Owners Arrested After Houston ICE Raid

by James Pinkerton 

Last week their undocumented workers were hauled off to a detention facility, but today the owners and managers of a Houston rag exporting firm are in custody for employing the illegal immigrants.

This morning a U.S. magistrate in Houston is scheduled to preside over the initial court appearance of two owners and three managers of Action Rags USA. The eastside company, located in a sweltering factory near the Port of Houston, was the scene of one of Houston's largest immigration raids when 166 undocumented workers were detained June 25...

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Baltimore:  Advocates Rally After Raids, Arrests

by Kelly Brewington

The 6 a.m. call jolted Nicolas Ramos out of bed. His cousin Veronica Ramos was on the other end sobbing. Armed federal immigration agents had broken down her apartment door and hauled away her husband, Eduardo Delgado, as their three children hid under their beds.

"She said she never saw something like this in her whole life," said Ramos, owner of the Baltimore restaurant Arcos, and a member of the Governor's Commission on Hispanic Affairs. "She's scared, the kids are scared. They don't know what they are going to do."

Ramos shared his story yesterday during a protest of Monday's raid on an Annapolis painting company that resulted in the arrest of Delgado and 45 other immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.

More than 75 immigrant advocates gathered at Hopkins Plaza, in front of the Baltimore Offices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, hoisting signs with slogans such as, "Don't divide our families," and "Painting Houses is not a Crime..."

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Arizona:  Ballot Initiatives Fail to Make Ballot

by Mike Sunnucks

A proposed ballot measure that sought to shut down businesses hiring illegal immigrants the first time they were caught will not be appearing on the November ballot.

Neither will another "get-tough" immigration measure that requires local police departments to enforce immigration laws.

The initiatives needed to collect more than 153,000 voter petition signatures by July 3.

Don Goldwater, a conservative immigration advocate, said in an e-mail to supporters Wednesday the employer sanctions and police measure would not meet the signature totals.

Goldwater cited lack of financial support, harassment by opponents of the measures and "adverse weather conditions" for reasons behind the ballot questions not getting enough signatures.

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Arizona:  Lawsuit Leads to Release of Immigrant 

by Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest

A South Korean immigrant who was repeatedly denied timely medical care while in the immigration detention system was released from an Arizona jail yesterday.

Federal immigration officials released Yong Sun Harvill, 52, as part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Custom's Enforcement agency. The suit, filed in June, alleged that ICE's top administrator and a half-dozen other officials "deny basic human needs, inflict unnecessary pain and suffering and put Mrs. Harvill at substantial risk of physical injury, illness and premature death."

The government insists she received proper care.

In May, The Washington Post documented Harvill's struggle to get treatment as part of a series of articles about poor medical care for detained immigrants around the country. The series was based on interviews and thousands of internal government records.

Harvill, a legal U.S. resident and the wife of an American citizen, came to the United States as a young Army bride 32 years ago, but never applied for citizenship. Immigration officials were trying to deport her under a provision that allows for the removal of non-citizens who have been convicted of certain crimes -- in her case, buying stolen jewelry more than a decade ago.

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