Re-Directing the Anger: Going after Employers not Employees

link to cartoon

In a significant shift from the previous administration, DHS has delayed scheduling immigration raids saying that they are looking at prosecuting employers instead of workers.

This may also be a sign that American anger is shifting. We have been angry for a good while, but we were taking out on immigrants who many thought were stealing from our homeland - As I mentioned in previous posts, I always thought the anger was really at our government and corporations who were making life hard for regular people to survive and at our culture that continuously pressures us to acquire more money and material things (even though it was acquired through debt).

Now the anger is beginning to shift towards those who are really hurting the country - those who hold most of our wealth - Another thing has happened, the presidential administration who helped bring us to the brink is no longer in office. It is much easier to be angry at former presidents.

Even so, some believe that we are not showing enough anger at those who brought us down. In the NYT op-ed piece "Feeling Too Down to Rise Up," the author is asking why we are not having massive protests. He believes that we are too isolated from each other, that we vent out anger in blogs but not really in a collective manner.

The anger is there, in the UK at the 35,000 person protest at the G20 meetings this week. Yes, I know that is England, not the U.S. But there is hope for us yet. Stopping immigration raids is a beginning. Re-directing our anger at those responsible for our troubles is a good move. Now we have to find something productive to do with the anger. Throwing eggs at the houses of AIG employees won't get us anywhere. Actively protesting might, but writing can do even more. Write in your blogs, comment on blogs, newspaper articles, facebook; anything that is distributed on the net. Let people know what you are thinking - show the world that the blue eyed bankers don't run the show. Tell Obama and Napolitano that they are doing the right thing by stopping immigration raids.

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Delay in Immigration Raids May Signal Policy Change
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement may be shifting focus from detaining illegal workers to prosecuting executives at the companies that employ them. A senior government official says raids are being delayed.

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 29, 2009; Page A02

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has delayed a series of proposed immigration raids and other enforcement actions at U.S. workplaces in recent weeks, asking agents in her department to apply more scrutiny to the selection and investigation of targets as well as the timing of raids, federal officials said.

A senior department official said the delays signal a pending change in whom agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement choose to prosecute -- increasing the focus on businesses and executives instead of ordinary workers.

"ICE is now scrutinizing these cases more thoroughly to ensure that [targets] are being taken down when they should be taken down, and that the employer is being targeted and the surveillance and the investigation is being done how it should be done," said the official, discussing Napolitano's views about sensitive law enforcement matters on the condition of anonymity. link to complete article

"'Blue eyed bankers to blame for crash,' Lula tells Brown," London Guardian, March 26, 2009

"Feeling too down to rise up," New York Times, March 29, 2009

"The 'revolution' starts here as 35,000 pack G20 march," London Guardian, March 29, 2009

link to photo

ICE in Italy

Returning Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlosconi begins his term as the tough guy - imitating Bush by having his immigration police arrest 400.

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Italy arrests 400 in illegal immigrants swoop

By Stephen Brown
Washington Post
Reuters
Thursday, May 15, 2008; 8:11 AM

ROME (Reuters) - Italian police announced on Thursday the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants in a sign of the new right-wing government's determination to clamp down.

Police arrested 383 people including 268 foreigners, with 53 immediately taken to the border for expulsion, in a week-long operation stretching from northern Italy to the Naples area.

Silvio Berlusconi swept back to power for a third term as prime minister last week promising to get tough on illegal immigrants, blamed by many for crime. He is readying new laws to screen immigrants and jail or expel those breaking the law.

Those arrested came from Eastern Europe, Albania, Greece, North Africa and China and face charges ranging from illegal entry into Italy to prostitution, drug trafficking and robbery.

In Libya, police have arrested 240 would-be illegal migrants from several African countries over the past four days as they prepared to sail to Italy, the Interior Ministry said.

Libya is a springboard for hundreds of thousands of Africans trying to reach Europe via Italy on board unseaworthy boats.

The policeman in charge of the Italian operation, Francesco Gratteri, told a news conference the sweep "wasn't aimed at any specific category or ethnic group. The sole objective were criminals who have caused a sensation of rising alarm in society."

The focus of Italian concern about immigrant crime are the Roma, known here as "nomads," who come mainly from Romania and other Eastern European countries. In Rome, police raided the biggest Roma camp and took away about 50 men for questioning.

The arrests coincided with a visit by Romanian Interior Minister Cristian David. Romania has Europe's biggest Roma population and its prime minister warned this week that Italy's crackdown could cause "xenophobia" against other Romanians...

for complete article click here

Americanos - Los Brutos/Americans as Brutes

The present generation that is running the country grew up watching Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Gunsmoke, and Bonanza. While many call them Baby Boomers, I would call them closeted Marlboro Men (and women).

Our current President is the quintessential Marlboro Man. If you recall that great photo-op on the naval air carrier, with President Bush dressed like he just came out of a movie set - leather jacket and all.

Now the Marlboro Man has taken over immigration policy. What a better place to show your testosterone than an ICE raid?

The raids make clear to everyone in the world that we would rather behave like brutes- (separate families, ignore due process, and incarcerate people without charges), than sit down and negotiate some reasonable legislation regarding immigration.


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GLOBE EDITORIAL
Raids are beside the point
November 22, 2007
Boston Globe


FEDERAL IMMIGRATION officials have crafted guidelines on how to conduct more humane workplace raids to round up undocumented workers. It sounds oxymoronic: Enforcement actions aren't supposed to be tea parties. But what the country really needs is comprehensive immigration reform that gives immigrants more ways to work here legally.

Lacking such reforms, immigration officials should not rely too heavily on dramatic "show raids," but instead beef up incentives and penalties for employers. After all, it's the ready availability of jobs in the United States that attracts undocumented workers.

Massachusetts witnessed the human toll of raids in March when immigration officials raided the Michael Bianco leather company in New Bedford. Children of detained parents faced emotional and financial hardships, according to a report from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit Washington think tank that studied the New Bedford raid and similar actions in Colorado and Nebraska.

Worried about how arrests and possible deportations affect pregnant women, nursing mothers, and single parents - not to mention their children - Senator Edward Kennedy and congressman William Delahunt helped devise the new raid guidelines, which show compassion and common sense - but also limitations.

The guidelines call on federal officials to staff raids with personnel from the Division of Immigration Health Services, a federal entity that provides healthcare for detained undocumented immigrants. These staffers would identify detainees with family, health, and humanitarian concerns. Immigration officials are also being asked to work with state social services and community groups.

Still, these are only suggestions. And even when they are followed, fear will inevitably prevent some detainees from talking to government officials, even if the officials are human service workers.

Whether raids are genteel or jarring, their effectiveness is dubious. They grab headlines and generate fear, but they fail to slow the great waves of illegal immigration.

That's why other tools should be used. Employers need a 21st-century verification system, so that they can quickly establish who can legally work. Once that system is in place, penalties should be stiffened for employers who hire and abuse undocumented workers. Add presidential candidate Bill Richardson's advice to talk to Mexico about job creation, so its citizens aren't as desperate to cross the border, and that would be a move toward comprehensive reform.

Protecting children during raids is important, especially since an estimated two-thirds of undocumented workers' children are American citizens. But the country also needs a modern immigration system that relies far less on raids and more on genuine reform.

article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/11/22/raids_are_beside_the_point?mode=PF

photo: http://www.hot-cigs.com/images/MarlboroMan.jpg

What! Stop the Wild Bunch Immigration Raids?

The Wild Bunch Administration directs Wild Bunch Immigration Raids. It make sense. Totally logical that the administration is encouraging these out of control raids to punish Congress for not passing Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

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Editorial
Homeland Bunkers and Alien Litterbugs
New York Times
Published: October 13, 2007


...The current homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, was memorably overwhelmed by Katrina, and he has since been too often a study in executive whimsy. Recall the eerie statement of his own “gut feeling” that a terrorist attack could occur perchance last summer. More recently, Mr. Chertoff defended the administration’s fence along the Mexican border as an environmental boon because illegal migrants are such litterbugs as they skulk toward opportunity. “I’ve seen pictures of human waste, garbage, discarded bottles and other human artifact in pristine areas,” he rued.

Statements like that should make Americans look up in wonder at what sort of expert insights their taxes are subsidizing. Congress already has had to head off the homeland department’s plan to create its own spy satellite program for tracking threats from nature, terrorists and illegal intruders. Lawmakers were rightly wary that it was yet another way for this administration to invade citizens’ privacy and mangle civil liberties.

...Under this administration, it can veer from the Wild Bunch immigration raids lately terrifying innocent citizens, to the bizarre plan of Huntsville, Ala., for a mammoth fallout shelter for 20,000 people..


for complete editorial click title to this post

cartoon: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20020131/cartoon20020131.gif____

Suit Against Searches Without a Warrant

NY Suit Seeks to Stop Immigration Raids
The Associated Press
Washington Post
Friday, September 21, 2007; 9:35 AM


NEW YORK -- Immigration authorities violated Hispanic families' civil rights by raiding their homes without court warrants, sometimes bursting in before dawn to look for people who didn't live there, according to a federal lawsuit.

The suit was filed Thursday on behalf of 15 people _ including seven U.S. citizens _ who say their suburban homes were raided earlier this year.

Arguing that the raids violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, the suit seeks unspecified damages and a halt on the home raids until Immigration and Customs Enforcement develops legal guidelines for them...

For complete article click title of this post

Could this be Called Persecution?

Immigration Raids Single Out Hispanics, Lawsuit Says
By NINA BERNSTEIN
New York Times
Published: September 21, 2007

A federal lawsuit filed yesterday charges that agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully force their way into the homes of Hispanic families in the New York area without court warrants or other legal justification, sometimes pushing down doors in the middle of the night, in search of people who do not live there.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Manhattan as a class action, accuses the immigration agency of conducting the raids in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches, harming citizens and legal residents of the United States as well as foreigners here illegally...

According to the complaint, the raids are part of a program called Operation Return to Sender that was started in 2006 to arrest and deport “fugitive aliens” or immigrants previously ordered to leave the country. But, the lawsuit contends, “the agents regularly raid homes where the fugitive is not present and could not reasonably have been believed to be present.”

The complaint contends that “the unstated goal of these raids is to gain access to constitutionally protected areas in hope of seizing as many undocumented persons as possible” to meet annual arrest quotas recently increased by the agents’ superiors to 1,000 per fugitive team, up from 125 arrests in 2003. Mark Thorn, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the New York region, said that he was not familiar with the lawsuit, and that the agency does not comment on litigation...

In the case of ..[the Aguilar] family, immigration agents burst into their home in East Hampton to hunt for an illegal immigrant without a criminal record — Ms. Aguilar’s ex-husband, who had not lived in the house since 2003, when they divorced and he was ordered deported.

After detaining and questioning the frightened family members, including Ms. Aguilar’s 12-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, the complaint said, the agents threatened to return.

In an account disputed by agents at the time, the complaint contends that another plaintiff, Nelly Amayo, was arrested in her East Hampton home when she demanded to see a search warrant. It says agents twisted her arm and eventually left her in her nightclothes in Manhattan.

Another raid was in a rooming house in Mount Kisco, N.Y., where David Lazaro Perez and other residents were awakened about 4 a.m. March 18 by agents who did not show a search warrant. The complaint said agents took his wallet containing $700 and that it was returned without the money.





For complete article click title of this post

ICE Raid in Iowa

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Iowa: Immigration raid nets 51
The Associated Press
September 14, 2007, 10:13AM ET

More from BusinessWeek


DES MOINES, Iowa

Fifty-one workers were arrested during an immigration raid at six DeCoster egg farms in Wright County, where agents have conducted several other raids in recent years, federal officials said Thursday.

The workers, most of them from Mexico, have been transported to various detention facilities in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and elsewhere, said Tim Counts, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A judge will decide their fate at deportation hearings in Omaha, Neb., Counts said.

Federal agents conducted the 2 1/2-hour raid Wednesday. Some of the workers, including some juveniles and parents, were released and told to appear for their scheduled hearings, Counts said...

click title of post for link
previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog

ICE Picks Up Children at School in Chaparral Raid

11 children were removed from Chaparral schools Monday by sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents.

There is really no comment to make about this.

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28 Deported After Raid on Chaparral Schools

El Paso Times
September 15, 2007
Louie Gilot



Some Chaparral residents reportedly are staying home and not sending their children to school after a raid Monday by the Otero County (N.M.) Sheriff's Department ended with parents and children being deported to Mexico.

The Sheriff's Department conducted a federally funded enforcement operation Sept. 10 that resulted in the detention of 28 undocumented immigrants who were turned over to the Border Patrol.

Border Patrol officials said they received 16 undocumented immigrants from Otero County deputies. The difference in the statistics might be the number of children.

Art Ruiloba, spokesman for the Gadsden Independent School District, said 11 children were removed from Chaparral schools Monday by sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents. The parents or legal guardians were present. Six children were from elementary schools, four from middle school and one from high school.

"This operation has had somewhat of an impact on our schools," Ruiloba said.

"There's been some absenteeism due to that. We've had phone calls from parents who say, 'I'm not going to bring my child to school.' "

Schools do not ask for proof of citizenship when a child enrolls.

Martina Morales, an immigrant advocate with the Border Network for Human Rights, said Chaparral residents have reported an increase in what she said is police harassment during the past two months, culminating in Monday's raids. The raids and the rumors surrounding them are paralyzing the community, Morales said.

"There's a lot of fear right now," she said. "They don't go out."

Otero County sheriff's officials said the operations, funded under the 2-year-old federal Operation Stonegarden, started in May and will continue, unannounced.

Monday's activities yielded the highest number of referrals to the Border Patrol so far. Enforcement of immigration laws is a federal, not a state responsibility, but programs such as Stonegarden blur the line, critics said.

Stonegarden gives federal money to border counties for general border security operations.

Even though participating law-enforcement agencies say that finding undocumented immigrants is just a byproduct of crime fighting, Stonegarden operations regularly yield many more immigrant detentions than criminal arrests.

Monday, 12 deputies spent the day in Chaparral, patrolling and serving warrants. They detained 28 undocumented immigrants, issued 17 citations and arrested four people on warrants, including one who was an undocumented immigrant.

Morales claims that the sheriff's de puties use trickery to identify undocumented immigrants.

"They use any kind of pretext to go into people's homes," she said. "They say there were reports of loose animals or a dog barking. But that's not true. They said, 'You called 911.' In one case, a lady said she didn't call 911. She said, 'I don't even have a phone.' "

Lt. Leon Ledbetter of the Otero County Sheriff's Department denied that his officers use such tactics.

He said deputies learned the immigrants were undocumented through the course of regular police business, but added that they might have asked people about their immigration status.

"If folks don't have an ID, we'll ask them. Eventually, it may come to that, but we don't knock on doors and ask, 'Are you here illegally?' " he said.

Two Doña Ana County sheriff's de puties participated in Operation Stonegarden, Doña Ana County sheriff's officials said. The operation, consisting of traffic stops and checks on suspicious activity, will continue in Doña Ana until Nov. 29.

Chaparral, with a population of about 6,000, straddles the Otero-Doña Ana county line.

Monday's operation has caught the attention of some elected officials, such as New Mexico state Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana.

"My concern is that I don't want any children to be terrorized or separated from their families," she said.

Officials of the Mexican Consulate in El Paso said they were still trying Friday to figure out what to do with five siblings who stayed in Chaparral after their parents were deported to Mexico on Monday. Some of the children are U.S. citizens because they were born in the United States.

Some law enforcement officials, such as El Paso Police Chief Richard Wiles, have said they would do everything not to appear to be enforcing immigration laws.

Undocumented immigrants could become fearful of the police, and that would makes them less likely to call the police when they are in danger and less likely to cooperate with the police when they have information about a crime.

But Ledbetter of Otero County predicted that the panic ignited by Monday's operation would taper off and that "everything will be back to normal in the next week."

"I would hope that if a person needs us, they can call us and we'll help," he said. "If it's a call for service, we don't ask for citizenship. We can even take them to Alamogordo for court if they are witnesses, bypassing the Border Patrol checkpoints so we don't have to deal with the whole immigration issue. We do that for witnesses and victims."

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.

Thanks to Michael Olivas for passing this on.

Knocks and Talk

Photo: by Greg Lundeen

Dark Clouds Over Chaparral New Mexico
Operation Stonegarden Should Be Called Operation Stone Age

Officer calls knocking on doors of private homes "knocks and talk."
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ACLU: Immigrant operation a matter of trust
By Jason Gibbs/Sun-News reporter
Las Cruces Sun-News
Article Launched: 09/15/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

LAS CRUCES — The detention this week of several undocumented immigrants in the Chaparral and Vado areas has a national advocacy group on alert and local law enforcement agencies defending their role in Operation Stonegarden.

Monday, the U.S. Border Patrol, along with sheriff's departments from Doña Ana and Otero counties, conducted a 12-hour operation during which 28 undocumented immigrants were detained and turned over to the Border Patrol. The program is funded under the auspices of Operation Stonegarden, a federal homeland security program that funnels funds to local law enforcement agencies for border security.

Otero County devoted nine deputies and three county reserve deputies. Doña Ana County had two deputies on routine patrol in the area as well.

The communities overlap between the Otero and Doña Ana county line, and the two sheriff's departments patrol the area.

Doña Ana sheriff's investigator Bo Nevarez said the federally funded procedure entails officers alerting federal officials if they encounter a lawbreaker and then discover they are not in the United States legally. But it's not a sweep that specifically looks for undocumented immigrants, Nevarez said.

"It is not the policy of the Doña Ana County

Sheriff's Office to go knocking on doors to ascertain the immigration status of anyone," Nevarez said. "However, if through the course of the investigation we discover they are undocumented, we contact the proper authority and make them aware, then turn it over to them."

Nevarez was quick to point out the person turned over must first be a lawbreaker. For instance, if a person is the victim of a crime and calls on officers, they will be treated with the full rights of a U.S. citizen and their citizenship won't be a factor, Nevarez said.

"We do not conduct "knock and talks,'" Nevarez said. "We don't go to a person's residence, unless we have evidence" of criminal activity.

..."We get a lot of calls from the community," he said. "But in regard to Operation Stonegarden, it's a sprinkling of calls. Sometimes it's related to Stonegarden. Sometimes it's other agencies."

Otero County Undersheriff Norbert Sanchez told the Alamogordo Daily-News that sheriff's deputies worked increased patrols in the area. If officers found a violation for something such as a loose dog or traffic offense, they then checked on the immigration status of the offender.

...The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday issued a condemnation of the 12-hour operation, saying local agencies should not be assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. A news release issued by the ACLU alleges officers were knocking on doors and checking identification in neighborhoods with a significant immigrant population.

Nevarez said that was not the case for the two Doña Ana deputies who were in the area during the operation, but were only conducting normal patrols. If, during the course of those duties, they found a lawbreaker who was not in the country legally, that person would be turned over to Border Patrol officials. That, Nevarez said, is standard procedure at all times.

...The ACLU has filed public records requests with both sheriff's departments seeking information about the collaboration with federal immigration agencies. The ACLU maintains immigrants in these communities will be reluctant to call on police in times of need as a result of what Maria Nape, director of the ACLU's Border Rights Office, called "irresponsible policing."

"Immigrants in these communities may never again trust that they can report crimes to sheriff's deputies, even if they are the victims," Nape said. "When local police become border patrol agents, it rips a hole in the fabric of public safety that takes years to mend."

Operation Stonegarden is a federal initiative that funnels additional money to participating law enforcement agencies to step-up border security efforts...

Jason Gibbs can be reached at jgibbs@lcsun-news.com


LINK to ACLU Request for Open Records: http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site557/2007/0914/20070914_114216_ACLU.0terorequest.pdf

For complete article: http://www.lcsun-news.com/fastsearchresults/ci_6900543
Photo: http://www.srh.weather.gov/elp/swww/v8n1/Chaparral%20Supercell%202.JPG

Illegal Entry - ICE in New Mexico

ICE does not believe in following federal laws about illegal entry- now that they have easily entered the homes of people in Chaparral and Vado, New Mexico. The Sheriff's deputies of these counties are cooperating with ICE - New Mexico made $1.6 million for cooperating.

Where is Governer Richardson now? This is a great opportunity for him to intervene if he really means what he says about undocumented immigrants.

ICE is rewriting federal law to suit itself. Why doesn't any of this come up in the conformation hearings of ICE Director this past week?

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ACLU Criticizes Border Raids

LAS CRUCES, NM—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico condemned recent immigration raids by Otero and Doña Ana County Sheriff's deputies in the border towns of Chaparral and Vado today. The local police agencies are assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to conduct sweeps of immigrant neighborhoods, knocking on doors and checking identification. Authorities also are stopping motorists and entering private businesses.

The ACLU is investigating multiple reports that sheriff's deputies retrieved children from schools and entered homes without consent or warrants. The ACLU has filed public records requests with both sheriff’s departments seeking information about the collaboration with federal immigration agencies.

“This is irresponsible policing,” said Maria Nape, Director of the ACLU's Border Rights office. “Immigrants in these communities may never again trust that they can report crimes to sheriff’s deputies, even if they are the victims. When local police become border patrol agents, it rips a hole in the fabric of public safety that takes years to mend. It’s not just immigrants that are affected.”

The raids stem from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program called “Operation Stonegarden” which gave New Mexico roughly $1.6 million in support of local law enforcement participation in immigration enforcement along the border. In total, the four Southwest border states received $12 million in grant awards.

“These raids are symptomatic of the same reactionary policies that have failed to address nationwide concerns about immigration for decades,” Nape said. “Do we want to live in a country that makes life so intolerable for hundreds of thousands of families who live and work here that they leave? Or would we rather live in an America that brings immigrants out of the shadows of society and enables them to be taxpaying, contributing citizens?


Whitney Potter
Communications Manager
American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico
PO BOX 566, Albuquerque, NM 87103
Tel: (505) 266-5915 ext 1003 | Fax: (505) 266-5916 | Email: wpotter@aclu-nm.org | Web: aclu-nm.org

previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog

Kids Are Affected When Parents Are Detained - Finally Someone Notices

Thank goodness someone took notice of how children are affected when their parents are detained. There needs to be lots more of this information going out.

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Thursday, September 13, 2007
Immigration raid a crisis school hadn't planned for
DENISE SMITH AMOS | DAMOS@ENQUIRER.COM
Cincinnati Enquirer

At Heritage Hill Elementary, where 65 percent of the students are Hispanic, the first day of school was nearly a crisis.

That day, Aug. 28, immigration agents raided Koch Foods, a poultry packing plant in Fairfield, and arrested 161 suspected illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and other countries.

Tianay Outlaw, principal at Heritage Hill, knew that some of her 310 students would be affected. With 45 percent of her students designated as "limited English proficient," Outlaw feared some youngster would be related to the detained workers.

"We found out almost immediately about the raid, because parents who worked there ... they called Heritage Hill," Outlaw said.

"One father said, 'Please, take care of the children,' " said Sonia Velez Rodriquez, a parent liaison and education aide at the school.

But which students? Who was going home after school to an empty house or apartment because of the raid? Whose families would be packing and leaving in fear, Outlaw wondered.

She tried to find out discreetly.

Because it was the first day of school, most parents hadn't yet filled out contact cards, indicating place of employment and emergency numbers.

Outlaw visited classrooms and asked students to raise their hands if they had parents working as a nurse. Or as a teacher. In a restaurant. Or elsewhere in the food business.

When she asked about Koch foods, five students raised their hands, though Outlaw suspected there were more.

"I was really trying to get information from them without alerting them or getting them nervous," she said.

When school ended and students boarded buses, teachers and school staff followed in cars, watching as children disembarked in neighborhoods and apartment complexes with high immigrant populations.

"We wanted to be sure of how many students would be affected and how many are not coming back," said Lynn Yosua, school psychologist.

Every child was met by a parent or relative, Outlaw said.

"We did see parents who had loaded up their cars and were ready to leave," Outlaw said. "They met us at the bus stop."

Some parents said they were unsure if their child would return to school; they didn't feel safe going home, said Velez Rodriquez.

"They took the most important things and they were gone," she said.

The next day at school about 20 kids were absent, but Outlaw said it was unclear how many absences were because of the raid.

Over the next few days, most students returned to school, Outlaw said, even though a few were not living at home but with relatives or friends.

Teachers talked with classes about how the raid affected some families, saying that some children may have to go back to the country their parents came from.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070913/NEWS01/709130416/-1/all

posted previously on Immigration Prof Blog