Alleged New ICE Policy Allowing Law Enforcement Officers And Agencies To Turn In Illegal Immigrants

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 10, 2010

Waukesha - On Thursday, Micheal Vela-Garcia, 33, who lived in Waukesha for 13 years was arrested at home with two other men by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), more than 11 days ago. He says, a new ICE policy makes it easier for police to turn over illegal immigrants.
In a telephone interview with Hispanic News Network U.S.A. from Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, Vala-Garcia said that he was taken into custody at home by ICE for being undocumented, instead as previously reported that Waukesha Police had stopped him while driving a vehicle. Vela-Garcia was deported to Mexico and arrived last Tuesday in Leon after he voluntarily signed deportation documents and decided to waive his right to appeal his case.
Vela-Garcia says, an ICE official he befriended told him that a new ICE policy allows state, county and local law enforcement agencies from throughout the country to detain and report illegal immigrants they encounter to ICE for pick up and deportation. Officers who stop undocumented drivers for traffic violations or even during inquiries such as suspicion, the illegal immigrants can be turned in to ICE.
While at the Dodge County Jail in Wisconsin, which ICE has a contract to house illegal immigrants, Vela-Garcia says, other undocumented immigrants detained by Waukesha, Milwaukee, and Chicago police told him, that they were stopped and detained for ICE after the officers discovered they were undocumented.
Undocumented immigrants from Chicago, Illinios and Kentucky are brought in to Dodge County Jail. ICE actually pays at least $400 per illegal immigrant compared to $30 per a U.S. citizen inmate per day at the facility. At least, between 400-600 illegal immigrants (men and women) are deported per week from the Dodge County jail alone. On Tuesdays and Fridays, ICE transports the immigrants from the Wisconsin jail to a Chicago facility for deportation. Any immigrant brought to the Dodge County jail, he/her are in the process to be deported, according to Vela-Garcia.
While in Dodge, Vela-Garcia met a man who worked at a local car wash from Waukesha who was walking around Main Street when he was apparently stopped by a Waukesha police officer. When the officer discovered he was undocumented, the man was detained and then ICE was called. Vela-Garcia says, other immigrants from Waukesha had similar cases, including undocumented drivers stopped by police and reported to ICE.
Another immigrant was stopped by a Chicago police officer, the immigrant told Vela-Garcia that he was walking along a sidewalk in Chicago when an officer stopped him and discovered he was undocumented. The officer detained him and ICE was called for pick up at the Cook County Jail. The man had tears in his eyes, because his wife was eight months pregnant and was due in one month. The man was being deported, according to Vela-Garcia. 
In Waukesha, police are accused of routinely stopping Wisconsin driver's to check for mandatory insurance, since the insurance law went into effect on June 1st. Undocumented drivers held in Dodge County jail allege that officers stopped them as a routine check for a driver's license and insurance. They told Vela-Garcia, that they committed no traffic violation to warrant a stop.
Once the officer discovered they were undocumented, ICE was called. ICE took them into custody.
Vela-Garcia's friend in Milwaukee who did not want to be identified said, that police had also detained other undocumented drivers who also had no mandatory insurance as required by state law. The undocumented drivers are waiting the same fate as Vela-Garcia because Waukesha police had turned them in to ICE as well, according to Vela-Garcia's friend.
Vela-Garcia said, that a man from Mexico was walking along Main Street in Waukesha carrying some groceries when he was stopped by police. When the man didn't have documents, apparently the officer called ICE who later arrived at the scene to pick him up, according to Vela-Garcia who met the man at the ICE facility in Dodge County. The Waukesha Police Department could not confirm the detentions.
Vela-Garcia's account and testimony he heard from other illegal immigrants at the Dodge County jail about what actually happened to them, seems to indicate the Waukesha police apparently are taking the initiative to call ICE when they encounter an undocumented immigrant, thus by not arresting the immigrant, there is no record of the immigrant arrest on file. The officers act alone would be illegal, if in fact it is actually happening. But, to Vela-Garcia who made the allegations to Hispanic News Network U.S.A., and the other undocumented immigrants from Wisconsin turned in to ICE is the grim reality.
Hispanic News Network USA contacted Russell Jack, Waukesha Chief of Police by e-mail to confirm the arrests of Vela-Garcia and 20 other undocumented drivers. Chief Jack in an e-mail stated, that "first and foremost our department does not and will not engage in racial profiling. We thoroughly investigate any complaint of racial profiling. If an officer was determine to be practicing racial profiling, he/she would face discipline, up to and including termination." 
A file search of an arrest record of Vela did not come up on the department file, but "he might have been arrested by an agency other than the Waukesha Police Department," Chief Jack stated.
Chief Jack provide no information or would confirmed if in fact, the allege Waukesha police policy to detain undocumented drivers without mandatory insurance and to turn them in to ICE existed.
Vela-Garcia's friend is alleging the police department is engaging in racial profiling, since Vela-Garcia assured his friend that the undocumented drivers held at the Dodge County jail waiting deportation did not commit a traffic violation to be stopped. It seems, Waukesha Police Department and other law enforcement agencies are stopping undocumented Hispanic drivers, detaining them and reporting suspected illegal immigrants to ICE, according to Vela-Garcia's alleged new ICE policy allowing for law enforcement officers and agencies to turn in illegal immigrants.
ICE when contacted, would not confirm the new policy. ICE has the 287(g) program. The 287(g) program, one of ICE’s top partnership initiatives, allows a state and local law enforcement entity to enter into a partnership with ICE, under a joint Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), in order to receive delegated authority for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions.
Wisconsin or any law enforcement agency within the state have no current 287(g) MOA with ICE under this program, according to ICE.
Last week Thursday, Voces de la Frontera (VDLF) sent out a media advisory alleging the Milwaukee Police Department along with ICE are increasing the arrests of undocumented immigrants. VDLF says that a representative from ICE had confirmed the crackdown on illegal immigrants with local police in the South side of Milwaukee has increased.
The Milwaukee Police Department spokesperson or Edward Flynn, Chief of Police have not released a statement concerning the allegations raised by VDLF.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice reported Project Deliverance resulting with the arrests on Wednesday of 429 suspects associated with Mexican drug trafficing, illegal weapons and cash smuggling into Mexico. About 3,000 agents made the arrests in 16 states, including Wisconsin. The federal operation involved the DEA, FBI and ICE, which within a 22 month investigation led to the arrest of 2,200 suspects and had siezed huge amounts of drugs and $154 million in U.S. currency.
Vela-Garcia will give testimony from Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico about his account while in ICE custody next Saturday at 10-11 a.m., June 12, at Nfoque Latino Spanish radio talk show transmitted live from WJTI 1460 AM radio from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Nfoque Latino could also be seen live on the Internet on Saturday at 10 a.m. in Ustream.com, just search for Nfoque Latino.

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