Rumors fuel immigrant fear: Illegal residents hiding to avoid deportation

By Lornet Turnbull and Florangela Davila
Seattle Times staff reporters

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The last time Adelina Garcia saw her four friends was at a Christmas party in their apartment complex in Lacey.

When next she heard from them, they were telephoning from Mexico to report they'd been picked up by immigration authorities less than a month ago and summarily deported.

After having been in the U.S. for three to five years, the three brothers and their nephew called to urge Garcia and other Latino friends to lie low and be on the lookout for immigration agents on the hunt.

"Now, we're scared to go out shopping to buy things — everybody is worried," Garcia said. "When we have to go, we wait until after it gets dark."

What happened to the four — their removal from the U.S. because of their illegal immigration status, they say — has convinced many others that the same thing could happen to them.

Within the far-reaching immigrant grapevine, the men's deportations give life to persistent rumors that began a month ago about regionwide roundups — rumors that are keeping immigrants away from church services, summer-school classes, English classes and health clinics.

Now there's concern that fear may keep many away from the Hispanic Seafair Organization Festival at Seward Park today.

The rumors have kept Department of Homeland Security officials busy trying to reassure lawmakers, immigration advocates and employers that federal agents are not conducting random sweeps, but pursuing immigrants who are fugitives and have criminal warrants.

But even if they were stepping up immigration enforcement, they point out, they are within their authority to apprehend illegal immigrants.

"Anyone who is in this country in violation of our immigration laws is potentially subject to arrest," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman with Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
 
"Some people may elude detection for years, but if they come to the attention of our office or the CBP [Customs and Border Patrol], we have an obligation to enforce the law, in a humane and professional manner."

Dismantling threats

It is estimated that about 8 million people nationwide live in this country illegally, about 136,000 of them in Washington state.

Homeland Security officials have said they don't have the resources to round up, detain and deport them all. And many have argued that with immigrants filling so many service-industry and agricultural jobs, the economy can't afford to lose these workers.

Still, immigration officials say, their top priority for arrest and removal only are those within the ranks of the undocumented who are intent on harming the country — criminals or suspected terrorists.

In April, ICE launched Operation Endgame, dispatching teams to hunt down those on a list of close to 400,000 fugitive aliens nationwide.

"ICE's priority is to dismantle those structures and networks whose activities pose a threat to the national security," Kice said.

But in hunting for such fugitives, agents say they sometimes encounter immigrants whose only crime is being in the country illegally.

Sometimes they are taken into custody, or paperwork is initiated to bring them into the immigration system.

ICE's own statistics don't indicate increased activity in detentions or deportations. The numbers from the Northwest region, which includes Washington, Oregon and Alaska, have not been significantly higher in July than they were in June.

Still, immigration advocates say they're concerned about the way the arrests reportedly are being made. In some documented cases, the advocates say, people were arrested during English-as-a-second-language classes. In the advocates' view, that's an example of immigration authorities going too far.

"There's a great deal of fear in the community — and it's spreading," said Karol Brown, an attorney with Hate Free Zone, an advocacy group for minorities. "This is going to have a ripple effect — people not getting the food they need, their health-care problems go untended. The social consequences are huge."

Expressing concerns

Police officials in Lacey, Thurston County, were concerned about such consequences when they invited ICE investigators along to serve warrants on some residents of a Lacey apartment complex on June 30.

Between them, police and ICE had 12 outstanding federal and local warrants to serve.

Lacey officials say they asked ICE to join them to help translate, but ICE spokesman Mike Milne said immigration officials also were along "in case there were individuals there who were out of status."

Local police officials deny that.

Police Lt. Phil Comstock said that prior to serving the warrants, "we expressed concerns about going after undocumented aliens. That was not our intent."

The action netted 14 arrests — 10 of people not being sought on warrants but who did not have proper immigration documents, Comstock said.

While the other four either had outstanding deportation orders or were wanted for crimes, none was among the 12 the officers initially sought.

The arrests of the undocumented immigrants bothered Lacey police officials, who said it undermined their efforts to build relationships within the local Latino community.

"We don't want to send a message that we are picking up undocumented aliens," Chief Larry Dickerson said. "That is not our function.

"We weren't over there to arrest farmworkers. We were over there to arrest criminals. They take these people out of the area and we're left with aftermath."

Ending the rumors

Agencies that work with immigrants have been meeting to share information about how to end the rumor-fed panic.

With the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is gathering information regarding immigration activities.

Additionally, the panic has given rise to a group called ICE Melt — labor, social-justice and immigration organizations seeking to address the problem.

"If the raids are in fact happening, we want them to stop in the manner they [reportedly] are taking place," said Carlos Marentes, one of the organizers who's also with the Committee for General Amnesty and Social Justice.

"We want to try to dissuade fears and educate the community about their rights," he said.

Across the state, information is being disseminated in English and Spanish throughout immigrant communities to inform people of their rights. Immigrants are told that they don't have to talk to enforcement officers, but may instead remain silent and later speak to a lawyer.

"These activities are clearly targeted toward the Latino community," said Magdeleno Avila-Rose, executive director of the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project.

"You never see the targets being people of European descent."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com