Yesterdays' nationally publicized roundups of illegal immigrants for deportation is not something new. It has been going on since late 2003 when the Homeland Security program to deport illegal immigrants began. What appears new is the Bush administration's announced crackdown in what is an obvious attempt to pander to the disappearing conservative base. From what can be surmised, apprehended immigrants are placed in detention centers before they are deported. Does anyone wonder what inspired the Republican House immigration reform legislation?
These reports will undoubtedly please the law and order crowd, but not civil rights groups.
Here are some earlier reports of successful roundups from 2004 and 2005.
June 18, 2004
Roundups Ratcheted
Undocumented immigrants arrested en masse in new Homeland Security program
By R.M. Arrieta
Federal agents are fanning out across the nation apprehending undocumented immigrants with a green light from the Bush administration.
Eight months ago Operation Endgame was placed on the fast track under the auspices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the newly formed investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security and one of three new bureaus of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. With a bigger budget and more agents, the mandate is to catch some of the estimated 400,000 undocumented immigrants who have final removal orders and deport them.
"Right now we have more than 20,000 people in ICE custody nationwide," says ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. Since March, civil rights groups nationwide have reported a marked increase in the questioning, detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.
October 3, 2005
Roundup of Immigrants in Shelter
Reveals Rising Tensions
By CHAD TERHUNE and EVAN PÉREZ
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
LONG BEACH, Miss. -- Last Wednesday, police and the U.S. Marshals Service swept into a Red Cross shelter for hurricane refugees here. They blocked the parking lot and exits and demanded identification from about 60 people who looked Hispanic, including some pulled out of the shower and bathroom, according to witnesses. The shelter residents were told to leave within two days or else they would be deported.
"They asked me where I wanted to go: to Houston, Atlanta or back to Mexico," said Jose Luis Rivera, 39 years old and an undocumented construction worker from Veracruz, Mexico. Mr. Rivera said he had been sleeping in a tent outside the large shelter building since Hurricane Katrina struck just over a month ago, flooding his second-story apartment in nearby Pass Christian and destroying all his belongings, including a pickup truck. "I lost everything I own in the storm. But they said they didn't care. They told us that if we didn't leave they would return on Friday with buses to take us away," he said.