Intimidate First, Ask Question Later The INS and Immigrant Rights
Self, Robert
The INS tried to turn administrative errors into a conspiracy to defraud, attacking two organizations that have operated with unimpeachable legal records in Seattle for nearly a decade. Two...
...policy in Central America...
...Agents combed homeless shelters, restaurants-employers of large numbers of Latino immigrants-and apartment complexes, often detaining and questioning Salvadoran men and women in the People from the Committee for Justice for Orozco a. demonstrate outside the federal courthouse during th ath-squad presence of co-workers, employadorans...
...There is no malicious, intentional, fraudulent preparation of data...
...Which is it...
...The larger immigrant community is still struggling to repair the divisions created by the investigation...
...The INS accused the social workers of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) applications...
...The larger immigrant community is still struggling to repair the divisions created by the investigation...
...INS officials refused to approach the directors of CARP and NILS about potential mistakes on some applications...
...and Latin American history at the University of Washington...
...Attorney's office narrowed the case to seven applications, and targeted Orozco and Carcamo as individuals, absolving the CARP and NILS offices and staff...
...People s will not learn to tell the authorities what ,vernment they want to hear," one Salvadoran ARP raid explained...
...with their falsifying Orozco, a Mexican citizen and permanent U.S...
...People I have helped in the past are now against me...
...Stretching over 10 months, the grand-jury hearings and street-side INS investigation pitted individual refugees against one another in a classic example of divide-and-conquer interrogation...
...The cars parked at opposite corners of the block in his sleepy Seattle neighborhood, and four Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents got out and moved toward him...
...ers, and friends...
...Attorney's office to have the charges reduced to misdemeanors and to eliminate the two counts of conspiracy...
...For the Salvadoran refugee community, INS agents bear an extremely disturbing association, one that even other Latino immigrants cannot necessarily fathom...
...His office's guidance, along with the resolute backing of the Washington Association of Churches, the National Council of Churches, and a host of local individuals and organizations (many of which coalesced into the Committee for Justice for Orozco and Carcamo), created a climate of support and solidarity that has reawakened Seattle's progressive community to the need for close and constant monitoring of immigrant and refugee rights...
...resident, and Carcamo, who is a Salvadoran citizen with political asylum in the United States, were prosecuted by the Justice Department for allegedly falsifying documents while helping prepare applications for Salvadoran citizens seeking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the United States...
...In several of the 18 cases, attestation letters provided by CARP conflicted with information regarding dates of entry that Salvadorans had prond Carcamo vided to the INS dur- e trial...
...With four sons still in El Salvador, Rauda was asked the same question as innumerable other refugees during this process: "Either you are lying or someone else is lying...
...Orozco and Carcamo were charged on August 20 of last year with conspiring to defraud the federal government by knowingly falsifying the seven applications for Temporary Protected Status...
...ing the investigation...
...INS began paying visits to the before September 19, 1990...
...Three days before the meeting, Smith abruptly cancelled...
...NILS has consistently pressed INS officials at the district office to observe immigrant legal rights, respect human decency, abandon needless harassment, and observe proper procedures and safeguards...
...This is a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury," the INS agents told him...
...Orozco worked for NILS as a paralegal counselor providing legal aid, advice, and assistance for both documented and undocumented immigrants...
...In every Washington Association of Churches' office," Boonstra commented at the time, "from my immediate experience, mistakes are made every day...
...Both men have seen their own work jeopardized and years of trustbuilding destroyed...
...Two unmarked sedans cruised past Miguel Orozco-Delgado as he was walking his children home from school in early January of last year...
...In the months preceding the trial, Boggs lobbied the U.S...
...and Carcamo now found themselves isolated and threatened with prosecution...
...Orozco and Carcamo participated in the initial TPS outreach project, and in later stages helped their clients prepare TPS applications...
...In early 1992, Orozco and Carcamo were subpoenaed to appear before the federal grand jury but, unlike the Salvadorans Vof XXVI, No 5 May 1993 13 Vol XXVt, No 5 May 1993 13UPDATE / SEATTLE whose testimony helped incriminate them, both were denied immunity...
...Boonstra wanted to clarify the intentions of the INS and verify that CARP and NILS were participating in the TPS procedure in a legal manner...
...If convicted, they faced up to 30 years in prison and fines of over $1 million...
...INS harassment began when the two agencies were in the midst of helping Salvadorans file for TPS...
...The C coincided with the feder ment's extension of the deadline to October 3 Thus, CARP offices "politicized" precisely staff might have beei accommodate and help m Salvadoran applicants...
...They assumed it was easy, because they were getting all these people from the street to testify by saying, 'it's just a matter of going to court and you get 40 dollars.' They thought Miguel Orozco (left) and Oscar Uceda-Carcamo (right) children...
...interrogation of Salvadorans outoffices of the Central American Designed to give refugees 18 side the offices was even more Refugee Project (CARP), an out- months of work authorization and common, and the questions more reach services program sponsored protection from deportation while specific...
...On the other, the year-long INS investigation has shattered the Salvadoran Vol XXVI, No 5 May 199311 Robert Self is an independent writer liv- ing in Seattle...
...On the one hand, the social workers' courtroom victory serves notice that refugees from political violence and economic impoverishment in Central America can no longer be summarily denied legal rights in the United States...
...Vol XXVI, No 5 May 1993 11UPDATE / SEATTLE community in Seattle and jeopar- immigrant advocacy groups forced satisfy the September 19, 1990 dized local organizations that pro- Congress to include TPS for requirement...
...Almost immediately, CARP lost nearly its entire Salvadoran clientele who now clearly associated the office with INS activity...
...probably survive...
...Gus Schultz, regional coordinator for the Defense Fund, saw the Seattle case in the larger context of a decade of INS assaults on sanctuary programs and other non-profit service-oriented projects dedicated to Latin American refugees...
...At both agencies, the INS questioned employees about TPS: how it worked, who processed the applications, when refugees appeared for services, and how proof of residency was obtained to the two agencies, including Orozco and Carcamo, found their relationship to the immigrant community increasingly strained and threatened, as INS agents tried to implicate CARP, and later NILS, in criminal intent to defraud...
...The district judge presiding over the case consistently allowed this characterization, but disallowed testimony about the political history of INS operations or the political context of U.S...
...This is two years of my life," Carcamo says, "which the INS cannot pay me for...
...Though spared a sin raid, the NILS office increasing attention di summer and fall of 19 case workers and parale flooded with phone ca Salvadorans seeking leg and assistance because been interrogated by IN "We got a lot of people coming in from the Salvadoran community saying they were scared," Orozco recalls, "because the INS was going to their homes, looking for them, and leaving phone numbers they were supposed to call...
...While Seattle has been slow to experience the tactics and aggressive visibility of INS agents common in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami, the Orozco-Carcamo case has galvanized and politicized this community, and laid the groundwork for future mobilization...
...On the back of it is some information explaining how you will get paid...
...Most refugees were not informed of their right to counsel or their right to refuse to answer questions, both of which were recently guaranteed in the Rosa Melchor Lopez court case in Los Angeles...
...Attorney for Seattle...
...The year-long investigation and intense twoweek jury trial ended last December when the two social workers were acquitted of two counts of conspiracy and 10 counts of falsifying documents...
...In El Salvador, if you al govern- tell the police that you cooperate TPS filing with the guerrillas, then you will 1, 1991...
...Carcamo was a CARP and social climate in El Salvador, that Salvadorans were being case manager, responsible for the program seemed to provide a detained and interviewed in the coordinating emergency shelter, window of calm for many of the streets, in places of employment, job counseling, and medical and estimated 500,000 to one million and at home, generally late at legal referrals for night...
...The final acquittal is testament to the weakness of the government's actual case, and the compelling testimony of Orozco and Carcamo...
...Whether intentional or not, INS interrogation techniques in the United States often rekindle de images among Salv Arriving in this country often living and worki aliases, most Salvadoran risk any contact with go representatives...
...In several al advice instances, Salvadorans were they had offered jobs and promised that S agents, their families would be flown to the United States with legal protection...
...they were going to do the same with me...
...There is no felony misconduct...
...Five days later, 10 armed federal agents from the INS and the U.S...
...CARP and NILS (now the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project) share a common democratic orientation which makes them particularly vulnerable to INS intimidation...
...Many refugees fled El Salvador in the early and mid-1980s when death squads murdered family members, friends, and co-workers...
...These initial visits vide services to Latino immigrants...
...The question, however, was one of criminal intent...
...The subpoena did not come as a surprise to Orozco, because by then he and another Seattle social worker, Oscar Uceda-Carcamo, had become the principal targets in a massive INS investigation...
...We're going to pay you to come and testify...
...The way they gave me the subpoena was incredible," Orozco, a social worker, recalls...
...Services are free, and neither office discriminates against undocumented immigrants...
...Both organizations also have a history of association with the Seattle sanctuary movement-especially during its height in the mid- and late-1980s...
...Employees of began to receive unannounced INS visits...
...hinge on a preAcross town, the A host of local individuals and organizations liminary list of Northwest created a climate of support and solidarity that 18 Salvadorans Immigrant Legal suspected of subServices (NILS) has reawakened Seattle's progressive community mitting falsified offices, an "ecu- to the need for close and constant monitoring of TPS applicamenical partner" tions...
...ilar INS Refugees reported to their legal received counsel and later testified that they uring the were threatened with deportation 91...
...of CARP, also immigrant and refugee rights...
...During the December trial, however, Boggs portrayed the INS as a neutral, apolitical institution that disinterestedly reviews simple facts, while Orozco and Carcamo were labeled "political activists" whose personal biases dictated their every action...
...Concerned that federal agents were needlessly interfering with the ability of CARP and NILS to function, John Boonstra, executive minister of the Washington Association of Churches, scheduled an August meeting with INS District Director Richard Smith...
...But the final word belonged to Mike Both men have seen their own work jeopardized and years of trust-building destroyed...
...both CARP and NILS feared that T he story begins in July of Applicants were required to have the entire TPS program in Seattle 1991 when INS agents arrived in the United States on or was potentially threatened...
...McKay's position was clear: it is our perogative to prosecute, and we will prosecute...
...Attorney's Office raided CARP offices, seizing documents, client files, computers, and personal files...
...Many clients secretly, reported late-night visits designed ng under to maximize intimidation...
...During the trial and in later interviews, Orozco candidly admitted that he had made a few technical mistakes in the process of preparing hundreds of applications...
...Carcamo has lost friends among Seattle's Salvadorans-people who were asked to testify against him and had their words weighed against his in embarrassing confrontations during the trial...
...The affidavit supporting the search warrant and naming the 18 Salvadorans under investigation NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 12UPDATE / SEATTLE was promptly sealed and remained secret for five months...
...The NILS staff processed TPS applications before turning them over to INS officials, assuring their legality while helping Salvadorans gather the necessary documentation...
...The indictments made clear that the investigation had become politicized and that the government would not stop short of criminal proceedings...
...In the summer of 1991, both CARP and NILS were inundated with TPS applicants who needed to prove that they had arrived in the United States prior to the September cut-off date...
...The invesCentral American tigation came to immigrants...
...The CARP staff provided letters attesting that Salvadoran clients had been seen by the agency prior to September 19, thus verifying their continuous residence in the United States...
...Already alienated from the Salvadoran community because of the constant mentioning of their names in INS interviews, Orozco Pretrial negotiations revealed that even the chief prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S...
...This scenario favored the INS with its ability to call upon bureaucratic legalism, definitions of "criminality," and what many felt would be the anti-Latino bias of a jury on which no Latinos sat...
...The political undercurrents of the investigation and trial attracted the attention of the National Sanctuary Defense Fund which helped secure financial assistance for the legal defense...
...Attorney Paula Boggs, had considerable doubts about the legitimacy of trying the social workers as felons...
...The case illuminates the precarious relationship between the INS and undocumented Latino immigrants...
...CARP employees were left stunned and immobilized...
...NILS if they did not cooperate, or gals were offered green cards in exchange calls from for certain testimony...
...he raid changed the dynamics of the entire Latino community and the social-service organizations with which they interacted...
...In total, out of the original 18, the U.S...
...CARP and NILS officials by the Washington Association of Congress evaluated the political began to learn from case workers Churches...
...Vigorous national lobbying by Salvadorans currently in the United States...
...The heavy-handed delivery of the subpoena typified the INS approach to the case: intimidate first, and ask questions later...
...It has also pointed to the need for much closer integration between the politically-oriented immigrantrights advocates and the serviceoriented organizations that help Latinos obtain shelter, food and employment...
...One Salvadoran, Jos6 Enrique Ramirez-Rauda, testified in later interviews that INS agents told him that if he did not cooperate, the government would deport his wife to El Salvador and void his employment permit...
...They will put became you in jail, but they won't kill when the you...
...McKay, U.S...
...Nevertheless, INS agents were able to confront Salvadorans with the inconsistencies, and threaten them with deportation unless they cooperated...
...He is a doctoral candidate in U.S...
...Salvadoran refugees in the Immi- revealed no specific targets, and gration Act of 1990 (IMMACT...
...Vicky Stifter, NILS director, able to called a July press conference to iany more charge the INS with harassment, intimidation and misconduct...
...Orozco and Carcamo have returned to their normal lives...
Vol. 26 • May 1993 • No. 5
