What ICE Costs Our Communities: ICE detains two community members
Contributed Photo. Pictured: DHS parked in front of Cousins County Inn in The Dalles
Contributed Photo. Pictured: DHS Officers standing in the Cousins Country Inn and Restaurant Parking Lot
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained two community members in The Dalles last week.
The recent arrests expose the fragile existence of those trying to earn a living and make a contribution in The Dalles while putting the entire local LatinX community on edge as people are taken without warning, often in unmarked vehicles. It also exposes a system that on one side attempts to reform individuals at the local level, only to re-criminalize them on a federal level.
Jose Luis Morga Lomas, 45, of The Dalles and Alejandro Moreno, 29, also of The Dalles were taken into custody by ICE on Sept. 23. ICE alleges that both Morga and Moreno violated the nation’s immigration laws. Both men have been transported to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma to await proceedings before a federal immigration judge. Their families remain here in The Dalles but are now missing their fathers, their bread winners and emotional support.
Yahaira Alvarez of The Dalles and CCC News sat down to talk about how these raids affect our community, and together we reached out to the community to find out how this is affecting their daily lives. This is what they told us with the understanding that they would remain anonymous :
“You’re always living in fear. Especially if you can’t even get a license. You're always in fear of even going to the grocery store or doing something as simple as picking up your kids from school. And you just deal with it. We always look out for each other. Even if it’s as little as sharing with everyone that ICE is in town,” said one community member.
“It’s so hard. So scary. It’s very hard on them (undocumented individuals) as well. Trying to live your life, you can get depressed, working so hard, trying to contribute, and then one day- poof it’s all gone,” said another.
“ICE sets us all on edge. No one wants to leave the house. It’s definitely a very fearful thing, I feel like everyone’s always walking on eggshells. I remember as a kid I would always be scared even if a police car was just driving behind us. To other people that’s not a big deal. But for us it’s scary, as a kid and even now I would worry: ‘will my mom get deported?’ You worry you’ll have to live in a severed family. No matter how far you have come as a mixed status family, no matter how beautiful the life you’ve lived, you’re viewed in the eyes of the law as a criminal.” said another community member.
Taken From The Dalles Community
Just last week in The Dalles Alejandro Moreno, father of three including a one- year-old, was taken away in an unmarked ICE van while he was on his lunch break.
ICE alleges Moreno violated the nation’s immigration laws on two occasions. ICE also reported that in July 2019, he was convicted of assault. Wasco County Circuit Court records show that the case was “dismissed as to all charges pursuant of a plea agreement” and that Moreno had completed 36 group sessions with HAPA Batterers Intervention Treatment.
Moreno’s wife Jasmine Moreno told CCC News, “He was at lunch with a coworker and on their way back to work an unmarked car pulled them over and asked for their names. They said his fingerprints had appeared in the system and they asked him to get out of the car. They took him away and his coworker came to tell me what happened. It came out of nowhere, my literal worst nightmare.”
Moreno is the sole provider for his wife and three children and his detention is affecting them greatly not only emotionally but also financially. “We met in high school, we went to The Dalles Wahtonka High School together. We were high school sweethearts. I was a teen mom. Because of him I got to stay in school. He dropped out of high school to provide for us, and he’s been working everyday since. He’s a great father.” said Jasmine Moreno.
“In 2018 our son had a seizure at school, and we ended up at OHSU; my son was diagnosed with FIRES (Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome) which is very rare. He went into a coma. He was a very smart healthy boy. But when he woke up he had to relearn how to eat, to speak. My son was blind for many months. Actually the other man who was taken by ICE, Jose Morga, he came to the hospital to pray for my son.”
Jose Luis Morga Lomas, was also taken from the community of The Dalles by ICE last week. Morga-Lomas had heard about Moreno’s son and reached out to her. “He heard that my son had fallen ill and was in a coma, and he was a very religious person so he asked if he could pray for him and pray for fast healing. He said we’ll gather donations from the church to help you. He helped pay for gas to the hospital,” said Jasmine Moreno.
“It was very hard for me because I was pregnant at the time, and all the stress and worry caused me to give birth to my next son prematurely at 34 weeks 4-days. He was a pre-mee and that caused him to have some special needs as well.”
“My parents can help me (with child-care) in the afternoons, but, economically, it’s just me. I have three children. Three boys, ages 11, 6, and 1 year. And my middle child has an IEP. My son still has difficulties with vision, and he has short term memory loss due to the seizures. And there’s dinner and homework to take care of - things are getting stressful for us; it's the end of the month and there are bills to pay.”
Despite Jasmine Moreno’s plight she spoke with fierce bravery about her kids, letting them know she was going to find a way to support them. CCC News asked Jasmine Moreno whether she had any advice for others whose spouses have been taken by ICE and what her plan is now.
“There’s a lot of people in the community who are willing to help us. We need to stay together and communicate and look out for each other. The Gorge Rapid Response Team are great amazing people, when Alejandro was taken I got a call that same day. They are helping me figure out if I qualify for any assistance with rent or utilities. In the meantime they helped us start a Cashapp and a GoFundMe to help cover legal expenses. We’re also making sure I have a reliable car so that we can visit Alejandro this week or next week.”
Contributed Photo. Donate to the Moreno Family: GoFundME CashApp: $jasivymore Venmo: Jasmine-Moreno-54
Jose Luis Morga Lomas, father of four, also has family that is hoping to see him soon. CCC News reached out to Morga Lomas’s daughter Briseida Morga, age 23, who was boarding a plane to Oregon when CCC News reached her. She said she was returning home to help her family.
“My Dad is an honest, hardworking Christian,” said Morga. “He had his own business doing lawn work and cleaning churches in The Dalles on weekends.” His business was the family's sole source of income.
ICE alleges Jose Luis Morga Lomas repeatedly violated the nation’s immigration laws. ICE said that Morga Lomas was also arrested in April 2018 by The Dalles Police Department for an incident of alleged unlawful delivery and possession of methamphetamine which had allegedly occurred in 2016.
Morga’s lawyer, Richard Balsey, motioned for the case to be dismissed due to violations of fourth and fifthteenth amendment rights, citing the court’s pre indictment delay of 1 year, 3 months and 12 days. Saying that the delay was “caused by the state without any articulated justification and resulted in prejudice to the defendant.” Also stating that the prejudice had resulted in Morga Lomas no longer being able to present a corroborated alibi defense.
In addition Balsey wrote “Had the indictment proceeded in a timely fashion, the defendant would have been able to present as part of his defense, independent witnesses that would have credibly challenged the allegations. Finally, as was noted earlier, unlike almost every other criminal prosecution in the State of Oregon, the detectives involved in this case filed no police paperwork other than a single page summary written by Detective Macnab. Two other detetives Elton and Routson, filed no paperwork at all.”
Morga Lomas was given a limited general dismissal on the charge of possession of methamphetamine. The conditional discharge involved 80 hours of community service of which Morga Lomas completed 84 hours. Community service work crew supervisors noted that Morga Lomas was “an excellent worker” in their report. The conditional discharge also involved the completion of a substance use disorder assessment where he tested negative in a urine drug test. Morga Lomas also submitted evidence that he was completing a self directed program of recovery which included church activities and sober support.
Briseida Morga told me that Jose Morga Lomas had been asleep in bed when ICE came to the house in an unmarked van. “My Dad was sleeping when they knocked on the door and my little brother, Jose (who’s 8 years old, and the sole English speaker in the house at the time) answered,” Briseida Morga said. “They said they had a warrant but they never showed one. Then they told my Dad he was under arrest, and they took him-in front of my brother. They were crying and begging them not to. That’s when my sister called me crying.”
Briseida Morga also mentioned she was concerned that ICE may have taken advantage of the fact that the only English speaker present was a minor and that this was dramatically impacting her 8-year-old brother, who answered the door. “He’s heartbroken because they took our Dad in front of him. After the arrest he said, ‘Now I have to be strong and take care of my family. Now that I’m the man of the house.’ He’s being forced to grow up quick,” said Briseida Morga.
Briseida Morga said the Gorge Rapid Response Team had helped her family buy the ticket for her to come home to help her family. “They were amazing. I felt as if I wasn’t so lost in the whole situation. They helped right away with resources.” The Gorge RRT also helped them set up a CashApp and Venmo to accept donations to help the Morga’s get a good lawyer.
“I just want my Dad to have a chance.” said Briseida Morga.
Contributed Photo. Donate to the Morga Family: Cash App: $briseidamorga Venmo: briseida-morga
Inside Immigration Courts: What chance do defendants have?
Immigration courts operate differently than almost any other court in the US.
Currently there are only 69 immigration courts in the entire country. With a current active case backlog of 1.23 million. There simply aren’t enough courts or judges to keep up. The Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) courts that do exist are significantly underfunded receiving only $437 million in funding compared to the $16.7 billion for Customs and Border Enforcement and $7.8 billion spent on ICE in 2018.
In the past, this lopsided funding strategy has forced immigration court judges to handle over three times as many cases a year as regular judges, causing what psychologists called ‘impossibly high stress’ and pressure to get through things quickly rather than carefully. There have been reports of case hearings that are as short as seven minutes.
This is partially because immigration judges can be fired for not working fast enough. New rules laid down by the Trump administration have led to increased friction between the Judges Union and the Department, which has now called on federal labor authorities to “put an end to” the union.
Unlike other courts, immigration courts also don’t provide defendants with lawyers. Meaning many people, including unaccompanied minors, are often forced to represent themselves in court. According to a study published in the University or Pennsylvania Law Review, only 37% of people facing deportation have an attorney with them. And only 14% of those in immigration detention are represented by a lawyer. Meanwhile, the opposing side, the U.S. Government, is always represented by an attorney.
Language barriers also become an issue in immigration courts, with interpreters sometimes only being available over the phone. The remote locations of many detention centers also make it difficult for some defendants to appear in court. So, in some cases the court will conduct hearings via webcam. If an interpreter is also needed for the hearing, it is possible to have a defendant on the webcam, a judge in the courtroom and an interpreter on the phone creating a difficult environment in which to communicate. Connectivity issues can cause the entire system to come to a stand-still.
In 2019 the Trump administration began taking steps to remove in-person interpreters at initial court hearings. Replacing interpreters with a video about the defendants rights, causing many defendants to be unable to ask questions and understand court proceedings unless they are represented by a bilingual lawyer.
The courts also show little to no consistency in regards to rulings. The Associated Press reported last month that “Their fate often depends on the luck of the draw in a system with extreme disparities from judge to judge. There are judges who reject 99 percent of asylum cases before them; others approve more than 90 percent,” according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Overall, the immigration courts are almost completely nonfunctional in terms of administering equity and justice, with huge backlogs, and a disturbingly high US citizen deportation rate. The system in reality acts more like a deportation machine than a court of justice. In fact, this system is so ineffectual that it regularly deports U.S. citizens.
Between 2003 and 2010 the U.S. deported 20,000 American Citizens. Sometimes even detaining them more than once. One man Mark Lyttle, a U.S. citizen from North Carolina was deported to Mexico, then Honduras, then Guatemala. He was then found sleeping on a park bench by Guatemalan authorities, who in turn deported him back to the U.S. where he was detained yet again.
It wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. has ordered the mass deportation of American citizens either. In the 1930’s during the Mexican Repatriation the U.S. deported almost 2 million individuals of latin and hispanic heritage, of which over half were birthright citizens of the United States. The fear instilled by these raids caused even more people of latin and hispanic heritage to leave the country voluntarily out of fear. This raises questions about how many individuals currently without legal status would have been considered U.S. citizens if they or their parents had not been illegally deported and or coerced into leaving the U.S. in the 1930’s.
“This system is so broken natural born American born citizens like you and me are deported all the time,” said Adam Conover, popular TV host of Adam Ruins Everything. “Whether you’re conservative or liberal or somewhere in between you have to face the fact that what our immigration system does to people is contrary to every American value,”
In addition to the courts being a mess...so is the law
CCC News spoke with MariRuth Petzing, of Hood River, who has practiced immigration law for more than seven years about what kind of challenges lie ahead for individuals detained by ICE and their families.
“The largest challenge is the law itself. Up until the ‘90s there were a lot of ways for people without status to obtain legal status. And since the ‘90s that has become more and more difficult,” she said. Now, it's almost impossible to achieve legal status if you have ever been in the U.S. without legal status, she said. “And a lot of people don’t understand how difficult it is today. The law just doesn’t give them any way forward.”
“As an immigration attorney I almost never meet anybody who has had the opportunity to obtain legal status that just never did it. You just don’t see that. The mass majority of people I see are trying everything they can think of to try and get legal status in the US. Most have been trying to get status for over 30 or 40 years.”
Families in our area also don’t get the benefit of using their own local attorney’s because individuals detained in the Gorge are often taken to Tacoma.
“For people who are not going to be released-it is very hard for local attorney’s to take cases that will be taking place in Tacoma because of the travel costs. So typically what we recommend is that they get an attorney in Tacoma or Seattle.” said Petzing.
And it’s not cheap.
“One thing that can happen is that they may be eligible to be released on bond. But the bonds are substantially higher than average criminal bonds. The lowest that I’ve seen is $1,500, but a $15,000 bail bond is a more typical bail bond for ICE detainees,” Petzing said. An attorney costs thousands of dollars at minimum. “If somebody was able to get their case completed for $5,000, I would say that was a simple case. If someone told me they spent $10,000 or $12,000 on an attorney, I would not be surprised.”
And prospects of deportees being allowed to return to the US are daunting.
“In some cases never,” Petzing said of those seeking to return to the US. “But often many of those who are deported are punished by not being allowed to return to the US for 5 to 20 years or more.” That can be very hard on families.
Petzing offered the following advice to those who have been detained, or are worried that they might be detained by ICE. “If you are not a U.S. citizen and you are charged with a crime, you need to talk to a lawyer about whether it may violate your immigration status. Talk to your lawyer; ask questions. Don’t assume that you're safe, but don’t assume that you’re going to be deported either. Get a lawyer. Get informed. It’s a scary situation, but the important thing is don’t go off what your brother-in-law’s neighbor said, or someone else, and don’t panic. If you’re charged with a crime, get a lawyer, that’s what we’re here for. If the government alleges a person is deportable, then it is the government's job to prove it. If they prove that a person is deportable, then it becomes that person’s job to say why they should get to stay.”
The last question CCC News asked Petzing was whether writing this story might cause harm. Petzing responded “There’s always risk, it’s important for the families to know the classic ‘Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.’ But the things that we’ve seen harm cases in the past don’t apply in this situation. People in the community will have varying reactions, you can’t control that, but the article is not likely to show up in court.”
Regardless of your immigration status everyone has guaranteed rights under the constitution. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has this informative page, available in both English and Spanish, which is dedicated to helping people learn their rights in case they are arrested by ICE.
What do immigrants contribute to Oregon and Washington Economies?
The importance of immigrated seasonal agricultural and H2A certified workers in our economies cannot be stressed enough. Oregon is home to over 37,200 farms and Oregon’s Agricultural Exports made a total of more than $2 billion in 2018. Washington has 35,600 farm operations and their fresh market apple production alone is worth more than $1.9 billion.
CCC News asked Petzing if she could tell us a little about the contributions of seasonal migrant workers to our economies. But she corrected us saying that migrant workers are few and far between, and that most people performing seasonal agricultural work are not migrant workers at all.
“‘Migrant worker’ is a good example of hold over language that is still in use. People live here full time. Their families are here. They work year round. Many are seasonal workers but not necessarily migrant workers. There aren’t that many migrant workers anymore. There are internal migrants who are moving within the US and there are H2A temporary workers; most people are what’s called ‘settled out.’ Back in the day people used to come and go for the season, but what has happened is that the USA has made crossing the border life threatening, and so people no longer go back and forth. In the 80’s people would spend six months in the US and the rest of the year in their home country, and that has stopped. People got trapped on one side of the border, and so people brought their families and settled instead of crossing back and forth.”
“We’re talking about people who are very much a part of the community,” continued Petzing. “They work here. Their children go to school here. Their grandchildren go to school here. These are people that have long-standing connections with churches and soccer teams. They are long-standing members of the community.”
“If you want to look at the economic contributions of immigrants then I think it’s important for people to look at the number of immigrants that start their own businesses. And it’s also important for us to look at the tax contributions by immigrants regardless of status, especially in a rural area with an agricultural focused economy that depends on fruit pickers.”
The Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has reported that undocumented immigrants are taxpayers too and collectively contribute an estimated $11.74 billion nationwide to state and local coffers each year via a combination of sales and excise, personal income, and property taxes.
In 2017 undocumented individuals in Oregon and Washington paid more than $397 million in state and local taxes. ITEP also reported that full immigration reform could increase undocumented individuals’ tax contributions by more than $38.6 million in Oregon and $32.6 million in Washington.
On average, an undocumented individual pays 8% of their income in state and local taxes every year. ITEP went on to say that those tax contributions could increase by $2.1 billion under comprehensive immigration reform, boosting their effective tax rate to 8.6%. View the Report.
“Good policy is informed policy,” said Meg Wiehe, ITEP director of programs. “Just as the horrendous impact of breaking up families under a mass deportation policy should not be ignored, nor should policymakers overlook the significant contributions undocumented immigrants make to our state and local revenues and the economy.”
“Keep in mind most state and local taxes are collected from people regardless of citizenship status,” Wiehe added. “Undocumented immigrants, like everyone else, pay sales and excise taxes when the purchase good and services. They pay property taxes directly on their homes or indirectly as renters. And, many undocumented immigrants also pay state income taxes.”
UnidosUS reports that “all immigrants—regardless of status—will contribute approximately $80,000 more in taxes than government services used over their lifetime.”
What does it cost to detain?
Overall ICE detentions cost taxpayers a lot of money. In fact American Immigration Council reports that since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, ICE spending has nearly tripled, from $3.3 billion to $8.4 billion today.
According to ICE’s FY 2018 Budget - it cost $133.99 a day to maintain one bed in an ICE detention center. However, the National Immigration Forum reported that the average bed rate was closer to $200 a day, $6,000.00 a month, or nearly $73,000.00 a year per detainee.
The average length of detention for those detained by ICE was nearly 108.76 days in 2018. However, there are reports of detainees being held much longer, including this US Citizen who was wrongfully detained and imprisoned by ICE for 3 ½ years. And the current backlog of 1,236,164 cases doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.
According to the Migration Policy Institute “In 2019, noncitizens on average had been waiting 705 days for their removal cases to be adjudicated—almost two years. Waits were even higher in the country’s most backlogged and resource-strapped courts: in San Antonio, the average respondent had waited 1,038 days, while in Arlington, Virginia the average wait was 973 days.”
In 2019 ICE arrested approximately 143,000 people and deported more than 267,000.
$200 per/day * 108.76 days * 143,000 people = $3.11 billion
The Big (Political?) Picture
There has been wide speculation about increased ICE activity this month, with many calling the recent raids of blue states and sanctuary cities politically motivated by the presidential election. “There were several arrests last week statewide. So there’s been an increase week over week,” MariRuth Petzing told CCC News.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has said that “Nativism has once again gained momentum in U.S. politics…Nativists today believe that true national identity requires a particular racial, ethnic, or religious background. As in the past, they frequently focus on immigration policy as a means of shaping national demographics in ways that reinforce this idealized national identity...Nativism is a stain on democracy, that is not inevitable. Some modern democracies have successfully disempowered nativist sentiment. Their experiences show what U.S. parties could achieve with vision and political skill.”
The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Serves (RAICES), a non-profit that promotes justice by providing low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees tweeted "Using a major ICE operation a month before an election as a political ploy in the name of 'law and order' is nothing less than an attack on our communities."
Gorge ICE Resistance’s Rapid Response Team (RRT), a local group attempting to stem immigrant incarcerations and unlawful deportations, reported that marked and unmarked ICE vans have been seen in The Dalles several days last week. ICE has not responded to requests for comment on their increased presence in The Dalles.
