested about 1,300 people in six Swift & Company meat
processing plants located around the country. Also in 2006, ICE
launched a nationwide operation called Operation Return to
Sender, which resulted in 23,000 arrests at work sites and
other locations, including people's homes.
In 2007 and now in 2008, work site raids and raids at other
locations have continued. Between October of 2006 and October
of 2007, ICE raids in California resulted in the arrest of over
800 undocumented immigrants.
In March of 2007, ICE conducted raids in San Rafael and
Novato, cities in my district. Now you would think that it is
weird that Marin County, the wealthiest county in the entire
country, would have ICE raids and would even have a need for
immigrant workers, but, guess what, we do. We are no different
than any other part of this country, and we will be hearing
more about that later.
Just last week, ICE conducted its biggest workplace raid
this year at a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. Of the
800 to 900 workers at the plant, over 300 were arrested. Twelve
of those arrested were children, children between the ages of
15 and 17. They were working at the plant in violation of child
labor laws. As of last Thursday, they were still being
detained, and we now know that ICE conducted this raid even as
the Department of Labor and Iowa State officials were
investigating the owner of the plant for child labor
violations.
We are very concerned that the raid will have the effect of
derailing that investigation. But today we are looking for the
impact of the raids on the children, the children of the
families, the children of the workers, the children who are
working at the plants themselves. There are about 4.7 million
children who have at least one parent who is undocumented. Of
that number, 3.1 million, or two-thirds of these children, are
U.S. citizens.
While we do not know the exact number of children who have
had a parent arrested or deported, we know that thousands of
children have been affected and that most of them are U.S.
citizens themselves.
There will also be testimony today about the ICE
guidelines, guidelines that were put into place in November,
2007, and outlining humanitarian concerns that officials should
follow when conducting raids. These guidelines are
discretionary, and so ICE officials most likely have no real
incentive to follow them. As a result, we are still hearing
heartbreaking stories of the impact on children.
They have witnessed their parents being arrested. They have
had flashlights in their faces late at night. With their
families, they have hidden in their houses and their basements
and their closets, and some even under their beds, afraid that
their parents and other family members will be taken from them.
They have been separated from their families in the
cruelest of ways for long periods of time, and many of their
parents have been deported. Some have been absent from school
for days at a time. Children, especially young children, are
experiencing depression, separation anxiety and, in some
serious cases, PTSD.
Let me tell you about Kebin Reyes, a U.S. citizen from my
district. Kebin is just now 7 years of age. In March of 2007,
when he was 6, ICE arrested his father. His father is his only
parent in the United States and Kebin was a witness to his
father's arrest.
When his father was arrested, Kebin was taken to a facility
where he spent 10 hours in detention. His father was detained
for 6 weeks, and during that time Kebin had no idea if he would
ever see his father again. He experienced severe emotional
trauma as a result.
Ana is another child. She is age 11. She suffered because
of the raids. She is from Petaluma, California. Her teacher
noticed she was missing school because of severe stomach
cramps. After many weeks, the teacher learned that the real
reason Ana did not want to go to school was because she was
afraid if she went to school, her parents would be taken away
in one of the ICE raids while she was gone.
As it turned out, Ana's aunt had been arrested by ICE and
left for Tijuana, far away from her own children. It took the
aunt months to return home to California.
Kebin and Ana are two of the thousands of children who are
living this same nightmare.
In Postville, Iowa, we have heard reports that at least 200
children had parents who were swept up in the raids last week.
Sister Mary McCauley, who is assisting the children and their
families, told us that many, many children are staying in a
local Catholic Church, sleeping on the pews. She said that most
of these children are not going to school. They are
traumatized, and they are very fearful.
This has affected the entire community of Postville, a
community of 2,300 residents. Sister McCauley is one of the
very wonderful people which includes teachers, members of the
faith community, community organizers and others who have
worked tirelessly to make sure that these children's basic
needs are being provided.
She may be here in the audience, is she out there?
Well, she will be coming in, I will bet.
Some of these people are witnesses here today, and you will
hear from them, and we will applaud them. But unless ICE
follows humanitarian procedures in conducting these raids, we
are still left with traumatized children and with communities
that don't know how to handle these situations.
Again, I want to thank the witnesses for being here today,
and I look forward to your testimony. Thank you very much.
Ranking Member Wilson.
[The statement of Ms. Woolsey follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Lynn C. Woolsey, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on
Workforce Protections
I want to welcome all our witnesses for agreeing to participate in
this very important hearing.
And while I am pleased to welcome all of you, I must give a special
welcome to Katherine Gibney, the Principal at the San Pedro Elementary
School in San Rafael, California. You see, Ms. Gibney is a constituent
of mine.
Welcome, Ms. Gibney.
Today, we will explore the effects of the ICE raids on the children
of immigrant parents.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, is the
interior enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
Before 2006, the Bush Administration's record on enforcement was
not very good.
According to the GAO, in fiscal year 2004, there were only 445
unauthorized workers arrested, a drop from fiscal year 1999 of 84
percent.
In 2005, ICE made about 1,300 worksite arrests of undocumented
immigrants.
But by 2006, ICE had increased its enforcement activities and made
about 4,400 worksite arrests, more than triple than the year before.
In December, 2006, ICE launched ``Operation Wagon Train'' the
largest worksite operation in history.
More than 1,000 ICE agents arrested about 1,300 people at 6 Swift &
Co. meat processing plants located around the country.
Also in 2006, ICE launched a nationwide operation called
``Operation Return to Sender,'' which resulted in the 23,000 arrests at
worksites and other locations, including people's homes.
In 2007 and now in 2008, worksite raids and raids at other
locations have continued at a steady pace. Between October 2006 and
January 2007, ICE raids in California resulted in the arrest of over
800 undocumented immigrants.
In March of 2007, ICE conducted raids in San Rafael and Novato,
cities in my district.
And just last week, ICE conducted its biggest workplace raid this
year at a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. Of the 800-900
workers at the plant, over 300 were arrested. Twelve of those arrested
were children between the ages of 15 and 17. They were working at the
plant in violation of child labor laws. As of last Thursday, they were
still being detained. And we now know that ICE conducted this raid even
as the Department of Labor and Iowa state officials were investigating
the owner of the plant for child labor violations. We are very
concerned that the raid will have the effect of derailing the
investigation. But today, we are looking at the impact of the raids on
the children. There are about 4.7 million children with who have at
least at least one parent who is undocumented. Of that number 3.1
million, or--\2/3\ of these children--are U.S. citizens. While we do
not know the exact number of children who have had a parent arrested or
deported, we know that thousands of children have been affected and
that most of them are U.S. citizens themselves. There will also be
testimony today about the ICE guidelines, which were put into place in
November 2007 and which outline humanitarian concerns officials should
follow when conducting raids, are not being followed in a consistent
fashion.
These guidelines are discretionary, and so ICE officials most
likely have no real incentive to follow them. As a result, we are still
hearing heartbreaking stories of the impact on children. They have
witnessed their parents being arrested.
And they have had flashlights shown in their faces late at night.
With their families, they have hidden in their houses, basements,
closets and some even under their beds, afraid that their parents and
other family members will be taken.
They have been separated from their families in the cruelest of
ways for long periods of time and many of their parents have been
deported.
Some have been absent from school for days at a time, and children,
especially young children are experiencing depression, separation
anxiety, and in some serious cases, post traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD).
Let me tell you about Kebin Reyes, a U.S. citizen, from my
district. He is now age 7. In March 2007, when he was 6, ICE arrested
his father--who is Kebin's sole parent in the U.S.--and Kebin was there
to witness it. When his father was arrested, Kebin was also taken and
spent 10 hours in detention. His father was detained for 6 weeks and
during that time, Kebin had no idea if he would ever see his father
again. He experienced severe emotional trauma as a result. Kebin is one
of thousands of children who are living this same nightmare. In
Postville, Iowa, we have heard reports that at least 200 children had
parents who were swept up in the raids last week.
Sister Mary McCauley who is assisting the children and their
families told us that many, many children are staying at a local
Catholic church sleeping on pews. She said that most of these children
are not going to school. They are traumatized and very fearful. And
this has affected the entire community of Postville, which has 2,300
residents. Sister Mary McCauley is one of the very wonderful people--
which includes teachers, members of the faith community, community
organizers and others--who have worked tirelessly to make sure that
these children's basic needs are being provided. Some of these people
are witnesses here today.
But unless ICE follows humanitarian procedures in conducting these
raids, we are still left with traumatized children and communities.
Again, I want to thank our witnesses for being here today and look
forward to their testimony.
______
Mr. Wilson. Good morning. Thank you, Chairwoman Woolsey;
and I also want to commend you on your speedy recovery from
your back surgery. I notice that you are getting around with
vim and vigor, so I am very happy for you.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Are you really?
Mr. Wilson. I am, I am.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Okay.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you for convening this hearing on
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE's efforts to enforce
our immigration laws. I am particularly pleased that ICE will
be here this morning with Mr. Spero to discuss the policies
that have been developed to handle the humanitarian issues that
are the subject of today's hearing.
An unfortunate byproduct of the failure to overhaul the
immigration system has been a large number of non-work-eligible
individuals working in the United States, establishing families
and putting down roots in our communities, only to have their
lives upended when it is discovered that they are here
illegally. This is damaging to everyone involved, from the
workers and their families and the employers who, in many
cases, are unknowingly employing ineligible workers.
However, unlike many problems facing our Nation, this is
one in which there is an obvious, albeit incomplete, solution,
a sound employment verification system.
The issue is so important to me that I am a cosponsor of
the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement Act, or
SAVE Act, H.R. 4088, and the New Employee Verification Act, or
NEVA, H.R. 5515.
I would encourage Congress to take action on immigration
reform by allowing a vote on H.R. 4088. To date, 188 Members
have signed a discharge petition to bring that bill, offered by
a Member of the majority party, to a vote by the full House.
Still, the majority has failed to follow or allow an up and
down vote.
I formerly practiced immigration law to promote legal
entry, and I know the value of legally entering America.
Congress must continue to work to improve our immigration
system to eliminate just the issues this hearing is designed to
address. But it is unreasonable for us to narrow our focus to
just one small issue in the larger challenge posed by our
broken borders and flawed immigration system.
For instance, this committee has not yet explored the
prevalence of identity theft, nor the scourge of illegal drug
trafficking, both of which are closely linked to a system that
permits illegal immigration. Just last week, it was reported
that the largest-ever immigration raid took place in Iowa, with
nearly 400 persons arrested.
Of interest to our hearing today, an article by the
Associated Press reported that ``fifty-six were released on
humanitarian grounds, typically because their arrest would
leave a child with no custodian. A handful were released
because of medical conditions.''
Madam Chairwoman, I would request that the Associated Press
article be included in the record of today's hearing.
[The information follows:]
[Associated Press article]
Immigration Raid in Iowa Largest Ever in U.S.
By Henry C. Jackson
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)--A federal immigration raid at a kosher
meatpacking plant in northeast Iowa was the largest such operation in
U.S. history, with nearly 400 people arrested, federal officials said
Tuesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said at least 390
people were arrested on immigration charges as part of a raid Monday
morning at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville. The plant had about 900
workers before the raid.
Most of the 314 men and 76 women arrested are from Guatemala and
Mexico, but some were from Ukraine and Israel.
``Based on the number of * * * arrests, this is the largest single
site operation of its kind ever in the United States,'' said ICE
spokesman Tim Counts.
The raid followed a months-long investigation into Agriprocessors,
the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the world.
ICE officials would not comment on whether company officials could
face criminal charges. Telephone messages left with Agriprocessors on
Tuesday were not returned.
Of those initially arrested, officials said 56 were released on
humanitarian grounds, typically because their arrest would leave a
child with no custodian. A handful were released because of medical
conditions.
Men were being held at temporary housing at the National Cattle
Congress Fairgrounds in Waterloo, where they are expected to be
processed by Wednesday night and moved to other locations by Thursday.
Women are being held at the Hardin County jail.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa condemned the raids in a
statement Tuesday.
``It appears that detainees are not receiving adequate time to meet
with their lawyers, and that defense attorneys are being overwhelmed by
requests to represent far more clients than is advisable--or perhaps
even ethical,'' said Ben Stone, the group's president. ``We are
concerned that the sheer size of this raid is likely to result in
numerous violations of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the due
process rights of all persons in this country.''
Counts said those arrested had and would have adequate time to meet
with their attorneys.
Everyone arrested Monday has been charged with immigration
violations. So far 20 of them also have been arrested on a variety of
criminal charges, including aggravated identity theft and false use of
Social Security numbers, said Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S.
attorney's office.
Those facing criminal charges began appearing Tuesday afternoon in
a makeshift federal court at the Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo,
said U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth.
Anyone detained on a criminal charge will be placed in the custody
of the U.S. Marshals Service. People charged only with immigration
violations will remain in ICE custody before going through removal
proceedings, including a hearing before an immigration judge. Those
hearings will take place throughout the country, Counts said, depending
on space.
According to a search warrant application and affadavit dated May
9, federal officials relied on a variety of sources, including former
employees and at least one undercover source who wore a wire and became
an employee of the plant at ICE's request.
According to the search warrant application, the undercover source
said that some employees were paid with cash, and that those workers
wore specially colored work hats to denote their status. Other
employees were paid with checks that did not bear Agriprocessors' name.
Sources in the warrant application also said they saw what appeared
to be underage workers at the plant.
According to the company's Web site, Agriprocessors was founded in
1987 by the Rubashkim family. The company's kosher and non-kosher
products are found in many national supermarket chains.
______
Mr. Wilson. Clearly, the article shows that steps are being
taken to address humanitarian concerns we are looking at today,
but the article also brings to light another issue that we are
not considering today. For the same article, and I quote,
``Everyone arrested Monday has been charged with immigration
violations. So far, 20 of them also have been arrested for a
variety of criminal charges, including aggravated identity
theft and false use of Social Security numbers.''
So while I appreciate the opportunity to examine these
issues before us today, I would like to state for the record my
disappointment at the majority's unwillingness to allow real
action on immigration reform. Hearings will not divert the
attention of the American people, and ignoring some of the most
troubling side effects of our broken immigration system will
not be enough. We need real action.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you.
I don't hear any objection. I would like to allow
Congressman Hinojosa from Texas, the Chair of the Higher
Education Subcommittee, to make opening remarks out of order.
Without objection.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Thank you very
much. Thank you for allowing me to join this subcommittee
today.
I am deeply grateful to Chairwoman Woolsey and Ranking
Member Joe Wilson for calling this hearing to highlight the
terrible impact and the policy of stepped-up immigration raids
is having on children and communities.
Today, we must ask ourselves if our enforcement-only
approach to immigration is worth it. It's estimated that there
are approximately 4.7 million children who have an undocumented
parent. Two-thirds of these children are U.S. citizens. Late
last year, before the most recent round of raids and
detentions, The New York Times reported that of at least 13,000
children, one or both of their parents were deported in the
last 2 years.
Children are paying the highest price of all for broken
immigration Federal policies. They are being torn from their
families. They live with the constant fear that any moment
their parents or loved ones will be sent away.
Instead of working towards comprehensive immigration
reform, this administration is now pursuing a policy of
enforcement, no matter what the cost. Instead of pursuing a
policy that addresses real threats to our Nation's security, we
have reports of ICE agents staking out migrant and seasonal
Head Start centers for enforcement. When we reauthorized Head
Start, we included provisions to prioritize the expansion of
migrant and seasonal Head Start to keep young children out of
the fields.
ICE, in targeting these programs for enforcement
activities, has created an environment of fear and
intimidation. As a result, families are avoiding these centers.
Children are denied high-quality, safe, preschool opportunities
and are often left with no option except to accompany their
families to the fields.
In April of this year, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
called upon ICE to immediately stop this practice and to issue
guidance to their field offices that social service programs
are not to be targets of enforcement activity. Public health
and safety must take precedence over these activities. As of
today, there has been no response to the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus from ICE.
Instead of requiring that immigrants legalize their status
and putting the laws in place for them to do so, our policy is
to arrest people, place them in detention camps and neglect
their health needs and human rights. This represents a moral
humanitarian crisis for this Nation.
The only solution is to fix the problem. When laws are
unjust, we change them. There's no justice in our current
immigration policy, and it's time for change.
Thank you, Madam Chairman; and I yield back.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you very much.
I would like to introduce our very distinguished panel of
witnesses, who are here with us this morning, in the order that
they will be speaking.
First, we will have James Spero, who is currently the
Acting Deputy Assistant Director of the ICE Critical
Infrastructure and Fraud Division. Prior to this assignment,
Mr. Spero served as Unit Chief for the Identity and Benefit
Fraud Unit at ICE headquarters. Before that, he was an Acting
Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the ICE special agents in
the District of Columbia. It's called the SAC/DC. Mr. Spero has
an undergraduate degree in economics from St. John's University
in New York City.
Janet Murguia is President and CEO of the National Council
of La Raza, a position she has held since January of 2005. Ms.
Murguia began her career as legislative counsel for former
Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery. She then worked at the Clinton
White House, working her way up to the position of Deputy
Assistant to the President. After leaving the executive branch,
Ms. Murguia served as Deputy Campaign Manager and Director of
Constituency Outreach for the Gore-Lieberman Presidential
campaign. She received both her bachelor's and JD from the
University of Kansas.
Katherine Gibney is principal of San Pedro Elementary
School in San Rafael, California. Approximately 96 percent of
San Pedro's student population is Latino, with the largest
cultural groups coming from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.
Prior to her position as principal of San Pedro school, Ms.
Gibney served as K-5 summer school principal, new teacher
adviser and K-8 literacy coach for the San Rafael elementary
school district. Ms. Gibney holds a bachelor of arts degree in
Spanish and a multiple subject teaching credential from the
University of California, Irvine, and an administrative
credential from San Francisco State University.
Simon Romo is the Chief Children's Court Attorney for the
New Mexico Children's Youth and Families Department. Mr. Romo
manages the legal staff for the Protective Services Division
throughout the State of New Mexico. He has 22 years of
experience with the Children, Youth and Families Department and
its predecessor agency. He is a certified national child
welfare law specialist and member of the National Association
of Council for Children and the American Bar Association. Mr.
Romo has been a licensed attorney in many in New Mexico since
1985. He also holds a master's degree in social work from New
Mexico Highlands University.
I welcome all of our witnesses.
For those of you who have not testified here before us in
the past, let me explain the lighting system. We have a 5-
minute rule. Everyone, including members, is limited to 5
minutes of presentation or questioning.
So the green light is illuminated when you begin to speak.
When you see the yellow light, it means that you have 1 minute
left. When the light turns red, then you are asked to conclude
your testimony. We don't hang you out to dry mid-sentence.
Don't worry about that. But if you have more to say, when--
during the question and answer period, feel free to add what
you think you may have missed.
First, now, we will begin with our first witness, and that
is Mr. Spero.
STATEMENT OF JAMES SPERO, ACTING DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR,
OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS, CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND FRAUD,
ICE
Mr. Spero. Good morning, distinguished members of the
subcommittee. I am pleased to appear before you today to
discuss ICE's law enforcement operations.
ICE is, first and foremost, a Federal law enforcement
agency with the mandate of protecting national security and
public safety by enforcing the Nation's immigration and customs
laws. ICE conducts its law enforcement operations lawfully,
professionally, and humanely and takes extraordinary steps to
identify documents and act appropriately regarding humanitarian
concerns of individuals encountered during law enforcement
operations. In planning enforcement operations, ICE agents
specifically plan for the possibility that individuals who are
arrested may also be a sole caregiver or that their detention
may otherwise place an undue hardship on their families.
ICE strikes a balance between the operational objectives of
enforcing the law and any humanitarian issues that may arise as
a result of the enforcement operation. ICE has developed work
site enforcement guidelines that field offices use when
developing their operational plans to ensure that individuals
who have been arrested and have unattended minors or family
members with health factors are identified at the earliest
possible point.
During large work site enforcement operations, ICE
coordinates with Public Health Service professionals to provide
a sufficient number of personnel to assist in the medical and
humanitarian needs of arrestees.
In addition to PHS, when operationally possible, ICE
coordinates with State and local social service agencies to
assist with humanitarian screening.
If ICE is contacted by a social service agency or an NGO
and provided with additional information or details regarding a
humanitarian concern after an arrestee has been processed and
detained, ICE carefully evaluates the new information and, if
appropriate, may modify the conditions of release. This may
include the possibility of release from custody or an
alternative to detention such as electronic monitoring. During
large-scale operations, in an effort to provide reliable and
timely information to family and friends regarding an
arrestee's custody status and detention location, ICE has taken
the unprecedented step of establishing a dedicated 24-hour
toll-free information hotline.
When making a custody determination, ICE considers any
humanitarian issues raised by the PHS, a social service agency
or contract support personnel and evaluates those in the
context of other factors, including the arrestee's criminal
record, immigration history or other relevant factors.
We used a similar humanitarian plan on our most recent
large work site enforcement operation. On May 12, 2008, ICE
agents conducted an operation at AGRIPROCESSORS INC., a meat
processing plant in Postville, Iowa. Agents executed a criminal
warrant and a Blackies search warrant at the company. The work
site enforcement operation resulted in the administrative
arrest of 389 undocumented alien workers, 304 of whom were
subsequently arrested for criminal violations.
In this recent operation, as in all ICE law enforcement
operations, extraordinary care was taken to determine if any
arrestees were sole caregivers or had other humanitarian
concerns. This process involved the direct questioning of all
arrestees on the day of the enforcement operation and during
interviews with PHS representatives. Detainees were questioned
no less than three times about humanitarian issues such as
child custody concerns. ICE arranged to have PHS professionals
at the arrest site to immediately determine the needs and
status of any children impacted by the operation. Through this
comprehensive effort, 62 of those arrested were conditionally
released for humanitarian purposes. Most were released from the
arrest site while the operation was ongoing.
Work site enforcement operations are not poorly planned,
haphazard instances, but rather are professional law
enforcement operations conducted by a professional law
enforcement agency whose primary mission is the enforcement of
the laws of the United States and the protection of the
American people.
ICE does, and will continue to, take great care with
respect to the humanitarian concerns of aliens taken into
custody during law enforcement operations and exercise
discretion regarding custody when and if the exercise of such
discretion is appropriate.
On behalf of the men and women of ICE who place their lives
at risk every day to enforce the laws of this Nation, making it
a safer place to live and work, I would like to thank you for
your continued support. These men and women have a difficult
job to do in often dangerous circumstances, but they do so as
consummate law enforcement professionals.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to answering
your questions.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Spero follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. James C. Spero, Deputy Assistant Director,
Office of Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
Department of Homeland Security
Introduction
Good morning, distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. I am
pleased to appear before you today to discuss U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement operations. I want to thank
the Subcommittee for its continued support of ICE, which has allowed
the dedicated men and women of the agency to accomplish so much.
ICE is first and foremost a federal law enforcement agency with the
mandate of protecting national security and public safety by enforcing
the nation's immigration and customs laws. ICE conducts its law
enforcement operations lawfully, professionally, and humanely and takes
extraordinary steps to identify, document, and act appropriately
regarding humanitarian concerns of the individuals encountered during
law enforcement operations. In planning enforcement operations, ICE
agents specifically plan for the possibility that individuals who are
arrested may also be a sole caregiver or that their detention may
otherwise place an undue hardship on their families.
When planning worksite enforcement operations, ICE strikes a
balance between the operational objectives of enforcing the law and any
humanitarian issues that may arise as a result of the enforcement
operation. ICE has developed worksite enforcement guidelines that field
offices use when developing their operation plans to ensure that
individuals who have been arrested and have unattended minors or family
members with health factors are identified at the earliest point
possible. ICE takes this responsibility very seriously and these
humanitarian factors are carefully taken into account when ICE makes
custody decisions.
During large worksite enforcement operations, ICE coordinates with
Public Health Service (PHS) professionals to provide a sufficient
number of personnel to assess the medical and humanitarian needs of
arrestees. This assessment is then used by ICE to identify arrestees
who may be considered for release from custody due to an urgent
humanitarian concern. PHS personnel are given prompt access to all
arrestees under safe and humane conditions on the day of the
enforcement action. To the extent possible, PHS personnel are provided
access on a ``rolling basis'' immediately after the processing of each
arrestee.
In addition to PHS, when operationally possible, ICE coordinates
with state and local social service agencies to assist with
humanitarian screening. Furthermore, after an operation begins, ICE
proactively contacts the local social service agencies and local
nongovernmental organizations to advise them of the operation and
request their assistance in identifying any humanitarian issues that
come to their attention. We provide these groups with contact
information for an ICE representative who will immediately address any
issues not previously identified.
If ICE is contacted by a social service agency or an NGO and
provided with additional information or details regarding a
humanitarian concern after an arrestee has been processed and detained,
ICE carefully evaluates that new information and if appropriate, may
modify the conditions of release. This may include the possibility of
release from custody or an alternative to detention such as electronic
monitoring. During large scale operations, in an effort to provide
reliable and timely information to family and friends regarding an
arrestee's custody status and detention location, ICE has taken the
unprecedented step of establishing a dedicated 24 hour toll-free
information hotline.
When making a custody determination, ICE considers any humanitarian
issues raised by the PHS, a social service agency, or contract support
personnel and evaluates those in the context of other factors,
including the arrestee's criminal record, immigration history, and
other relevant factors. Generally, aliens who are ordered detained by
ICE can seek a bond re-determination hearing before an immigration
judge who has authority to review and modify ICE's detention decisions.
ICE also makes every effort to not transfer detainees out of the area
where they are arrested; however, this is not always possible due to
the limitations of detention locations.
We used a similar humanitarian plan on our most recent large
worksite enforcement operation. On May 12, 2008, ICE agents conducted
an operation at AGRIPROCESSORS INC., a meat processing plant in
Postville, IA. Agents executed a criminal search warrant and a Blackies
search warrant at the company. This worksite enforcement operation
resulted in the administrative arrest of 389 undocumented alien
workers, 304 of whom were subsequently arrested for criminal
violations.
In this recent operation, as in all ICE law enforcement operations,
extraordinary care was taken to determine if any arrestees were sole
caregivers or had other humanitarian concerns. This process involved
the direct questioning of all arrestees on the day of the enforcement
operation and during interviews with PHS representatives. Detainees
were questioned no less than three times about humanitarian issues such
as child custody concerns. ICE arranged to have PHS professionals at
the arrest site to immediately determine the needs and status of any
children impacted by the operation. Through this comprehensive effort,
62 of those arrested were conditionally released for humanitarian
purposes; most were released from the arrest site while the operation
was ongoing.
ICE takes extraordinary efforts to ensure that its law enforcement
operations are conducted in a safe, humane, and professional manner,
including extensive preoperational planning and coordination. Worksite
enforcement operations are not poorly planned, haphazard incidents, but
rather are professional law enforcement operations conducted by a
professional law enforcement agency whose primary mission is the
enforcement of the laws of the United States and the protection of the
American people.
ICE does, and will continue to, take great care with respect to the
humanitarian concerns of aliens taken into custody during law
enforcement operations and exercise discretion regarding custody when,
and if, the exercise of such discretion is appropriate.
Conclusion
On behalf of the men and women of ICE who place their lives at risk
every day to enforce the laws of this Nation making it a safer place to
live and work, I would like to thank you for your continued support.
These men and women have a difficult job to do in often dangerous
circumstances but they do so as consummate law enforcement
professionals. Thank you for your time and I look forward to answering
your questions.
______
Chairwoman Woolsey. Ms. Murguia.
STATEMENT OF JANET MURGUIA, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF LA
RAZA
Ms. Murgia. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you,
subcommittee members, and a special thank you to Congressman
Hinojosa for your leadership. I appreciate you being here
today. Thanks for doing this hearing and the opportunity for us
to testify before you today about the challenges and impacts of
immigration enforcement on America's children.
I am particularly grateful that the committee is taking up
one of these challenges, one that has reached crisis
proportions in many communities around the country. There is
substantial and growing evidence that the use of workplace
raids as an immigration enforcement strategy is causing great
harm to children, schools, child care centers and communities
in a way that is harmful well beyond the immigrant population.
Madam Chairwoman, I would like to be clear. NCLR believes
that the United States can and should enforce our immigration
laws. As with any set of laws, the Nation should enforce them
wisely and well. This requires an examination of the costs and
benefits of particular enforcement strategies to make sure that
the priorities and tactics we choose are not undercutting other
important laws, values and goals.
The work of this committee is absolutely critical to
inspiring that kind of conversation with respect to immigration
enforcement. I very much appreciate the committee's attention
to the impact of workplace raids on America's children.
You have my detailed statement that will be submitted for
the record; and I would like to make, though, this morning four
key points.
First, there is growing evidence that immigration raids are
undercutting the very important priorities, other important
priorities,including the protection and education of American
children, as well as protecting children from labor law abuse.
We saw this in Iowa.
It is also clear that the increase in workplace raids is
causing enormous strain on school systems, child care centers,
churches and other community institutions. This is well
documented in the report that NCLR and the Urban Institute
published last year.
Madam Chairwoman, I hope that you will allow us to put this
in the record, also. It is a report that is called Paying the
Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children. I
think it's very informative in terms of the overall impact.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Without objection.
[``Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on
America's Children,'' published by the Urban Institute, may be
accessed at the following Internet address:]
http://www.nclr.org/content/publications/detail/49166/
------
Ms. Murguia. School systems and child care centers are
forced to mobilize on very short notice to provide protection
for children whose parents have been detained. They must
support children who are traumatized and terrified. As one
school administrator told us in this report, the raid which
took place in his community distracted the entire school system
from doing its work in educating our children and truly making
sure that no child is left behind.
In Iowa last week, a massive raid created panic in the
school and forced the Catholic parish of Saint Bridget's to
mobilize to feed 450 migrants the first night of the raid and
shelter 150 children who spent the night on mats and in pews.
As we prepared this testimony, the church was still feeding and
sheltering frightened families. Children are going to school
from the church on buses and returning to the church after
school.
NCLR was particularly alarmed to learn that the employer in
Iowa was under investigation by State and possibly Federal
authorities for labor law violations, including employing
children as young as 13.
The investigation of these abuses has ground to a halt as a
result of the immigration raid. As many as a dozen children,
many of whom I understand were prepared to be witnesses against
this employer, were detained and are now in removal
proceedings. The employer, meanwhile, has regrouped and
reopened the next day.
We just heard from our ICE enforcement official here about
how many undocumented immigrants were taken in that raid. But
if we could have gotten one unscrupulous and abusive employer,
that would have sent a much more powerful message if we are
going to accomplish many of our enforcement goals.
The second thing I would like you to know is that ICE has
made an important effort to ameliorate some of the most
disturbing problems resulting from these raids by issuing
guidance governing the treatment of nursing mothers, juvenile
detainees and other humanitarian concerns. While this is
encouraging that ICE is responding to these severe humanitarian
concerns, last week's raid in Iowa demonstrates that ICE's
efforts have not been terribly effective.
While some detainees were indeed released for humanitarian
reasons, as we have heard, there is also evidence that ICE
guidance was not always followed. NCLR has learned of at least
two nursing mothers detained with little access to their food
or their children for nearly 24 hours. Our associates in Iowa
tell us that very few detainees were provided with access to
telephones so that they could notify their families of their
whereabouts and make arrangements for their children.
Churches and school systems have been forced to guess as to
the best way to provide supervision for the children who lose
their parents suddenly this way. In our report we documented
that, in previous raids, we saw the churches and schools have
to fill important roles as that safety net.
Third, I would just like to say that the committee's
attention to the particular great concern with the presence of
ICE authorities at Head Start centers, particularly those
serving migrant workers, is very disturbing. We have seen a
growing presence of ICE enforcement officials at day care
centers, where they stop and drop them off. Then we have also
seen them at different pickup times.
During the reauthorization of the Head Start Act, NCLR
worked with many of you in a bipartisan way to expand our
efforts to deal with these migrant children. I would hate to
see those efforts undercut by some of these enforcement
efforts.
Finally, Madam Chairwoman, I want to be as clear as we can
be that we do support immigration enforcement where it needs
to. We need to look at the strategies and weigh the costs and
benefits, though, of our enforcement strategies. We are glad
that you are here today making sure that is done.
Thank you for the chance to testify.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Murguia follows:]
Prepared Statement of Janet Murguia, President and CEO, National
Council of La Raza
I. Introduction
Madam Chairwoman, subcommittee members, and members of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus, thank you for this opportunity to
testify before you today about the impact of immigration enforcement on
America's children.
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR)--the largest national
Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States--
is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization
established in 1968 to reduce poverty and discrimination and improve
opportunities for Hispanic Americans. NCLR has a long history in the
immigration debate; our work on this issue is focused on ensuring that
we have an immigration system that functions in the best interest of
the nation. Immigration to the United States should be orderly and
legal, promote economic growth, sustain our families, and be
implemented in a way consistent with our best values in the United
States. As you know, the country is far from achieving that goal. My
organization, our Affiliates, and our many coalition partners are
dedicated to an effort to reform U.S. immigration laws in a way that
promotes order, fairness, and above all legality. Until a major
immigration reform is enacted, the country will continue to cope with
challenges resulting from the presence of roughly 12 million
undocumented immigrants in our workforce and in our communities.
I am particularly grateful that the committee is taking up one of
these challenges, one that has reached crisis proportions in many
communities around the country. There is substantial, growing evidence
that the use of workplace raids as an immigration enforcement strategy
is causing great harm to children, schools, child care centers, and
communities well beyond the immigrant population. Madam Chairwoman, let
me be clear: NCLR believes that the United States can and should
enforce its immigration laws. As with any set of laws, the nation
should enforce them wisely and well. This requires an examination of
the costs and benefits of particular enforcement strategies to ensure
that the priorities and tactics we choose do not undercut other
important laws, values, and goals. The work of this committee is
absolutely critical to inspiring a reasonable conversation on
immigration enforcement, and I sincerely appreciate the committee's
attention to the impact of workplace raids on America's children.
II. Consequences of Immigration Enforcement for Children
A. Report on Impact of Workplace Raids
There has been a significant increase in interior immigration
enforcement operations by the Department of Homeland Security in the
last year and a half. In 2007, according to U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE), more than 4,900 arrests were made in
connection with worksite enforcement investigations, representing a 45-
fold increase in criminal worksite arrests compared to fiscal year
2001.\1\ This year, ICE has stepped up its enforcement actions by
raiding individual homes as well as worksites; in April ICE conducted a
five-state sweep of Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants last month, and just
last week it raided Agriprocessors, Inc., a kosher meatpacking plant in
Postville, Iowa, a raid which ICE has called the largest in history.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ See http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/
080502sanfrancisco.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The impact of immigrant enforcement raids on children is often
disregarded and poorly understood. For these reasons, NCLR commissioned
the Urban Institute to conduct a study of three communities where
large-scale worksite raids occurred in 2007. We had a strong interest
in moving beyond the anecdotal accounts reported by the media to
documenting the challenges that children face as a result of
immigration enforcement actions. NCLR believes that the impact on
children and communities must be considered when making decisions about
immigration enforcement--or any law enforcement--strategy. We believe
strongly that such a debate should be based on facts and empirical
evidence as much as possible, which is why we invested in a thorough
report. I request that the report be included in the official record of
this hearing.
NCLR released this report, Paying the Price: The Impact of
Immigration Raids on America's Children, in October 2007. The findings
confirmed the inevitability of hardship to children resulting from an
immigration raid. There are approximately five million children in the
U.S. with an undocumented immigrant parent, the vast majority of whom
are U.S. citizens and under the age of ten. The Urban Institute
researchers found that, for every two immigrants detained as a result
of worksite raids, approximately one child is left behind. Further, the
study shed light on the fact that many children slipped through the
cracks as a direct result of ICE's enforcement protocols. For example,
ICE did not provide detained immigrants with access to telephones. This
meant that parents were unable to notify family members and coordinate
alternative child care arrangements, forcing some children to stay with
landlords or babysitters indefinitely or, worse still, home alone. ICE
also failed to consider hardship to children when making custody
determinations. Some children experienced the loss of both parents who
had been placed in detention locally or in detention facilities out of
state, which made it virtually impossible for these children to visit
them.
There were also accounts of ICE detaining nursing mothers,
resulting in infants being forcibly weaned from breast milk. In a 2006
raid in New Bedford, Massachusetts, an eight-month-old infant was taken
to the emergency room to be treated for dehydration after her mother
was detained. The infant's pediatrician appealed to ICE officials to
release the child's mother, citing medical reasons for which the child
needed to continue breastfeeding. NCLR and our sister organizations in
the Latino community wrote to the Department of Homeland Security after
this incident to raise concerns; we received a response stating that
the incident never occurred, despite extensive evidence, including
video footage of the child and interviews with the emergency room
physician who treated her.
In addition, the report found evidence of increased economic
hardship, social stigma, fear, isolation, family separation,
disruptions in schooling, and negative emotional and mental health
consequences for children. Across the three communities examined in the
report, teachers, caregivers, and mental health professionals
consistently described children with symptoms of depression and other
psychological disturbances such as sleep disturbance, loss of appetite,
fearfulness, mood swings, and feelings of abandonment by their
parent(s).
Beyond the negative consequences to children's well-being resulting
from worksite raids, the report provides evidence that our nation's
social institutions--such as school and child welfare agencies--that
are tasked with protecting and nurturing children are playing the role
of first responders in the aftermath of a raid. For example, school
officials interviewed for our report discussed steps they undertook on
the day of the raid to ensure the well-being of children, such as
instructing bus drivers to release children only at homes where there
was an adult present, asking teachers to stay late to help care for
children, and coordinating mental health services. In the days
following the raid, school personnel visited homes and attended
community gatherings reminding parents that schools were a safe place
for children and urging their return to school. A school leader in
Grand Island, Nebraska made a poignant statement regarding how the raid
served as a diversion from the school's primary mission of ensuring
that no child is left behind.
Today, nearly every time there is a significant immigration
enforcement operation, NCLR receives reports from the community similar
to those noted above. There is a similar pattern with each raid: school
systems and child care centers must scramble to find relatives or
caregivers for children whose parents have abruptly disappeared. These
institutions, along with community organizations, must grapple for days
or weeks with an emergency situation in which families struggle to find
the location of detainees, who are often unable to access legal
services. Even since the implementation of ICE guidelines in response
to these many problems, there are always cases of children left behind
and nearly always cases of nursing mothers separated from their infants
for long periods. Moreover, school systems and child care centers
report enormous long-term challenges in meeting the needs of children
whose families have been forcibly and suddenly separated in this way.
B. Continuing Impact: Particular Concerns at Migrant Head
Start Centers
There is also growing alarm in our community about ICE's engagement
in intimidation and enforcement tactics near our public schools and
Head Start programs. For example, NCLR has several Affiliates who
operate Head Start programs that serve the children of migrant
farmworkers. Last spring, many of these programs began reporting the
following incidents (see Attachment 1--MSHS Enforcement Chart):
ICE agents parking near migrant Head Start centers during
drop-off and pickup times
ICE agents and local law enforcement following school
buses carrying children under the age of five, beginning as early as
4:00 a.m.; in some instances, ICE followed school buses for the entire
route, as long as two hours
ICE agents and local law enforcement following migrant
Head Start staff to and from the center during lunch breaks
These actions on the part of ICE are having a chilling effect on
the participation of migrant children in Head Start. Quite simply, the
presence of ICE around Head Start centers is causing fearful parents to
keep their children away from the program. In fact, the low rates of
attendance registered by these programs has even garnered the attention
of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Head Start,
which monitors Head Start enrollment and sanctions programs for failing
to meet their enrollment targets. During the reauthorization of the
Head Start Act, NCLR worked closely with this committee to ensure that
migrant children benefit from greater access to Head Start. We were
proud of this committee's bipartisan work to prioritize the expansion
of migrant Head Start and its commitment to ensuring that migrant
children exit the fields and enter classrooms where they can learn and
grow. It is deplorable that the laudable goals of this committee have
been virtually undone by the current immigration enforcement strategy
of this Administration.
We are also aware of instances in which ICE has actually entered
private homes and school buildings to remove children. For example, in
October 2007, a Honduran immigrant mother, who was in her Ohio home
breastfeeding her nine-month-old infant when ICE agents entered her
home, was taken into custody while ICE agents went to her children's
school to remove her children.\2\ In another account, an NCLR
Affiliate, HELP-New Mexico, Inc., contacted NCLR in September 2007 to
report that ICE agents and local police entered their preschool
program, located inside the Sunrise Elementary School in Chaparral, New
Mexico, to remove children whose parents had been detained in a local
sweep of Hispanic businesses and homes.\3\ One child, Virginia Ana
Rodriguez, was released to her father, who was in the custody of four
fully armed Otero County police officers at the time. The officers
initially brought the father into the main office of Sunrise Elementary
until the principal asked them to accompany her into the conference
room so as not to alarm other students and staff. These same agents
also entered the local middle and high schools to remove children of
detained immigrants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ See http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/us/17citizen.html?fta=y.
\3\ For more information, see http://www.aclu-nm.org/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the immediate weeks following this incident, school officials at
the Gadsden School District documented that approximately 200 students
were absent and a small number returned to school during the remainder
of the school year. The HELP-New Mexico preschool program also
registered lower rates of enrollment in the ensuing weeks, and has yet
to fully reach enrollment targets consistent with previous school
years. A preschool teacher reports the challenges they now face in
enrolling children in the program because parents remain afraid of the
possibility that ICE agents will return to the center. Clearly, our
current approach to immigration enforcement is instilling fear among
our children and families and undermining our important social policy
goals for children, and the programs designed to meet these goals.
III. Limitations of ICE Policies for the Protection of Children
Many of the problems that are documented in the NCLR/Urban
Institute report have also been the subject of media attention,
litigation, and congressional inquiries. As a result of this pressure,
during 2007, ICE developed and released three policy memoranda that
consider children in the conduct of immigration enforcement actions.
While these memoranda represent an improvement in ICE sensitivity to
these important considerations, experience with immigration raids since
the development of these policies suggests that they have significant
limitations. The scope and the limitations of these guidelines are
discussed as follows:
(1) Guidelines for Identifying Humanitarian Concerns Among
Administrative Arrestees for Worksite Enforcement Actions, November 16,
2007. Following the New Bedford, Massachusetts raid in March 2007,
Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry and Congressman William Delahunt
worked with ICE to develop guidelines for quickly identifying persons
arrested who are sole caregivers or who should be released from custody
for other humanitarian reasons. The guidelines apply to larger worksite
raids that result in the arrest and/or detention of more than 150
immigrants. The guidelines stipulate that ICE will:
Develop a comprehensive plan for quickly identifying
humanitarian issues among detainees.
Coordinate with federal health and/or state and local
social services, including allowing these entities to serve as
intermediaries to help screen and assess humanitarian issues among
detainees.
Facilitate communication among detainees and their family
members by providing access to telephones; ICE is also expected to
coordinate with nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) and make information on
detainees and ICE personnel available to these entities in real time,
so that they can help to screen for humanitarian concerns.
(2) Memorandum Outlining Prosecutorial Discretion for Nursing
Mothers, November 7, 2007. In response to mounting accounts of infants
forcibly weaned from breast milk as a result of enforcement actions,
ICE released guidelines highlighting the importance of discretion when
making arrests and custody determinations of nursing mothers. These
guidelines call for the following:
Nursing mothers should be released on an Order of
Recognizance or Order of Supervision, and the Alternative to Detention
programs should be considered as an additional enforcement tool.
In situations where ICE determines that nursing mothers
should remain in custody, field personnel should consider placement in
Berks or Hutto Family detention facilities.
(3) Memorandum Regarding Juveniles Encountered During Fugitive
Operations, August 24, 2007. In March 2006, ICE agents raided a home in
San Rafael, California and apprehended Kebin Reyes, a six-year-old U.S.
citizen. ICE agents kept Kebin in detention for ten hours alongside his
father, who repeatedly pleaded for access to a telephone to make
alternative care arrangements for Kebin. The ACLU filed a lawsuit that
led to the development of a memorandum concerning the treatment of
minor children encountered during enforcement actions.\4\ The memo
stipulates the following:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ For more information, see http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/
detention/29526prs20070426.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICE should not take into custody a legal permanent
resident or U.S. citizen minor child.
ICE should coordinate the transfer of a minor child to the
nearest child welfare authority or local law enforcement agency. If
these options are not feasible, ICE should document the parent's
request for the transfer of the child to a third party.
To the greatest extent possible, ICE should coordinate
with child welfare authorities prior to an enforcement operation.
In general, ICE appears to have made attempts to adjust its
enforcement policies to consider humanitarian issues, including
hardship to children. There is even some evidence to suggest that ICE
has adhered to its stated objective of promptly releasing nursing
mothers. For example, recent large raids in Van Nuys, California and
Postville, Iowa demonstrate that ICE has released nursing mothers with
electronic monitoring devices. However, there is also anecdotal
evidence that the release of these mothers can be significantly delayed
and the conditions of their detention inappropriate. NCLR has learned
that one nursing mother detained last week in Postville was not
provided sufficient access to food over a nearly 24-hour period before
she was released to care for her infant.
However, the positive impact of ICE's guidance memoranda is
severely limited with respect to providing any real assurances that
children will be comprehensively and systematically protected in
immigration enforcement activities. For example:
The policy guidelines noted above are nonbinding, as they
are not regulations and are not codified.
There is no mechanism for holding ICE accountable for
compliance with its own stated policies.
The humanitarian guidelines for worksite raids only apply
to larger raids of more than 150 people. Thus, it is unclear whether or
not ICE will attempt to apply these guidelines in raids yielding less
than 150 detainees.
The guidelines noted above fail to address the undue
burden placed on schools, early childhood centers, child welfare
agencies, churches, and community-based organizations that are left to
play the role of first responder in the aftermath of a raid.
The guidelines fall short of accounting for all of the
situations and scenarios in which children could potentially be harmed
in an enforcement action. Simply put, the guidelines do not stipulate
that all children, regardless of any type of enforcement action of any
size, will have their best interests taken into account.
Unfortunately, there is substantial evidence that ICE does not
consistently follow its own guidelines. For example, Immigration and
Naturalization Services (ICE's predecessor) policy guidance dating back
to 1993 strongly discourages immigration enforcement actions near
schools.\5\ The policy states that agents are to ``attempt to avoid
apprehension of and to tightly control investigative operations on the
premises of schools, places of workshop, funerals, or other religious
ceremonies.'' In 2004, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection of
the Department of Homeland Security reaffirmed the 1993 guidance.
However, as noted above, there are mounting stories of ICE presence
near schools and Head Start centers, providing clear evidence that ICE
does not uphold the guidelines and is actively conducting enforcement
operations in violation of them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ See ``Enforcement Activities at Schools, Places of Worship, and
at Funeral or Other Religious Ceremonies,'' U.S. Border Patrol, April
2004, INS, June 2001& May 1993.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even if ICE were to execute all of its existing policy guidance
perfectly and expand its scope to include all children who are affected
by immigration raids, there would still be a profound dissonance
between the goal of enforcing our nation's immigration laws and the
equally important goal of protecting America's children and supporting
the institutions that are charged with meeting their needs. Even if the
federal government were to use great care and attention when removing
parents from their workplaces, homes, families, and communities--which
is far from the case now--our current enforcement strategy relies
heavily on raids which undeniably and inevitably has an impact on
American children and creates difficult challenges for schools, child
care centers, and the child welfare system in meeting their needs.
IV. Impact of Last Week's Raid in Postville, Iowa
Last week's workplace raid in Postville, Iowa provides the best
evidence that, despite ICE's efforts to ameliorate some of the impact
of enforcement actions on children, the negative effects of workplace
raids on American children, school systems, and social service
infrastructure can be catastrophic.
A first major concern is that the raid itself appears to have
undercut an investigation into the use of child labor at the
Agriprocessors plant in Postville. There is substantial reason to
believe that the employer in this case was highly problematic and was
likely violating a number of laws in the treatment of his employees,
including employing children--allegedly recruiting some of them from
the local middle school. There is mounting evidence that state and
possibly federal authorities were aware of labor law violations,
including laws prohibiting child labor, in advance of the raid. State
authorities have confirmed that they were conducting an investigation,
and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union wrote to ICE to
request that an immigration enforcement action not take place, citing
fears that it would undercut the enforcement of labor laws intended to
protect all of the workers at the plant.\6\ ICE appears to have
disregarded this evidence; indeed, as many as a dozen child workers--
one as young as 13--who were evidently poised to provide information
that would assist in an investigation of labor law violations, were
instead detained for several days by ICE authorities. As a result, the
investigation into labor law violations has ground to a halt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ See coverage from WHO TV Des Moines: http://www.whotv.com/
global/story.asp?s=8332288.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The employer in this case, who is widely reported to have been
abusive and was almost certainly illegally employing children, was able
to reopen operations the next day, while the workers whose stories
could lead to prosecution have faced detention and likely removal from
the country. Federal authorities missed an opportunity to prosecute
abuse of workers--including children--which could have a profound
impact on protecting workers in the state and in the meat processing
industry well beyond the immigrant community. It is not only unjust
that all of the penalties associated with this enforcement action have
been borne by immigrant workers, rather than by the employer, it is
also a clear example of how the actions of one federal agency enforcing
one set of laws can undercut the enforcement of another important set
of laws designed to protect all workers, including and especially
children.
There are also significant concerns about ICE officials failing to
fully implement the ICE guidelines regarding nursing mothers. NCLR has
learned that some nursing mothers were released for humanitarian
reasons, however, in at least a couple of cases, there were substantial
delays and inadequate nutrition provided to a mother in detention.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ NCLR has spoken to Sister Kathy Thill of the Sisters of Mercy
of Waterloo, Iowa. She recounted that her community was contacted in
the middle of the night on the night after the raid to pick up a young
mother who was being released. They were called multiple times between
midnight until the mother was finally released at 4:00 a.m. The young
woman had a small child she was still breastfeeding at night, and she
was released because she voiced concerns over whether the child would
be okay without her. While in detention, this young woman was given
very little to eat and was not given access to a telephone to call her
family. When she was finally picked up by Sister Kathy at 4:00 a.m.,
she had not eaten since 2:00 p.m. the previous day.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, two major provisions of ICE humanitarian guidelines
specifically intended to protect children appear not to have been
followed in Postville:
Access to intermediaries: ICE has said that it will allow
for third-party intermediary entities--either federal health officials,
or state and local social services, or other contracted third-party
groups--to screen detainees for humanitarian reasons. This is important
because many immigrants are reluctant to reveal to ICE that they are
parents for fear that their children will also be detained. NCLR's
contacts in Iowa have been unable to substantiate that any intermediary
party assisted in screening of detainees.
Communication: ICE has said that it will facilitate access
to free telephones. According to NCLR's contacts in Iowa, very few
families have been able to communicate with a detained family member.
This complicates the ability of parents in detention to make
alternative arrangements for their children and considerably increases
the stress on nondetained family members, including children.
Similarly, it adds a layer of uncertainty for school systems, child
care centers, and social service agencies that are dealing with issues
of finding appropriate adult supervision for children whose parents
have been detained.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, it is important for the
committee to have a clear picture of what happens in a community like
Postville when a worksite raid takes place. We have seen the same
dynamics in nearly every major raid, both before and since ICE has
changed its guidelines in the interest of protecting children.
Specifically, as federal agents in trucks and helicopters descended
on the plant in Postville, an uproar occurred in local schools, from
which the helicopters were clearly visible, and students with immigrant
parents were immediately affected, as were teachers and administrators.
The situation for children in school was documented eloquently in the
Des Moines Register by a teacher; I have attached it to this testimony.
Almost immediately, as the raid was taking place, the local
Catholic Parish--St. Bridget's--became a focal point for community
activity. NCLR spoke with individuals at the church who described the
scene as being chaotic. About 150 children (most of whom are U.S.
citizens) spent the night there, and the church provided food to more
than 400 children throughout the first 24 hours following the raid.
More than 24 hours after the raid there were at least 150 people still
at the church, where they attempted to match up every child with a
relative. The burden of ensuring that children are matched up with
relatives and other caregivers has fallen squarely on the shoulders of
the church, school, and community.
As this testimony was being prepared, there were still families
seeking sanctuary in the church. Families have been afraid to go to
their homes because of the continued ICE presence in Postville. The
church was still feeding hundreds of children and families nearly five
days after the raid. Children are being escorted on buses from the
church to school and back. Church and school officials report that
access to counselors and mental health professionals for children has
emerged as one of many pressing unmet needs. In short, the disruption
to the larger community in Postville, to its school system, churches,
and community service infrastructure, has only just begun. As NCLR and
the Urban Institute documented in the Paying the Price report, the
impact of a major raid like this one is deep, long-lasting, and
destructive.
V. Conclusion and Recommendations
Madam Chairwoman, I want to be as clear as I can be that NCLR is
not calling for a halt to immigration enforcement. We recognize that
the nation can and should control its borders, and that it is
reasonable to conduct interior enforcement activities. But it is also
true that every enforcement agency must establish priorities and
parameters for its work, and it is reasonable--indeed, essential--for
these parameters to include consideration of other important policy and
law enforcement goals.
It is vitally important to the well-being of America's children and
all communities that the federal government engage in a conversation
that results in good judgments about how to enforce our immigration
laws without undercutting other important goals, such as child
protection, education, and worker protection. In the Postville raid,
immigration enforcement clearly trumped an important labor law
investigation in a way that may have lasting implications for the
workers--including children--in the meatpacking industry. To place
children in detention while their exploitative employer regroups and
reopens within a day is a clear indication that our enforcement
priorities need examination.
In Postville, as in other raids which preceded it, school systems,
child care centers, and the social service infrastructure have been
left with a huge challenge of meeting the needs of children whose
parents literally disappeared from one day to the next. The New York
Times has estimated that some 13,000 American children have had at
least one parent removed from the country;\8\ surely this merits a
conversation about whether workplace raids are causing more harm than
good. NCLR believes that this committee has an important role to play
in such a conversation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ New York Times, November 17, 2007.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While NCLR is glad to see that ICE has responded to these concerns,
there is clear evidence that the workplace raids conducted over the
last two years, as well as the ICE presence near Head Start centers and
schools, are undercutting a variety of important priorities under the
jurisdiction of this committee. It is also very clear that even ICE's
carefully constructed guidance to avoid these problems will be
insufficient to address this larger challenge. This problem is really a
collision between very important policy goals. I don't believe we can
regulate our way out of this dilemma with guidance or other tweaks. We
need to make policy choices, and all of the implications of these
choices should be on the table.
In closing, I know that the committee is aware that we are in a
highly charged environment on the immigration issue. The longer that
our immigration system remains broken and unaddressed by Congress, the
longer that these and related problems--and the tensions surrounding
immigration itself--will continue. Literally every day, NCLR uncovers
new evidence supporting the misguided notion that any immigration
enforcement is considered good enforcement, even if it does grave
damage to our American citizens and our nation's most cherished values,
and we have tolerated this environment for too long. Last week alone
provided three examples of the ways in which ill-considered policy and
enforcement judgments do great, if unintended, harm. Last week it
became clear through extensive press coverage that the economic
stimulus bill denies Americans, including military personnel, access to
a new tax credit simply because they have immigrant family members.
Just last week The Washington Post documented horrific abuses of
immigrants in detention facilities, including denying critical medical
care to some seriously ill detainees and injecting dangerous drugs into
others. Again last week, NCLR and many others did what we could to
support churches and community leaders in crisis in Postville in the
aftermath of the ICE raid there. Every week the evidence mounts--
evidence that we need to exercise judgment in the application of our
laws affecting immigrants to avoid doing harm that we will later
regret.
I urge the committee in the strongest possible terms to engage the
Department of Homeland Security and the other congressional committees
of jurisdiction to conduct serious assessments of the costs and
benefits of workplace raids. NCLR believes that a thorough examination
will inexorably lead to the conclusion that we need to change course in
how we enforce our immigration laws.
Thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony today.
ATTACHMENT 1.--CHART OUTLINING IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT NEAR MIGRANT AND
SEASONAL HEAD START CENTERS
[Prepared by the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date Location Incident
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2008 Holley, NY Local Officers
parked near MSHS
center.
Local Officers
following staff
leaving MSHS
center.
------------------------------------------------------------------------April 2008 Immokalee FL MSHS staff
intervened on
behalf of MSHS
children when
parents were
detained and not
released even
when they
presented proof
of having young
children to ICE
officers and
leaving the
child without
proper care.
------------------------------------------------------------------------April 2008 Bybee, TN ICE officers
parked a block
from the MSHS
center.
Families' fear
of being
detained and
separated from
their children
has forced
parents to make
a decision to
take their
children to the
fields. Recently
a couple of
young parents
made the
decision to take
their child with
them and TIED
the toddler in
the pick up
truck with the
doors opened and
the baby
actually hung
itself and died.
------------------------------------------------------------------------April 2008 Meter, GA ICE Officials set
up road blocks
that block
access to the
MSHS center.
------------------------------------------------------------------------August 2007 Winnemucca, NV ICE Officials
parked near MSHS
center and
follow MSHS
school
transporting
children as a
result MSHS
centers removed
signage from
buildings and
buses.
------------------------------------------------------------------------June-October 2007 Hinton, OK ICE officials
questioning MSHS
staff checking
into hotels.
MSHS staff was
there to provide
training and
technical
assistance to
the local MSHS
center.
------------------------------------------------------------------------May-November 2007 Semmes AL ICE officers
parked outside
MSHS centers.
Families were so
fearful and
chose not to
register
children for
MSHS that the
center did not
open.
------------------------------------------------------------------------September 2007 Chaparral, NM Sheriffs, with
ICE close
behind, were
doing raids of
homes and
businesses,
without
warrants,
finding excuses
to get people to
open their
doors, pulling
over Latinos for
traffic stops.
When they
determined that
folks spoke
Spanish, they
called ICE over
to ask for
papers. They
detained the
undocumented
folks, asked
them about their
kids, and then
took them to the
migrant HS
center, operated
by HELP New
Mexico Inc., to
retrieve them.
That center had
seven kids
removed from
Head Start y by
their parents,
with 3-4 armed
sheriffs
standing behind
each parent. The
also went to
local schools
with detained
parents to
remove children.
------------------------------------------------------------------------September 2007 Alamo, TN Since 2006 Alamo
parents were
afraid to attend
parent and
Policy Council
meetings because
immigration
enforcement
agents were
reputed to be
pulling over
Latino families
at road blocks
on the highway
leading to the
center.
------------------------------------------------------------------------September 2007 Summer City, TN ICE officials
parking outside
of MSHS centers
and other social
service
providers (WIC,
food stamps,
Medicaid) has
forced parents
to make decision
about enrolling
their families
and children in
these federal
funded programs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------April 2006 Immokalee and Nocatee, FL ICE Officials
parked near MSHS
center and
follow MSHS
school
transporting
children. Within
a couple of
weeks, there is
an employment
raid where the
majority of MSHS
parents were
working. Parents
were detained
and the MSHS
staff worked to
get information
to the parents
regarding their
rights while the
MSHS centers
remained open
beyond regular
business hours
to care for
children.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Publication Facts & Stats
Currently 839 documents in library
White Paper: 26
Issue Brief: 19
Success / Human Interest Story: 8
Statistical Brief: 12
Research Report: 42
Background Memo: 11
Conference Proceedings: 6
Presentation: 23
Testimony: 51
Other: 313
Fact Sheet: 100
Annual Report: 8
______
Chairwoman Woolsey. Ms. Gibney.
STATEMENT OF KATHRYN M. GIBNEY, SAN PEDRO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
PRINCIPAL
Ms. Gibney. Thank you, Chairwoman Woolsey and distinguished
members of this panel. I very much appreciate you holding this
hearing and inviting me here to testify today.
My name is Katherine Gibney, and I am principal of San
Pedro Elementary School in San Rafael, California. My school
serves 400 kindergarten through fifth grade students, 96
percent of whom are Latino, with the largest cultural groups
coming from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. These children
and other students in our district have suffered severe trauma
as a result of the ICE raids in the low-income Canal
neighborhood of San Rafael.
In the pre- dawn hours of March 6, 2007, Federal
immigration officers pulled up in white vans in front of three
large apartment buildings. Suddenly, without warning, agents
identifying themselves as police stormed the three buildings
and began pounding on doors, attempting to serve 30 warrants
for people who had prior deportation orders. In the process,
these agents used the warrants as rationale to sweep the
neighborhood, sending ripples of fear throughout the community.
They have shone bright flashlights in the faces of young
children who were still asleep. They handcuffed parents in
front of their children and took them away, threatening that
they would soon be back for others. They left behind them a
trail of fear.
Traumatized by the vicious nature of the intrusions and
terrified to take their children to the bus stop, many families
held their children at home in hiding. Other parents,
recognizing that school might be the safest place, enabled
their children to go to school.
One child, whose father had just been taken away, was told
by her mother to pack some essentials in her backpack and leave
it by the door so that if she returned home and found no one
there she could go to her aunt's house just in case her mother
was also seized and deported. Imagine this child's frame of
mind when she left for school that day.
Later that morning, my staff and I first learned of these
events, as clearly shaken and crying students exited from
school buses and blurted out their stories of what had happened
earlier. On a day when we were scheduled to administer State
exams, 40 students were absent, seven times the normal absentee
rate. Throughout the day, muted and trembling voices asked
teachers if agents would come to school and take them away.
What would happen to their mommy or daddy or aunt or uncle and
what would happen to them?
During the next 2 weeks, the situation escalated as ICE
threatened to hold more raids, as parents continued to be
afraid to leave their homes, even to take their children to and
from the bus stop, and as this fear took its mental and
psychological toll on children, on families and on teachers and
staff who worked long hours to ride buses and ensure that
students were released safely into the care of an authorized
adult.
The San Rafael community responded with speed and
compassion. The community launched efforts to discover the
facts of what had taken place and express opposition to the way
in which these raids were implemented.
In one detailed response, ICE leadership in Washington,
D.C., responded that although they avoid entering schools,
places of worship or hospitals, they would do so if the
situation warranted it. Consequently, we could no longer assure
our children that schools were absolutely safe.
In San Rafael on May 8, 2008, agents stopped a father
walking his daughter to school at Bahia Vista Elementary
School. Since agents were not able to communicate with the
father, the second grade daughter had to serve as translator
between her father and the agents, who ultimately took him
away.
The impact of these raids has been devastating. Absentee
rates have soared. Test scores have dropped. Students who do
make it to school remain distracted as they worry about whether
their families will be home when they return. Families lose
sleep at night as they worry about possible home
interrogations. Families whose breadwinners have been seized
are struggling to survive.
Even when family members were successful in proving their
right to be in the country and were allowed to return home, the
memories remain, the memories of U.S. agents banging on the
doors of their houses at dawn, shining flashlights in their
faces and taking parents away in handcuffs.
At San Pedro school, mental health services have been
substantially increased to address the ongoing fragility of our
students. Many of our children are American-born, full-fledged
citizens with a right to a quality education and the rights
guaranteed to all American citizens. They are America's
children and the Nation's future workforce.
Success in schools depends on a three-way partnership
between students, schools and families. The current environment
strains the family component. There must be a better way to
execute a Federal mandate in a more humane manner.
Thank you.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Gibney follows:]
Prepared Statement of Kathryn M. Gibney, San Pedro Elementary School
Principal
In the pre-dawn hours of March 6, 2007, families throughout the
Canal neighborhood of San Rafael, California were just beginning to
awaken. Unknown to them, outside their homes, federal immigration
officers had already pulled up in white vans. Suddenly, while many were
still asleep, agents identifying themselves as ``police'' began
pounding on doors, attempting to serve 30 warrants for people who had
prior deportation orders. In the process, they swept the neighborhood,
taking individuals for whom they did not have warrants, leaving
children and their families paralyzed with fear, and sending ripples of
impact throughout the community. These raids were part of a campaign
titled ``Operation Return to Sender.''
General Circumstances
The key facts that were initially reported to us on March 6, 2007
were:
Early that morning, white vans pulled up in front of three
apartment complexes at 150, 220 and 400 Canal Street and individuals
who reported themselves as police knocked on doors looking for people
on a list of approximately 30 individuals for whom they had orders to
seize. In some cases, if those individuals were not home, they
questioned the individuals who answered the door and attempted to seize
them. In the process of looking for these individuals, they sometimes
woke children and shined flashlights in their faces, questioning them
and frightening the children and their families.
Absences for that day included 77 students at Bahia Vista
School, approximately 40 students at San Pedro School, and
approximately 15 absences at San Rafael High. Smaller numbers of
absences were reported at Davidson Middle School and Venetia Valley K-8
School, although students were clearly anxious about the situation.
Known seizures that day included one Laurel Dell male
parent, one Venetia Valley male parent, two San Pedro male parents, two
Bahia Vista male parents, and one Coleman male parent and, because the
Coleman parent was the sole adult in the house with the child and would
not leave the child alone, both the parent and child were taken.
The seizures were carried out by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), which is the largest investigative branch of the
Department of Homeland Security. The raids, part of a campaign titled
``Operation Return to Sender,'' apparently began a week and a half
prior to March 6, 2007, with seizures of adults on the street and at
their businesses. On March 6, 2007, the raids increased in intensity
and targeted people in their homes. Initial reports from individuals in
the area were that approximately 70 to 100 San Rafael residents were
seized, and that the raids were also taking place in Novato, the city
immediately to the north of San Rafael.
As soon as the school district learned of the situation that
morning, staff took immediate action to determine what was taking place
and to ensure the safety of students. Specifically:
The Bahia Vista Principal made a home visit in the morning
to determine what actions were taking place and by whom.
The district was in contact with the San Rafael Police
Department, the Canal Alliance, the Human Rights Commission, and the
office of Marin County Board of Supervisors' President Steve Kinsey to
determine where individuals who had been seized were being taken and
what follow-up actions could be taken.
School site teachers, staff, and district staff planned to
ride school buses and stand at school bus stops to ensure that students
were safely transported to and from school. In addition, teachers
planned to stay late and were informing students that, if they were
uncertain that a parent or guardian was at their home, they should
return to school.
Media Coverage
This event immediately became a major community concern, as
reported by local TV and news media.
``30 Illegal Immigrants Targeted in Canal Neighborhood
Raid,'' March 6, 2007 Marin Independent Journal (Attachment #1)
``Canal Community Fearful after Immigration Raids,'' March
8, 2007, Marin Independent Journal (#2)
``Second Day of Immigration Raids Includes Novato and San
Rafael,'' March 8, 2007, Marin Independent Journal (#3)
``Fate of Detained Becomes Clearer,'' March 8, 2007 Marin
Independent Journal (#4)
``Immigration Raids Handled Poorly,'' March 9, 2007 Marin
Independent Journal (#5)
``Immigration Raids Draw Dawn Protest,'' March 9
Independent Journal (#6)
``March and Rally Draw Hundreds in San Rafael,'' March 13,
2007 Marin Independent Journal (#7)
``Marin Officials Rip Immigration Tactics,'' March 14,
2007 Marin Independent Journal (#8)
``65 arrested, 23 Deported in Raids, North Bay
Congresswoman Says,'' March 15, 2007 Marin Independent Journal (#9)
``Civic Leaders Prepare for Likelihood of Future Raids,''
April 4, 2007 Marin Independent Journal (#10)
``ACLU Sues Over Seizure of Boy in Immigration Raid,''
April 26, 2007, Marin Independent Journal (#11)
The Marin County school district superintendents co-authored and
all signed a statement for the community, entitled ``Let's Put the
Education of our Children First.'' (#12)
School Board Response
Members of the San Rafael City Schools Board of Education co-
authored a letter, cited below, describing the impact of the ICE raids
on our schools:
``Thank you for your attention to the recent Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) program Operation Return to Sender and your
interest in its impact on our schools and school children. The
disruption to the educational program was immediate and will have
lasting consequence.
As trustees for San Rafael City Schools our charge is to provide a
high quality equitable education for every child living in our
districts without discrimination--without determining citizenship.
Furthermore, we are responsible for the safety of every student--from
the time they leave school until the time they reach their homes.
The ICE raids sent our schools into a state of emergency. Teachers,
support staff, principals, and district administrators were placed on
buses and at bus stops to make sure children connected safely with
adults in their homes. Students were given the phone numbers for their
school in case no adult was at home, and staff stayed late to answer
phones.
Absentee numbers spiked as high as seven times the usual amount in
one school and four times the normal rate at another school. Parents
were afraid to walk with their children to and from the bus stops.
Older siblings skipped sports, work and homework to tend to their
brothers and sisters. Many students were and remain distracted from
school work as they worry about their loved ones. Most of these
children are by and large American-born, full-fledged citizens with a
right to a quality education and to live in this country for the rest
of their lives.
Consider one family Principal Juan Rodriguez visited during the
raids when he learned a parent had been taken from their home. As he
walked into the living room he noticed student work decorating the
walls; he saw a desk with a light in the room; and he noted the lack of
a television set. The mother described the family's nighttime routine:
the children do their homework at a desk in a well-lit, quiet room; the
father reads with the children every night; and, before they go to bed,
they discuss the day at school. These are the practices that teachers
and school staff request of families to promote academic achievement.
This family follows every suggestion and is suddenly without a father.
How will these children perform in school now?
Success in school depends on a three-way partnership between
students, schools and families. The current environment strains the
family partnership for documented and undocumented residents alike as
the distinctions between the two are blurred by ICE tactics. People who
look like they should have residency papers are lumped together with
those who ignore deportation notices. It is hard for our teachers to
assure children and their parents who are here legally that they are
safe.
We are not in the position to solve the complex issues surrounding
immigration, but these problems need to be addressed away from schools.
There must be a better way to execute the federal mandate in a more
targeted manner. Please explore solutions, continue to shine a light on
this matter, and ask the tough questions, keeping in mind the
children--those who are born here, those who will stay here, those who
will be future workforce and leaders.
Sincerely,
Greg Knell, Jenny Callaway, Linda Jackson,
Jon Loberg, and Natu Tuatagaloa,
Board of Education, San Rafael City Schools.
The letter from the San Rafael trustees was sent to Mayor Al Boro,
Members of the San Rafael City Council, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, the
Marin County Board of Supervisors, Assemblyman Jared Huffman, and
Senator Carol Migden. (#13)
Community Response
Marin County Superintendent of Schools, Ms. Mary Jane Burke,
addressed a letter to Assistant Secretary Julie Meyers of the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division, calling attention to the
impact these types of actions have on schools and students. (#14)
San Rafael Mayor Albert Boro addressed a letter to Senator Barbara
Boxer, requesting assistance in obtaining information about detainees
and about future raids. (#15)
The issue continued to surface in articles, letters to the editor
and community demonstrations by concerned citizens and members of the
clergy as well as counter-protests by concerned citizens and by the
Minutemen.
Specific School Site Circumstances
In addition to the general description of the raids and community
reaction to them as detailed above, the following sections detail
specific incidents at school sites in San Rafael.
San Pedro Elementary School
Kathryn Gibney, principal San Pedro Elementary School, wrote the
following account of the events of the week:
When ICE agents banged on doors, they demanded to see papers of
whoever answered. They entered apartments even if the person for whom
they had a warrant was not there. They shined bright flashlights in the
faces of young children who were still asleep. They handcuffed parents
in front of their children and took them away, threatening that they
would soon be back for others. They left behind them a trail of fear.
Traumatized by the vicious nature of the intrusions and terrified
to take their children to the bus stop, many families held their
children at home, in hiding. Other parents, recognizing that school
might be the safest place, enabled their children to go to school.
Still, there was much trepidation. One child whose father had just been
taken away was told by her mother to pack some essentials in her
backpack and leave it by the door so that if, when she returned from
school she found no one at home, she could go to her aunt's home in
case her mother was seized and deported. Imagine this child's frame of
mind as she left for school that day.
Later that morning, my staff and I first learned of these events as
clearly shaken and crying students exited from school buses and blurted
out their stories of what had happened earlier. On a day when we were
scheduled to administer the State Testing and Reporting or STAR Writing
Exam, forty students were absent--seven times the normal absentee rate.
Throughout the day, muted and trembling voices asked teachers if agents
would come to school and take them away, what would happen to their
mommy or daddy or aunt or uncle, and what would happen to them.
During the next two weeks, the situation escalated as ICE
threatened to hold more raids, as parents continued to be afraid to
leave their homes, even to take their children to and from the bus
stop, and as this fear took its mental and psychological toll on
children, on families, and on teachers and staff who worked long hours
to ride buses and ensure that students were released safely into the
care of an authorized adult.
The San Rafael community responded with speed and compassion.
Community leaders including the city mayor, county superintendent of
schools, and elected state officials launched efforts to discover the
facts of what had taken place and express opposition to the way in
which these raids were implemented. In one detailed response to an
inquiry asking if ICE officials were allowed to enter school campuses,
ICE leadership in Washington, D.C. responded that although they avoid
entering schools, places of worship or hospitals, they would do so if
the situation warranted it.
To this day, federal agents continue to use schools as a venue to
help them seize immigrants. During the first week in May of this year,
ICE vans parked adjacent to school campuses in Berkeley and Oakland,
where they waited to seize parents. And again, in San Rafael, on May 8,
2008, agents stopped a father walking his daughter to school at Bahia
Vista Elementary School. Since agents were not able to communicate with
the father, the second-grade daughter had to serve as translator
between her father and the agents, who ultimately took the father away.
The impact of these raids has been devastating. Absentee rates have
soared. Test scores have dropped. Students who do make it to school
remain distracted as they worry about whether their families will be at
home when they return. Families lose sleep at night as they worry about
possible home interrogations. Families whose breadwinners have been
seized are struggling to survive. Even when family members were
successful in proving their right to be in this country and were
allowed to return home, the memories of children remain--the memories
of U.S. agents banging on their doors at dawn, shining flashlights in
their faces and taking their parents away in handcuffs. The health,
well-being and performance of students have been and continue to be
severely impacted. Mental health services have been substantially
increased to address the on-going emotional fragility of San Pedro
students.
Many of our children are American born, full-fledged citizens, with
a right to a quality education and the rights guaranteed to all
American citizens. They are America's children and the nation's future
workforce.
Undeniably, the issues surrounding immigration are complex and we
must find ways to address them. On behalf of San Pedro School, however,
and schools across the country, I implore you to seek more humane ways
to address them, away from our schools and from our children. These
emotionally terrifying experiences undermine the trust and confidence
in adults that teachers and school staff work diligently to establish
with their students and families.
Success in schools depends on a three-way partnership--between
students, schools, and families. The current environment strains the
family component of this partnership for documented and undocumented
residents alike, as the distinction between the two is blurred by ICE
tactics. People who look like they should have residency papers are
lumped together with those who ignore deportation notices. They are
treated as guilty before having opportunity to prove their innocence.
Venetia Valley K-8 School
Pepe Gonzalez, principal of Venetia Valley K-8 School, wrote the
following account of the events of the week:
During the week of March 5th through the 9th, many students at
Venetia Valley School were greatly affected by the raids that took
place in the San Rafael area. The consequential aftermath created a
heightened level of anxiety and fear among the families, students, and
staff as a whole. Members of our school community were scared to leave
their homes, attend jobs, and allow their children to attend school.
As a district and a school site, administrators, teachers and
community liaisons were driving through the neighborhoods telling
parents that their children were safe at school. We were at bus stops,
on buses and anywhere where we felt our children were at risk. The bus
stops where parents once waited in groups to pick up their children
were now empty. Parents were waiting in their homes until the bus
arrived, then in a dash of panic they would run out of their homes to
pick up their children and rush them back into their homes for safety.
We felt that we had to be present in order to ensure that the children
were being met and safely handed over to a responsible adult.
Stories of families being broken up by immigration agents removing
mothers and fathers from homes hit the media, increasing the sense of
panic. What some were witnessing on television, others were actually
living through the pain of being separated from loved ones.
At Venetia Valley, we had dozens of school community members suffer
from these consequences. One of our families was directly affected. A
fifth grade student witnessed her father get handcuffed and taken into
custody by immigration officers at 7:30 in the morning as she was
eating breakfast and getting prepared for school. The father was taken
to a holding facility for several days before being deported to
Guatemala. The family was left without its main income provider, and a
young girl without her father.
On the morning of Wednesday, March 6th, we received a phone call
from a man who was whispering over the phone. We were able to identify
him and learned that he was whispering because immigration officers had
entered the family's apartment at five in the morning and had taken one
of their roommates. The father, mother, and son, who all slept in the
same bedroom, did not want to leave the sleeping quarters in fear of
being captured by immigration officials. They had spent part of the
time with all three of them hiding under the bed. Our community liaison
representative and I traveled to the apartment to see how we could help
the family. We knocked on the door only to have no one answer. We
called on the cell phone to assure the family that it was really school
personnel at the door and not immigration officials. When they finally
opened the door we were embraced with hugs and sighs of relief. We
brought the student back to school with us, gave him breakfast and
placed him into his classroom. The family gathered all of their
belongings and moved to a different apartment complex the very next
day. The trauma that the family went through was too much to handle.
The calls throughout the week continued to pour in, as parents were
concerned that the immigration officials would continue to enter homes
and interrogate and take into custody individuals in our community.
Throughout the week, school officials continued to be present in the
neighborhoods to try to ease the tension and bring the community back
to rest. Home visits were made by community liaisons bringing food to
homes and personally driving students to and from school.
We cannot expect to hold our students to the same academic rigors
when their emotional states are hindered. The children and families of
the San Rafael community suffered through extensive trauma as the fear
of losing loved ones was present every day in that second week of
March. They lost sleep in the evenings with concerns of possible home
interrogations. They were not able to attend jobs and collect income to
provide for their families. They could not leave their homes to buy
groceries and essential living utilities. When a family and its
children are forced to live in isolation, in fear to even open their
front doors, making it impossible to perform even their daily routines,
we still asked these students to follow through with the state writing
tests.
Our community was greatly affected and is still suffering from the
events that took place.
Coleman Elementary School
Ruth Reynolds, principal of Coleman Elementary School, with input
from Martha Noguiera, School Linked Services Coordinator, wrote the
following account of the events of the week:
On the morning of March 6, 2007, behind one door in the Canal
neighborhood of San Rafael, six-year-old Kebin Reyes, a first-grade
student at Coleman Elementary School, was still sleeping when United
States ICE officers stormed into the apartment where he lived with his
father Noe Reyes. Noe told officers that Kebin was a U.S. citizen,
asking permission to call a relative to care for Kebin while Noe was
detained on suspected immigration violations. They refused. Instead,
they made Noe wake up Kebin, who watched as officers handcuffed his
father. Telling Kebin to put his hands behind his back, the officers
took father and son to the ICE booking station in San Francisco.
Instead of being in school, Kebin spent 10 hours locked in a room with
his father, crying and hungry. ICE agents never allowed Noe to call
someone to pick up Kebin. It was only when a relative heard what
happened and came to the ICE facility that Kebin was able to leave.
After one day, Kebin, who has excellent school attendance, returned
to school while living with his aunt. This year, he is in the second
grade and lives with his father, who was not deported but who was
detained for 45 days last year in Santa Clara. Kebin saw his father
once during that detention. The father is going to court this June to
ask for work permission for two years. Kebin's mother and sister remain
in Guatemala and they hope to join the family shortly in the United
States. Kebin started to see a Spanish speaking therapist after the
raid and continues to see the therapist every two weeks. Kebin's father
attends all school conferences, parent meetings and workshops. He is
very supportive of his son doing well in school.
At Coleman School, children were frightened and needed to be
reassured that they were safe in school. The teachers and I met with
them privately and in small groups. They asked questions. One seven
year-old child was afraid to come to school. She feared that when she
returned home her parents would not be there to meet her at the bus.
Some of the children asked questions about passports.
Immediately following the ICE raids, parents reported that the
entire family slept in one bedroom and would not answer the phone or
the door. They also would do their grocery shopping for one month. They
were afraid to go out and leave the house.
One year later, parents in the Latino community are still
frightened. One difference noted by parents this year is that in the
past ICE would go to an apartment and ask for a specific person but
would also take anyone in the apartment that could not prove residency.
Now parents tell us that ICE is more specific. If they ask for someone
and he/she is not in the apartment they do not take anyone else. This
has eased some tension.
Laurel Dell Elementary School
Bob Marcucci, principal of Laurel Dell wrote the following account
of the events of the week:
Laurel Dell was affected by the ICE raids much in the same way that
other San Rafael schools were. There was fear, confusion, anger, and
sadness written on the faces of many students. Because many of our
students are bussed from the Canal area, we dealt with the fear and
uncertainty of student and parent safety while at the stops in the
morning and afternoon. Teachers rode the buses to make students feel
more secure. We provided hours of counseling to students who just
needed someone to talk to. There were students who stayed at home
because their parents were afraid to leave the house to bring them to
school. I personally picked up a number of students and brought them to
school myself so that they wouldn't miss out on projects and
assessments happening at the time. During the raid, two families at
Laurel Dell were affected in a major way. In each family, one of the
parents was detained and deported. The students spent months worried
about the safety of their mother or father. Staff wrote letters of
support for each family in the hopes of convincing authorities that
these were positive members of the community. The students were
provided with counseling.
Bahia Vista Elementary School
Juan Rodriguez, principal of Bahia Vista School wrote the following
account of the events of the week:
When the raids took place, we asked teachers to let us know about
their students and how they were reacting. Within a few days I began
receiving reports from teachers about their students' fears. One second
grade girl was sleeping with her clothes on and her backpack with her.
She also insisted on sleeping under her sister's bed. She told her
mother she wanted to be ready to go with her if the police took her
away in the night. She also kept her backpack on all day at school.
This student continues to suffer from symptoms of trauma. She regularly
wets her pants, has trouble concentrating on simple tasks, and is far
below grade level in reading and math.
Another boy, also in second grade, was terrified to be away from
his mother. He began to have severe reactions to the trauma of his
uncle being taken by the ICE police. This boy would see faces in the
windows when there was no one there. He continues to have severe
anxiety and symptoms of the trauma one year later. He is suffering from
nightmares and anxiety on a daily basis.
Children were afraid to come to school, not knowing if their
parents would be at home when they returned. Two young students in
kindergarten have had severe behavior problems throughout this past
year because their mothers were sent back to Guatemala. These young
boys don't have the language to be able to talk about their fears or
separation anxiety, but they are acting it out every day in school and
are not able to learn what they need to in class.
The other reaction we saw from most of the students in the school
was a fear of the police in general. They didn't understand the
difference between the ICE police and the regular San Rafael police.
They saw them all as wanting to take their parents or other family
members away. Some children also thought that if someone was taken by
ICE, they would be killed. Many families were not able to leave their
houses for several weeks, kept lights off at night, and lived in hiding
and fear. The general feeling was that the community was under attack.
Partner Community Agency Response
Balandra Fregoso, coordinator of San Rafael School Linked Services,
wrote the following regarding the response of community agencies, who
work closely with San Rafael City Schools:
The Marin Community Foundation convened and supported the
development of an Immigration Task Force after the March 2007 raids,
with the specific intent for community agencies to support families in
crisis. Prior to this convening, the communities throughout Marin
County worked independently from one another, providing many resources
to the immigrant community including academic supports, basic need
support, ESL classes, parent education, etc.
With the advent of the raids, it was discovered that there was no
central place for information sharing and that resources were
inadequate to the task at hand. After many meetings, it was decided to
make sure the schools, faith community, county resources, legal
community, and community based organizations were connected in some way
so all resources of the County could be used to the best advantage, on
behalf of families.
Consequently three subcommittees were created:
A Tool Kit Committee collected and organized pertinent
materials and documents, such as how to apply for citizenship, how to
provide for guardianship of children whose parents are detained, etc.
The members of this committee then provided trainings for support
providers, including school administrators, school office staff, family
advocates, and organizations throughout the county.
A Community Education Committee began trainings for
parents as well as youth. They were designed to bring families out of
hiding and to learn how to best conduct themselves in these times.
A Public Policy Committee brought the legal community and
faith based community together with others to have direct conversation
with law enforcement officials, the County Board of Supervisors, and
state and federal representatives to both understand their stands on
the raids and to make clear that there is a group watching how people
are being treated.
Through this Task Force, many groups are kept abreast of what is
happening across the county. ICE raids are still happening, on a
smaller scale, during the early morning hours, and they continue to
effect families in Marin County regularly. The Task Force is working to
separate fact from fiction and to keep everyone aware of current
activities as they occur. Some themes are consistently reported to the
Task Force:
Families that once shared housing are less willing to do
so for fear that their roommates are undocumented and will draw
attention to ICE.
Children are learning that if they are documented, they
are ``better'' than their friends and family that are not documented.
Families are being physically separated because of the ICE raids. They
are being separated on a social/emotional level as well.
Teachers, coordinators, counselors, and others who work
with families and children who are affected by the ICE raids are
suffering, too. Not only is there a feeling of hopelessness, but many
of these service providers are immigrants themselves and working with
the immigrant population may bring up the trauma and stress that they
suffered around their own immigration.
Additional Activity around Schools
ICE raids continue in the San Francisco Bay Area. On Tuesday, May
6, just a little more than one year after the first raids in San
Rafael, similar ICE activity took place in Berkeley and Oakland. Two
days later, ICE agents returned to San Rafael and are known to have
approached and taken at least two Bahia Vista parents when they were
walking their children to school. In one case, because the ICE agents
and father were not able to communicate, the child--a second-grader--
was put in the position of have to translate and negotiate with ICE
agents. The father was taken away in front of the child.
This issue continues to be one that affects schools and families.
Below is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle describing the
raids in Berkeley and Oakland.
[From the San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, May 7, 2008]
ICE Raids on Homes Panic Schools, Politicians
By Jill Tucker, Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writers
Oakland--Immigration arrests at homes in Berkeley and Oakland on
Tuesday sent a wave of panic among parents in both cities, as
authorities mistakenly believed immigration agents were raiding
schools.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were in both
cities Tuesday, performing routine fugitive operations, spokeswoman
Virginia Kice said. Teams go out virtually every day looking for
specific ``immigration fugitives,'' she said.
Officers arrested four family members at a Berkeley home and a
woman at an Oakland residence. They were not at schools.
Yet, within the next few hours, rumors of raids circulated
throughout the communities.
In Berkeley, school district Superintendent Bill Huyet sent out an
automated phone message to all parents notifying them that a Latino
family had been picked up and assuring them that the district would
``not allow any child to be taken away from the school.''
In Oakland, Mayor Ron Dellums and three school board members
converged at the end of the school day on Stonehurst Elementary School
along with immigration rights advocates, saying they believed ICE
agents ``would return.''
``In my view, that is the ugly side of government,'' Dellums said.
``No way children should ever be treated to that kind of harassment and
fear.'' He said police officers will be posted at the campus Wednesday
to ensure that federal immigration officials don't come onto school
grounds. He added that federal officials have assured him they will not
be at schools. Initially, Oakland district officials said federal
agents were at Stonehurst and denied entry by school staff. By late
afternoon, they rescinded that, saying that an ICE vehicle was seen
nearby. Berkeley officials also said no agents were at local schools.
Still, state Senator Don Perata, D-Oakland, got involved.
``There should be an immediate freeze on ICE raids directed at
school children while legislation aiming to fix immigration is
considered,'' he said in a statement.
Later, immigration advocates said they believed ICE vans were
circling schools and intimidating the community, noting that ICE
officers accompanied a mother onto an Oakland school campus in December
before questioning her in a workplace investigation.
Kice said Tuesday's rumors took on a life of their own.
In most cases, ICE fugitive operations take place at residences or
sometimes at places of employment, she said. ``A school is not a place
we would routinely conduct an enforcement operation for a variety of
reasons,'' Kice said.
The fear across the communities, however, was real.
``People are terrified,'' said Berkeley Unified spokesman Mark
Coplan. ``There is a lot of speculation.''
Larry Bensky's fifth-grade daughter came home from Berkeley's
LeConte Elementary School on Tuesday saying she had no homework because
it was ``ICE week,'' which meant ``they'' were going after the families
of the Latino children.
``She doesn't know what ICE is,'' Bensky said. ``She doesn't know
what targeted is. You can imagine it's very disturbing for children
that from one day to the next that a child they sit next to could be
kidnapped, arrested and deported.''
Copyright 2008 SF Chronicle
The information provided in this narrative demonstrates the
emotional climate of the town, the school, and particularly of students
and their families. Students were crying, fearful, distraught and/or
totally preoccupied with worry and anxiety, which we believe this had
and continues to have an impact of student academic performance.
A Call for Protection of America's Children
Undeniably, the issues surrounding immigration are complex and we
must find ways to address them. Nevertheless, we ask that ways be found
to address them away from schools and away from children.
These children are, for the most part, American-born citizens with
a right to a quality education and the rights guaranteed to all
American citizens. They are America's children and the nation's future
workforce.
Even when family members are successful in proving their right to
be in this country and return home, the memories of children remain--
the memories of U.S. agents banging on the their doors at dawn, shining
flashlights in their faces, and taking their parents away in handcuffs.
There must be a better way to execute a federal mandate in a more
targeted manner. On behalf of America's children, the San Rafael City
Schools asks you to explore solutions, continue to shine a light on
this matter, ask the tough questions, keeping in mind the children--
those who are born here, those who will stay here, those who will be
our future workforce and leaders.
______
[Additional submissions of Ms. Gibney follow:]
[From the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 7, 2007]
30 Illegal Immigrants Targeted in Canal Neighborhood Raid
By Mark Prado
Armed with 30 arrest warrants, federal immigration officers swept
into the Canal neighborhood in San Rafael at dawn Tuesday and arrested
illegal immigrants.
``They went right into buildings and pulled people from their
homes,'' said Edgar Hernandez of the sweep, which began about 5 a.m.
and lasted until 8:30 a.m. ``These are just working people, not
criminals. Everyone in the Canal is now afraid.''
Caught up in the sweep was 7-year-old Kevin Reyes, an American
citizen, who was with his family in an apartment on Belvedere Street
when officers made the arrests, according to his uncle, Rey Reyes.
``They put handcuffs on him, he is only 7,'' Reyes said through an
interpreter.
At Bahia Vista Elementary School, Principal Juan Rodriguez reported
two students were separated from their parents because of the raid and
that 77 children did not come to school, likely out of fear. On a
typical day, eight to 10 students are absent.
The sweep was part of a stepped-up Immigration and Custom
Enforcement program called Operation Return to Sender, which aims to
arrest people in the country illegally.
The effort is part of the Department of Homeland Security's plan to
secure borders and reduce illegal immigration. Since it was launched in
June 2006, Operation Return to Sender has resulted in more than 18,000
arrests nationwide.
The 30 people targeted in the Canal sweep had been ordered
deported, immigration officials said. They did not say exactly how many
people were arrested.
``These are people who are here illegally,'' said Lori Haley,
immigration spokeswoman. ``Our first priority is to find these people
who have ignored their final order of deportation.''
But if officers incidentally find other illegal immigrants in their
sweeps, they are arrested as well. Haley said the program ``normally''
targets adults, but had no further comment.
The raid in the Canal was one of many that have occurred throughout
the country in recent weeks, Haley said.
Haley wouldn't disclose how many officers were involved in the
operation, but residents counted as many as 15 green-and-white
immigration vans. San Rafael police were not involved.
In the past year, immigration officials have nearly tripled the
number of fugitive operations teams from 18 to 52 nationwide, and the
number is expected to grow to 75 by the end of the year. There are now
two teams in the Bay Area.
``This is an ongoing operation,'' Haley said.
Word of the sweep spread quickly in the close-knit Canal.
``Everyone is panicked,'' Hernandez said. ``They do not want to be
out onto the streets. They do not want to go to their jobs.''
Tom Wilson, director of Canal Community Alliance, was disturbed.
``This is horrible and inhumane treatment,'' he said. ``The fact
they go in and they take people incidentally is reprehensible at best.
They used to pick people from the street and now they go right into
people's homes. Some people were taken out in their boxer shorts into
the cold without a chance to put clothes on.''
Rodriguez called the raids ``an emotional type of terror'' that
separated families and upset the education process at school.
``How can the kids take tests?'' Rodriguez asked. ``All they can
think right now is `will my parents be taken?'
``And these children are American citizens.''
______
[From the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 8, 2007]
Canal Community Fearful After Immigration Raids
By Jennifer Upshaw
It was around 7 a.m. Wednesday when Fernando Quezada first spotted
the red Chevrolet Impala with no license plates at the corner of
Larkspur and Alto streets in San Rafael's Canal neighborhood.
Snapping pictures of the scene with his digital camera, Quezada, a
community leader and local business owner, watched as immigration
officials went to work.
``He just walked up to a guy, he didn't ask him any questions, and
he pulled him out of his truck and hauled him away,'' Quezada said.
``He said, `Are you taking pictures of me?''' Quezada recalled
saying to the immigration official. ``I said, `I'm part of the
community here and we want to know what's happening. We don't know why
you're doing this.' He didn't say anything.''
The incident was part of a flurry of reports surrounding a two-day
roundup of dozens of Canal area residents by federal Immigration and
Custom Enforcement officials. The raids, and another one in Novato, are
part of a stepped-up campaign dubbed Operation Return to Sender to send
illegal immigrants home.
``It is complete chaos in the community,'' said Douglas Mundo, head
of the Canal Welcome Center, who said he worked until midnight Tuesday
after he said an estimated 40 people were detained. He returned to pay
house calls and reopen the center at 5 a.m. Wednesday after just a few
hours' sleep.
Many have not left their homes since the raids began, he said. Some
are without food. Many that called on the Welcome Center--about 50 by
mid-afternoon Wednesday--were crying, Mundo said.
``We feel impotent,'' Mundo said. ``We'd like to do something. What
can we do?''
Over at Pickleweed Park Community Center, the halls of the
typically bustling neighborhood gathering spot were silent.
``Everyone is so scared,'' said Jeannette Sotomayor as she staffed
the reception desk in the silent lobby. ``The center is usually full of
people.''
An English-as-a-second-language class with 20 students had two
participants on Wednesday, she said. One student who takes a computer
class at the center has a brother who was taken, she said.
The rack that holds brochures and fliers is normally stocked with
leaflets about immigrants' rights. On Wednesday it was close to empty.
Sotomayor is ``mad, frustrated, very frustrated, because there
isn't anything I can do about it. It's like a feeling like you don't
belong anywhere. * * * We're not criminals. We're workers.''
Children are feeling the pressure as well.
At Kid's Club, an afterschool program run by Catholic Charities
CYO's Canal Family Support Program, officials said the kids are
spooked, too.
``It's affecting the children a lot,'' afterschool teacher Maria
Stein said. ``They don't concentrate as well as they usually do.''
``What we are trying not to do is add fuel to the fire,'' program
director Carlos Garcia said. ``They are definitely anxious. They have
wild imaginations, they probably imagine the worst because of what they
see on TV. We just try to keep the kids calm.''
At Bahia Vista School, many of the 76 students absent Tuesday
returned to the classrooms the next day, leaving only 11 missing,
Principal Juan Rodriguez said.
In addition to meeting with the roughly 20 children directly
affected by the raids, school representatives and community members
were escorting students from their front doors to the classroom, he
said.
``We continue to believe school is a safe place for them,'' he
said. ``To me it is inhumane that they would disrupt this educational
process. It's disturbing their right to get a free and appropriate and
safe education.''
Also on Wednesday, city officials told residents at a meeting of
the Pickleweed Park Advisory Board they and county Supervisor Steve
Kinsey planned to meet with ICE officials to air the community's
concerns.
Mayor Al Boro told a crowd of about 50 that he understood ICE
officials have a job to do, but he disagreed with the methods they've
used, such as entering homes early in the morning and creating a
climate of community fear.
Many are concerned that Canal residents will mistake federal
enforcement officials for local officers, shattering years of trust
both sides have worked to establish.
``There is a difference between and ICE officer and a San Rafael
police officer,'' Boro said.
City leaders assured residents they were uninvolved in the federal
deportation dragnets. Police do cooperate with ICE officials on gang
and white collar crime, city officials said.
``Your police department is not going to be picking people up for
immigration status,'' police Chief Matt Odetto said.
Resident Alberto Martinez said the children were scared and the
parents unsure how to comfort them. Concern also was raised about
leaving children to fend for themselves if a parent is detained.
``We are here to hear some comments from you to assure us and make
them feel safe,'' he said.
``I just think people will not stop making noise about this. People
will be asking tough questions,'' Pamela Torres said.
She said the community was looking to the city ``to have the
confidence to say it's OK to our kids. I think you guys should take
that responsibility very, very seriously and I know you guys will.''
Snatching people off the street with no word on who they are or
where they are headed has sent a chill as well, many noted.
``That's called disappearing people and it's a dangerous
approach,'' said longtime Canal resident Dorothy Vesecky, a member of
the advisory board. ``I'd like to know how many people, their ages and
who is gone.''
Resident Olivia Beltran called for a list to establish ``who was
taken and where they were taken.''
``At this moment it's calling to their human side,'' she said of
federal officials. Halting a process that made people vanish into thin
air is ``breaking that cycle of our ancestors,'' she said.
City leaders said they will seek answers.
``We will find out who the people are and we'll find out what the
procedure is to notify the community,'' Boro said of the missing
residents. ``We will ask these questions.''
______
[From the Marin, CA, Independent Journal, March 8, 2007]
Second Day of Immigration Raids Includes Novato and San Rafael
By Richard Halstead
Federal immigration officers were back in San Rafael and Novato
Wednesday to make another round of arrests.
San Rafael police received a call from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, the largest investigative branch of the Department of
Homeland Security, about 5 a.m. indicating they would be making
additional arrests, said San Rafael police spokeswoman Margo
Rohrbacher.
On Tuesday, ICE agents swept into San Rafael's Canal neighborhood
at about 5 a.m. and arrested an unspecified number of people--rousting
some from their homes.
Novato police Chief Joseph Kreins said his department was tipped by
ICE that they would be serving arrest warrants in Novato on Wednesday.
An ICE truck was spotted outside the Marin Square shopping center
in the Canal between 10:30 and 11 a.m., said Tom Wilson, director of
Canal Alliance.
Federal authorities told San Rafael police on Tuesday they had
warrants to arrest 30 illegal immigrants. ICE also arrests other
illegal immigrants it identifies in such raids.
``We're not releasing daily arrest statistics,'' said Lori Haley,
an ICE spokeswoman. ``It is an ongoing initiative.''
The arrests are part of Operation Return to Sender--an initiative
launched by the Department of Homeland Security in June 2006 to
identify and arrest immigrants who have been ordered deported. Since
the operation began, ICE has made more than 18,000 arrests nationwide.
Two of ICE's 52 national teams are based in the Bay Area.
Wilson expressed outrage at the way in which some Marin arrests
have been made. In some cases, ICE agents have arrested whomever is
residing at the address of an individual they are seeking, Wilson said.
He said ICE agents have sometimes failed to provide for the care of
children when their parents were arrested.
Kevin Reyes, a 7-year-old San Rafael resident who was swept up in
an ICE raid Tuesday, was later released.
Rick Oltman of Novato, a longtime advocate of tighter controls on
immigration, said he was glad to see some enforcement of immigration
laws but added, ``It would be better if they spent their time on the
employers. They're the ones that are attracting people.''
Marin Supervisor Steve Kinsey, whose district includes San Rafael's
predominantly Latino neighborhood, and Supervisor Judy Arnold, whose
district encompasses Novato, were bombarded by calls and e-mails from
concerned constituents.
Panic caused by the arrests caused many children in the San Rafael
school system to miss school, which could pose an economic impact on
San Rafael city schools, Kinsey said. He said he was working with San
Rafael Mayor Al Boro to arrange a meeting with ICE officials to express
concerns.
``I'm distressed by the reckless manner in which the federal
government is pursuing its legitimate law enforcement duties,'' Kinsey
said. ``The collateral damage is showing up everywhere.''
Supervisor Arnold said she has asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein to find
out ``what protocol if any there is for these raids.''
Haley, the ICE spokeswoman, said people can obtain information
regarding family members who have been taken into custody by calling
844-5526. Haley said the information is provided in written form at
arrest sites.
But Kinsey said he has been getting a different story from
constituents.
``We're hearing no information is being left at the houses,''
Kinsey said. And if family members lacking adequate documentation go to
the Santa Clara facility where the ICE prisoners are taken, those
family members are taken into custody, he said.
On Wednesday, Ron Rentner and Pamela Griffith-Pond, pastors at the
All Saints Lutheran Church in Novato, distributed brochures outlining
immigrants' legal rights to restaurants and markets frequented by the
Latino community in Novato.
``There are a number of people who are interested in making sure
that people at least know their rights,'' Rentner said.
The handouts explain that people do not have to let immigration
agents or police officers into their homes unless they have a search
warrant, and anyone who is arrested may refuse to answer questions
until they've had a chance to talk to a lawyer.
``But when you're cornered and there is somebody big and powerful
yelling at you, it's very, very difficult to maintain your right to
remain silent,'' said Margo Dunlap, executive director of the
International Institute of San Francisco, which serves immigrant and
refugee families.
______
[From the Marin, CA, Independent Journal, March 8, 2007]
Fate of Detained Becomes Clearer
By Richard Halstead
Some of the undocumented immigrants arrested in San Rafael and
Novato this week may have been deported the same day, a federal
immigration official said Thursday.
As federal immigration officers returned to San Rafael for a third
consecutive day Thursday, the picture of what happens to the people
they arrest became clearer.
Police were notified that Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agents would be making arrests near the downtown area of San Rafael on
C Street between 7 and 8 a.m., said police spokeswoman Margo
Rohrbacher.
Novato police Chief Joseph Kreins said he was not contacted by ICE
Thursday and knew of no arrests in Novato since Wednesday.
ICE is the largest investigative branch of the Department of
Homeland Security. The arrests are part of Operation Return to Sender--
an ambitious initiative launched by the Department of Homeland Security
in June 2006 to identify and arrest undocumented immigrants who have
been ordered deported.
ICE officials have declined to say how many people have been
arrested in Marin since the organization began its raids on Tuesday.
ICE told San Rafael police on Tuesday that it had warrants to arrest 30
undocumented immigrants. It is difficult to say how many people have
been detained because ICE also arrests other undocumented immigrants it
identifies in such raids.
Between Oct. 1, 2006, and Jan. 26, ICE arrested 838 undocumented
immigrants in Northern and Central California, ICE spokeswoman Lori
Haley said. More than a third of them, 338, were taken into custody in
the process of pursuing the other 500, whom a judge had ordered to be
deported. Since Operation Return to Sender began, ICE has made more
than 18,000 arrests nationwide.
On Thursday, Haley provided some information about what happens to
people after they are arrested. All those apprehended initially are
taken to ICE's facility at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco for
processing. After that, Haley said, the procedure differs depending on
whether a judge has previously ordered the arrested immigrant be
deported.
If there is no deportation order pending against the individual,
ICE offers the person the choice of signing an agreement that commits
them to leaving the country voluntarily. Once they sign the agreement,
they are released.
Haley said, ``A lot of people take voluntary departure so they can
legally (re-enter) the country if they so choose. It's not a
deportation.''
But immigrant advocates take a different view.
``My understanding is that people are being offered things to sign
that are basically giving up all of their rights, period. It could
affect their immigration status in the future,'' said Paul Cohen,
executive director of Legal Aid of Marin.
``Many times, they intimidate people into signing these voluntary
departure agreements,'' said Evelyn Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the Bay
Area Immigration Rights Coalition in Oakland. ``What they're doing is
expediting the deportation of immigrants without any due process
procedures whatsoever.''
If the arrested immigrant has an outstanding deportation order or a
criminal conviction, they are typically kept at nearby county jails
while they await deportation or further judicial review. Sanchez said
anyone arrested should receive a new hearing because their residency
status may have changed since the deportation order was issued.
Haley, however, said these people have already received due
process. Jails that have been used include the Santa Clara County Jail,
the Santa Rita County Jail in Dublin and the Yuba County Jail in
Marysville, Haley said. Family members of those arrested can call 844-
5526 to find out where their loved ones have been sent. But some
immigrants are jailed farther away.
But some immigrants are jailed farther away. Some are sent to an
ICE facility in Eloy, Ariz., Sanchez said.
``That is literally the layover before you get deported to your
country of origin,'' Sanchez said.
``People can be sent to any of our facilities if they're being held
in custody, anywhere in the country,'' Haley said. ``It depends on bed
space.''
Haley said ICE has detention facilities in Texas and Arizona where
families, including children, are housed together.
``In some cases, if there is a deportation order pending against an
immigrant, the person is transported out of the country the same day
they are arrested,'' Haley said.
``Many times, Mexican immigrants are bused to the border,'' Haley
said. ``They can also be taken by plane. We have planes that go to
various places. It isn't just to the southern border. People are
deported back to countries all over the world.''
______
[From the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 9, 2007]
Immigration Raids Handled Poorly
The Heavyhanded tactics used by federal immigration agents in Marin
this week simply were not appropriate.
Federal officers, armed with 30 arrest warrants and a fleet of
green-and-white immigration vans, swept through the Canal area of San
Rafael early Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. More arrests were made in
Novato.
Federal officers, as part of Operation Return to Sender, used those
warrants to arrest illegal immigrants who have been ordered deported.
There have been 18,000 such arrests nationwide since June.
The illegal immigrants named on the warrants were arrested in
houses and apartments--along with any others suspected of being in this
country illegally. In San Rafael, those put in handcuffs and taken away
apparently included a 7-year-old boy who is a U.S. citizen.
Local activists have expressed outrage at what they viewed as
unacceptably harsh tactics.
They have reason to be angry.
The immigration raids have created a climate of fear in the Canal
neighborhood. This is wrong.
San Rafael officials have worked hard over the past several years--
including building a new Pickleweed Park Community Center--to earn the
trust of the densely populated neighborhood that many immigrants call
home.
City leaders are justifiably fearful that these raids, which they
had nothing to do with, will make Canal residents wary of all
officials, including local police officers.
That will make it harder for cops to control and solve crime and
make it easier for
Canal residents to be victims.
San Rafael officials, including Mayor Al Boro and Police Chief Matt
Odetto, met with residents and activists Wednesday night at the
Pickleweed center to reassure them that the city had nothing to do with
the raids.
At Bahia Vista Elementary School, where many Canal children attend,
76 students were absent Tuesday, compared with eight to 10 on a typical
day. Two students had parents swept up in the raids. The school's
principal worried about the palpable sense of fear among the children.
The raids achieved one goal: Illegal immigrants who had been
ordered deported were taken into custody. Federal officials, however,
have declined to tell the IJ how many arrests were made, saying that
daily totals are not being released.
Marin residents deserve to know how many people were detained.
Refusing to release such basic information just adds to the cloak of
secrecy that has surrounded these sweeps. It is understandable why
residents of the Canal and other parts of Marin, even those who are
U.S. citizens, are afraid.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who are part of the
Department of Homeland Security, say the sweeps are necessary to find
people who are here illegally and who have ignored their final
deportation orders.
We agree that those who are here illegally and have ignored their
final deportation orders should be arrested and face the consequences.
That's the law.
We simply don't think it was necessary to deliberately terrorize an
entire neighborhood and disrupt the lives of so many Marin families to
arrest a small number of people, including a small boy who happens to
be an American citizen.
Illegal immigration is a difficult and divisive issue facing this
country. These kinds of raids do nothing to create any consensus.
______
[From the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 9, 2007]
Immigration Raids Draw Dawn Protest
By Jim Staats
About 75 community members and clergy leaders clogged San Rafael's
Canal district sidewalks at dawn Friday to offer solidarity for the
community--with plans to continue morning protests until the
immigration raids which began this week are stopped.
Protesters gathered at the Country Club Bowling Alley on Vivian
Street at 5 a.m. Friday, many with candles in hand, and dispersed to
various intersections throughout the neighborhood for a three-hour
morning vigil in support of immigrants in the Canal neighborhood.
Marinwood resident Bob Owen, 67, who arrived at 5 a.m. with his
wife Jill, said he was moved by the stories he heard from talking with
people who live in the Canal area.
``A woman who has a child here was crying as she told me about what
has been going on,'' he said. ``It's been so terrible for them. They're
afraid to go to school, to the store. They're being told not to answer
the door. I'm here out of a feeling of solidarity.''
``We know people have been feeling afraid and we want them to know
they're not alone,'' said Jill Owen, 63.
Agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest
investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security, have swept
into the Canal neighborhood in the early morning hours this week and
arrested an unspecified number of people, many rousted from their
homes, as part of a stepped-up campaign dubbed Operation Return to
Sender to send illegal immigrants out of the country.
The Rev. Carol Hovis, executive director of the Marin Interfaith
Council, which organized the protest, said the early-morning arrival
was timed to meet the early-morning raids by officials of the
Immigration and Customers Enforcement.
``We wanted to be here to say to the children and families it's
safe,'' she said.
Marjorie Delgadillo, 23, a counselor at the Marin Childcare Council
in San Rafael and Petaluma resident, arrived at 5 a.m. to show her
support for community members with whom she lived shortly after
arriving from Nicaragua at the age of 5.
``I feel that it could have easily been me,'' said Delgadillo, who
earned her residency at the age of 16. ``I could have been one of the
residents of the Canal who went through this horrible ordeal. It just
hit so close to home for me. I'm a kid from the neighborhood.''
Though raids have also taken place in Novato this week, Hovis said
protesters came to the Canal ``because this neighborhood is such a
close-knit neighborhood.
``It means a lot but it also means this has become a target,'' she
said.
The protesters who planned to remain through 8:30 a.m. did not see
any immigration officials arrive on Friday.
Hovis said they will return at 5 a.m. every weekday morning next
week.
As people congregated below on the sidewalks of the Medway Drive
and Canal Street intersection, residents in surrounding apartment
buildings peered down from their balconies and the occasional driver
tooted a horn in support.
The Rev. Julianne Stokstad, pastor of the First Congregational
Church in San Rafael, stood on the sidewalk with candle in hand and
fully adorned in her religious garments.
``I understand our laws but the methods are wrong,'' she said. ``I
don't approve of the methods used particularly with the children. I'm
here to show my solidarity and support.''
Julie Long, owner of Bellam Produce Market at the corner of Bellam
Boulevard and Belvedere Street, said the raids have created a ghost
town out of the neighborhood and dropped her daily sales from $3,000 a
day to about $700.
``I've been here 10 years and it's the worst I've ever seen it,''
she said. ``It's pretty scary. There's nobody on the streets and I
don't have one single person in my store right now.''
``This is just the beginning,'' said Sister Marion Irvine, of the
Dominican Convent in San Rafael. ``We're going to be here until ICE
decides this is not the place to be.''
______
[From the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 13, 2007]
March and Rally Draw Hundreds in San Rafael
By Jennifer Upshaw
Hundreds of protesters chanting slogans in Spanish filled the
streets of San Rafael on Monday before attending a community gathering
that served as a rallying cry against recent immigration raids in
Marin.
More than 200 people gathered at St. Raphael's church on Fifth
Avenue for the march to Pickleweed Park Community Center, where more
than 500 packed a hall to hear from elected leaders, activists and
community leaders.
``I can't believe they're here now, in 2007,'' said Tom Wilson,
Canal Alliance executive director, moments before the march began.
``Having this kind of demonstration, I thought we were way beyond this.
It's something you would expect from a third-world country.''
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a
series of raids in San Rafael last week, as well as one in Novato. No
raids were reported over the weekend, Wilson said. The arrests are part
of Operation Return to Sender--an initiative launched by the Department
of Homeland Security in June 2006 to identify and arrest undocumented
immigrants who have been ordered deported.
Immigration officials have not released how many people have been
detained since the raids in Marin began, saying such data is not broken
down by county.
``Our ICE officers are sworn to enforce immigration laws,'' ICE
spokeswoman Lori Haley said. ``They're doing their jobs.''
``I don't get it. I'm really old, and I still don't get it,'' said
Woodacre resident Veta Jacqulin, 70, who participated in the march. ``I
think if we have laws I don't understand in the first place, there's a
better way to carry them out.
``I'm sad,'' she said. ``It hurts my heart what we do.''
``The fact that the children are scared, that parents are afraid to
leave their homes--I feel kind of mad about it, also sad at the same
time. They're too scared to go back home; they're too scared to go to
school,'' said Rebecca Coleiro, 17, a senior at San Rafael High School
who lives in the Canal.
``It's sad. I'm very sad,'' said Isabella Mendoza, a Spanish
teacher at Terra Linda High School. Pointing to her placard, which
read: ``Take our papers, not our families.''
``The sign, it breaks my heart,'' Mendoza said.
San Rafael resident Edith Yates carried as many signs and placards
as she could hold. A native of Mexico who immigrated 17 years ago,
Yates said she wanted the legal process for those detained to move more
quickly.
``We are immigrants,'' she said. ``We have feelings.''
Lead at times by a young man waving an American flag, the throng of
marchers was greeted with occasional honks and waves, even from
motorists traveling on the freeway as the group moved down East
Francisco Boulevard.
Police maintained a subtle presence on the periphery: A California
Highway Patrol helicopter hovered above, following the group during the
roughly 2.3-mile journey. Once in the neighborhood, marchers were
observed by many dozen residents, many of whom watched the display from
balconies with children in their arms.
``It feels so good that you're with your people,'' Luis Mejia, 15,
a student at San Rafael High School, said as he cooled down at
Pickleweed after marching in the record heat. ``We're hoping President
Bush will get the message and give us papers so we have the same
rights.''
The marchers were joined by hundreds more demonstrators at a
community meeting Monday evening.
News photographers were kept out, barred from taking photographs
during the public event.
Dignitaries, some of whom participated in the march, included
Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael; county schools chief Mary Jane
Burke; Marin Community Foundation President Thomas Peters; county
Supervisor Steve Kinsey; author Isabel Allende; Mayor Al Boro; Vice
Mayor Paul Cohen; and City Manager Ken Nordhoff.
Organizers urged people to send letters to their senator. Sign-up
sheets on the walls solicited people's help with public relations,
crisis management, legal assistance and other issues stemming from the
raids.
Many elected leaders took to the podium to calm fears and empower
the community.
``The city of San Rafael has no control over what (ICE) does,''
Boro said. ``The city of San Rafael will not enforce immigration
laws.''
The crowd, wildly energized at times, broke into frequent applause
and chanted ``si se puede,'' or ``yes we can,'' several times during
the program.
``I've just driven almost 100 miles from Sacramento to be with
you,'' Huffman said. ``I would have driven another 100 miles to show my
support for this community and my outrage at the tactics being used to
enforce our immigration laws.
``You don't enforce the laws by sending armed agents into our homes
to terrorize our community,'' he said.
Kinsey said that, as sad as the situation was, he was proud the
events united the community.
``We will make change happen,'' he said.
Author Allende recalled her experience immigrating from Chile.
``I lived in fear,'' she said.
Still, her message was upbeat, urging Canal residents to continue
to tell their stories.
Despite the recent raids, Allende said ``the U.S. is still the land
of opportunity.''
``Each one of you is a treasure,'' she said.
Meeting
A youth forum aimed at hearing from children and youth on the
recent immigration raids is at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Marin Youth
Center at 1115 Third St. in San Rafael.
______
------
[From the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, March 15, 2007]
65 Arrested, 23 Deported in Raids, North Bay Congresswoman Says
By Jennifer Upshaw
Immigration agents arrested 65 people and deported 23 in raids
conducted last week in San Rafael and Novato, congressional officials
said Thursday.
An aide in Rep. Lynn Woolsey's office met with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement officials, who released the figures at her request,
spokesman Chris Shields said.
It was not clear if a list of those detained and their locations
would be forthcoming, he said.
``I know she's asked for it, I don't know if she's received it,''
Shields said.
Last week, federal officials conducted a series of raids in San
Rafael, and one in Novato as part of a national crackdown dubbed
Operation Return to Sender, which aims to send illegal immigrants home.
``I wish I could trust it,'' Canal Alliance Executive Director Tom
Wilson said of the figures. ``The way they've been operating, the way
they've been holding back information and the way they've been refusing
to give information to elected officials up to this moment--I don't
trust it.
``For every one they picked up, 12 are not named on the warrant.
That means it's more about people not named in the warrant,'' he said.
``That's really scary--that tells me they're just using the warrant as
a way to get in a door into a house.''
An ICE spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment.
Raid proponents said the actions are legal and justified.
``The numbers aren't the issue--it's the activity, it's the arrests
that are important,'' said Novato resident Rick Oltman, spokesman for
Santa Barbara-based Californians for Population Stabilization.
He said he has heard a lot of rhetorical remarks, such as an
assertion by Supervisor Charles McGlashan during a public hearing
Tuesday that likened ICE enforcement actions to tactics used in Nazi
Germany in the 1930s.
``It's bad enough that community activists need to sensationalize
legitimate law enforcement by comparing it to the death squads, but
when public officials compare law enforcement officers to Nazis, this
is just pure sensationalism,'' Oltman said. ``This is a legitimate law
enforcement operation. It leaves me speechless that elected officials
would be so ill-informed.
``It's really unbelievable how far we have sunk,'' he said.
______
[From the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, April 5, 2007]
Civic Leaders Prepare for Likelihood of Future Raids
By Tad Whitaker
Top managers from San Rafael's city government and schools held an
informal meeting this week to discuss ways to win back the trust of
Hispanic families and limit the strain on children during future
immigration raids.
Ideas discussed by Mayor Al Boro, San Rafael schools Superintendent
Laura Alvarenga and close to a dozen others included creating a
campaign that would help parents set up notarized guardians who could
be responsible for children if their parents are deported.
Although local officials can't prevent future raids, several said
they had an obligation to help children--legal or not--before the next
round.
``It's like a terrorist attack,'' said Greg Knell, president of the
San Rafael Board of Education. ``It's not if, it's when.''
Federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted
raids targeting illegal aliens in Marin beginning at 5 a.m. March 6 and
7. They arrested 65 people and deported 23 from San Rafael and Novato.
Local school attendance suffered and school officials said the
raids came at a particularly bad time, because officials were
administering standardized tests that week.
At Bahia Vista Elementary School in San Rafael, 79 students skipped
school one day, compared with the usual 10 or so on a normal day. At
Laurel Dell Elementary, 25 out of 150 students were absent.
``When these types of things are going on, it's hard to take tests
and study,'' Knell said.
Others who attended Wednesday's meeting included City Manager
Ken Nordhoff, Police Chief Matt Odetto, Associate Superintendent
Becky Rosales, schools trustee and city planner Linda Jackson, and
representatives from the Pickleweed Park Community Center.
Cindy Fox, director of Pickleweed Children's Center, said the two
most important developments were creating the notarized guardian
program and helping undocumented parents obtain passports for their
children. She said children whose parents are deported can't leave the
country without a passport and they can't obtain one without parents.
``It's pretty important,'' she said.
San Rafael spokeswoman Lydia Romero said the city has a particular
need to rebuild the image of the police department among Hispanics.
She said city leaders are considering school tours by police
officers who could explain they did not cause the raids or participate
in them. As part of the tours, officers would also show students how
their uniforms and cars differ from those worn by federal agents.
``Nobody knows who to trust anymore,'' Romero said.
______
[From the San Rafael, CA, Independent Journal, April 26, 2007]
ACLU Sues Over Seizure of Boy in Immigration Raid
By Mark Prado
San Francisco--The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit
Thursday on behalf of a 7-year-old San Rafael boy who was taken from
his bed as part of an early-morning Immigration and Custom Enforcement
sweep of the Canal neighborhood last month.
The father of Kebin Reyes said Thursday that Kebin, an American
citizen born in Greenbrae, has nightmares from the incident.
``Kebin is still showing signs of trauma,'' Noe Reyes said through
an interpreter at a press conference at ACLU offices. ``He always needs
to be next to his dad or another adult.
``What I want is justice so this doesn't happen to any other
child.''
In its suit, the ACLU alleges Nancy Alcantar, the U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) San Francisco field office director, and
officers under her command violated the boy's constitutional rights.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco,
specifically cites the Fourth and Fifth amendments, the right to be
secure in one's home against unreasonable search and seizure, and that
no person shall be deprived of liberty without due process.
ACLU attorneys allege the federal government did not have a search
warrant for the boy's home. But an ICE spokeswoman said warrants are
obtained for all arrests.
Armed with dozens of arrest warrants, federal immigration officers
swept into the Canal neighborhood in San Rafael at dawn March 6 and
arrested illegal immigrants.
Caught up in the sweep was Kebin, who was with his family in an
apartment on Belvedere Street when officers made the arrests. Agents
were targeting Noe Reyes, who was in the United States illegally from
Guatemala and had been ordered deported in 2000, according to ICE.
Noe Reyes gave the ICE agents his son's U.S. passport identifying
Kebin as a U.S. citizen, according to the ACLU. An ICE agent then told
Noe to wake up his son, saying they would take them in for only an hour
or two. Noe Reyes asked several times to make a phone call to arrange
for a family member or family friend to care for Kebin. Each of the
requests was denied, and Kebin was forced to watch as his father was
handcuffed and taken away.
Immigration officers then told Kebin to place his own arms behind
his back, like his father's, but he was not put in handcuffs. The pair
were taken to San Francisco, according to the ACLU.
ICE officials said they took Kebin to San Francisco for his well
being until a relative could pick him up.
``He was not arrested,'' said Lori Haley, immigration spokeswoman.
``We didn't want to leave that little boy alone.''
The agency's policy on dealing with children is to allow the adult
being detained to make arrangements for the minor's care. If that's not
possible, the arresting officer's supervisor makes arrangements that
vary according to the situation.
At the ICE processing center in San Francisco, additional requests
to make a phone call were denied, and the boy and his father were
placed in a locked room for about 10 hours and given bread and water,
according to the ACLU.
Kebin was released that evening after his uncle learned about the
incident from neighbors. The uncle had to wait several hours before
Kebin was finally released, ACLU attorneys said.
``ICE's treatment of children is not in line with American values
of decency and fairness,'' said Julia Harumi Mass, staff attorney with
the ACLU. ``In addition to Kebin's case, we have heard reports of
children left without care after their parents are detained,
immigration agents targeting areas around elementary schools, and
children too upset to participate in class after witnessing early-
morning raids in their communities. The human cost of these tactics is
unacceptable.''
The suit seeks unspecified damages, and would require federal
immigration officials to develop a policy on caring for children they
might find during enforcement so cases like Kebin's aren't repeated,
attorneys said.
The sweep was part of a stepped-up Immigration and Custom
Enforcement program called Operation Return to Sender, which aims to
arrest people in the country illegally.
Immigration attorneys and others said Kebin's case is the most
serious example of how children are being harmed by immigration policy.
About 18,000 people have been detained by this enforcement action
since it began last year. From Massachusetts to Colorado and
California, children have been left without their parents when the
adults were seized, civil rights attorneys said.
Noe Reyes is dealing with his immigration issue in court and has a
hearing set for June. Kebin's mother lives outside the country.
Kebin's citizenship does not give his parents any legal standing as
residents in the United States, ICE officials said.
``Having a child here is a risk people take, and then they are
faced with decisions,'' Haley said.
______
Chairwoman Woolsey. Mr. Romo.
STATEMENT OF SIMON ROMO, CHIEF COUNSEL, NEW MEXICO CHILD
PROTECTIVE SERVICES
Mr. Romo. Chairwoman Woolsey, distinguished members of the
subcommittee, thank you for allowing me to be here this morning
testifying on behalf of the children, youth and families of New
Mexico.
A little bit of context, from 2000 to 2005, the foreign-
born population grew in New Mexico 28 percent. The national
average for the same period was approximately 18 percent.
In New Mexico in 2005, the total population of the State
was 1,887,200 people. Foreign-born residents numbered 168,000,
or roughly 9 percent, of whom approximately 115,000, or 6
percent, were noncitizens. In 2005, only 10.5 percent of the
foreign-born population of New Mexico was under 18, while more
than half of that at the time, 53 percent, almost 54 percent,
was of childbearing age, between the ages of 18 and 44. The
great majority, almost 80 percent, was of working age.
Today, of the foreign born in New Mexico, an estimated 40
to 55,000 are undocumented. The majority of children in New
Mexico who have noncitizen parents were, themselves, born in
the United States; and it is therefore likely that the majority
of children affected by immigration and enforcement operations
are, in fact, U.S. citizens.
Children of immigrants are at high risk for entering into
the child welfare system. They are more likely to live in
linguistic isolation, live in a single-parent family, have a
mother with a less than high school education and be
economically deprived.
The Children, Youth and Families Department currently has
18 noncitizen children in protective custody, a figure that has
remained pretty much constant throughout the past several
years. The Department has not been able to reliably track
citizenship status of parents in our data system, but of the
2,300 children in care in New Mexico, it's estimated that a
significant number have at least one parent who is not a U.S.
citizen. Given the high percentage of foreign nationals of
child-bearing age living in New Mexico, it is unknown how many
of these children came into care as a result of their parent
being deported.
Immigration raids and enforcement activities in New Mexico
have been documented, though CYFD has not been notified to
respond, nor have any children come into custody as a direct
result of these activities. The Department is not informed of
enforcement operations before they happen, and so is not able
to respond to children and assess for their safety in a timely
manner. Instead, relatives, neighbors, friends and community
agencies have been absorbing the responsibility of caring for
children left without parents.
This lack of initial involvement of the State agency
responsible for assuring the safety, permanency and well-being
of children places those who were separated from their parents
at an additional risk of entering into the system later, as
they are often shuffled around in unstable situations with
minimal support and minimal resources.
On November 16, 2007, the Office of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security released
guidelines for identifying humanitarian concerns among
administrative arrestees when conducting work site operations.
The new humanitarian guidelines put into ICE's policies
regarding notifying appropriate social service agencies of work
site raids targeting more than 150 employees, but this has had
a minimum effect on enforcement activities and may not be
implemented effectively in New Mexico, given that it's
primarily a rural State.
The Department has not been contacted before or after any
work site operations in New Mexico to identify individuals
requiring assistance, as spelled out in the guidelines.
Of particular concern to the Department is trauma to
children. The limitation of the humanitarian guidelines on the
identification of individuals who have dependent children
places these children at particular risk. While we have had few
raids that have detained approximately 20 to 30 immigrants at a
time, the most common practice that we see by ICE in New Mexico
is that it's operating on a smaller scale with increased
presence in homes and on the streets of certain communities
such as border towns and high population centers in which
Latino families have been targeted.
The times when children are most vulnerable to experiencing
trauma as a result of immigration enforcement operations are
those when a parent goes to a store and never comes back or
when parents are taken away from their homes.
The disruption of a safe holding environment and the
separation of children from their caretakers can severely and
permanently damage a child. Traumatic experiences such as these
frequently lead to further negative relational behavioral and
educational outcomes. The Department does not generally find
out about enforcement activities until after the fact; and it
is, therefore, not able to respond to mitigate the negative
effects on children.
In terms of our recommendations, CYFD supports keeping
immigrant families together if at all possible when there are
no active signs of abuse or neglect. Immigration enforcement
operations are inherently traumatic for children, and they need
support.
Immigrant enforcement activities are especially problematic
in the child welfare system when the children are of an
undocumented worker who is deported is a U.S. citizen. Existing
ICE guidelines that emphasize keeping families together if the
parent in question is a sole caretaker or if the child has
special needs are not being uniformly implemented in New
Mexico.
The Department believes that notice of enforcement
operations should be required in all instances, regardless of
the size of the employee workforce to avoid causing trauma to
even one child.
Thank you very much, Chairwoman Woolsey.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you very much.
[The statement of Mr. Romo follows:]
Prepared Statement of the Simon Romo, Chief Counsel, New Mexico Child
Protective Services
Immigration in New Mexico
From 2000-2005, the foreign born population grew in New Mexico by
28.2% (the national average for the same period was 17.9%). In New
Mexico in 2005, the total population was 1,887,200. Foreign born
residents numbered 168,640, or 8.9%, of whom 115,119, or 6.1%, were
noncitizens. In 2005, only 10.6% of the foreign born population in New
Mexico was under 18,1 while more than halfat that time(53.7%) was of
childbearing age, between ages 1844, and the great majority (79.1%) was
of working age (1864).
Today, of the foreign born in New Mexico, an estimated 40,000
55,000 are undocumented immigrants. The majority of children in New
Mexico who have noncitizen parents were themselves born in the U.S. It
is likely, therefore, that the majority of children affected by
immigration enforcement operations are U.S. citizens.\1\
Children of Immigrants Children of immigrants are at high risk for
entering into the child welfare system. They are more likely to live in
linguistic isolation, live in a singleparent family, have a mother with
less than a high school education, and be economically deprived 1. CYFD
currently has 18 noncitizen children in protective custody, a figure
that has remained consistent over the past several years.\2\ CYFD has
not been able to reliably track citizenship status of parents in our
data system, but of the 2,300 children in care, it is estimated that a
significant number have at least one parent who is not a US citizen,
given the high percentage of foreign nationals of childbearing age
living in New Mexico.\1\ It is unknown how many of these children came
into care as a result of their parent being deported.
Lack of CYFD Involvement in Immigration Enforcement Operations in
New Mexico Immigration raids and enforcement activities in New Mexico
have been documented, though CYFD has not been notified to respond nor
have any children come into custody as a direct result of these
activities.\3\ CYFD is not informed of enforcement operations before
they happen, and so is not able to respond to children and assess for
their safety in a timely manner. Instead, relatives, neighbors,
friends, and community agencies have been absorbing the responsibility
of caring for children left without parents.\4\ This lack of initial
involvement of the state agency responsible for assuring the safety,
permanency and wellbeing of children places those who are separated
from their parents at an additional risk of entering into the system
later, as they are often shuffled around unstable situations with
minimal supports/resources.\5\
On November 16, 2007, the Office of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) in the Department of Homeland Security released
Guidelines for Identifying Humanitarian Concerns among Administrative
Arrestees When Conducting Worksite Enforcement Operations.\6\ The new
humanitarian guidelines put into ICE's policies regarding notifying
appropriate social service agencies of worksite raids targeting more
than 150 employees has a minimal effect on enforcement activities, and
may not be implemented effectively in New Mexico. CYFD has not been
contacted before or after any worksite operations in New Mexico to
identify individuals requiring assistance as spelled out in the
guidelines.
Critique of Ice Strategies and Guidelines: Trauma to Children CYFD
questions the limitation of the humanitarian guidelines to the
identification of individuals who have dependent children to worksite
operations targeting the arrest of more than 150 people. The current
provisions for notice of enforcement activities are largely irrelevant
to the situation in New Mexico, a rural state whose economy does not
support large worksites as described in the ICE guidelines. While New
Mexico has had a few raids that have detained 2030 immigrants at a
time, the most common practices by ICE here are seen on a smaller scale
in their increased presence in homes and on the streets of certain
communities, such as border towns and high population centers, in which
Latino families have been targeted.
The times when children are most vulnerable to experiencing trauma
as a result of immigration enforcement operations are those when a
parent goes to the store and never comes back, or when parents are
taken away from their homes. The disruption of a safe holding
environment and the separation of children from their caregivers can
severely and permanently damage a child. Traumatic experiences such as
these frequently lead to further negative relational, behavioral, and
educational outcomes. CYFD does not generally find out about
enforcement activities until after the fact, and is therefore not able
to respond to mitigate the negative effects on children.
Child welfare agencies do not limit the reports we respond to based
on the number of children allegedly involved in a case. Whether the
number of children involved is one or one hundred fifty, every single
child and every single case are important. The notice of immigrant
enforcement operations to child welfare agencies should be required in
all instances regardless of where they take place and regardless of the
size of the employer workforce to avoid causing trauma to every child.
State Child Welfare Agency Needs to Respond to Immigration
Enforcement Activities CYFD is the agency responsible for the safety
and wellbeing of children in our state. In only one documented case has
ICE notified CYFD when detaining a parent.8 When children come into
custody because their parents are detained/deported, the attempt to
reunify families places a great strain on they system. These
circumstances frequently involve emergency interventions, emergency
relative searches, collaboration with foreign government agencies, and
the use of other placement resources.
CYFD has also struggled with cases of parents whose children are in
CYFD custody and are involved in a reunification plan when they are
deported.\9\ These circumstances significantly delay permanency, demand
extra staff time and resources to alter the plan, locate the parent and
transfer services, and makes the transition extremely difficult for
children and parents.
CYFD Recommendations CYFD supports keeping immigrant families
together if at all possible where there are no signs of active abuse/
neglect. Immigration enforcement operations are inherently traumatic
for children, and they need support. Immigration enforcement activities
are especially problematic in the child welfare system when the
children of an undocumented worker who is deported are U.S. Citizens.
Existing ICE guidelines that emphasize keeping families together if
the parent in question is the sole caretaker, or if a child has special
needs, are not being uniformly implemented in New Mexico. CYFD believes
that notice of enforcement operations should be required in all
instances regardless of the size of the employer workforce to avoid
causing trauma to even one child.
Additional federal monies should be allocated to ensure that state
welfare agencies have the necessary resources to address the additional
challenges involved in working with children whose parents may be in
the U.S. without appropriate documentation.
endnotes
\1\ Immigration in New Mexico. A KID'S COUNT Special Report.
October 2007.
\2\ CYFD PS 301 Report, May 2008.
\3\ There have been several raids documented. Operation ``Return to
Sender'', conducted from Feb.26-28, 2007, arrested thirty undocumented
individuals throughout Santa Fe, in workplaces, apartment complexes and
trailer homes. Only 2 of the detained had criminal charges, one for DUI
and the other for drug possession (La Voz, 3/2/2007). On September 10,
2007, ICE raids at the Chaparral schools resulted in 28 people
deported. Eleven were children taken by Sheriff's deputies and Border
Patrol (El Paso Times, 9/15/07; Over Raided, Under Sieged. National
Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. January 2008). On December
10, 2007, ICE raided Proper Foods Inc., in Deming, and arrested 22
undocumented workers (Las Cruces Sun, 12/12/2007; Over Raided, Under
Sieged. National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. January
2008).
\4\ According to the Religious Order of the Assumption, based in
Chaparral, on September 10,2007, Francisco Rodriguez and his wife were
detained and deported by local county law enforcement, and handed over
to immigration enforcement., forcing them to leave their 5 children
with a neighbor. (http://www.aclunm.org/PDF/COMPLAINT--FILED--10--17--
07.pdf) The neighbor contacted their church, and a member of their
congregation took in all five children, who had lived in the U.S. their
whole lives. The parents signed over guardianship to this congregation
member so that the children, who were excelling in school, could remain
together in their community. The guardian started taking the children
to Juarez to visit their parents, a place unknown to them before then.
Before long, the two youngest children, who wanted to stay with their
parents, moved to Mexico, while the older three remained with the
guardian in Chaparral to continue their studies. When the middle child,
the 12 year old, began getting into trouble at school and acting out at
home, the guardian decided he could no longer handle her. She was sent
to live in Mexico with her parents, and missed the majority of the
2007-2008 school year. The two oldest children remain with the guardian
in Chaparral attending school, separated from the rest of their family.
(Over Raided, Under Siege. National Network for Immigrant and Refugee
Rights. January 2008)
\5\ FACTS 466104 Law enforcement gave CYFD custody of a 3-year-old
US citizen child on April 18, 2008. A passerby had found the child
walking on the street wearing only a diaper. The child had been staying
with a paternal aunt, and the home was extremely dirty and possibly
unsafe for a child. Both of the child's parents had been deported soon
after the child's birth, and are believed to be in Juarez, though exact
whereabouts are unknown. The aunt believes the parents were deported
because they didn't have documentation of residence in the U.S. The
aunt placed the child with another sister temporarily until the home
situation was remedied. The family is now receiving In Home Services.
\6\ The guidelines dictate that prior to conducting a worksite
enforcement operation targeting the arrest of more than 150 persons,
ICE should develop a comprehensive plan to identify, at the earliest
possible point, any individuals arrested on administrative charges who
may be sole care givers or who have other humanitarian concerns,
including those with serious medical conditions that require special
attention, pregnant women, nursing mothers, parents who are the sole
caretakers of minor children or disabled or seriously ill relatives,
and parents who are needed to support their spouses in caring for sick
or special needs children or relatives.
\7\ Where practical, at the direction of the Assistant Secretary,
ICE will continue to implement these guidelines in all smaller worksite
enforcement operations.
\8\ FACTS 459768 & 459769. Immigration enforcement raided a motel
and found several adults and 2 children. The children were 1 month and
6 years old. Several adults were arrested and deported for not having
documentation in the U.S. One of the adults arrested was the father of
the baby and uncle to the six year old. The father of the baby reported
to immigration that the mother was residing in Taos, as well as the
parents of the 6 year old, and we were able to obtain their contact
information. Immigration wanted CYFD staff to tell them when the other
parents arrived in Deming, and when staff refused, they said that they
would not give CYFD custody of the children. CYFD informed immigration
that they could keep custody of the children, and they then changed
their minds and turned over custody of the children to CYFD. The
children came into custody on a 48 hour hold and were put into foster
care. The parents, who were in Taos, were contacted and they came to
Deming the following day to pick up the children.
\9\ FACTS 404939-Two children came into care in Las Cruces on
October 12, 2006. Mother was incarcerated at the time the children were
placed into custody. She had voluntarily placed the children with her
sister at the time of her incarceration . At time of this report,
maternal aunt wasn't caring for the children nor meeting the needs of
the children. The father of the children was incarcerated in Estancia
due to re-entry into the US. The children's service plan included
release to the father upon his release from prison. However, upon his
release from incarceration on June 17, 2007, he was deported to Mexico.
The case plan had to be altered for the father to be able to work the
plan from Mexico, and permanency of the children was delayed. The
father was ordered to move from Tijuana to Juarez so that he could work
reunification plan with his children. the father is currently working
successfully with CYFD's counterpart in Mexico, attends treatment
reviews by phone, contacts his children by phone and the children are
taken to visit with him at port of entry on weekends.
______
Chairwoman Woolsey. I thank all four of you.
This has been very informative. I have so many questions I
don't even where to start, but I will begin, and we might have
a couple rounds of questions unless we get everything covered
to the best of our ability.
First, I would like to ask you, Mr. Acting Deputy Assistant
Director Spero, is an ICE agent a police officer?
Mr. Spero. Congresswoman, an ICE agent is--an ICE special
agent with the Office of Investigations is a criminal
investigator. We have Federal agents, criminal investigative
special agents, and we also have deportation officers as well.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Then, ``knock, knock, knock, police'',
is that accurate? Or is that calling themselves something that
they are not?
Mr. Spero. Congresswoman, in many cases, if an ICE officer
identifies themselves as police, it's to make the person aware
that they are law enforcement. In some cases, the person may
not understand what ICE is, but it's an ICE policy to quickly
identify themselves as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agent.
Chairwoman Woolsey. But they really aren't police. Okay.
Now here is another question. If they have a document for
somebody that they want to do knock, knock, I came to get so
and so, and that person is not in the house, in the facility,
can they pick anybody they want out of that apartment or that
house and take them with them?
Mr. Spero. Congresswoman, I was invited to talk to you
about work site enforcement issues. I believe that if we are
talking about things that happen outside of the work site, that
might be something that I would prefer to answer in writing.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Okay. Well, I would like to hear back
from you about the fact that if they aren't invited into the
apartment, into the house, they really have no right to go in,
if that individual they are looking for is not in there. So we
can talk about that later.
Okay, Ms. Murguia, this has to cost--these kinds of actions
have a huge cost on our communities. I mean, there's no
question, the costs to our schools, our churches, the faith
organizations, the foster care system, and to the psychological
well-being of these young children. Would you like to take more
time and talk about that?
Ms. Murgia. Thanks, Chairwoman Woolsey.
I think, you know, what we highlighted in this report was
really an effort to document what some of those costs might
look like. I think it's fair to say that we ought to be looking
at more data to look at the impacts.
You can set aside the emotional and mental trauma and
distress that this causes in the short term. But in the long
term, you know, there are latent effects on these children that
I think have to be not only impacting their ability to learn,
to concentrate, to focus in these school systems. To keep them
in these systems where something like this has happened is a
broader social cost.
But then there are the actual physical and mental costs
that we see that occur on these children in the short term and
in the long term and just how disruptive this is to communities
overall when you have the social safety net of faith-based
institutions or churches and schools having to pick up the
pieces when we have come in and seen some of these raids occur.
I just think it's fair to say you can look at the benefits
of when you do any sort of enforcement action, but you should
also look at the cost, and not just the immediate cost of that
enforcement action, but the broader costs on those communities.
And there are many, and we have attempted to try to document
what those costs might be to us as society. But certainly in
the short term and in the long term, when you see traumatic
effects not just not on the children and what's in the best
interests of the children being placed in question, and we
shouldn't offset one enforcement action certainly with another.
That's what we saw happening in Iowa, when you had a labor
enforcement action superseded or trumped by another related
action. What would have been the better payoff there?
So there are all kinds of costs, and there are costs and
benefits. I appreciate trying to weigh those.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you.
Ms. Gibney, talk about the cost of assimilating into the
community after young people and their families have been
traumatized. What impact does that have on gangs that come
along later?
Ms. Gibney. Well, I am not an expert on that, but I do know
that our students are fearful of gangs, our families are
fearful of gangs, and that it's a burgeoning presence in the
Canal community. I can't assure you of this, but I doubt very
much the gang members were the ones who were seized during
those raids. I think they are really good at hiding.
But the children talk to me about parks they can't play in
or, you know, there's the color issue of the red and the blue
and that sort of thing. So, really, the element that we deal
with at our schools are the families that are working hard to
establish their lives here in this country.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you.
Mr. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you all for being here. I appreciate your
sincerity.
Director Spero, from your testimony I understand that ICE
works with Federal and State agencies and, I would assume,
County and State DSS, with foster care review boards, family
courts that may have interest in any enforcement action that
the agency undertakes. Do you find these diverse agencies are
cooperative with your efforts? Are there any impediments to
ensure that each agency is working with you?
Mr. Spero. Thank you, Congressman.
We, to every extent possible, we do work with both State
and, in some cases, local social services as well.
The majority of our experience has been, our partnership
and relationship with both the social services and the NGOs,
has been beneficial. It has helped us get our word out,
essentially alleviate fears in the community as to what,
exactly, what the nature of the operation that ICE is
conducting. So if we are conducting a targeted work site
enforcement operation, the community can understand that we
aren't going out into the community and knocking on doors. It
is a work site enforcement operation.
Social services, the State governments, have been helpful
in assisting us in getting those words out, getting that word
out.
Mr. Wilson. Additionally, in the instance where an
individual caught in a sweep is released for humanitarian
reasons, can you explain what ICE does to ensure the person
returns for legal processing of their case? Do you have
statistics on what happens to these individuals?
Mr. Spero. Congressman, I don't have statistics with me,
and I think that we would be happy to provide that in writing.
But, in general, what ICE does is on a case-by-case basis make
a determination to ensure--a Customs determination to ensure
that the person will show up for their--any subsequent
immigration proceedings. That may include releasing an
individual on their own recognizance or an alternative to
detention, such as electronic monitoring.
Mr. Wilson. Do you have any situation where persons could
be under the care or control of another person?
Mr. Spero. Such as third-party custodian?
Mr. Wilson. Yes.
Mr. Spero. That is typically not one of the conditions that
we would release someone into. It's a bond determination,
electronic monitoring or release on their own reconnaissance.
Mr. Wilson. How common is electronic monitoring?
Mr. Spero. It is fairly common. I think that that would
actually be maybe a better question for my colleagues on our
deportation side, and we would be happy to provide that in
writing.
Mr. Wilson. With the advances in technology, it's very
unobtrusive. I have seen it work for other issues. It's
respectful of people but also understanding that we have laws
that should be enforced or can be enforced. So I am actually
happy to hear there is an effort at electronic monitoring.
With the technology and GPS technology we have today--it's
phenomenal--it can be done, being respectful of a person's
rights but yet not making a mockery of notice of appearance to
return?
Mr. Spero. That is correct, Congressman. One thing that I
can say with certainty is that we are increasing our capacity
to use the alternative to detention such as the electronic
monitoring.
Mr. Wilson. Can you outline again what ICE considers an
humanitarian exception for detainment? Are there instances
where this would not be honored, for example, if the detainee
was also found to have committed crimes other than the
immigration violations for which they have been retained?
Mr. Spero. Some circumstances would be if the individual
has a criminal history that would affect or have an impact on
our custody determination. In other instances, the individual
may not be arrested solely for administrative immigration
charges, but for Federal felony violations as well.
Mr. Wilson. I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Mr. Hare.
Mr. Hare. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Spero, just a couple of things maybe you can clear up
for me. I have heard stories of ICE vans being parked outside
of schools and ICE agents entering Head Start facilities. I
also have heard of two cases last year, one in Ohio and one in
Tucson, where agents went on campuses to remove specific
students. I am troubled by the idea that these children might
be used as bait to capture parents who are undocumented and the
intimidation that ICE presence on school campuses causes.
What is the ICE's policy regarding agents entering schools?
Mr. Spero. ICE has issued guidance to remind our field
offices to remind our agents that schools are considered
sensitive institutions, as are other institutions; and to
whatever extent possible, if an agent is to go to a school,
that they brief up their chain of command and get concurrence
from senior field leadership.
I have also heard recently about events where potentially
agents were staking out schools or performing surveillance on
schools, and for the most part, we weren't necessarily able to
track that back or lend any validity to it.
One of the things I will tell you, when we are conducting
surveillance, for the most part we are trying to be covert,
like any other law enforcement agency. So we wouldn't or
shouldn't be, necessarily, in any kind of marked vehicles. The
majority of our vehicles, both in the Office of Investigations
and our Deportation Section, are unmarked.
Mr. Hare. So you are not aware of any ICE agents entering
any Head Start facilities?
Mr. Spero. I am not aware of any ICE agents entering a Head
Start facility. That's correct, I'm not aware of that,
Congressman.
Mr. Hare. Given the high number of mixed families across
the United States, how do ICE agents make sure that they don't
apprehend children who are actually U.S. Citizens or permanent
residents or in lawful status?
When agents raid a home, let's say during predawn hours,
how do you determine the child's status? Do you demand birth
certificates, naturalization certificates, or other
documentation? And what happens if the parent can't locate or
produce the documentation? Do they presume the children have
unlawful status and apprehend them?
Mr. Spero. ICE has several different ways to attempt to
determine alien or immigration status of adults and children.
Some of them are on direct questioning, and others are
reviewing case files or alien registration files.
For the most part, if someone does claim to be a U.S.
citizen, the ICE officer in the field would make every effort
to determine the validity of that claim; and sometimes it is
also done with the help of consular officers from their home
country.
Mr. Hare. Ms. Gibney, what are the lasting effects on the
emotional well-being and academic performance of the kids in
your school now, 1 year after the San Rafael raid?
Ms. Gibney. Well, I would say that it is a very heavy
presence in our school, both for staff and children and
families.
One of the things that families most want help with is
immigration status, support around that, among many other
things they want to help their children with. And it is really
difficult to ascertain in numbers and percentages exactly how
profoundly our children are affected because they verbalize a
lot of fear and concern on a regular basis. So what we do is
give them the opportunity to speak with a counselor, with
teachers, to write about their fears, draw about their fears,
but try to keep them focused on academics at the same time.
Mr. Hare. Mr. Romo, what sort of impact do these raids have
on the community at large? What could we be doing differently?
Mr. Romo. There is a State senator from Dona Ana County,
which is a border county in southern New Mexico, who in
November of last year, when asked that question, expressed her
concern for the fear of communities being terrorized by raids.
There was a raid in an adjacent county, in Chaparral, which I
have footnoted in my testimony to the subcommittee. The long-
lasting impact of this, from what we are learning from the
brain science on child development, can be extremely traumatic.
It is a basis for post-traumatic stress disorder; the residue,
if you will, the silent little bombs that go off as children
develop and reach varying developmental milestones can be
extremely traumatic and contribute to all kinds of relational
problems--that impact, not just on children, but the impact on
families and the impact on communities, the fear, the distrust,
the failure to reach out for help and the failure to achieve
potential, the failure to integrate.
The reality is, particularly in border areas, in New
Mexico, for example, the integration of individuals into their
communities is highly dependent on their willingness and
ability to trust, and reach out for help when they need it and
be able to maximize their contributions.
So these kinds of activities are extremely problematic,
particularly when we have 60 percent of the children being
American citizens, to have their parents removed. One of the
things that we have learned in child protective services, when
we have parents arrested or incarcerated for any period of
time, children need to see their parents. The fact that they
are told that they are okay isinsufficient. They need to see
them, and when you remove a parent from the life of a child and
you leave the child wondering, and you set off these little
bombs that will go on throughout their development and into
their adulthood, we are creating very problematic situations in
our communities, not just in our border areas, but throughout
the State and, I believe, throughout the country.
This is extremely problematic policy enforcement, if we are
looking at it solely from an enforcement standpoint.
Mr. Hare. Thank you.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Mr. Kline.
Mr. Kline. Thank you, Madam Chair, and ladies and gentlemen
for being here and for your testimony and for your patience.
Director Spero, I noticed that Ms. Gibney was somewhat
alarmed that ICE agents would show up suddenly and without
warning. ICE agents are law enforcement officers, right, trying
to enforce the law?
Mr. Spero. That is correct, Congressman.
Mr. Kline. I am trying to think of a case where law
enforcement officers wouldn't show up suddenly and without
warning, and it doesn't come to me.
If we could go to the May 12 raid in Iowa, I believe you
said, Director, you gave a number of 389 arrests?
Mr. Spero. That's correct, 389 administrative arrests.
Mr. Kline. And of those, 304 were criminal violations, that
is, violation of immigration law or other laws? What is in that
304?
Mr. Spero. The 304 individuals were charged with criminal
Federal violations in the Northern District of Iowa, with
various felonies, such as aggravated identity theft and
possession of fraudulent documents.
Mr. Kline. I see. And 85, presumably, then, were properly
documented?
Mr. Spero. I'm sorry?
Mr. Kline. I'm going to get the numbers. There were 389
administrative arrests; 304 were criminal violations and 85
presumably had correct documentation?
Mr. Spero. I'm sorry, the other 85 were arrested solely on
immigration administrative violations. They were either
presented and not accepted for lack of evidence to the U.S.
attorney for Federal criminal prosecution or released on
humanitarian--with humanitarian issues.
So they were arrested. They did not have proper
documentation, and were arrested for being illegally in the
United States.
Mr. Kline. Okay. I think I understand.
In that raid there were 62 released for humanitarian
purposes. So again I just want to understand the process
because what this hearing is about is ICE workplace raids and
their impact on children and families and communities. We are
focusing on the workplace raid.
In this workplace raid you made 389 administrative arrests;
304 had criminal violations and 62 were released for
humanitarian purposes. And so your agents talked to each of the
389 to make these determinations, as to which would be released
for humanitarian purposes?
Mr. Spero. That's correct. On no less than three
occasions--well, on one occasion, our agents would speak to the
aliens to determine if there were any humanitarian concerns. We
had also--Public Health Services as well asking humanitarian
screening questions. So that totaled--on three separate
occasions we attempted to ascertain any humanitarian concerns,
including sole-caregiver issues.
Mr. Kline. Thank you.
The La Raza study is highly critical of ICE not making
public guidelines and procedures related to workplace raids.
Why don't you? Is there a concern that these documents would
prejudice other or compromise future operations?
Mr. Spero. The guidance itself is public. But as far as
making prenotifications to the public prior to conducting any
enforcement operation, it would potentially cause fear in the
community, and it would certainly be a danger to our officers.
Mr. Kline. I see.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back the balance of my
time.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you.
Mr. Bishop.
Mr. Bishop. Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the
opportunity to be here, and I want to thank our witnesses.
Mr. Spero, over 300 workers were arrested in one form or
another at the raid at Agriprocessors?
Mr. Spero. 389, yes.
Mr. Bishop. How many owners or people associated with the
operation of the plant were arrested?
Mr. Spero. I believe that every one of those people that we
arrested were workers in the plant.
Mr. Bishop. Is it not reasonable to assume that if over a
third of the workforce employed at this plant violated labor
law in one form or another that management has to have some
complicity in those violations?
Mr. Spero. Congressman, I can't comment on a potential
ongoing investigation.
One thing I can tell you from listening to my counterparts
on the panel, I would like to make clear that when we are
conducting work site enforcement operations, they are not
haphazard. We are not out in the community. The goal for our
work site enforcement operations is to target and develop cases
against egregious employers who are committing violations.
Mr. Bishop. This clearly appears to be an egregious
employer, someone who has a long history of violating various
of our laws, including labor laws, at several of their
facilities.
I am just curious. We clearly as a country have adopted, I
would say by default, an enforcement-only immigration policy.
My own view is, that policy is very unwise, but to the extent
we are pursuing enforcement only, why is it that so much of our
enforcement focuses on the workers and doesn't focus in an
equal fashion on those who are profiting from the work of those
that they employ?
And is this within your purview or is this within the
purview of another agency within Homeland Security, or is this
Department of Labor?
Mr. Spero. With respect to work site enforcement, I can
tell you that our focus is on egregious employers. But in many
cases our investigations into egregious employers take time to
develop. Sometimes they are comprehensive, full-scale
investigations, and we look at all of the potential violations
when we are conducting these investigations.
A perfect example is, recently we have conducted an
investigation into a company called RCI. We arrested several
hundreds of their workforce, and then it was some time later
on, months later down the road, that we were able to make and
develop a case against the owners.
Mr. Bishop. Do you know in this--in the Postville case, do
you know if any employment records were seized?
Mr. Spero. In the Postville case, we served two search
warrants, a criminal and a civil search warrant; and as part of
the criminal search warrant, we seized many documents with
regard to the company.
Mr. Bishop. So is it reasonable to assume that charges may
be forthcoming at some future point against management and
ownership?
Mr. Spero. I couldn't say.
Mr. Bishop. I certainly hope so. Not that you can't say,
but that charges will be forthcoming.
This may be beyond what you were asked to come here to
testify on, but as I said, by default it seems, because of the
inability of this Congress to agree on a way forward in terms
of comprehensive reform, we have adopted an enforcement-only
strategy. I will just cite one example.
I am from New York. The Farm Credit Bureau of New York, not
exactly MoveOn.org, has conducted a study in which they
estimate that the pursuit of an enforcement-only immigration
policy will result in over 800 farms in New York State going
out of business at a loss of approximately 25,000 jobs.
Is this kind of issue something that is being discussed
within your department? Is there some broader concern that we
may be pursuing a strategy that is not in our broader national
interest?
Mr. Spero. Congressman, I can only speak for Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, and that is the enforcement arm of the
Department, and we are charged with enforcing the laws. And
among those, the immigration and customs laws that we enforce
are laws pertaining to work site enforcement.
I can tell you that we do just that; we enforce the
Nation's immigration laws as they are written.
Mr. Bishop. My time has expired. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Woolsey. I would like to introduce Mr. McKeon,
who is the ranking member of the education and workforce
committee, the full committee, and offer time for questions, if
you have any.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I appreciate your calling this hearing. This is a very
important issue in my district at home, and I am sure it is a
very important issue for the Nation.
I understand that the topic of this hearing is ICE
workplace raids, their impact on U.S. children, families and
communities. Do you all agree that if someone is in the
country, that has entered the country illegally without proper
documentation, or overstayed the limit of the documentation
that they enter the country with, they are breaking the law? Do
you all agree with that?
Mr. Romo. Congressman, clearly, in terms of the law itself,
there is violation there. The question from our perspective, as
the Child Protective Services Division----
Mr. McKeon. I would just like to get the fact, do you
agree, if someone enters the country illegally or overstays
their legal status, they are breaking the law? Can you just
answer that yes or no?
Mr. Romo. Yes.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you.
Ms. Gibney. Yes, I would say so.
Ms. Murguia. Yes.
Mr. Spero. Yes, Congressman.
Mr. McKeon. One of the things that seems to bother my
constituents is, to this point in time, we seem to have been
ignoring any breaking of that law.
For instance, if a person runs a red light and there is a
policeman there, I have never known of an instance where they
don't stop them and probably give them a ticket; and we would
probably all agree that is correct enforcement of the law, is
that correct? But it seems like we totally look the other way
when it is pretty apparent that an immigration law has been
broken.
Now I understand that a raid may cause some real turmoil,
some real problems with the children, who may be here legally.
They may have been born here and may be citizens. But if we go
back to where this first starts, a person that enters the
country illegally or overstays their legal status, they are
really the ones that are putting those children in jeopardy by
their own actions, and they should take those children into
account, I would think.
We have seen lots of publicity recently on the raids of the
polygamist compound in Texas, and I looked at that and my wife
and I, talking about it, have great concern for those children
who are torn from their parents through no fault of their own.
It came from apparent illegal action on the parents' part,
still causes much turmoil for the children, much as the cases
we have heard about today; and I think we all have compassion
for the children.
The thing that bothers my constituents is, we are not
enforcing the law or we are selectively enforcing the law. So
when pressure was put on ICE to enforce the laws that are
currently on the books, how else would you expect them to
enforce the law?
I mean, it seems to me that they made the raid. I think the
point was made by one of the members earlier, that's how law
enforcement works when they think that a law has been broken.
They don't give advance warning that they are going to show up
and check; they show up. That is how we find out if laws have
been broken; and if they have been broken, they make arrests.
Then we have other agencies that are responsible for what
happens after that arrest.
Are there other ways that you would suggest that they
perform their responsibilities of carrying out the law?
Ms. Murguia. I would like to respond. Thank you,
Congressman McKeon.
You point out what I think a number of people see when they
see a system in this country that has a broken system with
regard to immigration. It creates a lot of frustration and
anxiety. Everyone wants to see our laws better enforced. We
start first by reforming our immigration law system.
Mr. McKeon. Let me state this, and then I will give you a
chance to finish. We do have a bill that was introduced.
Granted, there was earlier failure to get a bill passed, a
comprehensive reform, but we have a bill right now introduced
by a member of the majority party that we have put a discharge
petition out on because we would like to bring it forward. And
we have 187 Members who have signed that.
If we could get the Members who have sponsored that bill to
sign it, we could bring that to the floor and move forward on
that bill. It is being held up by the majority leadership. I
think that it is time that we get to really working on this
issue.
Ms. Murguia. There are several bills that have been
introduced. I certainly believe that. Congressman Gutierrez has
also offered a bill, and there are several bills that offer a
solution. But you are talking about what to do now without that
kind of effort.
I guess I would like to put a broader context on another
perspective. That is, there are people who come here and who
are desperate and they feel like coming to this country is one
of the few answers they have. They don't have a means by which
they can legally come here to this country.
Mr. McKeon. There are people who are desperate and rob
banks.
Ms. Murguia. I am not making the same comparison. The
reason they are here is because they are desperate, and they
want to make sure that those children are taken care of. They
want to make sure that their children have better lives and
have an opportunity to be taken care of. But I don't think
anybody is suggesting we should punish these kids for the
actions of their parents.
We need to make sure that we look at not whether we enforce
our laws; it is how we enforce our laws. That is really the
issue today.
What I had mentioned was, we had a law enforcement effort
under way in Postville through a labor law investigation,
through labor law authorities, and I guess I would question,
are we asking our agencies to better coordinate so that we can
optimize the impact of having an enforcement action and dealing
with the root of the problem?
But why is it that in 2007 we have seen that, in fact,
there are 7 million undocumented workers. There are 6 million
employers in the United States, and in 2007, DHS fined a grand
total of 17 employers. During that same year, 98 percent of all
workplace arrests were of employees, not employers. We are
suggesting, there needs to be balance, and as we look at how we
enforce those laws, we should measure the benefits and the
costs.
But no one is suggesting, certainly not me or my
organization, that we shouldn't enforce our laws. We are
suggesting that we take a hard look at how we enforce our laws.
Mr. McKeon. I agree totally. It should be the employer. It
is difficult many times for somebody to tell, if somebody
brings forged documents, that they are here legally. But where
that can be found, the enforcement should be across the board.
I have no problem with that. That is the only way we are going
to stop the magnet.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you, Mr. McKeon.
Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. That was the concern I had. I was looking at the
fact that there seem to be very few employers who are arrested.
First of all, people don't make their way to a particular plant
just by mistake.
Mr. Spero, is there any concern about the employer who is
actually the magnet for people? If we are talking about how bad
illegal people are and that it should be stopped, has ICE ever
thought about the employer, the one that sort of invites them
in? Are there certain firms that seem to have a
disproportionate number of illegal workers?
Mr. Spero. Sir, removing the magnet of employment, of
illegal employment, is the primary target of work site
enforcement; and work site enforcement, our strategy, does
include and is focused primarily on targeting egregious
employers.
Mr. Payne. Okay, how many have you arrested?
Mr. Spero. I'm sorry?
Mr. Payne. How many of those egregious employers have you
arrested?
Mr. Spero. The distinction we have to make, being in
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is that some of our
arrests are for criminal Federal felonies and others are for
administrative arrests.
Our criminal Federal arrests made last year totaled 863,
out of which, I believe, over 90 were people who were not
merely workers of the companies.
Mr. Payne. I really have no idea what you said.
Who are these teams? You have--what are they called,
fugitives? See, in New Jersey we have some fellows--and do they
work for ICE, the fugitive operations teams? What are they?
Mr. Spero. Fugitive operations teams do work for us. They
are officers who do work for ICE. They are assigned to our
Deportation Removal Operation Section.
Mr. Payne. And they are primarily supposed to be finding
criminal--they are more looking for criminal actors? That is
why they are sort of specialists?
Mr. Spero. They are specialists in that their primary
mission is to look for people who have been ordered removed by
an immigration judge.
Mr. Payne. I have information that they are supposed to go
after people who they think are criminal, you know, first of
all, people who may have stolen identities and things of that
nature. From what I understand, anyway in New Jersey, teams
arrested 2,079 people last year, twice as many as they did the
year before.
From what information we were able to get, they were
supposed to be going after the criminal element. However, 88
percent of the people that they arrested had no criminal
histories. So, therefore, I am misled to feel that this special
posse are supposed to go after the hardened criminal.
Mr. Spero. Congressman, I do understand that they do
prioritize. Our Deportation Section does prioritize their
workload, and among top priorities are aliens who have been
convicted of crimes.
Mr. Payne. So they are pretty unsuccessful?
Mr. Spero. They are aliens convicted of crimes and
subsequently ordered removed by an immigration judge.
Mr. Payne. Well, they are 88 percent; if they were baseball
players, they would be batting 100. As you probably know my
alma mater, Seton Hall Law School, has filed a suit regarding
the U.S. Constitution violations. In New Jersey, they pick up
almost anyone--legal residents up in North Bergen arrested by
an agent, did not ask to check their paperwork, detained for 24
hours without food or water. Another ICE agent and police from
Penns Grove stormed into a house, guns drawn, looking for a man
ICE had to deport 2 years earlier.
In New Jersey, the raids are conducted by four fugitive
operations teams as part of a nationwide program. It is to
round up illegal immigrants, but it is supposed to be the
criminal element.
The thing that is annoying, and we all believe people
should abide by the law, but I just am appalled by the way that
justice is meted out. The magnets, the ones that are
encouraging the people to break the law, walk away--sort of
curbside justice. In inner cities, people are just taken down
to the precinct, and in communities of affluence they are
driven home and told to stop driving drunk.
So we have a difference in the way that laws are applied,
and I think that if your agency is going to have any kind of
respect, you ought to have a level playing field and take those
business people who are abusing, in some instances, illegal
people, and put them in handcuffs with the cuffs behind their
backs and some ankle chains, like they do the illegals--do that
to them, too; and maybe then they won't do that, and we can
come up with some kind of immigration policy that makes sense.
My time has expired.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Thank you.
Mr. Hinojosa.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you. My first question is to James
Spero. Thank you for your participation.
On April 29, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent a
letter to Assistant Secretary Julie Myers of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, asking to stop the action on reported
enforcement activities near migrant and seasonal Head Start
centers.
I would like to ask you--and, in fact, Madam Chair, I would
like to ask unanimous consent that this letter be made a part
of the record.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Without objection.
[The information follows:]
------
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
I would like to ask you, please share with me how and when
ICE plans to respond to our letter?
Mr. Spero. Congressman, I would like to be able to respond
to that question in writing.
Mr. Hinojosa. In writing, okay.
Then I will move on to Ms. Janet Murguia. As president of
one of the top ten nonprofit corporations in the Nation, your
participation in this congressional hearing is very important.
In your testimony you give a number of specific instances
of ICE enforcement activities at Head Start programs and
schools. We have a long and growing list of reports of
enforcement, near and around migrant and Head Start programs in
many locations across the Nation. We have also seen that the
humanitarian guidelines have been woefully inadequate to ensure
that the children are adequately protected and cared for.
What recommendations do you have for us, for
recommendations or legislation to put Federal policies in place
that will protect our children?
Ms. Murguia. Thank you, Congressman Hinojosa. In my longer
testimony, we cite, according to the National Migrant Head
Start Association, about a dozen instances where we have seen--
--
Mr. Hinojosa. I have studied them. They include 2008 and
2007?
Ms. Murguia. Right. We had one of our affiliates located in
New Mexico, called HELP, that documented a particular instance
where ICE enforcement agents entered that migrant Head Start
program accompanying a parent, four agents, taking that child.
It was a very traumatic experience there.
We would like to see those incidents be responded to, and I
appreciate the leadership of the caucus. But what we would like
to see today is, one, those guidelines are not enforced on a
consistent basis. Your continued oversight as a committee is
extremely important in making sure that we are holding our
agencies accountable for enforcing these guidelines in a
consistent way. That is important.
We may want to look at strengthening those guidelines and
perhaps creating legislation that would put them in place in a
way that they would strictly adhered to, and not in a
discretionary way. We want to see the opportunity to make sure
that humanitarian guidelines are consistently followed, and
that there may be legislation that is comprehensive that would
allow for the systematic interest of the child to be protected
in any of these types of incidents.
We are seeing burdens on the churches and schools. We
should clarify what exactly those roles can be, but also what
are the resources that are going to be necessary when those
particular institutions have to step up.
So I do think that there is an opportunity to strengthen
those guidelines, in addition to making sure that they are more
consistently enforced, and maybe seeing legislation that comes
of it.
Mr. Hinojosa. I hope other Members of Congress hear that
response that you gave because it strengthens the need for
comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
I would like to ask Ms. Gibney from San Pedro Elementary
Schools--you provided compelling testimony. Please describe for
us how the immigration raids have affected your ability to
carry out your responsibilities in the education settings and
in the child welfare setting.
Ms. Gibney. Thank you, Congressman.
That is a many layered response I would give. I would like
to use an example of how it has affected me and my staff when
we were compelled to drive buses to deliver children safely to
their homes. Our workload is completely shifted when these
events occur, and all of our focus, all of our time, all of our
energy is put on the welfare of the children.
So we rode buses until 6 at night three days in a row. This
was my entire staff. They put aside preparatory time to be
prepared for their classes, and after-school programs became
something more of a huge counseling session than actual
instruction.
I would say that the whole system is broken, and our
children are suffering terribly for it, as are we. It is so
difficult for us to see the absolute impacts on our children in
terms of their learning and their proficiency; and I think the
level of anxiety for myself and my staff is profound as we try
to seek ways to support our students better and still give them
an adequate education.
I am not sure that I answered your question very well.
Mr. Hinojosa. No. I can understand how frustrating it must
be to carry out your responsibilities and those who work under
your guidance, the teachers, and so I sympathize on how
difficult it must be.
My time has run out because this is certainly informative
and necessary that we share with our Members of Congress so we
can expedite and move forward with the issue of immigration
reform, so we can give you some relief.
Thank you, Madam Chair, for letting me ask my questions.
Chairwoman Woolsey. I yield to Mr. Wilson for a request.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement has published its
2007 accomplishments, which can be picked up at www.ice.gov; I
would like to introduce these accomplishments for the record,
and I would like to quote from it regarding work site
enforcement.
This shows there is a significant effort against employers,
not just employees, and particularly the subsection
Strengthening Work Site Enforcement. ``ICE's more aggressive
work site enforcement strategy targeted the jobs magnet that
attracts illegal aliens seeking employment in the U.S. In FY07,
ICE dramatically increased penalties against employers whose
hiring processes violate the law, securing fines and judgments
of more than $30 million while making 863 criminal arrests and
4,077 administrative arrests.''
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Woolsey. Without objection, we will enter that
into the record.
I want to thank all of our witnesses for an excellent
hearing. Thank you for coming and for being open and honest
with us. You have confirmed what we all know, we need to do
better by our children. The administration must take the
necessary steps to ensure that these raids are conducted in a
humane fashion, and they are protective to kids, not harmful;
which apparently won't happen until humanitarian guidelines
become mandatory instead of voluntary, because despite initial
hopes that discretionary guidelines would help, they are not
being followed on a consistent basis.
I commend Senators Kerry and Kennedy and Representative
Delahunt for their initial actions in negotiating these
guidelines, and I look forward to working with them to
strengthen the measures. Senator Kerry and Representative Solis
have introduced the Families First Enforcement Act. This
legislation, which I cosponsor, takes an excellent first step.
It mandates that a workplace raid targeting 50 or more people
consider the release of detainees on age-, medical- or family-
related humanitarian grounds. It also requires that ICE give
State agencies advance notice of raids and afford detainees
access to social service agencies to determine if medical risks
or risks to families exist.
We need to take action and do it now, and we need to
protect our kids. With all of us working together, I am
confident that we can come up with the best solution and a
solution that is much better than what we have now.
Thank you for being part of informing us what you think
would be a better solution.
As previously ordered, members will have 14 days to submit
additional materials for the hearing record. Any member who
wishes to submit follow-up questions in writing to the
witnesses should coordinate with majority staff within 14 days.
[The information follows:]
[Additional submissions of Ms. Woolsey follows:]
Prepared Statement of the American Psychological Association
On behalf of the 148,000 members and affiliates of the American
Psychological Association (APA), we thank you for convening the May 20,
2008 hearing to investigate ICE workplace raids and their Impact on
U.S. children, families, and communities. APA advocates and promotes
efforts to increase the availability of and access to educational,
health, mental health, and social services for immigrant children,
youth, and families.
APA is the largest scientific and professional organization
representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest
association of psychologists. Comprising researchers, educators,
clinicians, consultants, and graduate students, APA works to advance
psychology as a science, a profession, and as a means of promoting
health, education and human welfare. Psychologists play a vital role in
our society's understanding of the cognitive, social, and emotional
development of children. As such, we appreciate the opportunity to
share our comments regarding this important issue with members of the
Subcommittee.
The American Psychological Association (APA) is concerned about the
potential impact of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on
children and families. ICE raids are a method of enforcement of United
States immigration laws through the detention of undocumented
immigrants who are then placed into removal proceedings. These ICE
raids have resulted in the involuntary separation of children from
parents/caregivers indicted for violating immigration laws. The
potential implication of these situations can result in an adverse
impact on the family unit, and can also have a detrimental effect on
childhood growth and development, health, and education.
Prior to experiencing potential ICE raids, children constantly fear
not finding their families when they return home from school, which can
be detrimental to their mental and physical health. It has been
reported that intimidation and fear are frequently utilized methods
during ICE raids. Reported use of excessive physical force against
parents/caregivers during raids can also result in an adverse
psychological impact on children and adolescents. Overwhelming distress
associated with trauma subsequent to ICE raids has the potential to
cause long-term adverse psychological affects on children's mental
health.
Nationwide, 4.7 million children currently have at least one
undocumented parent. Of those 4.7 million children, 66% are U.S
citizens. In 2005 alone, the ratio of children to undocumented adults
was 53 percent, meaning that the number of children affected by ICE
raids would equate to half (or more when multiple children are affected
in each family) the number of detained adults. In this regard, numerous
children who are U.S. citizens have been and continue to be effected by
ICE raids. As a result, many of children throughout our nation's
communities have been consistently found to be suffering from anxiety,
depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
APA believes it is imperative to address the many biopsychosocial
implications that raids could have on children and their families.
Workplace arrests of undocumented parents/caregivers place children and
adolescents at-risk of family separation, psychological and economic
distress, poor health, and developmental delays. Specifically, ICE
raids can increase children's vulnerability resulting from abrupt
events that hinder their dependence on adults for psychological,
physical safety, and stability.
Raids can impact children on many levels. Infants, toddlers, and
preschoolers' development can be negatively impacted by workplace
arrests due to lack of caregivers attending to their biological needs
(i.e., breastfeeding, medication) while parents/caregivers are in
detention. For youth and adolescents, academic performance and
matriculation can also be impacted by the raids. These circumstances
have the potential to create poor outcomes for children by increasing
the likelihood of their involvement in at-risk behaviors such as
delinquency and dropping out of school. This not only negatively
impacts the individual but also society at-large due to poor quality of
life and the inability to effectively contribute economically to
society.
APA understands and appreciates ICE's main objective to uphold the
security of our nation. However, it is essential to address ongoing
gaps in ICE internal control standards regarding the enforcement of
humanitarian procedures when conducting raids that may help eliminate
traumatizing children and communities. While on November 16, 2007 ICE
placed voluntary guidelines to ensure humanitarian procedures when
conducting raids, ICE officials are not encouraged to implement them
effectively and consistently. Policies and procedures permit ICE
officers to exercise their discretion throughout the detainment and
removal process. According to the Government Accountability Office,
officers have indicated their use of discretion when encountering
undocumented immigrants who have humanitarian circumstances. However,
numerous reports regarding stranded children after ICE raids is
indicative that officers do not utilize humanitarian procedures
consistent with ensuring that no children are left unattended during
ICE raids.
APA promotes and supports public policies that recognize and
provide for the psychosocial needs of immigrant children, youth, and
families. Updated ICE standards that require appropriate coordination
of child care with social service agencies that will be implemented and
consistently enforced are essential. In addition, measures such as
having detention of immigrants in nearby facilities are important to
preserve the family unit and to meet basic biological needs of
vulnerable infants and caretaking of special needs children.
In closing, the APA would like to thank Chairwoman Woolsey for the
opportunity to share our comments on the impact of ICE raids on the
health of children, families and communities. We appreciate the
Subcommittee's ongoing commitment to addressing the health, education,
and psychological needs of all children and look forward to serving as
a resource and partner as you work on this and other important issues
affecting immigrant families.
______
APA Resolution on Immigrant Children, Youth, and Families
Whereas the largest proportion of the population of the United
States of America is composed of people whose ancestors immigrated to
this country from other lands (Fix & Passel, 1994);
Whereas immigrants to the United States, categorized as foreign-
born in the U.S. Bureau of the Census reports, are a diverse group
including both documented and undocumented individuals who make up 8
percent of the current population (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993) and
include 2.1 million foreign-born children who together with second-
generation immigrant children constitute the fastest-growing segment of
the U.S. population under age 15 (Fix & Zimmerman, 1993; U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, 1996);
Whereas the experience of immigration has immediate implications
for the psychological and social well-being of individuals and families
(Beiser, 1988; Westermeyer, Williams, and Neguyen, 1991) which are
especially intense for children, people of color, people of the
impoverished socioeconomic classes (Fix & Passel, 1994), as well as
women (Yee, 1997; Yee, Huang, & Lew,1998), lesbian, gay, and bisexual
persons (Espin, 1997; Patterson, 1995), and individuals with
disabilities;
Whereas immigrants to the United States experience unique stresses,
prejudice, and poverty and can be considered at-risk subpopulations for
health, emotional and behavioral problems (Eisenbruch, 1988; Williams &
Berry, 1991) as well as, in the case of children, learning and academic
difficulties (Rousseau, Drapeau, and Corin, 1996);
Whereas 23.4 percent of all foreign-born residents including
children and youth, who entered the United States from 1980 to 1990 are
now at or below the poverty level, as compared to 9.5 percent of the
native (i.e., U.S.-born) population (U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1993);
Whereas, in addition to poverty, the challenges of exploitation and
isolation are faced by some immigrants, such as service workers from
Asia and Haiti (Andersen, 1997; Amott & Matthaei, 1991); and migrant
farm workers from Mexico and Central or South America (Olivera,
Effland, & Hamm, 1993) whose children often leave school to enter the
migrant stream to work with their parents, since few states set minimum
age limits for child farm labor (Fuentes, 1974; DiPerna, 1981;
Martinez, Scott, Cranston-Gingras, & Platt, 1994; Wilk, 1986);
Whereas mental health-related issues, particularly stress
associated with trauma, acculturation to language, economics, health
care, education, religion, as well as encounters with both individual
and institutional bias, are faced consistently by foreign-born
residents of this country (Kraut, 1994; Portes & Rumbaut, 1996) and
differential degrees of acculturation within immigrant families can
negatively affect family communication and even evoke conflict,
particularly between parents and their adolescent offspring (Pedersen,
Draguns, Lonner, and Trimble, 1996; Ponterotto, Casas, Suzuki, and
Alexander, 1995);
Whereas health, disease-specific prevention--particularly HIV
prevention and treatment (Ryan, Tapscott, Carde, Havenner, Keene,
Smith, & Bell , 1992)--mental health, and social services are under-
utilized by foreign-born resident populations (Beiser, 1988),
especially refugees (Beiser, 1988), migrant workers, and undocumented
immigrants (Wilk, 1986), and such services are unavailable in many
locations;
Whereas foreign immigration has periodically evoked in the
citizenry negative perceptions and feelings that find expression in
executive and legislative initiatives that attempt to limit immigrants'
civil rights and access to public benefits such as education and other
human services for children, youth, and families (Board on Children and
Families, 1995; Degler, 1970; Goldenberg, 1996);
Whereas a review of the literature in American psychology journals
shows scant attention to these issues while policies and programs for
immigrant children, youth, and families are being established despite
the paucity of scientific data on this population (Board on Children
and Families, 1995);
Therefore, be it resolved, That the American Psychological
Association, an organization that is committed to promoting the
psychological well-being of children, youth, and families:
(1) advocates for the development of a scientific data base
concerning the adaptation, development, education, health, and mental
health, as well as the social impact and contributions, of immigrant
and refugee populations;
(2) supports efforts to increase funding for research about the
adaptation, development, education, health, and mental health of
diverse immigrant children, youth, and families;
(3) promotes and facilitates psychologists' acquisition of
competencies, including relevant cultural knowledge, attitude, and
skills in providing services to and conducting research on immigrant
children, youth, and families;
(4) advocates and promotes efforts to increase the availability of
and access to educational, health, mental health, and social services
for immigrant children, youth, and families; and
(5) promotes and supports public policies that recognize and
provide for the psychosocial needs of immigrant children, youth, and
families. (Levant, in press).
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& Bell, D. (1992). Language, cultural and psychological
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the United States, 1990 census of the population. Washington,
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well-being of America's children and youth: 1996. Washington,
DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
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health services for refugees. DHHS Publication No. [ADM] 91-
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acculturative stress among refugees: Application of
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632-641.
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cultural context of aging, 2nd Edition, New York: Greenwood
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L. L. Lee & N. Zane (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American
Psychology, Vol. I, pp 83-136. Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Publications.
______
The Protection of Children During Immigration Enforcement Actions:
Lessons From Recent Large Scale Worksite Raids
By Randy Capps, Rosa Maria Castaneda, Ajay Chaudry and Robert Santos,
The Urban Institute
There are now an estimated 12 million migrants living in the United
States without legal authorization. Recent large scale migrations to
the United States--particularly from Mexico and Central America--have
brought to light the incapacity of the country's current immigration
system to adequately address this growing problem. While there is some
consensus that current immigration policies should be revised, there is
a lack of political consensus about how to do so--especially regarding
whether the unauthorized migrants should be allowed to remain in the
country. This unsettled policy environment has contributed to an
increasingly hostile social and political climate for unauthorized
migrants, including stepped up enforcement of immigration laws by U.S.
government authorities.
There are about 5 million U.S. children who live with at least one
unauthorized parent, and in the current enforcement climate, these
children are increasingly vulnerable. Researchers at the Urban
Institute have been focusing on the health, well-being and social
rights of children in U.S. immigrant families over the past several
years. In a recent study we described the experiences of some of the
most vulnerable children--those with parents arrested in U.S.
immigration raids. We also made recommendations on how the U.S. federal
government, state and local government agencies, civil society, and
migrants' home country consulates could work to protect children in
these troubling circumstances.
2007 Urban Institute Study of Worksite Raids
During Spring 2007 Urban Institute researchers visited three
locations where the U.S. governments' Immigrant and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) agency had arrested large numbers of unauthorized migrants
working in manufacturing plants. We visited New Bedford, Massachusetts;
Greeley, Colorado; and Grand Island, Nebraska, between two and six
months after the raids took place. In each of these sites, we spoke
with arrested immigrants, their family members, consular staff,
immigration lawyers, public and private service providers, and others
in the community. The research focused on the raids' short-term impacts
on families with children.
Across the three sites, for every two persons arrested, about one
child was directly affected. Altogether, 900 migrants were arrested,
including parents of over 500 children. Two-thirds of these children
are U.S. citizens by birthright. The majority of children in these
sites were also young--two thirds were ages 10 or under; almost three-
quarters of the children affected in New Bedford were age five or
under. Most children lived with both parents prior to the raids.
In New Bedford, most of those arrested were Central Americans--the
largest group from Guatemala's Maya Kiche people. Many had fled
Guatemala's poverty and civil unrest. Most were young families, and in
some cases, those arrested were single parents. In Greeley and Grand
Island most arrested migrants were from Mexico, but there were also a
significant number from Guatemala.
Consequences of the Raids for Migrant Parents
According to lawyers and consular officials interviewed for the
study, a large number of arrestees were deported within a few days, in
some cases without contact with families, lawyers or home country
consulates. Mexican migrants were more likely than those from Central
America to sign ``voluntary'' departure papers because they knew they
would be deported to the U.S.-Mexico border. For instance in Greeley,
over 100 arrested migrants were deported to the Arizona-Sonora border
within 48 hours, before the Mexican Consulate could reach them.
Other arrestees were held in detention for days or weeks, and in a
few cases there were still people in detention when we visited two of
the sites six months after the raids. We were told that most
Guatemalans appealed their deportation. Because of dire home country
conditions, they attempted to remain in the United States as long as
possible.
Most long-term detainees were moved out of the state in which they
were arrested, for instance from Massachusetts to Texas, or Nebraska to
Georgia. Arrested migrants were not allowed to make phone calls on the
day of the raid, and those held for longer periods had difficulty
gaining access to telephones. As a result, it was difficult for them to
get into contact with their children and other family members.
In all three sites ICE released small numbers of migrants on the
day of the raids or within a few days because they were single parents
or parents of very young or sick children. ICE has stated that their
policy was one of ``humanitarian release'' in these cases, but at the
time of our research there was no written policy, and we found the
policy implemented inconsistently across the sites. Indeed for the New
Bedford raid, it required the intervention of the Governor of
Massachusetts, two U.S. Senators, and over 30 social workers to obtain
the release of 21 parents who fit the humanitarian criteria based on
ICE's statement but who instead had been transferred to Texas.
Some parents had also been afraid to divulge to ICE officers that
they had children for fear that the children could be taken away or
deported. They were more likely to reveal this information to consular
officials, lawyers or social workers.
Impacts on Migrants' Children
Our research focused on the short-term impacts of these three
worksite raids on children; follow-up work we are conducting will
examine longer-term outcomes. The children in the study experienced a
variety of challenges, including separation from parents, significant
economic hardship, emotional difficulties, isolation, and social
stigma.
Family Separation. Most of those arrested came from two-parent
homes, which are a particular strength of migrant families in the
United States. But since many parents were detained for a long period
of time, children went from living with two parents to living with one.
Many arrested immigrants were in detention for up to six months after
the raids, during which time the remaining parents often had difficulty
maintaining the household independently. For example, some spouses did
not have access to or familiarity with bank accounts or other financial
resources.
In other cases, both parents or a single parent was arrested, and
children wound up living with relatives, close acquaintances, or even
babysitters for a period of days, weeks or months. Many children felt
abandoned and could not understand why a parent had simply
``disappeared.''
Economic Hardship. Because many families lost the adult with the
better job, household incomes plunged. For instance, the meat-packing
jobs in Greeley and Grand Island paid more than $10 per hour, were
full- or overtime unionized jobs, and offered full benefits. With the
arrest of a working parent, families fell back on savings, and
assistance from social service agencies, churches, informal networks in
the community, and informal jobs.
For a while, these sources provided economic support while extended
families helped provide child care, thus keeping the majority of
children from living without supervision or becoming homeless. Other
than three adolescents who were themselves arrested at the New Bedford
work site, no children wound up being referred to child protective
services or taken into foster care.
Over time, however, these sources of support weakened and families
increasingly needed assistance from public or other private sources.
Most families received some form of community assistance for three or
four months after the raids. By about six months, most of the forms of
community assistance raised from private or public funds had expired.
Some families lost their homes, utilities were temporarily cut off for
some families, and many experienced difficulty affording food. Some
other families moved in with other families, which tended to lead to
crowded housing conditions.
Fear and Social Isolation. The raids created a climate of fear--
especially in Grand Island where ICE continued to conduct follow-up
raids in people's homes for over a week. (ICE returned to the worksites
to arrest a small number of migrants in both Greeley and Grand Island
more than a year after the initial raids.) Researchers spoke to
families that hid in their homes for days or weeks; some hid in closets
or basements. Many were fearful of seeking help--even at trusted
locations such as churches. Some would not open the doors for people
who brought food baskets and other assistance.
Social Stigma. Parents and caregivers struggled to explain to
children what had happened. It was especially difficult for younger
children to understand. One child said that his parent was ``arrested
for working.''
Some of the older children, mostly high school students, went to
the work sites and saw their parents taken away in handcuffs. Some
children faced hostility by teachers and other adults in the community,
or were taunted by their peers. Greeley was especially polarized, with
many native-born Americans expressing support of the raid, and many
migrants feeling increasingly isolated.
Children's Emotional and Mental Health. The separation, economic
hardship, fear, isolation, and stigma led to behavioral changes in
nearly all of the children, including children showing more aggressive
behavior, changes in sleep patterns and appetites, mood swings, and
prolonged bouts of crying. Mental health professionals that the
researchers interviewed spoke of elevated stress in children, signs of
depression and even suicidal thoughts. The researchers were unable to
interview a random sample of parents and could not document the
prevalence of mental health effects; however, we plan to return to
these raid sites to investigate ongoing mental health impacts on
children in more detail.
Community Responses
All three communities initiated intensive and broad response
efforts to assist immigrant families after the raids. The relief effort
was especially well organized in New Bedford, where the Massachusetts
Immigration and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) coalition led an effort to
bring together state and local government officials, representatives
from the Honduran and Maya Kiche communities, faith leaders,
foundations, community-based organizations and home country consulates
to plan the relief effort. Local foundations and individual
philanthropists raised a significant amount of money. In Greeley and
Grand Island, the employer--Swift and Company--provided financial
support for services. Assistance and services were mostly delivered
through local community-based organizations and churches. These groups
distributed assistance to help families cover the cost of rent, food,
utilities, clothing and diapers for kids, and other necessities.
Public health and social service agencies also assisted families,
though their roles varied substantially across the three sites. The New
Bedford city government was very supportive of families in need, and
Massachusetts DSS social workers were involved in linking parents with
children and distributing relief. In Greeley, however, a state law had
been implemented just before the raid that many respondents said
deterred migrants from seeking public assistance. The state law
requires parent identification for receipt of public services and the
reporting of unauthorized migrants to ICE, and setting jail time and
other penalties for presentation of fraudulent documents. There was a
sign posted in the local social services office about this law.
In all three sites, public assistance through cash welfare, food
assistance, and health coverage was limited to U.S. citizens and legal
residents. Most adults did not qualify, and many families were afraid
to apply for those government programs for which their U.S. citizen
children qualified.
Churches emerged as central distribution points for relief because
they generally had a trusting relationship with immigrant families. In
all three sites, public agencies and nonprofit service providers
stationed their staff at churches. Staff from home country consulates
also stationed themselves at churches and participated in meetings
there with the local public and private service providers. Many
religious and community leaders went door-to-door to provide
assistance.
Finally, the public schools played important roles in protecting
children. The Grand Island public schools had developed a plan in
advance of the raid. They also made public statements that they would
not allow immigration enforcement agents to come to the schools and
arrest children or their parents. The public schools in all three sites
made efforts to ensure that no children were dropped off by buses to
empty homes, and even kept teachers and classrooms available for
students who would need to be picked up later than usual. In the end,
only a few of the older children in our study went home from school to
empty homes.
Conclusions and Recommendations for Protecting Migrants' Children
Children are among the most vulnerable members of society, and the
United States--like most other nations--has developed systems to
protect them. These systems are designed to meet children's basic needs
such as food, shelter and health care, and to keep them safe from
psychological and physical harm. Yet, these systems cannot replace
parents when they are taken away from children.
In the increasingly complex environment of international migration,
it is essential that systems be developed to protect migrants'
children. These systems should ensure that children are not
unnecessarily separated from parents on account of migration or
repatriation, and that children remain in safe and economically secure
environments. Cooperation between receiving countries such as the
United States and sending countries such as Mexico and Guatemala is an
important element of protection, as displayed in the central role that
Mexican and Guatemalan Consulates played in the aftermath of the raids
we studied. But ultimately the U.S. government must take responsibility
for the well-being of all children living within our borders.
Aside from a general call for the protection of children during
immigration enforcement operations, the report offers some specific
recommendations:
The U.S. Congress and the Department of Homeland
Security's Office of Inspector General should provide oversight of
immigration enforcement activities to ensure that children are
protected.
ICE should work on the presumption that there will always
be children--generally very young children--affected by raids. ICE
should develop consistent, written policies for parents' release--
single parents and other primary caregivers should be released on the
same day of any enforcement action. These guidelines should apply to
all enforcement activities, not only those of a certain type or scale.
ICE should assume many parents will not divulge they have
children, so the agency should allow access to intermediaries such as
consular officials, lawyers, and social workers.
ICE should allow contact between arrested migrants and
their families by providing access to working telephones at reasonable
cost, and not moving parents to remote detention facilities, where it
is more difficult for them to contact family members.
Schools should develop systems to help ensure that
children have a safe place to go in the event of a raid, and to reduce
the risk that children will be left without adult supervision.
Social service agencies should prepare to respond to
immigration raids and develop outreach plans. Assistance may need to be
provided for months (up to six months in our study sites), until
parents are released and their cases are resolved.
Because religious institutions are trusted, they should be
considered central points for assistance and outreach to families.
Consulates and social service providers should coordinate assistance
with churches and other religious institutions.
Immigrant parents and other relatives, friends, and
community leaders, and service providers should develop plans in the
event of arrests (e.g., school pick up) and assemble children's
documents.
Consulates should work with immigrant families and
communities to help them develop these plans and assemble such
documents in advance of a raid, or if necessary, following one.
Enforcement Actions since the Release of Our 2007 Report
ICE raids on worksites and other locations have continued at a
rapid pace since our report was released in October 2007, and have
occurred all over the country. There have been two large scale raids
thus far in 2008: one with over 300 arrests in five different Pilgrim's
Pride poultry processing plants in Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas and West
Virginia during April, and a second with almost 400 arrests at a single
meat processing plant in Iowa during May. Manufacturing plants have
also been raided in California, Pennsylvania, and Utah. There have also
been numerous smaller scale arrests: for example, in one operation
targeting a cleaning and grounds maintenance contractor, almost 200
immigrants were arrested in more than 64 locations in 18 states and the
District of Columbia.
In November 2007, just after the release of our report, ICE issued
guidelines concerning the treatment of parents after arrest and the
safeguarding of their children. These guidelines partially address some
of the recommendations from our original report, but are limited to
worksite operations of 150 or more arrests, and other operations at the
discretion of the Assistant Secretary. Among other things, the
guidelines suggest that single parents or other primary caregivers be
released on the same day as the raids; that parents be allowed to
contact their families by telephone and be given access to social
services workers (either federal, state or local); and that parents not
be moved to remote detention facilities from which it would be
difficult to contact their families.
The Urban Institute has received follow-on funding from several
foundations to investigate the long-term impacts of immigration raids
on children. For this study we plan to return to some of our 2007 study
sites, and to go to some of the newer sites with both large-scale and
smaller-scale raids. We plan to investigate worksite raids as well as
raids on homes and other locations. Key questions include how ICE
conducts raids and whether procedures are in accordance with ICE's
guidelines; how communities are responding to the raids; and short- and
longer-term impacts on children separated from their parents--
particularly in terms of their academic performance, and emotional and
economic well-being.
We expect to release findings from this next phase of research in
late 2008 or early 2009. In the meantime, we sincerely hope that the
Congress will further investigate enforcement activities by ICE and
provide oversight of future operations. We also hope that at some point
in the near future the Congress will consider strengthening protections
for children with unauthorized parents in U.S. immigration law.
Randy Capps is a Senior Research Associate at The Urban Institute
in Washington DC. Rosa Maria Castaneda is a Research Associate at the
Urban Institute. Ajay Chaudry is the Director of the Labor, Human
Services and Population Center at the Urban Institute. Robert Santos is
a Senior Methodologist at the Urban Institute. The report ``Paying the
Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children'' can be
found at http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411566--immigration--
raids.pdf. This study was sponsored by the National Council of La Raza,
with support from Atlantic Philanthropies and the Annie E. Casey
Foundation. Ongoing Urban Institute research on this topic is being
supported by the Foundation for Child Development, Peppercorn
Foundation, and the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation.
______
------
American Psychological Association (APA) Factsheet
Background
The American Psychological Association (APA) is cognizant of
ongoing concerns relating to the impact of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) raids. ICE raids are a method of enforcement of
United States immigration laws through the detention of undocumented
immigrants who are then placed into removal proceedings. These ICE
raids have resulted in the involuntary separation of children from
parents/caregivers indicted for violating immigration laws. The
potential implication of these situations can result in an adverse
impact on the family unit, and can also have a detrimental effect on
childhood development (Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, & Santos, 2007;
Communique, 2007).
Findings
Nationwide, approximately five million children currently
have at least one undocumented parent (Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, &
Santos, 2007).
In 2005, the ratio of children to undocumented adults was
53 percent, meaning that the number of children affected by ICE raids
would equate to half (or more when multiple children are affected in
each family) the number of detained adults (Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry,
& Santos, 2007).
While the United States continues to receive great
benefits from immigrants' productivity, innovation, and income
(Immigrants and Health Coverage: A Primer, 2004; Immigration Policy
Center (IPC), 2007), many immigrants encounter employee discrimination
and are coerced into waiving their rights subsequent to ICE raids
(National Immigration Forum, 2007).
Workplace arrests of undocumented parents/caregivers place
children and adolescents at-risk of family separation, psychological
and economic distress, poor health, and developmental delays (Capps,
Fix, Ost, Reardon-Anderson, & Passel, 2005; Capps and Fortuny, 2006;
Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, & Santos, 2007; Communique, 2007; Cooper,
Masi, Dababnah, Aratani, & Knitzer, 2007).
Infants, toddlers, and preschoolers' development can be
negatively impacted by workplace arrests due to lack of caregivers
attending to their biological needs (i.e., breastfeeding, medication)
while parents/caregivers are in detention (Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, &
Santos, 2007).
Rights and protections afforded by U.S. citizenship
status, including access to social services and supports appear remiss
for children who are U.S. born citizens of undocumented immigrants.
Children in these ``mixed-status'' families are particularly vulnerable
under current immigration enforcement efforts such as ICE raids and can
lead to potential long-lasting negative impacts in their growth and
development, health and education (Children of Immigrants: Facts and
Figures, 2006; Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, & Santos, 2007; Communique,
2007).
The majority of young children of immigrants (93 percent)
are citizens living in ``mixed-status'' families (Capps, Fix, Ost,
Reardon-Anderson, & Passel, 2005).
Often, immigrants endure challenging conditions and spend
considerable amounts of time away from their families (Communique,
2007; National Immigration Forum, 2007) while in detention coupled with
uncertainty about their future (Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, & Santos,
2007).
Reported use of excessive physical force against parents/
caregivers during raids can result in an adverse psychological impact
on children and adolescents (Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, & Santos,
2007).
Many immigrants do not disclose to ICE that they are
parents/caregivers due to anxiety of having their child arrested or
placed into foster care, which inevitably extends the period of family
separation (Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, & Santos, 2007).
Economic and psychological stress coupled with the stigma
attached to being arrested during an ICE raid can have a profound
negative impact on the health, well-being and stability of families
(Capps, Castaneda, Chaudry, & Santos, 2007).
Immigrant children and adolescents' academic performance
and/or academic matriculation are often interrupted (Reardon-Anderson,
Capps, & Fix, 2002; Communique, 2007) subsequent to ICE raids (Capps,
Castaneda, Chaudry, & Santos, 2007).
Recommendations
The American Psychological Association recommends:
Public policies that increase the availability of and
access to educational, health, mental health, and social services for
immigrant children, youth, and families.
Measures to meet basic biological needs of vulnerable
children such as breastfeeding infants and caretaking of special needs
children.
Detention of immigrants in nearby facilities to preserve
the family unit.
Conditions of detention should maintain a facilitative
stance, with a standard process that includes access to telephones,
medical and psychological treatment, and basic legal counsel and legal
services.
Similar to paragraph (1) of section 1182 (a) of the
Immigration and Nationality Act (U.S.C.: 8 Chapter 12 Subchapter II
Part IV 1222), services of interpreters should also be provided for
undocumented individuals during ICE raids.
Clarification of eligibility for social and health
services for mixed-status families.
Provision of effective coordination with social services
to facilitate child and family needs.
Develop and implement emergency contact measures that
permit children to have proper adult supervision (i.e., parent seeking
custody, relative, legal guardian) subsequent to raids.
Have public agencies extend services (i.e., Food Stamp
Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Women,
Infants, and Children (WIC) Program to children in undocumented
families to facilitate their growth and development while their
parents/caregivers are in custody.
Placement procedures of unaccompanied undocumented
children with relatives in the United States as indicated in paragraph
(4), section 103(a)(2), and section 462(b)(2) of the Homeland Security
Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(b)(2)) be applicable to children who are
United States-born citizens in undocumented families and undocumented
children without immediate relatives in the United States until family
reunification is possible.
Consistent with the Immigration and Nationality Act (Sec.
212(a)(5)(A)), APA urges protection against employers taking advantage
of raids by retaliating against immigrant workers for exercising their
workplace rights.
In order to ensure that our nation and all those impacted
by child traumatic stress receive the critical resources, APA strongly
urges Congress to appropriate full funding for the National Child
Traumatic Stress Initiative at the originally authorized level of $50
million for Fiscal Year 2009.
For more information, please contact Day Williams Al-Mohamed, J.D.,
in the Public Interest Government Relations Office at (202) 336-6061 or
[email protected].
references
APA Resolution on Immigrant Children, Youth, and Families (1998).
Retrieved January 14, 2008, from http://www.apa.org/pi/cyf/
res--imm.html.
Capps, R., Fix, M., Ost, J., Reardon-Anderson, J., & Passel, J.S.
(2005). The health and well-being of young children of
immigrants (Immigrant families and workers: Facts and
perspectives). Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
Capps, R. and Fortuny, K. (2006). Immigration and child and family
policy (Paper 3 Prepared for the Urban Institute and Child
Trends Roundtable on Children in Low-Income Families).
Capps, R., Castaneda, R.M., Chaudry, A., & Santos, R. (2007). Paying
the price: The impact of immigration raids on America's
children. A Report by The Urban Institute. For the National
Council of La Raza. Washington, DC.
Children of Immigrants: Facts and Figures. (2006). Office of Public
Affairs Fact Sheet. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
Communique (2007). Psychological perspectives on immigration [Special
section]. Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs-Public Interest
Directorate. Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.
Cooper, J.L., Masi, R., Dababnah, S., Aratani, Y., & Knitzer, J.
(2007). Strengthening policies to support children, youth, and
families who experience trauma (Unclaimed children revisited:
Working paper no. 2). National Center for Children in Poverty.
Columbia University. Mailman School of Public Health.
Immigrants and health coverage: A primer. (2004, June). Retrieved
November 27, 2007, from http://www.kff.org/uninsured/
loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=44857.
Immigration Policy Center (IPC). (2007, November). The Economic Impact
of Immigration. Retrieved December 8, 2007 from http://
www.ailf.org/ipc/ipc--index.asp.
National Immigration Forum. (2007). Backgrounder: Comprehensive reform
of our immigration laws. Washington, DC.
Reardon-Anderson, J., Capps, R., & Fix, M. (2002). The health and well-
being of children in immigrant families (Policy Brief B-52).
Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Assessing the New Federalism.
______
Prepared Statement of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and
Bishop Steven Ullestad, Northeastern Iowa Synod of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America
We are deeply concerned about the impact of immigration enforcement
raids on children and families. A prime example of that impact can be
seen in the aftermath of an enforcement raid by agents of the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS), on May 12, 2008 in Postville, Iowa. Bishop
Ullestad attended high school in Postville, where his father served as
pastor.
ELCA Designated Postville, Iowa, a Domestic Disaster
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) has designated
Postville as a domestic disaster, responding to the emotional trauma
experienced by the community. This is the first time that the ELCA has
designated an immigration matter a domestic disaster reckoning that the
size and nature of the impact and trauma on children, families and the
community is comparable to that of a natural disaster. St. Bridget's
Catholic Church is the community crisis response center in Postville.
Volunteers from the local St. Paul Lutheran Church and nearby Luther
College and Wartburg College are contributing to the community wide
legal, social services and pastoral response.
Postville, Iowa, has been a model community in many ways. It
illustrates the positive role that immigration can have in revitalizing
a local economy and the capacity of very diverse groups to live
together in community. The town's population had declined to 800. Then
Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn, N.Y., moved to Iowa and opened a kosher
meat processing plant. With the subsequent migration of hundreds of
immigrant workers from Guatemala, Mexico, Israel and Ukraine, the town
was revitalized and the population tripled to nearly 2,300.
On May 12, 2008, Postville became a different kind of poster child.
It now exemplifies the humanitarian and economic cost of our broken
immigration system. In the largest raid of its kind in U.S. history,
dozens of ICE agents descended upon Agriprocessors, the kosher meat
processing plant, as two helicopters hovered outside. ICE arrested at
least 313 men and 76 women and bused them to the Cattle Congress in
nearby Waterloo, Iowa, for initial processing.
`Don't Take My Friends Away'
The impact on those arrested, their children and families, and the
whole community is immediate and devastating. Adults were immediately
separated from their children and families and detained. Parents,
teachers, and Lutheran and other volunteers report disturbing signs of
the impact. Following the raid, an estimated 65 percent of the Latino
high school students and 90 percent of Latino students overall were
absent from class. Some elementary classes shrunk from 25 children to
six. One teacher estimates that at least 150 students are without one
or both parents. Children wonder whether or when they will ever again
see their arrested parent or parents. Children of U.S. citizen parents
are also very traumatized by the action. These children are having
nightmares about their own parents being taken away and they are
creating drawings of the intervention with the words ``Don't take my
friends away.'' So far, only about a quarter of those in detention have
been released to their families. Beyond the children, the entire town
feels the impact. Nearly half of the workers in the town's main
industry are detained; over 10 percent of the town's total population.
Those who were arrested were active members of the community: shopping
in Postville businesses, renting property or buying houses, attending
the school functions for their children, and being good neighbors.
People in Postville are asking if our government gave any consideration
to the impact on this small town before they took this action. There
simply must be a more humane way of addressing the concerns about
undocumented workers. Most of the people picked up in the raid had
charges related to using false identification to work. We do not
condone people using false identification, but instead of arresting
people, putting children at risk, tearing families apart and hurting
local economies, we need to create viable means for hard workers to get
documented. With the current system, there is a strong pull factor
created because of the need for workers in the United States, and yet
there are an extremely limited number of visas available. The impact on
Postville, Iowa, underscores the need for comprehensive reform of
immigration policy. The immigration law needs to protect children and
unite families, safeguard human rights and worker rights, enable
marginalized undocumented people to come out of the shadows and to live
without fear, and provide a path to permanence for those who have put
down roots. In Postville children are being put at risk and families
are being divided, there are serious allegations of workplace abuse,
families are being driven even further into the shadows, and people
with deep roots here are being detained and deported instead of
integrated into the community. We need to fix the broken system.
Protection of Children and Families Must Be Primary in Any Enforcement
Actions
Meanwhile, we urge Congress to exercise rigorous oversight of
workplace raids to assure that ICE does the following: 1) prioritizes
and tailors the use of raids so that while addressing concerns of
national security and/or danger to the community, ICE mitigates the
sociological and economic impact, and emotional trauma on the
community; 2) communicates and works closely with the community social
service and pastoral care workers to mitigate the traumatic impact on
children, families and the community; 3) facilitates access to legal
counsel; 4) does not transfer people out of the area, but instead
releases them from custody to go through their hearings outside of
detention, and 5) develops streamlined communication mechanisms that
allow family members and lawyers to locate those in detention. Thank
you for the opportunity to submit this testimony.
______
May 27, 2008.
Hon. George Miller, Chairman,
Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Washington,
DC.
Dear Chairman Miller: On behalf of the National Education
Association's (NEA) 3.2 million members, we would like to submit the
following comments for the record in conjunction with the recent
Workforce Protections Subcommittee Hearing: ``ICE Workplace Raids:
Their Impact on U.S. Children, Families, and Communities.'' We thank
the Subcommittee for holding a hearing on this important issue.
NEA members have long been concerned about the impact of
immigration raids on children and staff in public schools. We have been
working closely with our affiliates and other groups to ensure that
states and school districts adopt and vigorously enforce policies that
protect the right of undocumented immigrant children and the children
of undocumented immigrant parents to obtain a free public education in
a safe and supportive environment.
Recent enforcement efforts by the federal Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency (ICE) have resulted in the arrest, confinement, and
deportation of many undocumented workers. Unfortunately, these raids
have created challenges for the children left behind and the public
schools they attend. For example:
The raids have resulted in a significant drop in school
attendance. School administrators report that children of parents
affected by the raids missed between one-third and one-half of the week
following a raid.
Although attendance increases within two or three weeks,
the initial absenteeism can have a long-term negative impact. A
longitudinal study conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation indicates
that school absence in kindergarten is associated with lower academic
performance in first grade among all children, and more significantly
for English Language Learners and poor children. The longer term
relationship to academic performance depends upon income. Research
indicates that chronic absence in kindergarten is associated with low
fifth grade achievement for poor children but not their better-off
peers.
Teachers and school officials report that some of the
children displayed emotional trauma signs of distress upon their return
to school particularly if their parents, relatives, or acquaintance
were directly involved in the raid. In such instances, school personnel
are reporting difficulty in maintaining the students' attention on
class work.
NEA members are working with parents and school administrators to
develop systems to help ensure a safe place for children in the event
of a raid. We are also working to identify and provide the additional
academic and counseling services necessary to address the disruption
the children are likely to experience.
NEA supports the Families First Enforcement Act (H.R. 3980)
introduced by Congresswoman Solis (D-CA). This legislation will ensure
that ICE raids are humane and include protections for children.
Specifically, the bill:
Requires ICE to afford access to state social service
agencies to screen and interview detainees;
Ensures that when possible those who have been detained
are within the jurisdiction of the local ICE field office; and
Addresses humanitarian needs of pregnant women, nursing
mothers, caretakers of special needs children and sole caretakers of
minor children.
Companion legislation (S. 2074) has been introduced in the Senate
by Senator Kerry (D-MA). Neither the House nor Senate Judiciary
Committee has taken any action on these bills.
We thank you again for holding a hearing on these very important
issues. We look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure
maximum protection for children impacted by ICE raids.
Sincerely,
Diane Shust,
Manager of Federal Advocacy.
Randall Moody,
Director of Government Relations.
______
[Additional submissions of Mr. Wilson follow:]
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: FY07 Accomplishments
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest
investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has
achieved extraordinary results in its mission to ensure a safer, more
secure America. Fiscal year 2007 (FY07) marked a break-out year for the
agency as ICE set new enforcement records and launched several new
initiatives to better fulfill its law enforcement mission. As a result,
ICE can point to an unparalleled record of success in the last fiscal
year.
The following is a selection of law enforcement and homeland
security milestones ICE achieved in FY07.
Streamlining and Enhancing Immigration Enforcement
ICE implemented a comprehensive interior enforcement
strategy focused on more efficiently processing apprehended illegal
aliens and reducing the numbers of criminal and fugitive aliens in the
United States. In FY07, ICE removed a record 276,912 illegal aliens,
including voluntary removals, from the United States.
Under the Secure Border Initiative, ICE decreased
processing time for aliens in expedited removal cases--from
apprehension to removal--to approximately 19 days. This was
accomplished by bringing greater efficiency to the immigration removal
process through expanded detention capacity, greater use of expedited
removal authority and increased use of the Justice Prisoner and Alien
Transportation System (JPATS) for repatriating illegal aliens to their
countries of origin.
For the first time, ICE's Detention Enforcement and
Processing Offenders by Remote Technology (DEPORT) Center made it
possible to identify and screen criminal aliens incarcerated in federal
prisons nationwide to ensure they are processed for removal from the
United States upon the completion of their sentences. Launched in
fiscal year 2006, the DEPORT Center was screening criminal aliens at
all 114 federal prison facilities by the end of FY07, with 11,292
charging documents issued in FY07 to criminal aliens housed in federal
prisons.
ICE's Criminal Alien Program, which screens aliens in
prison to ensure that they are removed from the United States upon the
completion of their sentences, initiated removal proceedings against
164,296 criminal aliens.
ICE targeted the infrastructure that supports the business
of illegal immigration, including document and immigration benefit
fraud, launching six new Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces in
cities nationwide. In FY07, ICE initiated a total of 1,309 document and
benefit fraud investigations leading to a record 1,531 arrests and
1,178 convictions.
Targeting Fugitive Aliens
In the last two years, ICE quadrupled the number of
Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs): special teams dedicated to
identifying, locating and arresting fugitive aliens.These teams have
increased from 18 in FY05 to 50 in FY06 and 75 in FY07. As a result,
ICE eliminated more than 100,000 fugitive alien cases in FY07 and
reduced the backlog of fugitive cases for the first time in history.
ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC), a
nationwide clearinghouse for information on fugitive cases, continued
to make the processing of data on fugitive cases more effective. In
FY07, the FOSC resolved more than 73,000 open fugitive cases, allowing
ICE to target those fugitives who are still at large.
Strengthening Worksite Enforcement
ICE's more aggressive worksite enforcement strategy
targeted the ``jobs magnet'' that attracts illegal aliens seeking
employment in the U.S. In FY07, ICE dramatically increased penalties
against employers whose hiring processes violate the law, securing
fines and judgments of more than $30 million while making 863 criminal
arrests and 4,077 administrative arrests.
The ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers
(IMAGE) program, announced in FY06 as a voluntary initiative to help
employers ensure they are complying with hiring laws, welcomed nine
charter members in FY07. For the future, ICE will be working to expand
the program by recruiting business leaders from a wide range of
industries that are typically susceptible to high levels of
unauthorized employment.
Tracking and Arresting Visa Violators
ICE investigators worked to ensure compliance with the
nation's immigration laws among student and exchange visitors and other
non-immigrant visitors to the United States.Thanks to data obtained
from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the
electronic system for managing student and exchange student visas, ICE
arrested 1,558 high-risk non-immigrant status violators in FY07.
The SEVIS program continued to ensure integrity in the
system for administering student and exchange student visas, with more
than 917,647 non-immigrant students and visitors from nations around
the world registered, along with 126,837 of their dependents.
Targeting Financial Crime and Export Violations
ICE investigated and dismantled the schemes that criminal
and terrorist organizations use to earn, move and store illicit funding
for their operations. In FY07, ICE launched 3,069 financial
investigations, resulting in significant increases in arrests.
ICE's Cornerstone initiative developed working
partnerships and information-sharing strategies with private industry
to target exploitation of U.S. financial systems by criminal
organizations. In FY07, Cornerstone liaisons conducted more than 1,250
outreach presentations to over 20,500 industry representatives.
ICE's Shield America program continues to achieve new
successes in intercepting illegal exports of weapons, military
equipment and sensitive technology, significantly increasing results
over the previous fiscal year. In FY07, ICE made 188 arrests and
secured 127 convictions in these national security investigations.
ICE worked with international partners in law enforcement
to target money laundering, bulk cash smuggling and cross-border trade
fraud. In FY07, ICE Trade Transparency Units (TTUs) provided case
support and coordination in transnational investigations and ICE agents
provided training in combating cash smuggling schemes to more than 700
international partners. A new TTU was established in Paraguay, the
fourth South American nation to host an TTU.
ICE's Operation Firewall, targeting criminal organizations
involved in bulk cash smuggling over international borders, led to the
seizure of more than $49.5 million in U.S. currency and financial
instruments along with 142 arrests. Since its launch in 2005, Operation
Firewall has realized seizures of more than $100 million and 260
arrests.
ICE's intellectual property rights investigations
continued to combat the flow of counterfeit goods and products. In
FY07, ICE made 235 arrests and secured 117 convictions in intellectual
property rights fraud cases.
ICE targeted the flow of precious cultural and historical
artifacts across international borders and repatriated seized artifacts
to their countries of origin. In FY07, ICE launched 51 cultural
property investigations and made 15 seizures of high-value items.
A new ICE initiative targeted unlicensed money services
businesses that illegally transfer funds. In FY07, ICE investigations
of yielded 39 arrests, 30 convictions and seizures of more than $7.9
million.
Stemming the Flow of Illegal Drugs
ICE continued efforts to combat drug smuggling
organizations, resulting in significant seizures in FY07. ICE
investigations led to seizures of 241,967 pounds of cocaine, 4,331
pounds of heroin, 2,731 pounds of methamphetamine and 1.3 million
pounds of marijuana. Additionally, ICE drug investigations led to 8,920
arrests and 5,539 convictions of individuals associated with narcotic
violations.
ICE leads the ``Tunnel Task Force'' for investigations of
cross-border tunnels used by criminal organizations to smuggle
narcotics and other goods into the United States from Mexico. Since
2003, 26 tunnels have been discovered in the San Diego area alone.
Combating Human Trafficking
ICE turned its combined legal authorities on the dangerous
human traffickers who exploit the vulnerable, implementing a new
Trafficking in Persons strategy in FY07 to emphasize investigation and
prosecution of traffickers while providing services to assist
trafficking victims. In FY07, ICE human trafficking investigations led
to 164 arrests and 91 convictions.
Targeting Transnational Gangs and Sexual Predators
ICE's Operation Community Shield anti-gang initiative
targeted violent transnational gangs, with results bolstered by an
enforcement surge in the summer of 2007. In FY07, ICE arrested a record
3,302 gang members and associates in cities nationwide.
ICE's Operation Predator targeted sexual predators who
prey on children, and arrests in the four-year old program topped
10,000 in June 2007, with more than 5,500 having been removed from the
United States.
Securing Federal Facilities
ICE's Federal Protective Service (FPS) was given lead
responsibility for securing government facilities under the National
Infrastructure Protection Plan. In FY07, ICE launched a major mission
refinement effort for FPS to focus on enhancing security at government
facilities, with a greater emphasis on risk-based security planning.
ICE's FPS security and law enforcement officers -provided
services at approximately 9,000 federal facilities nationwide. In FY07,
ICE personnel were responsible for approximately 3,000 citations and
arrests and intercepted roughly 760,000 prohibited items, including
knives and firearms, from being brought into federal facilities.
Enhancing Intelligence Gathering and Analysis
ICE completed a reorganization of intelligence functions
to better serve the agency's national security and immigration
enforcement mission, including the establishment of an International
Intelligence Unit to support foreign operations and a new National
Initiatives Support Unit to consolidate intelligence services such as
geospatial analysis, document exploitation and visual analysis.
Working with Law Enforcement Partners
ICE expanded its partnerships with state and local law
enforcement agencies in a force multiplier approach to fighting
criminal activity. In FY07, the ICE ACCESS program was launched as a
collaborative effort to identify key crime-fighting needs and to
develop solution action plans.
ICE expanded the 287(g) program used to train state and
local officers in limited immigration enforcement duties. In FY07, ICE
trained 426 state and local officers under the program, bringing the
total to 597 officers trained in 33 departments nationwide.
ICE's Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) continued to
serve as the national point of contact for providing immigration status
and identity information on suspects detained by federal, state and
local officers in the field. In FY07, the LESC responded to a record
728,243 requests for information from law enforcement officials.
ICE's Forensic Document Laboratory (FDL) continued to
provide analysis and training to a wide variety of agencies in the
effort to combat travel and identity document fraud. In FY07, FDL
trained 3,810 federal, state and local officials in document analysis
techniques and responded to 4,382 requests for analysis from the field.
ICE increased its commitment to securing the border by
boosting the number of Border Enforcement Security Task Forces
(BEST).These task forces seek to address cross-border violence through
shared intelligence and coordinated law enforcement operations. In
FY07, the task forces were responsible for 526 criminal arrests and
1,093 administrative arrests, along with seizures of $2.5 million in
cash and significant amounts of narcotics and weapons.
ICE launched the Web-based Electronic Travel Document
(eTD) program that enables the electronic transfer of travel document
and identity information between ICE and participating foreign
governments. Since its launch in January 2007 over 27,710 travel
documents have been issued, and both costs and time for issuance,
transportation, shipping, and detention and removal have been reduced.
The program is slated for expansion in fiscal year 2008.
Aggressive Litigation and Prosecution
ICE's team of attorneys provided legal support and
training while representing the agency in administrative and federal
courts. In FY07, ICE attorneys participated in the completion of
365,851 cases before immigration courts, including 323,845 removal
cases.
Improved Management and Mission Support
ICE continued to improve management and mission support
functions. Among the achievements in these fields, the agency increased
its workforce by more than 10 percent, enhanced information technology
systems, expanded training and development opportunities, and improved
contracting and acquisitions management.
ICE's improved financial management under a multiyear
financial action plan launched in the previous fiscal year led to the
agency receiving the DHS Award of Excellence in FY07 as ICE
strengthened internal controls, auditability of financial records and
oversight.
The ICE Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Office, facing a
significant backlog of FOIA requests, succeeded in reducing the backlog
by 97 percent, earning praise from DHS leadership and demonstrating the
agency's commitment to openness and transparency.
______
ICE Fact Sheets, March 2007
Detention and Removal Operations: Alternatives to Detention
Every year the Department of Homeland Security arrests over 1.6
million aliens. Successful enforcement strategies and the requirement
to manage within Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE)
operational budget have resulted in a situation where the Office of
Detention and Removal (DRO) has exceeded its funded bed space level and
therefore must apply rigorous criteria to determine which apprehended
aliens are detained.
National security and public safety are ICE's first priorities. ICE
detains all aliens who pose a threat to community safety or national
security, and those required to be detained under the nation's
immigration laws. In order to address those priorities and restore
integrity to the nation's immigration system, while managing its
limited detention space, DRO utilizes alternatives to detention. Those
alternatives include release on an Order of Recognizance (ROR), release
on bond, release using electronic monitoring devices (EMD) and the
Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP).
In order to address those aliens who fail to appear in court or
fail to depart under the court's order, ICE has created the National
Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP). Designated NFOP Fugitive Operations
Teams are strategically deployed around the country to work solely on
arresting these immigration fugitives.
Release on an Order of Recognizance: An alien in
immigration proceedings is released from detention under certain
restrictions. These restrictions include regular reporting to DRO
officers and appearing at all immigration court proceedings. ROR is
usually used when an alien does not possess the financial resources to
post a bond, but do not pose a threat to the community or national
security. If the alien fails to appear for their hearing they will be
ordered deported and will be subject to mandatory detention when
apprehended.
An appearance bond: A more restrictive alternative than
ROR, the alien posts a bond of not less than $1,500 dollars, which the
alien forfeits if he or she fails to appear in court as required, or
upon any other demand by ICE.
Electronic Monitoring Devices: A new program to ensure
compliance with appearance at court and removal orders. Under this
program aliens awaiting immigration court hearings or removal wear
either a monitoring ankle bracelet or report by telephone to a case
manager. Originally available only at specific pilot sites, the EMD
program is now being implemented nationwide.
The Intensive Supervision Appearance Program: ISAP is a
pilot program that will only be available to aliens who are not subject
to mandatory detention; who are pending immigration court proceedings
or awaiting removal from the United States; are residing within the
managed area; and are not deemed a threat by the Department of Homeland
Security. ISAP is a voluntary program and all participants must agree
to comply with the conditions of their release. Case specialists are
then assigned a limited caseload of participants and are responsible
for monitoring those participants in the community by using tools such
as electronic monitoring (bracelets), home visits, work visits and
reporting by telephone. Case specialists will also assist participants
in obtaining pro-bono counsel for their hearings and help them to
receive other types of assistance to which they may be entitled. The
ISAP pilot has the capacity to supervise approximately 200 aliens in
each of nine cities: Baltimore, MD, Delray Beach, FL, Philadelphia, PA,
Miami, FL, St. Paul, MN, Denver, CO, Kansas City, MO, San Francisco,
CA, and Portland, OR.
______
Frequently Asked Questions About Worksite Enforcement
Why is worksite enforcement important?
Employment is a primary driving force behind illegal
immigration. By working with employers to ensure a legal workforce, ICE
is able to stem the tide of those who cross our borders illegally or
unlawfully remain in our country to work.
What's the harm of illegal aliens working in the U.S.?
Illegal aliens often turn to criminal activity: including
document fraud, Social Security fraud or identify theft, in order to
get jobs. Such crimes adversely affect the lives of U.S. citizens and
legal immigrants, and it can take years for victims to repair the
damage.
The demand for fraudulent documents created by illegal
aliens creates thriving criminal enterprises that supply them.
Every job taken by an illegal alien is a job taken from a
lawful U.S. worker.
Employers often exploit illegal aliens by ignoring worker
safety and wage laws.
Illegal aliens are easy targets for criminals who want to
use them to gain access to sensitive facilities or to move illegal
products.
How do businesses and communities suffer?
Responsible employers who seek to conduct their business
lawfully are put at an unfair disadvantage as they try to compete with
unscrupulous businesses. Such businesses gain a competitive edge by
paying illegal alien workers low wages.
How does ICE determine which employers to investigate?
ICE does not randomly target employers. All investigations
and arrests are based on specific intelligence obtained from a variety
of sources.
Why aren't more employers arrested and charged?
In 2007, more than 90 individuals in company supervisory
chains were criminally arrested for charges, including harboring
illegal aliens, knowingly hiring them or other criminal violations tied
to illegal immigration.
The presence of illegal aliens at a business does not
necessarily mean the employer is responsible. Developing sufficient
evidence against employers requires complex, white-collar crime
investigations that can take years to bear fruit.
ICE builds worksite investigations in stages.
For example:
After receiving information that illegal aliens may be
employed at a specific location, agents investigate to determine the
merits of that intelligence.
Once that intelligence is substantiated, ICE may conduct a
worksite enforcement operation, arresting employees and collecting
additional evidence such as computers and paperwork.
ICE investigators then comb through the data to determine
whether a business owner or managers are knowingly hiring illegal
aliens. In some cases investigators do not find such evidence.
After presenting evidence to federal prosecutors, ICE may
be authorized to arrest managers or company owners for criminal
violations.
What types of industries does ICE target?
No industry, regardless of size, type or location is
exempt from complying with the law.
ICE focuses on employers who are egregiously violating
immigration laws, especially when those violations can compromise our
nation's security.
How successful has ICE been in its worksite enforcement efforts?
In fiscal year 2007, ICE secured more than $30 million in
criminal fines, restitutions, and civil judgments in worksite
enforcement cases. We arrested 863 people in criminal cases and made
more than 4,000 administrative arrests. That is a tenfold increase over
just five years before.
The number of criminal and administrative arrests has
steadily increased over the past few years. Those arrested criminally
include a variety of persons--corporate officers, employers, managers,
contractors and facilitators. In criminal cases, ICE often pursues
charges of harboring illegal aliens, money laundering and/or knowingly
hiring illegal aliens. Harboring illegal aliens is a felony with a
potential 10-year prison sentence. Money laundering is a felony with a
potential 20-year prison sentence.
ICE has found these criminal sanctions to be a far greater
deterrent to illegal employment schemes than administrative fines.
These arrests also include illegal aliens charged with
criminal violations. Aliens have been charged with possession or sale
of fraudulent documents, identity theft, Social Security fraud or re-
entry after deportation.
Fiscal Year 2008 accomplishments so far (October 2007--May 2008):
As of May, ICE made more than 850 criminal arrests tied to
worksite enforcement investigations.
Of the 850 individuals criminally arrested, 75 are owners,
managers, supervisors or human resources employees facing charges
including harboring or knowingly hiring illegal aliens. The remaining
775 workers criminally arrested are facing charges including aggravated
identity theft and Social Security fraud.
ICE has also made more than 2,900 administrative arrests
for immigration violations during worksite enforcement operations.
What can employers do to help ensure they have a legal workforce?
The law is clear--employers have an affirmative obligation
to verify that their employees are legally able to work in the United
States.
ICE's goal is to help those companies that want to obey
the law and use our investigative and regulatory authority to stop
those companies that do not.
ICE seeks to create a culture of compliance by enlisting
responsible employers of every size and description in partnerships
designed to prevent the hiring of illegal aliens in the first place.
ICE's IMAGE Program Assists Employers
ICE unveiled the ICE Mutual Agreement between Government
and Employers (IMAGE) program in July 2006. ICE recognizes that the
majority of employers in this country want to comply with the nation's
immigration laws. Yet, every day employers are confronted with illegal
aliens attempting to secure jobs through fraudulent means, including
the use of counterfeit documents and stolen identities.
IMAGE fosters partnerships between ICE and businesses,
promoting the use of screening tools, best practices, and continuing
education to determine employment eligibility based on immigration
status.The program begins with a self-assessment of hiring practices
and helps uncover vulnerabilities to illegal activity that are related
to immigration status. Technical tools to screen Social Security
numbers and other information on job applicants and existing employees
are integrated with best practices to lead to a high level of assurance
that all of a participating business's employees are legally eligible
for employment.
______
[From ICE Fact Sheets, December 4, 2007]
ICE Fugitive Operations Program
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) established the
first Fugitive Operations Teams in 2003 to dramatically expand the
agency's efforts to locate, arrest, and remove fugitives from the
United States. An ICE fugitive is defined as an alien who has failed to
depart the United States based upon a final order of removal,
deportation, or exclusion; or who has failed to report to a Detention
and Removal Officer after receiving notice to do so.
ICE's Fugitive Operations Teams give top priority to cases
involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and community
safety, including members of transnational street gangs, child sex
offenders, and aliens with prior convictions for violent crimes. The
Fugitive Operations Team officers and agents utilize intelligence-based
information and leads to locate and arrest aliens who have been ordered
to leave the country by an immigration judge, but have failed to
comply.
The National Fugitive Operations Program is responsible for
reducing the fugitive alien population in the United States. ICE's
databases show the targeted enforcement strategy is paying off. Earlier
this year, the nation's fugitive alien population declined for the
first time. As of October 1, 2007, ICE's fugitive case backlog
consisted of less than 595,000 fugitive aliens which is approximately
38,000 fewer fugitives than the population recorded on October 1, 2006.
Much of the credit for those results can be attributed to the rapid
expansion of the program. When the initiative was launched in 2003,
there were eight fugitive operations teams nationwide. ICE met its goal
of deploying 75 teams by the end of this fiscal year; up from 52 teams
at the end of FY 2006.
The deployment of the new teams has resulted in a dramatic increase
in overall arrests. As the accompanying chart shows, the number of
arrests made by ICE Fugitive Operations Team officers and agents has
nearly doubled in the past year, exceeding 30,000 for the first time.
Last year, to further increase the efficiency of the Fugitive
Operations Teams, ICE established the Fugitive Operations Support
Center (FOSC) in Burlington, Vermont. The center aids with gathering
and analyzing file information and electronic data on fugitive cases
across the country. Since its inception, the center has disseminated
more than 150,000 case leads to Fugitive Operations Teams in the field.
This effort has also aided in reducing the reported number of existing
fugitives by reconciling records to eliminate those who have left the
country voluntarily, successfully adjusted their status, or were
discovered to be incarcerated and therefore no longer fugitives. This
accounts for the difference between the estimated decrease in fugitives
and the number of reported fugitive arrests.
ICE's National Fugitive Operations Program is just one facet of the
Department of Homeland Security's overarching strategy to secure
America's borders and reduce illegal migration. Given the success of
the fugitive operations effort, ICE is proposing to add six more
Fugitive Operations Teams in fiscal year 2008.
______
[Questions for the record submitted by Mr. Hare and their
responses follow:]
U.S. Congress,
Washington, DC, May 23, 2008.
Hon. James Spero, Acting Deputy Assistant Director,
Office of Investigations, Critical Infrastructure and Fraud,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Washington, DC.
Dear Assistant Director Spero: Thank you for testifying at the
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Workforce Protections Subcommittee Hearing on
``ICE Workplace Raids: Their Impact on U.S. Children, Families, and
Communitites.''
At last week's hearing, Congressman Hare wanted to follow up with
these questions:
1. There has been a longstanding policy, first established by the
INS in the 1990s, that immigration agents should refrain from
conducting enforcement actions in schools, places of worship, and
during funerals and other religious ceremonies. In 2004 the Department
of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') section
reaffirmed the INS policy and issued a CBP memorandum expressly stating
this reaffirmation. Does ICE follow this same INS policy?
If so, has ICE issued written policy/guidance stating this? If ICE
does not reaffirm the INS policy, please state what ICE's policy is
with respect to conducting enforcement actions in schools, places of
worship, and during funerals or other religious ceremonies. Does ICE
recognize any specific places or specific situations where enforcement
actions should be avoided?
2. In the enforcement action at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa
last week, ICE uncovered a number of underaged workers who were working
at the plant. Did ICE know that the Department of Labor had an ongoing
investigation into possible violations of labor laws including child
labor prior to the Agriprocessor's raid?
Were the ICE agents at the raid aware that the company had violated
child labor laws by employing underage workers at dangerous jobs inside
the plant? Was the DOL notified of the number of underaged workers you
detained? If not, why weren't they notified?
3. Do ICE agents get any training in terms of looking out for other
possible employer or employee violations inside a plant aside from
immigration violations?
4. ICE has protocol that allows some workers to be released for
humanitarian reasons. Are there other reasons for release like labor
violations, trafficking or anything else?
5. The ICE humanitarian protocols apply to worksite raids only.
What humanitarian protocols do ICE agents follow when conducting home
raids? Are all children encountered by ICE agents placed in foster
care? Do social workers from child welfare or child protective services
accompany ICE agents during home raids? If not, how does ICE determine
which children should be placed in foster care? If the parent(s)
identifies another caregiver for the child, what requirements does ICE
follow before releasing the child to the substitute caregiver? Does ICE
check the immigration status of the substitute caregiver?
6. How does ICE ensure that appropriate agencies get involved to
protect detainees who may have been victims of other crimes? What is
done to ensure that detainees are not processed or deported at the
expense of prosecuting other employer violations?
7. What is ICE or the Department of Homeland Security doing to
insure that witnesses to potential large crimes are staying in touch
with investigators from the Department of Justice and Department of
Labor?
8. In terms of procedure, when and how is ICE notified that an
investigation by another agency is occurring at a workplace or location
where ICE plans to raid?
9. Does ICE notify other agencies prior to a raid to determine if
other investigations are occurring at a workplace or location? When
does information sharing occur--before or after the raids occur? What
precautions does ICE take to ensure that the ICE actions are not done
at the expense of another investigation? Are the actions done in
cooperation with other agencies/departments?
10. Three hundred thirty nine (389) workers at the Postville plant
have been arrested and are being held and charged with crimes but I
have not seen anything about charges filed against the company. Could
you tell me what charges have been filed against Agriprocessors--the
company, its owners or management since the raid in Postville last
week?
11. At one time, there was a Memorandum of Understanding between
DOL and what was then known as INS, to govern the working relationship
between the agencies and to ensure that both immigration and labor laws
were enforced. Is that MOU still in place?
12. Since December 2006 how many U.S. citizen or permanent resident
children have ICE agents apprehended while conducting enforcement
operations?
13. What plans does ICE have to develop one uniform set of policies
and procedures regarding immigration enforcement operations as they
pertain to children and families? What training do ICE agents receive,
if any, on how to deal with children encountered during enforcement
operations or left behind without a caregiver? How many hours of
training do ICE agents receive on these topics? Who provides the
training? Are child welfare or child protective services involved in
training ICE agents?
Please send your written response to the Committee staff by COB on
Tuesday, June 3, 2008--the date on which the hearing record will close.
If you have any questions, please contact the committee. Once again, we
greatly appreciate your testimony at this hearing.
Sincerely,
Lynn Woolsey, Chairwoman,
Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.
George Miller, Chairman,
Committee on Education and Labor.
______
Responses From Mr. Spero to Mr. Hare's Questions
Question: On November 16, 2007, ICE issued discretionary guidelines
for identifying potential humanitarian concerns when conducting large
worksite enforcement operations that target 150 persons or more. In
certain cases in which the Department of Health and Human Services is
unable to assist ICE in conducting these ``humanitarian assessments,''
the guidelines suggest that ICE should coordinate with an appropriate
state or local social service agency to conduct the ``humanitarian
assessments.''
Could you please identify any workplace raids that have taken place
since the guidelines were announced in which ICE has used a state or
local agency at the time of the arrest for ``humanitarian
assessments.''
Response: Since the release of the humanitarian guidelines in 2007,
ICE is not aware of any instance when the Division of Immigration
Health Services (DIHS) was unable to provide the requested support.
Therefore, to date ICE has not used a state or local agency for
``humanitarian assessments.'' DIHS has been very supportive and has
been able to provide all the humanitarian and medical assistance and
their subject matter expertise for all major worksite operations. If
DIHS cannot perform the humanitarian screening, or it may be beneficial
to supplement their efforts, ICE will seek assistance from state of
local health and social service agencies.
Question: If the procedures detailed in your humanitarian
guidelines are sound practices, why should those procedures not also be
used in workplace raids of less than 150 persons? What was ICE's
justification for creating this 150 person threshold for the
guidelines?
Response: ICE developed written humanitarian guidelines to
primarily assist agents and officers in preparing for large enforcement
operations since these operations require a greater degree of
coordination, however, ICE encourages that these guidelines be
followed, as appropriate, for all worksite enforcement operations
regardless of the number of expected arrests.
Many of the items in the guidelines are best practices, and as
such, ICE generally utilizes most if not all of these guidelines in all
worksite operations. However, these are law enforcement actions, and
ICE must reserve its discretion to determine when the entirety of
guidelines is necessary for the successful implementation of an
operational plan, or when some variation of the guidelines might be
more appropriate, given the size or other particulars of an operation.
Where practical, ICE will continue to implement these guidelines in all
appropriate smaller enforcement operations.
Question: There has been a longstanding policy, first established
by the INS in the 1990s, that immigration agents should refrain from
conducting enforcement actions in schools, places of worship, and
during funerals and other religious ceremonies. In 2004 the Department
of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') section
reaffirmed the INS policy and issued a CBP memorandum expressly stating
this reaffirmation. Does ICE follow this same INS policy?
If so, has ICE issued written policy/guidance stating this? If ICE
does not reaffirm the INS policy, please state what ICE's policy is
with respect to conducting enforcement actions in schools, places of
worship, and during funerals or other religious ceremonies. Does ICE
recognize any specific places or specific situations where enforcement
actions should be avoided?
Response: Under previous Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS) Policy HQ 807-P, Enforcement Activities at Schools, Places of
Worship, or at Funerals or Other Religious Ceremonies (May 17, 1993),
law enforcement personnel were directed to ``attempt to avoid
apprehension of persons and to tightly control investigative operations
on the premises of schools, places of worship, funerals and other
religious ceremonies.'' ICE's continued concern with conducting
activities in sensitive locations is more recently reinforced in a
December 26, 2007 Memorandum from Marcy M. Forman, Director, Office of
Investigations, entitled Enforcement Actions at Schools. This field
guidance expresses ICE views on these particularly sensitive actions:
``[I]t is important to emphasize that great care and forethought be
applied before undertaking any investigative or enforcement type action
at or near schools, other institutions of education, and venues
generally where children and their families may be present.''
Policies governing ICE Office of Detention and Removal (DRO)
Fugitive Operations Teams have similarly discouraged enforcement
actions in these sensitive locations.
Assistant Secretary Myers issued a memo on July 3, 2008, reminding
law enforcement personnel of these policies and that they should
refrain from conducting enforcement actions or investigative activities
at or near sensitive community locations such as schools, places of
worship, and funerals or other religious ceremonies, except in limited
situations that include terrorism investigations, matters of public
safety, or non-enforcement related actions such as when requesting
routine student information from school officials. Furthermore, the
memo provides more generally that ICE policies are in place to ensure
that enforcement operations are conducted in a manner that is safe and
respectful of all individuals.
Question: In the enforcement action at Agriprocessors in Postville,
Iowa last week, ICE uncovered a number of underaged workers who were
working at the plant. Did ICE know that the Department of Labor had an
ongoing investigation into possible violations of labor laws including
child labor prior to the Agriprocessor's raid?
Were the ICE agents at the raid aware that the company had violated
child labor laws by employing underage workers at dangerous jobs inside
the plant? Was the DOL notified of the number of underaged workers you
detained? If not, why weren't they notified?
Response: Yes, ICE was aware that the DOL's Wage and Hour Division
(WHD) was investigating Agriprocessors for alleged violations of child
labor laws. Through the course of the investigation ICE was aware of
possible labor violations, including possible minors who were employed
at the facility. ICE coordinated its efforts with DOL's Office of
Inspector General (OIG), a law enforcement agency within DOL with
certain independent statutory authority to conduct investigations. DOL-
OIG agents were present at the Agriprocessors facility during the
execution of a search warrant on May 12, and at the processing location
in Waterloo, Iowa, where undocumented workers were processed and made
their initial court appearances. Additionally, DOL-OIG agents were able
to interview employees who were potential witnesses as the OIG deemed
necessary or as directed by the USAO in relation to its concurrent
investigation into labor-related criminal violations by the employer--
violations that are not under WHD's jurisdiction.
After the enforcement action, the USAO and ICE provided WHD and the
Office of the Solicitor of Labor with results of the operation as well
as information related to the location of detention centers that were
holding employees of Agriprocessors so that WHD could interview
workers, including minors.
ICE continues to work cooperatively with both DOL-OIG and WHD DOL
and has confirmed that this enforcement action did not impede WHD's own
investigation into labor standards at the plant.
Question: Do ICE agents get any training in terms of looking out
for other possible employer or employee violations inside a plant aside
from immigration violations?
Response: At the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)
and throughout an agent's career, all ICE agents receive training that
encompasses instruction in the enforcement of federal law, as well as
general law enforcement procedures. Also, all ICE agents receive
specialized training in customs and immigration law, and the associated
ICE policies and procedures.
During investigations across all ICE programmatic areas, ICE works
with other law enforcement and regulatory partners to ensure that
subject matter expertise is available to identify any potential
violations of law. ICE agents are trained to be attuned to violations
of laws other than those enforced by ICE and to seek out the assistance
of other federal and state agencies, such as the Department of Labor,
the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security
Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or local state
prosecutors which have the primary authority to enforce other laws.
Question: ICE has protocol that allows some workers to be released
for humanitarian reasons. Are there other reasons for release like
labor violations, trafficking or anything else?
Response: Determinations regarding release of an alien by ICE based
on humanitarian concerns are made on a case by case basis. Whether a
worker may be a victim of trafficking, or was subjected to labor
violations are only two of many factors that are considered when
deciding whether to release a worker for humanitarian reasons. When the
violations are administrative in nature, ICE has more discretion in
determining whether an individual will be released pursuant to an
identified humanitarian reason.
Furthermore, should an individual be arrested for criminal
violations ICE no longer has sole discretion and must work with the
U.S. Attorney's office and courts with regard to potential release and/
or bond issues.
Question: The ICE humanitarian protocols apply to worksite raids
only. What humanitarian protocols do ICE agents follow when conducting
home raids? Are all children encountered by ICE agents placed in foster
care? Do social workers from child welfare or child protective services
accompany ICE agents during home raids? If not, how does ICE determine
which children should be placed in foster care? If the parent(s)
identifies another caregiver for the child, what requirements does ICE
follow before releasing the child to the substitute caregiver? Does ICE
check the immigration status of the substitute caregiver?
Response: All juveniles are treated with dignity, respect, and
special concern for their particular vulnerability. Therefore, before
arresting any adult in the presence of a juvenile, an officer must take
the time to learn a child's age, immigration status, and the
relationship between adult and child. If a parent is not determined to
be present, the parents' location and, if applicable, the name and
address of a relative in the area are ascertained. The safety and well-
being of the juvenile is paramount.
When possible, in all enforcement operations ICE officers ascertain
whether juveniles will be present at a target location, and whether
targeted aliens have juveniles in their care. This occurs during the
initial investigation through surveillance, and research of available
indices of the target alien. Social workers do not routinely accompany
ICE's federal law enforcement officers during enforcement actions.
However, in the event that juveniles are likely to be encountered at a
particular residence, potential caregiver resources (such as family
members, other care providers, community groups, and state and county
entities) are identified, and a care plan for the juveniles will be
developed before an arrest warrant is executed. To that end, ICE
officers do not take custody of a known juvenile unless they are being
processed for removal proceedings.
It is conceivable that while performing their duties, ICE officers
may encounter fugitive aliens who are the primary caregivers to minor
children. In the event that ICE officers encounter a fugitive alien who
is responsible for a juvenile and there is no other immediate relative
available to assume custody of the child, they must, in the following
order of preference, coordinate the transfer of the juvenile into the
safekeeping of (1) the nearest child welfare authority; (2) local law
enforcement; (3) if options (1) and (2) are inconsistent with
operational requirements, they must carefully document the fugitive's
request to transfer the juvenile into the safekeeping of a verifiable
third party. Before transferring to a third-party however, ICE will:
1. Document the inability of the welfare authority and local law
enforcement to take timely custody of the minor;
2. Document in writing the fugitive's request to release the
juvenile to an identified third party (preference is for the request in
the fugitive's own handwriting);
3. Facilitate the fugitive alien's contact with the third party;
4. Verify the identity of the third party through government issued
identity cards prior to transferring the juvenile into the safekeeping
thereof; and
5. Forward copies of relevant documentation (inability of the
welfare authority/local law enforcement to take timely custody of the
juvenile) to the child welfare authority for further processing.
The use of the first two options is strongly encouraged as child
welfare authorities and local law enforcement are best suited for
making determinations related to child custody, including any decision
concerning placement in foster care.
Question: How does ICE ensure that appropriate agencies get
involved to protect detainees who may have been victims of other
crimes? What is done to ensure that detainees are not processed or
deported at the expense of prosecuting other employer violations?
Response: ICE has consistently undertaken efforts to coordinate, as
appropriate, with non-governmental organizations and federal, state and
local agencies such as the Department of Justice, the Department of
Labor (see answers to questions 4 and 11), Office of the Inspector
General for the Social Security Administration, and the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, when conducting enforcement operations. In particular,
ICE employs specially trained victim/witness coordinators in ICE field
offices to ensure victims are identified and receive the appropriate
services. With respect to detained aliens, ICE also works with other
law enforcement agencies to provide deferred action, parole, work
authorization and other immigration-related relief to detainees who may
be working with other agency investigations.
As a matter of practice, if ICE is aware of an individual who may
be a victim of other crimes, such as human trafficking, prior to or
during an enforcement action, the ICE field office will coordinate with
the local and/or headquarters victim/witness coordinator. After the
enforcement action, ICE generally will inform WHD (and other relevant
agencies) of the location of detainees. The ICE victim/witness
coordinator will further ensure that ICE victim/witness procedures are
followed and that the appropriate federal, state, local and/or non-
governmental organizations are notified.
Question: What is ICE or the Department of Homeland Security doing
to ensure that witnesses to potential large crimes are staying in touch
with investigators from the Department of Justice and Department of
Labor?
Response: As noted in response to questions # 4, 8, and 11, ICE, as
appropriate coordinates with the Office of the Inspector General for
the Social Security Administration, the Department of Labor and the
Department of Agriculture. We also coordinate closely with the
Department of Justice on an ongoing basis. Typically, ICE does not
monitor another agency's witnesses. However, ICE makes every attempt to
cooperate with other agencies, when requested.
Examples of such cooperation include: situations where ICE has
detained a material witness in another agency's investigation, at the
agency's request for the detained alien's release, ICE can offer
alternatives to detention in order to allow the witness to cooperate in
the investigation. Such alternatives may include an electronic
monitoring device, appearance bond, or some form of supervised release.
In addition, if the material witness has been ordered removed from the
United States, the witness can be granted deferred action so that he/
she may remain in the country in order to cooperate with the other
agency.
Question: In terms of procedure, when and how is ICE notified that
an investigation by another agency is occurring at a workplace or
location where ICE plans to raid?
Response: With respect to any federal criminal investigations,
including worksite enforcement investigations, ICE coordinates at the
earliest appropriate time with the Department of Justice's local United
States Attorney's Office having jurisdiction over the case. United
States Attorney's are charged with and are often in the best position
to notify ICE of any other federal and on occasion, local agency
investigative interests. This close coordination occurs on the local
level and in some instances involving multi-jurisdictional or large-
scale enforcement operations takes place at the national level as well.
I note, however, that the Department of Labor does not provide ICE
information concerning employees' immigration status.
Additionally ICE agents are routinely instructed to attempt to
coordinate at the earliest possible time with other federal, state and
local agencies prior to any enforcement action, including worksite
enforcement operations.
Question: Does ICE notify other agencies prior to a raid to
determine if other investigations are occurring at a workplace or
location? When does information sharing occur--before or after the
raids occur? What precautions does ICE take to ensure that the ICE
actions are not done at the expense of another investigation? Are the
actions done in cooperation with other agencies/departments?
Response: As stated above, ICE coordinates at the earliest
appropriate time with the Department of Justice's local United States
Attorney's Office having jurisdiction over the case. United States
Attorney's are charged with and are often in the best position to
notify ICE of any other federal and on occasion, local agency
investigative interests. This close coordination occurs on the local
level and in some instances involving multi-jurisdictional or large-
scale enforcement operations takes place at the national level as well
In addition, the nature of worksite enforcement operations
generally involve cooperation with other agencies. When conducting
worksite enforcement operations, ICE coordinates these operations with
affected external entities and other law enforcement partners within
the local area of responsibility as appropriate. After the enforcement
action, ICE generally will inform WHD (and other relevant agencies) of
the location of detainees.
Question: Three hundred thirty nine (389) workers at the Postville
plant have been arrested and are being held and charged with crimes but
I have not seen anything about charges filed against the company. Could
you tell me what charges have been filed against Agriprocessors--the
company, its owners or management since the raid in Postville last
week?
Response: As a result of the worksite enforcement operation on May
12, 2008, ICE has arrested a total of six Agriprocessors Inc. managers/
supervisors. Of the six arrested all have pled guilty to one or more
criminal violations which include 8 USC 1324, aiding and abetting and
harboring aliens at a place of employment; 8 USC 1546, document fraud;
8 USC 1324 (a)(3)(A) knowingly hiring ten or more undocumented aliens .
Furthermore, there is currently an outstanding arrest warrant for a
seventh manager/supervisor. ICE is unable to provide any additional
information regarding these charges or any potential criminal charges
against Agriprocessors Inc. as the matter continues to be under
criminal investigation.
Question: At one time, there was a Memorandum of Understanding
between DOL and what was then known as INS, to govern the working
relationship between the agencies and to ensure that both immigration
and labor laws were enforced. Is that MOU still in place?
Response: ICE honors the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between
the former INS and the Department of Labor that is still in place. The
November 23, 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the
Department of Labor and the Immigration and Naturalization Service
identifies four goals that ICE aggressively supports today: reducing
the employment of unauthorized workers, reducing the economic incentive
for the employment of unauthorized workers, avoiding the further
victimization of unauthorized workers and promoting employment
opportunities for legal authorized workers. ICE continues to fully
implement this MOU in order to achieve its stated goals.
ICE has revitalized its worksite enforcement program targeting
egregious employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. These
workers are often more vulnerable to employer exploitation. When abuses
are identified, ICE works with the Department of Labor to ensure that
the rights of the victims are protected and that victims are afforded
all the employment protections under the law.
Question: Since December 2006 how many U.S. citizen or permanent
resident children have ICE agents apprehended while conducting
enforcement operations?
Response: ICE is not aware of having administratively arrested U.S.
citizen or lawful permanent resident (LPR) children during a worksite
enforcement operation. When conducting enforcement operations, if ICE
agents encounter a juvenile, the agents work diligently to determine
the immigration status of the juvenile while also ensuring that the
juvenile is released to the custody of a responsible adult family
member or an appropriate social service agency. If your office is aware
of any situation involving the arrest of a U.S. citizen or permanent
resident child please provide ICE with the details and the matter will
be thoroughly investigated.
Question: What plans does ICE have to develop one uniform set of
policies and procedures regarding immigration enforcement operations as
they pertain to children and families?
Response: As a law enforcement organization, ICE must reserve its
discretion to determine when the entirety of a uniform guideline is
necessary for a successful implementation of an operational plan, or
when some variation of the uniform guideline might be more appropriate,
given the size or other particulars of an operation. Therefore within
each programmatic area ICE has guidelines and procedures in place that
relate to specific enforcement operations. Each of ICE's enforcement
operations is unique and requires proper and thorough vetting and
coordination. Therefore the impact on children and families could be
considerably different depending on the circumstances of each case and
presently ICE does not intend to develop additional policies at this
time.
Question: What training do ICE agents receive, if any, on how to
deal with children encountered during enforcement operations or left
behind without a caregiver? How many hours of training do ICE agents
receive on these topics? Who provides the training? Are child welfare
or child protective services involved in training ICE agents?
Response: Humanitarian concerns, including ensuring that minor
children are not placed at risk are addressed during the pre-operation
briefing. Additionally, ICE law enforcement personnel must complete
basic and advanced training. ICE special agents complete 12 weeks of
FLETC Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP) and 12 weeks of ICE
Special Agent Training. DRO officers complete 13 weeks of Basic
Immigration Law Enforcement Training. The specific training outlined
below enables our agents and officers to deal with children encountered
during enforcement operations or when left behind without a caregiver.
ICE agents receive approximately 2 hours of training regarding how
to identify and process issues related to children while attending the
FLETC Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP). Moreover, all
policies on how to handle children during a worksite enforcement
operation are covered in an advance training worksite seminar. ICE
training is provided by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Academy, Detention and Removal Operations Division. In addition, ICE
law enforcement personnel receive additional hours in the following
courses:
Alien Processing (6 hours)
Consular Notification (1hour)
I-213 Preparation (5 hours)
Juvenile Processing (2 hours)
Currently no child welfare or child protective service providers
are involved in training ICE law enforcement personnel at FLETC,
although DIHS will often participate in the pre-operation briefing.
However, ICE routinely partners with state and local social services to
ensure that no child is left without proper care during a worksite
enforcement operation. This partnering allows for the full and
comprehensive care of the families affected during our operations.
______
Chairwoman Woolsey. Without objection, this hearing is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]