Immigrant Rights

Editor's note: The names of the undocumented immigrants have been withheld for their safety. It is the Indy's policy to disclose the names of undocumented immigrants only when they have been formally charged with a crime, have pleaded guilty or have been convicted. Updated on March 7: Elizabeth Simpson, attorney for the congregants, told the Indy that while the individuals are charged with being undocumented, the charges have not yet been sustained in immigration court. It was Easter weekend, April 2010. More than 50 Latino men, women, boys and girls, traveling in a caravan of three church vans and six cars, wound their way through Louisiana along Interstate 10, just after midnight. For the Raleigh-based Buen Pastor Church congregation, this route was not unfamiliar. Church members—most of them undocumented immigrants—were returning home after a weeklong jubilation in Houston, Texas, for Santa Cena—the "holy meal" celebrating the Last Supper. Outside Lake Charles, the flashing lights of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) cars appeared in the vans' rear-view mirrors. Agents pulled the vans over, although, congregation members say, they were driving under the required speed limit. What happened next continues to haunt the congregation: Agents interrogated them from midnight until dawn, allegedly calling them names and humiliating them. Earlier this week, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which is representing Buen Pastor, and the congregation sued the U.S. government in federal court. The suit was filed with the Eastern District of North Carolina, which includes Raleigh. They are requesting the release of agency records from CBP, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in hopes of reviewing documents that detail the events of that night. (The groups originally filed a Freedom of Information Act request, but received no response.) Press officers with CBP and CIS did not return repeated calls and e-mails from the Indy seeking comment. Trailing the vans, Buen Pastor's minister was driving a car with his wife and five children asleep in the back. The minister says he saw agents pull over the church vans, which carried 24 adults and 18 children. He continued driving and watched in his rearview mirror as the men he calls brothers were handcuffed and patted down. He acknowledges that he had only one thought, and that was to protect his family. "The agents didn't stop our cars," he told the Indy through a translator. "I know God was watching over us that night, because He allowed us to get by unnoticed." The drivers of the six cars, including the pastor, traveled for 20 miles before stopping at a gas station. Inside, they clung to one another, sobbing, until they realized they were drawing attention to themselves. They got back in their cars and left Louisiana. For their fellow church members who had been detained, the ordeal continued. According to congregants' legal testimonies gathered by the coalition, agents banged against the side of the vans and shouted at the passengers. Some of the agents reportedly handcuffed the men and placed them in squad cars. Other agents slid into the drivers' seats of the church vans—while the children sobbed and the women tried to calm them—and drove them to the CBP Port of Entry headquarters in Lake Charles. Once at CBP headquarters, men, still handcuffed, were placed in jail cells, while the women and children huddled against the office walls. When some began praying and softly singing hymns, an agent, according to the testimony, laughed and told them, "Let's see if your God will save you from this." Similar to some Mennonites and the Amish, the congregation's women do not wear pants and always wear colorful head coverings that are netted and sometimes beaded. Two agents reportedly told the women they "looked stupid," and another asked, "Do you wear those scarves so you don't have to brush your hair?" In the office, the agents interviewed each family individually, and according to the congregants, denied their repeated requests to call a lawyer. The agents completed paperwork and told the parishioners to sign their names on forms written in English. When the men and women hesitated—not knowing what they were signing—the agents reportedly told them, in a mix of Spanish and English, that if they did not sign the forms, they would be sent to separate jails, and the children would be sent to orphanages and become property of the United States. Under duress, the adults signed the papers, and around 6 a.m., were allowed to leave—but only after an agent reportedly asked the group to stand together so he could take a photo with his personal camera to show his wife. According to the congregants' testimony, he told them that they were his office's "biggest catch yet." The church vans pulled out of Lake Charles, with six empty seats. A half-dozen single men were detained by the CBP and deported back to Mexico within weeks. "I feel responsible," said Buen Pastor's minister, as he held his sleeping toddler in one arm and a large Bible in a tan tooled-leather cover in the other. "I am their leader and I took them to the celebration. It weighs on me." He came to North Carolina 11 years ago, and has served his Raleigh congregation of about 80 people for the past decade. A quiet man, he said he found his calling as a New Evangelical minister in 1994, while living in Mexico. The congregation was aware that there could be risks in taking the trip, but, the minister said, they were not afraid because most of them had traveled to Santa Cena many times before. The coalition took the church's case for free last October. If the church's requests are not answered, the coalition and the church plan to sue the federal government, says the coalition staff attorney, Elizabeth Simpson. Simpson represents 22 of the church members in removal proceedings by the Immigration Court in Charlotte as a result of their arrests. The men and women could be deported by April. The coalition is arguing that the CBP stop was based on racial profiling and violated the Fourth Amendment. The men and women facing removal have no criminal record, said Simpson. "The agents' behavior during the arrest was pretty appalling," she added. "Taunting the group about whether "their God would save them. They were also joking about what a 'big commission' they would earn for catching so many 'illegals' at once." Since that night, the minister says members of Buen Pastor have felt afraid. "We see police officers not as someone that could help us but harm us," he said. "Before this fear we would go out into the streets, to the park or lake, but now when we leave our house we don't know if we will come back." The 18 children who were sleeping in the church vans that night and awakened to seeing their fathers handcuffed and driven away, have suffered most. (The children were released.) "Some of these children have a father or mother awaiting deportation," said the minister. "Others cry when their dad goes to work, or rush home from school worried he will not be there."

From SCSJ and other organizations explain how the Immigration & Custom Enforcement program “Secure Communities” makes undocumented victims of domestic violence and sexual assault less…

____________________ SCSJ contributed to a national report released in December by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "Injustice for All: The Rise of the U.S. Immigration Policing Regime" denounces human rights abuses occurring across immigrant and refugee communities in the United States. SCSJ’s contribution to the report, written by Immigrants Rights Organizer Rebecca Fontaine, focuses on the way local immigration enforcement fuels an environment in which immigrant women become more vulnerable targets of sexual assault and domestic violence.

____________________ By Rebekah L. Cowell Editor's note: See the Indy's Sept. 22 cover story about this case. Bedri Kulla is a short, compact man with a shaved head and black-framed glasses, and at 49, not the kind of guy young, pretty Latinas whose lives are full of possibility flock to. But that didn't stop him from trying—desperately—to woo a 23-year-old undocumented immigrant from El Salvador. And when she ignored his advances, he attempted to have her deported. Now Kulla is going to jail. Judge N. Carlton Tilley sentenced Kulla, a former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) employee, to one year in prison, the maximum sentence. Kulla had been charged with civil rights violations and with aggravated blackmail of an undocumented immigrant. Last October, Kulla pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation charge and had been out on bond. He is scheduled to report to prison Nov. 5. Kulla's attorney, Patrick Roberts, had asked the judge to sentence his client to probation, claiming that the woman was not blackmailed, because Kulla had not asked her for money or property. However, Kulla did demand—repeatedly in dozens of ominous e-mails and text messages—that the woman engage in a sexual relationship with him or he would arrange for her to be deported. Kulla was seeking something he could not have and was not entitled to, Tilley said. And by threatening her with deportation, Kulla had violated her rights. Kulla mumbled throughout his testimony. He contended that he only wanted to be friends with the woman, but Tilley said it was clear Kulla wanted to date her. "It's obvious that [the victim] is a very attractive woman, and Mr. Kulla is not the most attractive male," Tilley said. The judge also told Roberts that he was unmoved by the 45 letters sent on Kulla's behalf to vouch for his character. Kulla's brother-in-law denied his brother had done anything wrong, calling him a "shrewd judge of character." Tilley called the letter "repulsive." In asking the judge for leniency, Roberts said Kulla "has accepted responsibility for his actions." However, when pressed by Federal Prosecutor Anand Ramaswamy, Kulla initially said he had sent only "some" of the dozens of e-mails and text messages, and made a point of examining each one as if he was unsure. Tilley called a recess. When the session resumed, Kulla admitted that he had sent every one. The victim cried as she testified. "I still feel afraid," she said. Kulla, who has been divorced four times, has a history of using his position to inappropriately contact young Latinas. Experanza Wilson, a detention and deportation officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington, D.C., testified about an April 2008 incident involving Kulla, who was then working in an administrative position in the Washington field office. Wilson, who was Kulla's supervisor at the time, told the court that Kulla had given a young Latina who had come to the field office a note with his personal cell phone number and instructions to call him after 5 p.m. An attorney for the woman contacted Wilson, who in turn called the number and discovered it was Kulla's. Wilson used surveillance footage from the lobby, which has since been destroyed, to identify the young woman to whom Kulla gave the note. "She was young, very pretty, very reserved and demure," Wilson said. Kulla was very friendly with young female clients and charming with older women but gruff with men, Wilson testified. "He could be aggressive," Wilson said, adding that several of Kulla's colleagues had filed written complaints about his behavior toward them. Wilson said she had been monitoring Kulla because he had overstepped his role several times, including receiving faxes that were addressed to "Officer" Kulla. "I had many issues with Mr. Kulla," said Wilson, who had reported her concerns to her supervisors but never officially wrote him up. After Kulla inappropriately gave the note to the young Latina, Wilson arranged for him to be transferred to a position that did not involve interacting with the public. So before his official reprimand was processed, Kulla resigned and found a job with the Durham office of Citizenship and Immigration Services. Since his arrest and firing from CIS last year, Kulla told the court it has been difficult for him to find a job. Since August, he has been working as a travel agent. Ramaswamy argued that Kulla would have never known the woman was undocumented unless he had specifically looked her up on federal computers, which, in his position at CIS, he did not have the authorization to do. Ramaswamy asked Tilley to consider in his ruling that Kulla had misrepresented his authority in an agency that requires undocumented immigrants to interact with it. In addition, Kulla's actions could damage the relationship between ICE and immigrants. Tilley agreed. "The message has to be that you can't misuse your position," Tilley said. "I am seeking to deter all others who would be willing to use their public positions for private gain. "It was obvious, the emotional distress of [the victim]," Tilley added. "I can only imagine the horror and nightmares she went through."

Last Thursday federal officials released a memo called “Setting the Record Straight” that outlines for the first time how local police can opt-out of sharing arrest data with immigration authorities via enrollment in the “Secure Communities” program. But so far, the process exists only on paper. The memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) states: [Please see original source for memo text.] All of these steps sounded familiar to San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessey, except the resolution. “I did all of that,” he said after reading the explanation. When California signed a statewide agreement with ICE, Hennessey sent a letter to ICE on June 3 asking for his jurisdiction to opt-out of the program which allows agents to access arrest data from local jails. [ Please see original source for letter text.] Deputy Director for Secure Communities, Marc Rapp, responded to Hennessey with a phone call, the upshot of which was that there was no way his request could be granted. Shortly afterward, Secure Communities went into effect over the objection of the sheriff and his Board of Supervisors. “I followed procedure, but they did not follow procedure,” said Hennessey. Now the sheriff has sent another letter, this time asking California Attorney General, Jerry Brown, to clarify whether San Fransisco can stop sending its misdemeanor arrest data to ICE. Confusion over how to opt-out of Secure Communities may explain how ICE has enrolled 574 jurisdictions in 30 states since it began two years ago. While the new memo suggests Secure Communities is voluntary, it definitely seemed mandatory when Orange County, North Carolina tried to opt-out in January 2009. “My first reaction to the memo was that this is a complete contradiction to everything they said before,” said Marty Rosenbluth, staff attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Rosenbluth is a member of Orange County’s Human Rights commission, which was asked to investigate Secure Communities. “We were told point blank by ICE that the only way for Orange County to opt-out was to stop fingerprinting people,” he said. As a result, the county passed a resolution with the following request: [ Please see original source for resolution text.] Now Rosenbluth says he plans to revisit the opt-out issue with the commission and the sheriff. “At our next meeting we’re going to say, ‘Excuse us, we have this new information,” said Rosenbluth. “Would you mind please considering it?” In counties already enrolled in Secure Communities, the push back is coming from both activists and local officials. Members of the New Sanctuary Movement in Philadelphia plan to ask the mayor to reconsider opting out. County Supervisors in Santa Clara, California may pass a resolution opposing the program. Civil rights groups who filed an open records request with ICE in part to clarify the opt-out process say the agency’s next step should be to include similar instructions in agreements with states yet to be enrolled. “We demand a clear protocol be included in every single Secure Communities agreement,” said Sarahi Uribe with the National Day Labor Organizing Network and lead organizer of the “Uncover The Truth Behind ICE and Police Collaborations” campaign. Governors in Colorado and Washington could decide as soon as this week whether they will sign an agreement to enroll their states in Secure Communities. If they choose to join, local law enforcement agencies in those states could unleash a wave of opt-out requests that will put ICE’s new explanation to the test. The agency is already on the hot seat back in San Fransisco. ICE spokesman, Richard Rocha, told the Washington Independent he will discuss Sheriff Hennessey’s new request to opt-out and seek a resolution that may “change the jurisdiction’s activation status.” Stay tuned…

Hundreds march on North Carolina State Capitol in protest of Arizona's SB1070 By Kosta Harlan | August 1, 2010 Read more articles in Immigrants Rights Raleigh, NC - About 250 immigrant workers, youth and their allies marched on the State Capitol building here, on July 29, in protest of Arizona's SB1070. Protesters chanted and held colorful signs reading, "Stop deportations," "No to SB1070" and "No more racism!" After the march, several community leaders addressed the demonstration to express their solidarity and support in the struggle. One of the members of the North Carolina DREAM Team, Viridiana Martinez, stressed, "No one can speak for us, we have to speak out for ourselves," and urged everyone at the demonstration to continue the struggle for justice. James Andrews, president of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, said, "The North Carolina labor movement supports each of you in the struggle for immigrant rights, human rights and labor rights.” He added, “We will continue to stand with you as long as we see this kind of abuse and exploitation [of your community]." The protest was organized by North Carolina ICE Watch in partnership with Black Workers for Justice, the Father Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House, North Carolina DREAM Team, North Carolina Justice Center, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Pueblo Unido, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Student Action with Farmworkers and other immigrant justice organizations. Other organizations including the Umbrella Coalition, the NAACP, United Electrical Workers Local 150 supported the rally.

March for immigration justice in Arizona Concerned North Carolinians will hold a march and rally in downtown Raleigh on July 29 to protest racial profiling and discrimination against immigrant and minority communities. The event is part of a national day of action against the enactment of the Arizona law SB 1070, which mandates that all local police and sheriffs demand documents from people they suspect might be in the state without authorization. The marchers will gather at 5 p.m. at Nash Square (the corner of Dawson and Hargett in Raleigh) and walk to the State Capitol for a rally. SB 1070, or the "Arizona Law," requires that all law enforcement agencies determine the immigration status of a person if there is "reasonable suspicion" that the person is unlawfully present. Under this law, people who look "foreign" can be targeted for minor infractions - having a broken taillight or jaywalking - and then asked for proof of legal status. U.S. citizens and legal residents who "look like" foreigners could be at risk of arrest and deportation if they cannot produce acceptable forms of identification to verify their immigration status. While North Carolina has not passed similar legislation, racial profiling continues to be a serious concern across our state. Currently in North Carolina, at least 29 county and local law enforcement agencies are participating in either the 287(g) or "Secure Communities" programs, which are partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE (Immigration Customs and Enforcement). These programs focus on identifying and apprehending immigrants who may be in the country without authorization, resulting in the arrest and deportation of undocumented people after they have been arrested for minor violations. This has led to the widespread fracturing of families and created a climate of heightened fear in our communities. On July 29, the marchers will call on state and federal officials to stop unfair treatment of immigrants and to work for a just immigration policy that includes compassion for those who are trying to overcome poverty and political oppression. Participating groups oppose racial profiling in Arizona, North Carolina and throughout the country. The marchers seek laws that are inclusive and respect the dignity of all human beings. "From Arizona to North Carolina: March for Immigrant Justice" is being organized by NC ICE Watch in partnership with Black Workers for Justice, the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House, NC DREAM Team, NC Justice Center, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Pueblo Unido, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Student Action with Farmworkers and community leaders.