Team set up to hunt illegal alien felons

YAKIMA – The federal government is setting up a team of officers in this south-central Washington city who will focus on tracking down and arresting undocumented criminals who have been ordered to leave the country.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will oversee the new office, one of 23 squads setting up permanent operations in cities and towns across the United States over the next several months.

Yakima County Prosecutor Ron Zirkle supports the effort, but some say they’re worried about the potential for racial profiling of Hispanics and fear immigrant families will get split up.

Lori Dankers, an immigration and customs enforcement spokeswoman, said the goal is to target undocumented criminals who pose a danger to the community – not to split up families.

“Not enforcing the law is not an option,” Dankers said. “This is aimed at people who have broken the law.”

The Yakima Valley’s agricultural industry relies heavily on migrant farm workers, and Dankers said Yakima “has come on the radar quite a bit” as a community with a high number of undocumented fugitives.

Immigrants who have committed serious felonies are high on the government’s search list. Once their criminal cases are adjudicated, they’re often sent to immigration judges who order them to return for deportation.

But in many cases, they don’t return.

Dankers declined to disclose the number of staff the team will include, citing security reasons. Once the officers are hired, she said, they will work with fugitive criminal teams in Seattle and Portland who are assigned to Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

Immigrants who have not committed any crimes but are subjects of deportation orders may, too, find themselves targeted by the new squad. Others who can’t prove they live here legally could also be arrested, Dankers said.

Maria Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant living here legally, worries she’ll be stuck caring for the children left behind as she’s done in the past.

“They’re going to separate many families,” Gonzalez said. “It happened to my sister-in-law. (She) left five kids.”

Jose Reynaldo Cea, owner of a service local immigrants use to transmit money to Mexico and Central and South America, said he’s concerned officers will hit businesses where Hispanics congregate.

The fugitive team will target individuals, rather than conducting sweeps or raids, Dankers said.

The county prosecutor doesn’t track whether criminal suspects are documented immigrants because federal law bars questions about legal status, Zirkle said.

He believes the team will make the community safer.

“We don’t want criminals in our community,” he said. “We want them taken out, even if they’re citizens.”