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Vol. 74/No. 4      February 1, 2010

 
Cops near Boston detain
58 immigrant workers
 
BY TED LEONARD
AND KEVIN DWIRE
 
BOSTON—Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and police officers from Foxboro, Massachusetts, detained 58 immigrant workers at a roadblock near Gillette Stadium on January 6.

They targeted a caravan of four passenger vans traveling from Providence, Rhode Island. The workers had been hired to shovel snow off the seats at Gillette Stadium where the New England Patriots football team would be playing the coming weekend.

Nine people were taken to Bristol County jail and the other 49 were taken to a nearby police station where they were fingerprinted, photographed, and released with orders to report back to ICE to determine their legal status.

Most were Guatemalan immigrants from Rhode Island. When they were released federal officials offered rides to the stadium for those who wanted to go to work.

ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier said the operation targeted “fugitive aliens” who previously had been ordered deported.

Of the nine detained, Grenier said, five had been previously deported but had re-entered the United States illegally. She said their cases will be sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for possible federal prosecution.

Each faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the felony of re-entering the country without permission after deportation.

Catarina Alonzo, 25, told the Boston Globe she came to the United States from Guatemala eight years ago and sends money home to her family. She said she also worked cleaning trash at the stadium after games last year. “What are you going to do?” she said in Spanish. “I am poor. I went to work.”

The Providence Journal reported that several of the workers went to the local office of Rhode Island senator Jack Reed to ask him “to support immigration reform.”

Senator Reed responded with a statement that said, “The comprehensive reform I support is tough, but fair. It recognizes the reality that a group of hard-working people are here seeking a better life, paying taxes and making positive contributions to society [and] deserve a chance to become citizens. But in order to earn American citizenship, they must play by the rules, hold a steady job, pay fines and learn English.”
 
 
Related articles:
Phoenix: 10,000 protest cop harassment of immigrants  
 
 
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