INS Raid Nets 143 Suspected Illegal Aliens

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 143 suspected illegal aliens Thursday in Santa Ana during an early-morning sweep along Euclid Avenue in which several Orange County Transit District buses were stopped to apprehend fleeing suspects, immigration authorities said.

The raid was the fourth in Orange County in the last eight days. Since late August, immigration agents have arrested nearly 800 illegal aliens during seven street operations in Stanton, Orange, Santa Ana, Laguna Beach, Dana Point and Costa Mesa, said Emanuel M. Steenbakker, assistant patrol agent in charge of the San Clemente Border Patrol station.

Among those arrested Thursday was a pregnant woman who turned out to be a legal resident, said Joe S. Romel, assistant supervising agent. Transit District spokeswoman Joanne Curran said the woman was arrested aboard a bus that she had been riding, according to the driver, for several stops.

Romel said the woman was released and transported back to Santa Ana as soon as it was verified that she was in the country legally. He said the woman was not carrying her immigration papers “because she was afraid she would lose them.”

District Expresses Regret

Transit District officials said they do not have a specific policy in connection with buses being stopped during immigration raids, but the district issued a written statement saying: “We regret the inconvenience to all our passengers for the delays they may have suffered in getting to their jobs or other appointments, and we sympathize with the members of the Hispanic community who were interrogated.”

About 18% to 20% of OCTD’s ridership of 37 million passengers annually is Latino.

In Thursday’s raid, which began about 6:20 a.m., 10 Border Patrol agents from the Temecula, El Cajon and San Clemente stations swept a two- to three-mile stretch of Euclid Avenue, Romel said. Most of the suspected illegal aliens were arrested at two intersections--Euclid and 5th Street and Euclid and Westminster Avenue--where men gather to seek work as day laborers, Romel said.

About 15 people were arrested on Transit District buses, Romel said.

“They run to get on the bus when they see us coming,” Romel said, adding that agents stopped only buses that suspected illegal aliens had boarded in an attempt to get away. “We weren’t stopping buses randomly.”

Curran said, however, that reports from the district’s bus drivers indicated that only two passengers were questioned and removed from buses. She said the discrepancy in numbers may be because some drivers did not report that they had been stopped.

Curran said two drivers reported that INS agents had boarded their buses. In both cases, she said, the drivers said the agents were not in uniform and did not identify themselves before questioning riders about their citizenship.

Peter Schey, a Los Angeles-based immigration lawyer, said he believes that an INS raid on a bus is “improper” unless the agents have a “reasonable suspicion,” based on specific facts, “that each and every person detained was an alien present in the country in violation of the immigration act.”

Schey said facts that might support “reasonable suspicion” include observations that “deportable aliens” have been previously located on the buses, or “furtive actions such as attempts to flee” onto the vehicles.

Orders From Harold Ezell

Arbitrary mass detention of passengers is not permissible under various court rulings, Schey said.

Romel said the orders for the raid came from INS western Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell. Ezell took part in the raid but he could not be reached later for comment.

Nearly all of the 143 suspected illegal aliens are Mexican men, Romel said. Four men said they are from El Salvador and will be given deportation hearings, he said. Seven women were also arrested.

All of the suspected illegal aliens, except for the Salvadorans and four Mexicans who requested deportation hearings, were to be bused back to Mexico on Thursday, Romel said. Those being returned to Mexico waived deportation hearings, he added.

Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Chavez said the Police Department was not notified of the raid and did not participate. But Steenbakker said “two or three” Santa Ana officers stopped some of the fleeing suspects and brought them over to Border Patrol agents.

Stepped-Up Efforts

Steenbakker said the immigration authorities are stepping up their efforts in Orange County because “over the last couple of months a lot of complaints from the public have come in to the (INS) regional office and to us. Our regional office requested that I set up operations in the area.”

Early last summer, Steenbakker said, the Border Patrol station at San Clemente was focusing more on stopping narcotics traffic and did not have the manpower to patrol Orange County effectively.

But the addition of several new agents from the Border Patrol’s academy in Glynco, Ga., has made a full-time Orange County patrol unit possible, Steenbakker said.

“We’ll be up there two or three times a week, at least until the level of complaints drops down,” Steenbakker said.