Immigration Raid Update

Hi all,
The episcopal church in Shelton will be receiving financial contributions of anybody interested in helping the families affected by the raid last week. There are several families affected but urgent help is needed for couple of women who were left with two young kids each. They have no relatives in the US and are extremely worried about their situation. Any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Please e-mail checks to St David's Episcopal Church PO Box 339 Shelton WA 98584
Make the check payable to:
St David's Episcopal Church Rectors Discretionary Fund In the memo part write: St David's Relief Fund
Thanks. Please forward this e-mail to anybody you know could be interested in helping. Patricia
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Shelton raid: 4 sites, 16 arrests Immigration-rights activist questions action
Jeremy Pawloski The Olympian
SHELTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided four Shelton locations Thursday morning, including three apartments in the 2000 block of Adams Street, taking 16 undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala into federal custody.

A local immigration-rights activist expressed concerns about the raid Friday. She said that one week earlier, on May 24, immigrants who lived at the apartment complex complained about mistreatment by management during a public meeting before the Washington Human Rights Commission in downtown Shelton.
Most of the people arrested Thursday lived in the complex.
Patricia Vazquez, a representative of Inmigrantes Unidos de Shelton, said she has no proof that the raid was related to the May 24 meeting, but she added that the proximity of the events “raises questions for us.”
Vazquez said she also fears the raid could have a chilling effect on free speech by immigrants who might be scared to speak out about abuses or other issues that affect them.
“It creates a sense of fear in the community of denouncing abuses,” she said.
An ICE spokeswoman in Seattle said Friday that the raid was not prompted by the May 24 community meeting.
“The two events are completely unrelated,” said Lorie Dankers, spokeswoman for ICE in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
Marc Brenman, executive director of the Washington Human Rights Commission, said he wants to assure people that “we did not drop the dime on anybody,” but added, “we don’t know if there was anyone in the audience from ICE.”
Anyone can call ICE with a complaint about an undocumented immigrant.
The immigrants arrested in Shelton include 13 men and three women, Dankers said. The raid was not random; it targeted three immigration fugitives and one criminal immigration fugitive, she said.
Thursday’s operation by ICE’s fugitive operations team targeted people who have been ordered removed or deported by an immigration judge and have failed to comply, Dankers said.
Three of the 16 people arrested have criminal convictions in the United States, including one who was convicted of a driving-while-intoxicated hit-and-run in Shelton in 2003, one who was convicted of a hit-and-run in Los Angeles in 2005, and one who was convicted of a domestic-violence assault in 2005, Dankers said.
“They pose a threat to public safety,” she said.
“Removing the bad apples who are in our country illegally goes to the heart of ICE’s public-safety mission.”
All 16 of the people targeted in the raid are at ICE’s Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Dankers said. She would not release their names, citing privacy issues.
The 12 who have not been ordered removed by a judge have a right to an immigration hearing, Dankers said.
Vazquez said that Thursday’s raid broke up families and deprived children of the breadwinner they rely on to feed them.
“A lot of these guys have kids who are U.S. citizens,” she said. “It creates a lot of uncertainty in these families.”
Uriel Iniguez, director of the state Commission on Hispanic Affairs, said he has sent a request to both of Washington’s U.S. senators to investigate the raid.
He said he has heard from one senator’s staff, who said the investigation that led to the raid was going on before the community meeting where residents voiced concerns.
Iniguez said he doesn’t think the meeting and the raid are linked.
Iniguez added that deportation actions by ICE create turmoil in the state’s Hispanic immigrant communities. He said he noticed increased enforcement targeting undocumented immigrants who are felons by ICE in Washington about two years ago.
Dankers gave The Olympian statistics on ICE’s total number of removals of undocumented immigrants in Washington, Oregon and Alaska for the past three years. In 2006, 4,674 undocumented immigrants were removed from those states, in 2005, 4,027 were removed, and in 2004, 4,109 were removed, according to her agency’s statistics.
Jeremy Pawloski covers public safety for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5465 or jpawloski@theolympian.com.