Immigrant Workers Caught in Net Cast for Gangs

On September 27, armed federal immigration agents and local police officers swept into the East Side of Long Island, NY. Eleven men were added to a running government tally of arrests made in Operation Community Shield, a two-year-old national program singling out violent gang members for deportation. “Violent foreign-born gang members and their associates have more than worn out their welcome,” Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said at an October news conference announcing the arrests of 1,313 people in the operation over the summer and fall nationwide. Only one of the 11 men taken away that morning was suspected of a gang affiliation, according to the Southold Town police, who patrol Greenport and played the crucial role of identifying targets for the operation. The 10 others, while accused of immigration violations, were not gang associates and had no criminal records. Those men were known as good, hard workers and family men. Greenport’s experience with Operation Community Shield sheds light on the inner workings of an antigang crackdown that has brought immigration raids to private homes across the country. The crackdown relies heavily on local police forces to identify suspects, often based on loosely defined or subjective criteria. But, the raid may result in a backlash from residents and officials of Greenport. “We’re not here stomping all over anybody’s rights,” said Peter J. Smith, the special agent in charge of the Long Island operation, which led to the roundup of 186 men. “We’ve got immigration powers.” One of the things that clearly unsettled residents of Greenport was that the immigrants were arrested in their homes, without warrants, an immigration enforcement tactic that has been used more and more since 2005.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/nyregion/25raid.html?ref=nyregion