Well Frankly, I prefer to watch the more luxury phony illegal aliens raids that take place in the States of Washington and California and the local Mac Donalds. They provide air condition confortable coach buses for the illegals as they parade them in front of the cameras for the media. I always find it amusing to watch the family members and small children of these legal aliens crying, shocked, and supprised while talking on cell phones. Talking to or calling who knows who as the media informs them they are taking away their loves ones away because they were found working at this particle site as illegal aliens. “Oh no!” “I just have call some one and posture on the phone.” Then the illegal alien is carted away on a air condition coach bus and released. Ain’t that special?!
It’s not funny. It’s sad.
Danny

dannygirl on May 9, 2008 at 7:20 pm

Debbie,
I’m going to have to disagree here. I have no idea what if anything is being planned, and of course I couldn’t say if I even did know. But I think the more worksite enforcement the better for discouraging aliens from illegally coming to and staying in the U.S. The fact is, we saw what happened from the late 90’s until 2006 when enforcement was stepped back up. The illegal population exploded in this county.
Its not the numbers of illegals arrested that count so much, as it is illegal aliens know there is even the potential of being arrested. All one has to do is read the reports of aliens leaving areas where worksite enforcement actions have been executed. Those people know it is unlikely they’ll be encountered by ICE, but the possibility discourages them from remaining.
By intentionally not enforcing worksite violations for years, the U.S. government tacitly let it be known that illegals were welcome. These operations serve notice they now are not. Companies, after being fined and prosecuted, are coming on board with compliance and verification programs. As are other companies in the related industries. Legal workers are taking the place of illegals, often at higher wages such as in poultry processing plants in Georgia and a textile plant in Massachusetts. None of that happens without worksite enforcement.
In an earlier post you cited a subhuman piece of garbage that had raped a 10 year-old girl. I don’t think he came here to rape, he probably had plenty of opportunity for sex with pre-adolescents in his native country. He came here most likely to work. If aliens know that there is at least some chance they will be arrested for working illegally, or charged criminally for using someone’s social security number, a certain number will definitley be discouraged from coming and working illegally. Would it have stopped this scumbag, probably not, but if you reduce the overall number, the chances of another such incident are that much less.
By the way, I’ve never bought the argument that our economy would collapse or couldn’t do without the illegal labor. Prior to the meat processing industry moving many of their plants in the mid-80’s, they were located and amply staffed in many mid-west towns. Those towns took a hit when they lost the jobs. The plants relocated to low wage areas where there was virtually no population to support the jobs. These companies knew that they would draw illegals to work there, and at a far cheaper rate than they had paid previously. And what do I care if a local McDonald’s franchisee says he has to go out of business because he can’t hire people wiling to work at 5.15/hour. WIll the economy collapse if these service industry types go under? No, I’ll just spend my money some place else, and won’t have to waste my tax dollars supporting the families of those illegals making 10K a year with three U.S. citizen kids.
I know a lot of agents don’t like this work. The benefit pays off in the long term, and isn’t readily apparent. It doesn’t have the satisfaction of busting a drug smuggling organization or group of alien smugglers. But, it needs to be done, even though the agency is incompetently led. Of course it is arguable the difference these worksite cases make, but from what I’ve experienced in the vacuum of such cases and from when they were and are now enforced, it works.
I agree however that much of this push is being done so that it will make it easier to have some sort of temporary worker or amnesty program in the future. But the administration and other politicians are also speaking to an obvious fact, that the country won’t accept such changes unless the border has been secured. Part of securing the border is making sure the interior isn’t an open playground once you make it past the Border Patrol.

Staypositive on May 9, 2008 at 10:17 pm

ME THINKS STAYPOSITIVE HAS BEEN DRINKING TOO MUCH OF THE MANAGEMENT KOOL-AID. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE “even though the agency is incompetently led” COMMENT. I’M LIVING PROOF!!!
STAY SAFE 😉

Javy Pedroza/SAC El Paso on May 10, 2008 at 12:52 am

Look on the bright side. ICE raids today, tomorrow hundreds of Americans will be lining up to fill the jobs Americans won’t do.

Burt on May 10, 2008 at 9:16 pm

Javy,
The kool-aid being served just happens to be a flavor I like. I’m not down with all the other varieties though.
With some estimates putting illegal aliens as much as 8-10% of this country’s population, what happens if we don’t do this kind of enforcement? Think it can’t get any worse? Think again.

Staypositive on May 11, 2008 at 10:35 am

It’s not the flavor of kool-aid that bothered me. It was the fact that it was forced down my friggin throat!!! Thanks God I’m gone from ICE!!!!!

freefromice on May 11, 2008 at 9:51 pm

Phony worksite raids, yeah, took part in several. 50 arrested, all day to process, one or two detained, 47 let go with a Notice to Disappear. Hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted. Guess how many of those 47 showed up at Immigration Court 4 hours away? Zilch. More work for DRO I guess. Glad I’m doing real 1811 work now.

FormerICE on May 12, 2008 at 8:18 am

Hey FORMER ICE, it’s a great feeling is it not? Actually being an 1811 and doing 1811 work! Man am I glad I’m, gone from ICE!!!

freefromice on May 12, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Hey Debbie,
Can’t wait to hear what you have to say about the Plgrim’s Pride fiasco. I’ll bet there are a lot of people waiting to weigh in on that one.

1shot1kill on May 12, 2008 at 1:09 pm

freefromice, Yeah, great to be doing actual national security related investigative work for a change. I find it funny when I check http://www.911forum.com and see all the guys who can’t wait to join ice. I hope they realize “1811” work there is arresting tonks. In my current gig I work with ICE quite a bit. Good guys generally, but talk about a F#*!ed up place with no mission, questionable priorities, no vision, etc. My current agency laughs at these guys.

FormerICE on May 12, 2008 at 2:12 pm

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080512/NEWS/80512012/1001
you nailed it!

Madmoney on May 12, 2008 at 2:16 pm

I appreciate how the ICE merger between Customs and INS produced a work environment that some didn’t take to. I always understood folks when they said they went into U.S. Customs to do drug smuggling or money laundering investigations, and not immigration enforcement. I don’t take the unfortunate ICE agency line of “love it or leave it”, I think there’s enough investigative work to go around to keep most agents happy and we should try to retain trained agents whenever possible. Hopefully by assigning them work they like in narcotics, financial, strategic investigations when available. That being said the immature postings of FormerICE show he won’t be missed.
If there are agencies laughing at ICE, they are the ones that need to grow up. I’ve conducted plenty of interesting, long term immigration investigations that only involved the administrative arrests of aliens at the back end. If you are with ICE and can’t find enough challenging work to do, you’re probably not looking hard enough.
Even if an agent hates doing worksite, and decides that the grass is greener someplace else, deosn’t this work still need to be done? It’s no mistake the illegal alien advocacy groups are always protesting these worksite raids. They know that it’s making it less hospitable for illegals to live here. That has to happen for interior enforcement to be successful at all.
These same articles about worksite raids published here in the U.S. are being read overeas and south of the border. Think that doesn’t serve as a deterrent? Something has to be done, because the nothing that was done between 1999-2006 proved to be a disaster. I’m sure it sucks for guys that came up in the USCS to have to do this work now, but guess what? The public wants it done and doesn’t care.

Staypositive on May 12, 2008 at 3:42 pm

Staypositive,
I appreciate you trying to educate Debbie’s readers regarding immigration enforcement, and why we do some of the things we do.
It is imperative that serious emphasis be placed on cracking down on the employers that turn a blind eye to the illegal aliens and their false documents or nothing else we do, will ever have an impact. The illegals are mostly coming for employment, and we all know that. No jobs, no reason to come here (or at least less reason).
If your experienced insight allows but one reader to “get it”, your words and your time on this site are not wasted.
EVS (Retired but not gone far:)

EverVigilantSheepdog on May 12, 2008 at 9:36 pm

Stay Positive
I have to agree with much of what you said. I have posted a lot about how glad I am to be gone, and believe me I am. It wasn’t that myself or any other former ICE agents I know hate or hated worksite investigations, alien smuggling/trafficking, benefit fraud, or infrastructure protection. It was the fact that we were kept from investigating and were buried with processing. Processing wouldn’t be so bad if the system was designed better to be user friendly, i.e. when processing in the Central time zone, all of a sudden, the cursor would freeze. Someone would say, “oh that’s just west coast coming on line.” The cursor may stay frozen for 5 minutes to 2 hours. Thus, making processing of one alien an all day fiasco. Could someone not address this? My thoughts are yes, but nobody was willing. The lead agency in Homeland Security has dealt with 3rd rate systems and equip,emt for too long! In my opinion, the problem is all of the legacy Customs managers who have no clue about conducting an immigration investigation and have never sat in front of an “Enforce” screen. They sit back and say such things as, “It is what it is,” or “That’s who we are now” and of course, “If you don’t like it…www.usajobs.opm.gov.” That is one of the biggest problems. And the result is, experienced INS and Customs 1811’s are leaving in a mass Exodus leaving agents like yourself, willing to work, to tow the line while slugs remain in the shadows collecting 13 pay. Meanwhile supervisors sit in their offices telling someone else to go process. An agency cannot have an immigration mission with Customs management nor vice versa. As far as agencies laughing, I have heard a lot of it. I for one do not laugh but rather empathize with my former co-workers. Concerning laughing, I think what FormerICE was speaking of was how ICE management, namely at the national level, spins up these recruitment programs that ICE is currently the lead agency in counter terrorism, espionage, etc and how Customs investigations have not diminished. Conduct a Youtube search of Julie Myers and watch the film, it’s ridiculous! From what I experienced at ICE, that is just not true! The statistics say it all; Customs Investigations have plummeted in quality and quantity since 2003. CBP is going to get 1811’s, it’s coming. The problem of separating Immigration and Customs Inspectors from the agents has not been rectified, therefore, someone at CBP is thinking about getting seizures evolved into controlled deliveries again and having agents and inspectors involved in a working relationship again. I hate it for you guys, but an opportunity became available and I took it. Compared to what I dealt with at ICE, it’s like waking up from a nightmare. Every day I am grateful to be gone. Just my opinion…sorry for the long post.

freefromice on May 12, 2008 at 10:00 pm

No way am I laughing at the rank and file ICE agents (many are still friends), rather the morons who are running the show down on 425 I. Yes, traditional Customs work has gone down since ’03 (yours truly was moved from financial investigations to immigration enforcement). No big deal, right? Well, when you are the only financial crimes guy in the office and you are moved to another group, who picks up those cases? No one in this case. Actually, my current agency did. And yes, CBP is getting 1811s. Have heard this from very reliable folks inside the agency at the 14/15 level (many of whom are former ICE/USCS agents). I can’t tell you how many folks I meet who comment … “I bet you’re glad to be gone from ICE.” All LEOs from other agencies. Hey, ICE HQ folks reading this, why don’t you arrest some of the tonks working in your bldg. or right across the street at that construction site? See if that prevents others from showing up two or three days later. The worksite ops I took part in…two days later the place was fully staffed and open for biz. Deterrence?

FormerICE on May 13, 2008 at 8:09 am