Lawyers work to end illegal immigration raids

Lawyers work to end illegal immigration raids

12:50 PM CDT on Saturday, June 21, 2008

By MONIKA DIAZ / WFAA-TV

MOUNT PLEASANT - A Dallas lawyer and others around the nation are planning to take on the federal government in court to put a stop to all illegal immigration raids.

The sweeps have led to hundreds of arrests but innocent immigrants, who are being hauled to jail, are the ones driving this lawsuit.

When the illegal immigration sweeps at Pilgrim's Pride rolled through Mount Pleasant back in April, Jesus and Olivia Garcia were home, sitting on the couch in their living room.

"We were just watching TV and just heard a knock on the door and they were asking for my husband," Olivia Garcia said.

Federal immigration agents stopped by the couple's home, looking for John Jesus Garcia.

"They said they were looking for him because he was using somebody else's social security," his wife added.

Garcia, a former Pilgrim's Pride employee, handed over his social security, green card and Texas driver's license.

The couple repeatedly told authorities, they came to the wrong house.

"I told them, it wasn't me and I showed them my papers and told them to check them," John Garcia said.

Minutes later, Garcia ended up in handcuffs, a moment captured on camera.

A newspaper covering the raids posted a picture of the father of five, as agents walked him out of his home.

"I was angry because they took my husband. They took him and they came to my house," said Olivia Garcia.

They never thought they would be caught in this crackdown against illegal immigration because Garcia is a permanent legal resident.

His wife is a U.S. citizen.

Immigration lawyer, Domingo Garcia, calls it a case of mistaken identity and he says it's not the first.

He has already received three other similar cases that include legal residents and a U.S. citizen.

"They had their drivers license, voter registration card, another had his legal residency card, social security card and yet they were taken in and detained, split from their families, and we don't know how many more are out there," Domingo Garcia said.

Garcia and other attorneys across the nation are working together, collecting cases from innocent immigrants wrongfully detained.

They plan to file a lawsuit later this month against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the federal government, accusing them of racial profiling.

The goal: stop all future raids.

ICE and the U.S. Attorney's office in the North Texas region did not want to comment on the expected lawsuit and denied our repeated requests for an on camera interview on standard procedures for raids on undocumented workers and identity theft.

But their supporters believe the lawsuit sends the wrong message.

They say federal officials do their best to pick up the right people while fighting illegal immigration and identity theft.

"As long as we have people willing to flaunt the law, then the possibility of an innocent person having to endure wrongful arrest will always be there," said Jean Towell, president of the Citizens for Immigration Reform Dallas.

But for the Garcias, it has never been the same, since that day back in April.

Their sense of freedom has been shattered.

"I still think about it. I feel scared and sometimes, I'm nervous. It was traumatic. Even though, I didn't do anything wrong, the incident left a scar," said John Garcia.

E-mail mdiaz@wfaa.com.

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