Posted on 11/29/2007 2:45:18 PM PST by mdittmar
With most residents asleep in his quiet West Valley neighborhood, Victor Lopez was startled early Wednesday morning by banging on his front door.
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"Police. Open the door, please," a man said loudly, breaking the street's silence at 5:30 a.m.
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Lopez opened the door to find a handful of armed Immigration and Customs
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Enforcement agents in bulletproof vests standing outside his dimly lit home on North 89th Avenue. After making sure the house was safe to enter, four agents arrested and handcuffed the 53-year-old Lopez, who had been ordered to leave the U.S. in February after two appeals of his deportation order had been rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court.
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"It's not a surprise to them," ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said about those who have been served with a deportation order. "They knew this day was coming."
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Lopez, an immigrant from the Mexican state of Guerrero, was one of two people peacefully arrested Wednesday by the new Fugitive Operations team that moved into the Yakima Valley earlier this fall. The agents mainly search for people convicted of serious crimes who were ordered by an immigration judge to leave the U.S.
However, after scanning the fingerprints of the second man who was arrested, immigration agents discovered he wasn't the person they were looking for -- a man with several criminal charges, including unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon and multiple DUIs. Agents, who asked not to be identified for safety concerns, said the criminal had apparently stolen the second man's identity. It's not uncommon in these sweeps, they said.
The Yakima-based fugitive team is one of three in the region, which covers Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Agents said they travel throughout the Yakima Valley up to the Canadian border to look for undocumented people, particularly those who have been convicted of serious crimes. The other teams are based in Seattle and Portland.
Dankers said the three teams arrested 100 immigration fugitives (people who have been ordered to leave the U.S.) with criminal records and 405 without any criminal convictions during the 2007 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Local statistics weren't available.
Agents arrested nearly 30,400 people nationwide, nearly double the number of arrests from the 2006 fiscal year, according to ICE reports.
There are 75 fugitive teams throughout the U.S., sweeping through homes and some businesses. There were only 17 teams nationwide when the operations started in 2003, according to an ICE report. Immigration officials estimate there are nearly 595,000 immigration fugitives in the U.S.. Not all have criminal histories, though.
Dankers, who rode along with the team Wednesday, said agents prefer to arrest people at home, after they have monitored them. She said it's less disruptive than going to their workplace. But agents will search for people in businesses if they have to, she added.
"We have the authority to enforce the law anywhere and anytime," Dankers said.
Agents had been monitoring Lopez for some time, keeping track of when he left for work and what vehicle he drove. Dankers said Lopez lost his legal residency after violating its terms when he was convicted of second-degree child molestation in 1994 in Yakima County. She said he served 20 months in jail for his charge.
Because of his criminal conviction, Dankers said there was a priority in seizing him.
"There's certain rules they must abide by," she said. "If they chose to violate them, there's consequences."
Although he was ordered by an immigration judge to be deported this year, Lopez said he hired a lawyer to continue to fight for his residency. He said his wife, a U.S. citizen, was hoping to petition for his legal permanent residency.
The arrest was unexpected, Lopez said tearfully while sitting in the agency's downtown Yakima office.
"I thought they were looking for somebody else," said Lopez, who arrived in the U.S. about 28 years ago. "I didn't think they were looking for me.
"I always had faith that God would help me. I never expected this."
Jack Bennett, assistant field office director in the Seattle area, said a child-molestation conviction or any aggravated felony can permanently bar a person from re-entering the U.S. legally.
Lopez declined to discuss any details of the conviction.
Bennett said Lopez was one of 12 people bused to the immigration detention center in Tacoma on Wednesday. The other 11 were arrested by immigration agents while sitting in jails in the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla areas. Further details about those people weren't available.
Bennett said Lopez will be flown to San Diego or a city in Arizona this weekend. Immigration agents then will bus him to the U.S.-Mexico border so he can walk across to Mexican soil.
Although he's not sure what he'll do when he gets there, Lopez said he's more worried about his wife, his 16-year-old daughter and his father. He said his father is dying in Mexico due to complications with diabetes.
Lopez, a Zillah farm manager, said he's the breadwinner in his family and he worries his wife, who works at a fruit warehouse, won't be able to pay for the West Valley home they bought two years ago.
"I don't know what will happen to my home. My wife. My kid. My cars. My job," Lopez said. "I'll definitely lose my job."
Lopez said he doesn't see a possibility of returning to the U.S. or making a living in Mexico, where he hasn't been in 19 years. Although his American dreams have vanished, Lopez said he doesn't blame immigration agents.
"They're doing their job," Lopez said. "They received orders."
Long ways to go yet.
ICE,ICE baby;)
Good. His wife and daughter ought to join him in Mexico to keep the family together. Mexico is so great, according to Mexicans, I see no problem for them.
Who did he molest?
Convicted of child molestation in 1994 and finally deported in 2007.
What lending company in their right mind would have underwritten this mortgage????? I hope they go out of business.
Appealed to the ninth twice and the bank made him a home loan two years ago. Where is one of those clowns that wants me to give the sorry home lenders a break.
The kid he molested could probably say the same thing.
ping
Hey ELOÍSA, author of this POS reporting, that sentence is missing a verb.
"I thought they were looking for somebody else," said Lopez, who arrived in the U.S. about 28 years ago. "I didn't think they were looking for me... I don't know what will happen to my home. My wife. My kid. My cars. My job," Lopez said. "I'll definitely lose my job."
Mr Lopez, ya been scamming my country for 28 years. Ask me if I care about your wife, kids, car and job. You obviously don't.
595,000? Everybody who enters this country illegally is a criminal in that they broke the law as soon as the first foot hit U.S. soil and that's a whole lot more than 595,000.
Frontpage headline in my hometown paper.
Criminal invaders arrested by ICE team 'knew this day was coming'
[fixed the misleading Head for them; klindly let them know.]
I guess you havent heard the chicken littles sreaming about the mortagage market, subprime loans ect....thats what its about.
Yeah but No Doc/No Ratio loans are usually only given to people with exceptionally high FICO scores, 720+, I doubt Mrs. Fruit Warehouse worker has a FICO score that high, and you wouldn't think that an illegal alien would be able to have any FICO score.
Why do so many of the illegals turn out to be molesters?
Why don't we, as a very minor reform, demand a bond from these illegals? 99% take off, so we house them in tent cities for their court appearances to come up. They can get Huckabee Scholarships to study law while they wait, but most will find being illegal is uncomfortable and will opt to return home. First seal the border, so they can't get back, then go balls to the wall.
Congress passed the law in October 2006 to build the fence and President Bush signed it. Duncan Hunter said zero fence has been built. McCain complained that the public doesn't believe the Federal Government will secure the border. Crazy McCain blamed Katrina and what... public school reform for that lack of belief. No, Senator McCain, we don't believe the Federal Government on the Border, because they've lied about the border so many times, INCLUDING right now, by NOT building the fence, which SHALL be built according to the law. What have you done about that, Senator McCain?
Just about any of them. I remember Washington Mutual had a big advertising push geared toward them not to long ago. These folks make up a fair percentage of the sub-prime debacle, the one that taxpayers and responsible mortgage holders will pay for.
Convicted of child molestation in 1994 and finally deported in 2007.”
Yeah- God does help those who are molesters. This guy thinks God will help him after that kind of behavior??? I never understood the “Catholic Confession” aspect of religion, and I don’t now.
Well then their CEO’s need to be doing an Enron perp walk real soon.
Send them out!!!!!!!!!!!!
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