Immigration raids net 64 in Lansing

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service confirmed today that they had detained 64 people over the course of last weekend in the Lansing area for immigration violations.

Of those arrested, 40 were wanted fugitives, meaning they had orders of deportation entered against them by a judge, while the remaining 24 were detained by officers because they were allegedly determined to be in the country illegally.

The arrests were all made between Oct. 17 and Oct. 20.

“This was a successful operation,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson Michael Guilhooly told Michigan Messenger. ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security and responsible for finding people alleged to be in the country illegally.

Guilhooly said the 40 were specifically targeted by ICE for arrest because of their status as “fugitives.” For someone to be listed as a fugitive, he or she must have already gone through a deportation hearing, Guilhooly said. Once those persons were determined by a court to be in violation of U.S. immigration law, a judge issues an order providing them an opportunity to leave the country on their own. When it’s determined that those so ordered have not left the country by the specified date, a judge issues a new order of deportation and ICE categorizes them as “fugitives.”

The 64 arrestees are now housed in ICE detention facilities in the U.S., according to Guilhooly. The 40 are awaiting deportation or possibly already were deported. There was no specific information on where the arrestees were from, hence there is no information about where they will go or where they were sent. The remaining 24 detainees will begin the due process of the justice system.

ICE operates 95 fugitive apprehension units around the country. The team involved in the arrest covers the states of Michigan and Ohio.”Every day they [the fugitive teams] operate a list of targets and do basic investigations to locate them,” said Guilhooly. “They then proceed forward and make arrests. This is their full-time job.” He was unable to identify the last time the fugitive team operated in the Lansing area. The arrests appear to be part of a bigger operation by ICE officials, which Guilhooly said was the result of Congress making it a “priority.”

The ICE Web site has a release on it touting a 20 percent increase in arrests and deportations from 2007 to 2008:

Overall, the number of illegal aliens repatriated by ICE jumped 20 percent in the latest fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. In the past 12 months, ICE removed or returned a total of 349,041 illegal aliens to their native countries, compared to 288,663 aliens in fiscal year 2007. Notably, one third of the illegal aliens removed from the United States last year were foreign nationals who had prior criminal convictions in addition to being in the country illegally.

Sources in Lansing city government said they were unaware of the raids, and were unable to comment.

“I don’t know anything about it,” said Deputy Chief of Staff Randy Hannan of Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero’s office. “I will talk to the mayor and see if he knew anything and has any comment.”

City Councilor at Large Carol Wood also said she was unaware of the arrests or the operation. She said that was particularly troubling.

“A lot of times when something happens in the neighborhoods, council members are the first ones to get called,” Wood said. “Had there been an incident… if we had had some warning this was going to happen, it might alleviate some of the issues.”

Wood said the council is regularly briefed on confidential activities, which they are not allowed to discuss until an action has been completed. “It would have been better to tell us rather than leave us out of the loop.”

Lansing Police spokesperson Noel Gracia said he was unable to find anyone in the department who knew about the arrests. In fact, he said, he had not been able to confirmed them with ICE.