O.C. Illegals Roundup

This is from the The Orange County Register. I was going to offer some tiny-minded comments however Manfredo's and Hector's words clearly demonstrate that they have their own agenda.

SANTA ANA – The immigration agents banging on the door last Wednesday were looking for a convicted sex offender in the country illegally.

He had skipped town, but the agents didn't leave empty-handed: They arrested the man's brother – who was in the U.S. illegally and had a criminal conviction.

The man is among 761 illegal immigrants swept up in one of the largest crackdowns by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and U.S. marshals. Of those, 174 were arrested in Orange County, one of five Southern California counties in the sweep.

The agencies targeted criminal violators, checking jails and hunting for suspects through neighborhoods. Among those they arrested were a father and son accused of shooting a man to death in Mexico over an argument about a broken fence. They have been turned over to Mexican authorities.

Half of those arrested had a criminal history – arrests or convictions, said Jim Hayes, who runs the ICE Los Angeles field office.

"We're not going to tolerate people coming to the United States, violating immigration laws and continuing to commit crimes, Hayes said.

No one wants criminals in their neighborhoods, but immigration advocates say the sweeps have frightened the Hispanic community, which sees itself largely alone in the crosshairs of immigration officials.

"I'm not against the arrest of criminals," Manfredo Lespier, head of Latino Business Council, said. "If you are targeting people and almost all the people you are arresting are all Hispanics, that to me would indicate that is the only minority they are targeting. And that concerns me."

Most of those arrested were from Mexico, but the dragnet included people from 13 other countries, too.

Just after rounding up the sex offender's brother, agents hit a Santa Ana boarding house, looking for a drug convict. The house was full of people. Armed with fuzzy mug shots, agents said they couldn't be sure their man wasn't there.

Six men in the house admitted being in the country illegally. They were taken to a Santa Ana processing center, where they were fingerprinted. The drug convict wasn't among them.

But four of the men had prior convictions – three for driving under the influence and one for lying about his identity to a police officer, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. All six are going through deportation proceedings.

Hector Villagra, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Orange County office, criticized ICE for targeting the home's occupants after the original suspect couldn't be found.

"What is their basis for continuing to question the other people who are there? Is it just a suspicion based on they're being Hispanic?" he asked.

Groups that oppose illegal immigration said the raids are good to conduct, but questioned their long-term effect in dealing with the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

"This may make a small immediate impact, where cities and counties can say, 'See, look what we've done here,' " said Tim Bueler, spokesman for the Minuteman Project. "But what are they doing about the big picture?"

Federal prosecutors said they are building cases against serious criminal offenders who returned to the U.S. after previous deportations. If convicted, they could spend up to 20 years in federal prison.

Federal estimates indicate there are 400,000 to 600,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. who have ignored deportation orders.