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We Get E-Mail
The following article was received by e-mail on April 23, 2004. Ordinarily we would simply link to the article, but for some reason it has disappeared from the source website. We are making an exception and posting this as a service to our readers in Alabama.
Arrests of 27 Hispanic day laborers criticized
Friday, April 23, 2004
JEREMY GRAY
[Birmingham, Alabama] News staff writerFederal immigration officials last week arrested 27 day laborers in Hoover whom they described as illegal immigrants. The sweep has drawn criticism from some community activists.
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Temple Black said 24 Mexican and three Guatemalan workers were picked up along Lorna Road on April 14. They all were detained at the Etowah County Jail.
Of the 27, three may be suspects in crimes, including one who is being investigated under Operation Predator, a special task force aimed at capturing aliens who have committed crimes against children, said Chip Lollar, chief ICE resident in charge for Birmingham.
Lollar had no details about the possible offenses being investigated.
Lollar said the arrests were not the result of complaints by Lorna Road merchants, but rather ongoing ICE investigations. ICE is still processing the detainees to "find out who's who," he said.
Lollar said the agency did not pick up any of the day laborers who congregated in front of the Multicultural Resource Center, a Hoover-owned house used by Catholic Family Services to aid the Spanish-speaking population. The center provides an alternate gathering place for the day laborers who wait on Lorna Road each morning.
"The city set that up for safety reasons and we'd like to see them use that for safety," Lollar said.
A deputy at the Etowah County Jail, which the federal government uses to process illegal aliens, said the immigrants were among a group of 50 brought in April 14. Black said he had no information on the other 23 detainees.
Some community activists criticized the arrests.
"When something like this happens, it's very disturbing; we aren't used to that type of event in our community," said Isabel Rubio, executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.
"We realize these people are doing their jobs, but our only real concern is they're making blanket arrests and not checking documents," she said.
Rubio said her organization advises immigrants that if they are detained, to carefully decide who they are going to call.
"Make sure you are calling someone you can reach," she said. Family members should know each other's work and school schedules to know who will be around to answer the telephone in that situation.
"These things happen very quickly ... You can just fall into the black hole of missing people," Rubio said.
Once detainees are transferred from local jails to federal holding facilities, it is "hard, but not impossible, to find your relative," Rubio said.
Kristen Coombes, director of the Multicultural Resource Center, said center volunteers try to educate the immigrants who visit the center of their legal rights.
"Foreign nationals have rights in our country," said Coombes.
Unlike with some other nations, the United States government is not legally required to contact the consulates of Mexico or Guatemala. However, Coombes said, detainees have the right to contact their consulate.
"We try to make sure people have the number of their consulates with them and have some understanding of the process," she said.
Family members of those picked up in last week's Hoover sweep can contact ICE officials at the Etowah County Jail at 256-543-8154.
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