ICE raids take 16 Flagstaff residents
November 26th, 2008 by Sarah Pickering
Protesters gather Thursday evening at the corner of E Butler and E Sawmill rd to protest the deportation of illegal immigrants and to support immigration rights. The protesters held signs and chanted in front of a news camera to show their support. - Jim Truncali/ The Lumberjack
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrived in Flagstaff on Wednesday, Nov. 19 to arrest undocumented citizens with criminal records, sparking an impromptu protest by various immigrant rights and activist groups.
On Nov. 20, the Repeal Coalition, a group dedicated to the repeal of all anti-immigration legislation in Arizona, organized various efforts to warn the community that members of ICE would be conducting raids in target neighborhoods. ICE is a governmental agency responsible for identifying and investigating illegal activity with regards to the United States border.
The Repeal Coalition gathered a group of approxminately two dozen people at Killip Elementary School in Sunnyside to escort children to their homes. In the evening, the group, including members from CopWatch, ASWI, NAU Peace and Justice, MEChA and Save the Peaks protested numbers of arrests already made by ICE.
Approximately 70 people stood near the county jail on Butler Avenue chanting, “ICE is on thin ice” and “No more body snatching.”
Joel Olson, a member of the Repeal Coalition and assistant professor
in the NAU Department of Political Science, said ICE’s raids are a violation of civil rights.
“They’ve raided homes, they’ve arrested six people and they’ve got warrants for 40 people total,” Olson said. “We’re opposed to body snatching and all the laws that are preventing citizens and non-citizens alike from being able to live and love and work wherever they please.”
George Villas leads a group of Anti Immigration protesters in a chant Thursday Evening on the corner of E Butler and E Sawmill rd. Protesters were calling for an end to deportation and Immigration rights. - Jim Truncali/ The Lumberjack
Maren Lester, a freshman undeclared major, disagreed with alleged tactics to raid elementary schools, but agreed with neighborhood raids.
“If (undocumented citizens) haven’t pursued legal ways to get into the country, then they have no right to be here,” Lester said.
According to ICE’s Web site, the agency protects the nation’s homeland security.
“(ICE) upholds public safety by targeting criminal networks and terrorist organizations that seek to exploit vulnerabilities in our immigration system, in our financial networks, along our border, at federal facilities and elsewhere in order to do harm to the United States,” the mission statement reads.
When contacted for a comment, ICE did not respond.
Olson said he felt the most important part of the protest was getting the word out about the problems with ICE and other anti-immigration legislation.
“Our overall goal is the repeal of all anti-immigration laws in the state of Arizona,” Olson said, referring to the Repeal Coalition’s mission. “Arizona is ground zero for immigration reform. If we change the laws in Arizona, we change them nationwide.”
“All day we’ve been doing patrols around the neighborhood, making sure ICE is informing the undocumented citizens of their rights,” said George Villas, a protester.
Erin Entringer, a freshman choral education major, said she agreed with ICE’s practices from an economic standpoint.
“I understand that people are coming here to make a better life for themselves,” Entringer said. “I think those people should go through the legal process to become citizens, rather than free-loading off of our tax money.”
ICE obtained 40 warrants for undocumented citizens, arresting 16 who were previously ordered to leave the country.
“ICE is taking people that they don’t have warrants for,” said Eva Amaral, a member of the Repeal Coalition. “That’s what’s happening in Maricopa County and we don’t want it here.”
Amaral said she wants the city of Flagstaff to join in the resistance against ICE, and said a community effort is crucial to maintaining civil rights.
“Lives are being destroyed,” Amaral said. “We’re not going to let a government agency tell us that we aren’t people.”
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November 26th, 2008 at 8:14 am
We need the SAVE ACT and E-verify used for every business.
E-verify does not discriminate against RACE, Religion, SEX or physically capability only your Citizenship and your LEGAL right to be and work in United States.
If we can stop Predatory business owners from hiring then the Illegal Aliens will not Stay and return to their native Countries.
This ISSUE is not about RACE, but Governments Federal/State/LOCAL not doing their jobs, because big and small business owners want cheap workers and no labor laws to bother with. Its called GREED!
The only RACISTS are the single RACE agenda GROUPS like La RAZA, Mecha, Aztlan and ETC….Whose main goal is take our Western States back to Mexico.
Liberal and Conservatives take some pride in your Country and protect it from all invading nations citizens and corporate greed.
Please, NO IMMIGRANT BASHING or HATE Crimes.
HATE only feeds the single RACE agenda groups for Open Borders and the Media.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:34 am
All Native Americans should be able to live, work and travel freely throughout our Americas.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
“Undocumented citizens?” Hilarious! Who writes this crap?
Illegal aliens are criminals and parasites, one and all. Their very presence here and practically everything they do on U. S. soil is illegal. They need to be ferreted out, rounded up like cattle, punished for their numerous crimes, then booted back to whence they snuck in from with such extreme prejudice that they will never, ever think of violating our sovereignty again. Enough is enough.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Ms. Lester said, ““If (undocumented citizens) haven’t pursued legal ways to get into the country, then they have no right to be here,” Lester said.”
They’re not “undocumented citizens”, they’re documented citizens of another country who are in this country illegally. Citizens of the U.S. have a right to be here, “undocumented” or not. And if, as the sign says, these protestors want to fight for freedom,
how about taking that fight back to their home countries for the right to live, love, and work THERE?
November 26th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Mass Deportations or Civil War.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
If you are here illegally, you would be better off going home now on your own terms. If you wait, your deportation may be an ugly one…. You could spends months in one of the desert camps that have been prepared for you. And, there may be no place for you to stay once you finally do arrive in your homeland. This is what you have brought upon yourselves for not obeying the laws of this country.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Ruben Botello Says: All Native Americans should be able to live, work and travel freely throughout our Americas.
Unless you were born in the United States you are not native to this country. Your logic may work for you, but there are 300,000,000 “Native U.S. Citizens” whose laws disagree with your “funny thoughts.”
November 26th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Illegal immigration is against the law. So what, some people say. No, not so what. This is the whole problem with the attitude of so many Americans in this nation and the reason why we have fallen so low as a nation. Because the laws aren’t enforced. This is true from Wall Street Criminals, to border criminals. It has to stop.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
hmm lets see here..ICE arrests illegals and some people are whinning about it?? why?? lets see what have illegals done for this country:
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year.
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report:
12. The National Policy Institute, “estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.”
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
14. “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States “.
The total cost is a whooping . $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR
and people are actually advocating these criminals…someone might want to write down those organizations down and complain to your senators and congressman and inform people exactly what kinds of hateful anti american organizations are out there.
November 26th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
“Ruben Botello Says:
November 26th, 2008 at 8:34 am
All Native Americans should be able to live, work and travel freely throughout our Americas.”
All Native Americans can & do travel, live & work freely in our Country. The article is talking about Illegal Aliens! Please try and learn the difference. And the part of the US that was purchased from Mexico was only in Mexican control for less than 40 years. Learn the history before you say anything to embarass yourself.
November 26th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Immigration criminal squatters are the reason I no longer feel safe going to Flagstaff.
This story, like many others like it with a similar theme, twists reality whereby the lawbreaker becomes the victim and the victim is a racist for complaining about the presence of immigration criminal squatters.
The pro squatter activists, the politicans, the do-gooders, (a) do not live with the invaders (b) have no contact with the invaders or (c) have something to gain from the presence of the invaders.
November 26th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Yes, this is not about race. What it is about are the numbers. Not the langauge,the shade of brown or the look, it is the numbers.Back when illegal aliens from any where were thought to be 100,000 or more , a few here and there could be “over looked”. But today with over 60,000,000 in our country we have been Invaded. If it does not look like that to you, are you an American? Defend with Honor
November 26th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Get out of America if you came here illegally it’s that simple, we don’t want you we don’t need you and we will hunt you down and cathc you. I am hispanic and legally in this country, I am sorry for many of my ethinic kin’s invader tactics, they are embarrassing and should be delt with harshly. go try your protest in Mexico and see how far that get’s you - Jail that’s how far. It is illegal to protest against the government there.
November 26th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
The invasion of illegals and their ethnic hustling organizations are comming to a city near you!
Thank you ICE and keep it up!
Illegal is illegal is illegal! Get the heck out of my country!
November 26th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Joel Olson is a perfect example of those paid to teach our children obtaining positions whereby they indoctrinate them in their radical views. The law is the law and one does not have to be a college graduate to know that when one selectively decides which rules they will follow and those they will not, anarchy results. Mr. Olson’s ridiculous statement would dictate that Osama binLaden and Hugo Chavez should be able to live and work in our country. People such as Olson and organizations such as LaRaza are in the forefront and vociferous in their demands for U.S. rights for illegal aliens; rights to which they are neither entitled to nor deserving of. Notice how none of these radicals have the courage to step one foot inside Mexico to demand these same rights for the 38+M illegal aliens who have invaded our country. Olson, Amaral, LaRaza, MALDEF, and other such people/groups are desperately trying to turn our country into the same as the third world countries these illegal aliens have left behind. Perhaps they are content to live in these conditions; however, the majority of Americans are not and will not.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
If they are here illegally, then ICE is mandated to arrest and deport. Just because you dont have a good job in your own country, does not give you the right to break-into mine and steal from our society and its citizens. If the illegal alien is from Mexico, this applies to you……Mexico is a Democracy; Democracies are for its people. If you are jobless and hungry in Mexico, then force change. Dont come to my nation expecting me to change for you.
We are a nation of laws. We are the greatest nation on earth. It is not for everyone, and we dont want or need everyone. If you are educated and have something to offer the USA, then our immigration policies work for you. If you are un-educated, and have a lack of work-skills that our nation needs; then you are not needed. We have policies for the weak, hungry and poor…and those policies include a line in which to wait your turn. If you feel you cant wait, then we feel we dont need you. Its simple.
If you support illegal immigration, then you also support slave labor and endentured servitude, because that is what most illegal immigration is about. American Corporations and small business industries prey on illegal aliens, and should be shut down.
America also has standing policy on people immigrating from communist nations, such as Cuba, China, etc. America stands up for those people from nations that persecute those that seek freedom. That is what Lady Liberty is about. Know your history, know the laws, know what its like to be American.
Enforce our laws, remove those illegal aliens in our schools, those washing dishes, remove them from thier uninsured cars on our city streets. Remove them from standing on our street corners, and remove them from American Society. I want my nation back.
Marine 1
November 28th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Maren Lester, a freshman undeclared major, disagreed with alleged tactics to raid elementary schools, but agreed with neighborhood raids.
“If (undocumented citizens) haven’t pursued legal ways to get into the country, then they have no right to be here,” Lester said.
Erin Entringer, a freshman choral education major, said she agreed with ICE’s practices from an economic standpoint.
“I understand that people are coming here to make a better life for themselves,” Entringer said. “I think those people should go through the legal process to become citizens, rather than free-loading off of our tax money.”
ALRIGHT! College kids are getting it.
Amaral said she wants the city of Flagstaff to join in the resistance against ICE, and said a community effort is crucial to maintaining civil rights. <<< WHAT civil rights? If they’re illegal thay have only one right… the right to a trip back to the border they jumped!
November 28th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
There are many clamoring to gain and remain in the United States. All should be summarily deported. Eventually the citizens of the United States will re-gain control. Illegal residents have no respect for our laws. They deserve to be deported and dealt with harshly. Praise ICE, and a big thank you for your efforts with your raids. We all know without them chaos results here.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am
The “immigration debate” suffers from the severe oversimplification and close-minded refusal to self-educate as evidence by the comments above. How many of the above posters shop at Wal-Mart? How about Best-Buy? If they would adhere to their supposed love for their country and take a long, hard look at what economic forces drive them to frequent these establishments, they would have revealed to them the root cause of economic migration. Trade policies such as NAFTA and CAFTA deplete the very nation they profess to care for in exchange for upsetting the economies of the countries they rail against. This matter is far more complex than the so-called facts and arguments spewed in the above comments. Each person above has joined the scapegoating screech, deafening in it’s lack of education and critical thought, that keeps us from pointing the finger at the true culprits: ourselves and the government we elect.
If we want cheap goods produced by a (((communist))) country [read: our most-favored trade nation, China] then we see the dismantling of factories and communities in this nation. If we want cheap, flavorless, nutrition-lacking produce than we see the family-farms that feed the founders of this nation decimated. Those farms are then razed and replaced with factory ones raising corn for our sweet teeth and waistlines [corn syrup] and cars [ethanol]. And who will work in these farms: the chicken and beef processing plants that are the most dangerous in the country? Those unskilled and those that have fled their own countries after our own trade policies have crushed them.
If you scream for supposed justice and law-enforcing then why turn your back to the evisceration of your own countryfolk? Why continue to shop and support the very companies that make billions of dollars in profit off these unjust policies? Why? Because it always easier to point the finger and scapegoat instead of admitting your and my own role in this matter.
And to address a few fallacies above; the majority of those nationwide in emergency rooms and on federal assistance are white, poor and without insurance. Where is your outrage against insurance firms and the government that could easily institute nationwide health care? Where is your lack of understanding that without proper social security numbers no so-called illegal can receive government assistance?
We do each other no favors by continuing to ignore the base reasons behind immigration. I know my country was built upon smart thought and critical action. I trust that each one of you still possess a brain able to process the truth behind this crisis. It is economic and as observed by our current (((depression))) the majority of Americans have had their head in the sand. We have thought for far too long that we can consume our way to life, freedom, love and happiness. It is time to wake up and admit that we have created the vary problem some of us rail against. Take ownership of your greed and that it will never ease your emptiness. Put down the propaganda and take decisive action that will actually change something. Educate yourselves, don’t just regurgitate the PR sheets passed down form those who profit from your goose-stepping manipulation.