24085: Hermantin(News)Immigration sweeps spreading (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Immigration sweeps spreading



By Sandra Hernandez
Staff Writer

January 14, 2005

Miami · Stepped-up immigration enforcement has spread to South Florida's
Hispanic community, to include Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans,
according to activists.

"We are getting at least 12 calls a day from immigrants from Palm Beach to
Homestead who are asking us what to do because they are afraid they could
get stopped anywhere," said Marlon A. Gonzalez, of the Guatemalan Unity
Information Agency, an immigration advocacy group in Miami. "One of the
biggest issues we are dealing with is people who say they are being stopped
by police and being asked for their driver's license and then their
immigration papers."

Since November, Haitian community leaders have said families were calling to
report deportation procedures against their loved ones. Thursday's meeting
was the first confirmation from community groups that enforcement has
expanded to undocumented Hispanic immigrants.

Immigration officials Thursday denied they are targeting specific ethnic
groups but did acknowledge they have picked up undocumented immigrants at
bus stops and rail stations.

"The Border Patrol routinely works transportation hubs including bus
stations," said Victor Colon, Assistant Chief Patrol Agency for U.S. Border
Patrol. "This is not new and we have done similar operations in Arizona,
California and elsewhere."

Hoping to quell mounting fears in the Hispanic and Haitian communities,
immigrant officials and advocates met Thursday to address the community's
concerns.

The meeting, called by the Miami-Dade Community Relations Board, did little,
however, to satisfy local Haitian and Hispanic leaders.

"I was hopeful but after coming here today I didn't hear anything that
answered my question over who is stopping Haitians at bus stops and
elsewhere," said Jean-Robert Lafortune of the Miami-based Haitian American
Grassroots Coalition who attended the meeting. "Border Patrol denies they
are doing it. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deny it so my question is
who is doing it because we know it is going on?"

Colon, of the Border Patrol, said Haitians account for less then 1 percent
of the arrests made by the Border Patrol in Florida in the first quarter of
2005.

While advocates say most immigrants are too afraid to come forward and
report the problem fearing further action, some are speaking out.

One woman described how she was stopped while she waited for the bus in
North Miami.

"I was at the bus stop and a van stopped and a man got out and started
asking people for their immigration papers," said Jeanine Jolicoeur, 49, who
was born in Haiti and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Miami. "I
gave him my voter registration card and he told me I was free to go but I
don't understand why I was stopped."

Sandra Hernandez can be reached at shernandez@sun-sentinel.com or
954-385-7923.


Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel