[migrawatch-public] [Fwd: Immigrants advised about their rights - LA Times]
Immigrants advised about their rights
Community groups prepare the undocumented to deal with more law
enforcement sweeps.
By Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writer
March 4, 2007
Following recent arrests at job sites and homes in Southern California
and across the nation, local advocates are waging their own campaign to
educate immigrants about their rights.
A network of legal aid and nonprofit groups is handing out information
packets, holding town hall meetings and producing a DVD to prepare
illegal immigrants for future sweeps.
"Our immigration system is out of whack with reality," said Judith
Golub, executive director of the San Francisco-based Immigrant Legal
Resource Center, which passes out bilingual informational fliers at
community meetings. "All these raids are a symptom of a broken system."
The outreach is part of a broader effort by organizations such as the
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, American Immigration Lawyers Assn.
and other organizations seeking reforms. Some community groups are
advising immigrants that if they are stopped by agents, they shouldn't
sign or say anything.
"Silence is golden," Central American Resource Center legal director
Daniel Sharp told a small gathering of immigrants recently at the Los
Angeles office. "Many times, [agents] arrive looking for someone and
they take away more people. Why? Because the people get scared and they
run, or they get scared and they open their mouths."
Roberto Martinez, who attended the meeting, said he was in boxer shorts
when immigration agents banged on his neighbor's door at 6 a.m. one day
last fall.
An illegal immigrant from El Salvador, Martinez feared that agents would
knock on his door next. He considered running, but worried that the dogs
would bark and tip off the agents. So he hid in his apartment and prayed
that the agents would leave.
"Oh my God!" Martinez, 28, remembers saying to his roommate. "/Que
hacemos//?/" — What do we do?"
The agents arrested his neighbor and drove away without knocking on his
door, Martinez said, but he is scared they will return.
Sharp told the immigrants that federal agents frequently ask two
questions: Where were you born? And how did you get to this country?
Undocumented immigrants must be careful not to answer those questions,
he said, because they may be putting themselves at risk of being
deported. And they should be careful about what they sign, he added,
because they may be agreeing to leave the country voluntarily.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has assigned four teams of agents to
the Los Angeles area in recent months to search for criminals, fugitives
and visa violators.
They also are stepping up work site enforcement, targeting undocumented
workers and their employers.
During one week in January, agents arrested more than 300 illegal
immigrants — many of whom had committed crimes or had already been
ordered deported — in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and
Ventura counties as part of an effort called Operation Return to Sender.
Last month, agents raided eateries nationwide such as the House of Blues
and the Hard Rock Cafe, filing criminal charges against three officials
of a janitorial contractor and arresting nearly 200 illegal immigrants,
including 50 in Southern California.
Officials target specific immigration violators, but may take others
into custody if they cannot prove the immigrants are here legally, said
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the federal agency.
"If they cannot produce any document or identification, we are going to
err on the side of caution," Kice said.
However, she said, nobody is going to be deported without due process.
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant
Rights of Los Angeles, said that comprehensive immigration reform, not
more raids, is the long-term solution.
"This is the administration's way to show they're doing something about
illegal immigration," Salas said. "It's a public relations campaign."
The coalition is producing a short DVD about immigrants' rights to be
distributed to them and their advocates nationwide. The DVD is expected
to be finished by the end of the month, spokesman Alvaro Huerta said.
The recent sweeps have created confusion, fear and panic in immigrant
communities, advocates said.
The Central American Resource Center receives 10 to 20 calls each day
from people whose friends or relatives have been detained, executive
director Angela Sanbrano said.
"People are afraid to go to the store," Sanbrano said. "They are afraid
to go to church. They are even afraid to send their kids to school."
Sanbrano advises her clients to have a plan in case they are arrested
and cannot pick up their children from school.
Every time there is word about a raid, Ana Portillo, 38, gets nervous
about dropping off her three children at school in the morning. Though
they are U.S. citizens, Portillo said, she is undocumented.
"But we have to go on," said Portillo, who lives in Pomona. "And I know
if immigration agents arrest me, I have rights."
Barbara Coe, who heads the California Coalition for Immigration Reform,
said she thinks that the community organizations are "aiding and
abetting criminal activity" by advising illegal immigrants.
"It is very frightening to know that these people are being welcomed
into our communities," Coe said.
About two dozen immigrants gathered at the Central American Resource
Center for last week's discussion. Sharp told the immigrants that they
should avoid presenting fake documents. And they should never try to flee.
"If you are running, why are you running?" Sharp said. "It attracts
their attention."
Manuel Hernandez, who attended the meeting, said he narrowly avoided
being arrested by immigration agents last month. Hernandez said he was
waiting for work on the street in Huntington Park when he saw a van pull
up to the curb and immigration agents get out.
As soon as he noticed the van, he slowly walked away, blending in with a
group of people passing by. Hernandez, an undocumented construction
worker from El Salvador, said he is always looking over his shoulder for
immigration agents.
After the meeting, Hernandez, 37, said he now knows to keep his mouth
shut if he is arrested.
"If I start talking," he said, "I am putting the rope around my neck."
*
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/anna.gorman@latimes.com
/
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