500,000 immigrants defying deportation

'Fugitive aliens' like Obama's aunt escape notice as U.S. pursues criminals



By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press
Nov. 14, 2008, 11:04PMShare Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzBOSTON — Zeituni Onyango came to the United States seeking asylum from her native Kenya but was turned down and ordered to leave the country in 2004.

Four years later, she is still here. And her nephew is about to become president of the United States.

Onyango's family connection to Barack Obama has thrown a spotlight on a phenomenon many Americans might find startling: An estimated half-million immigrants are living in the United States in defiance of deportation orders.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up efforts to catch fugitive aliens, as they are known, and now has about 100 "fugitive operations teams" around the country. In the past year, the teams have made 34,000 arrests, more than double the number two years ago. But there are still 560,000 such immigrants in the U.S.

Fugitive aliens include people who, like Obama's aunt, sought asylum in the United States but were rejected and ordered to leave the country. Others were caught entering or living in this country illegally, and failed to show at their deportation hearings.

Often, illegal immigrants who have been issued deportation notices are given a certain amount of time to get out of the country on their own. They are not forcibly put aboard a plane; these deportations essentially operate on the honor system.


Critics irked
Generally, if these immigrants stay out of trouble — if they don't get pulled over by police or swept up in a workplace raid, for example — they are in little danger of being thrown out of the country.

That galls many immigration reform advocates, who say the practice breeds disrespect for the law and emboldens immigrants to sneak in and stay.

"We are strong believers of enforcement of our immigration laws, and this is a priority area for getting the message across to this country, that if they've been convicted of committing crimes or if they have been ordered deported, that they will be apprehended if they try to hide and continue to stay in the country," said Jack Martin of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Government officials say that they do the best they can with the money and manpower available to them, and that they focus on the most serious cases, including those involving illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country.

"ICE has taken tremendous steps at closing these cases and apprehending fugitives," said spokesman Richard Rocha. "However, we prioritize our efforts on egregious violators and criminal aliens."

The Obama camp has said the candidate did not know about his aunt's status.

Police lobby Congress for tougher immigration enforcement

By Jeff McShan / 11 News
Video

HOUSTON -- It was an early Sunday morning in June when Houston Police Officer Gary Gryder was struck and killed by a driver. Hunt Troung drove through a construction barricade.

Gryder's fellow officer Joe Pyland was severely injured in the collision.
It was the second time in two years that an HPD officer died while in duty.

In 2006, Officer Rodney Johnson was gunned down after making a routine traffic stop and arrest.

In both cases, the suspects accused of killing the officers are illegal immigrants.

So, on Tuesday, Johnson's widow, Pyland and Houston's police union president Gary Blankenship flew to Washington. On Thursday – which incidentally will be Sept. 11 – they will testify before a U.S. House judiciary committee on the subject of illegal immigrants.

“And we need some federal funding. We are 1,500 police officers short in Houston,” said Blankenship. “We are certainly in a position where we need to prioritize, but we need to address this problem and we need help from the federal government.”

Critics have long called Houston a sanctuary city, one that does not aggressively enforce immigration laws.

However, since Johnson and Gryder were killed, the police department has taken a more aggressive approach towards illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes in Houston.

Last year HPD arrested about 77,000 people and ran their fingerprints through a national database.

Those searches turned up 111 illegal immigrants who were wanted by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials. The illegals were processed and held until immigration officials came to pick them up.

So far this year, 122 illegal immigrants have been identified and picked up by ICE. It is unclear how many of those have actually been deported, though.

The Houston police representatives going to D.C. insist more money will help, but they also plan to tell the federal government that it is just as important to seal the borders first.

Ex-IRA member says bias behind belated deportation

Hernán Rozemberg - Express-News

The moment border agents in a desolate, brush-laden highway in South Texas asked him to pull over for further questioning, Pól Brennan knew he was in for a long day.

But he never thought he'd end up behind bars in the Rio Grande Valley, waiting to get the boot back to a place he long ago had put out of his mind.

Even though U.S. authorities have known about Brennan, a fugitive militant from Northern Ireland who originally came into this country 24 years ago using another person's passport, they essentially have looked the other way for more than a decade, allowing him to remain in the country in legal limbo.

Brennan, now sitting in a Raymondville immigration prison, said recently he has become the U.S. government's latest immigrant patsy.

“I'm a product of the anti-immigrant bent this administration is pushing,” Brennan, 56, a former member of the Irish Republican Army, a guerrilla outfit that employed terrorist tactics in a decades-old fight against British rule, said by phone. “They're doing anything to clean up the system, even if it makes no sense.”

If there was a time he'd run into trouble, he said, it would have been more than two decades ago after he illegally entered and settled in the country. Brennan sought clandestine exile here after he and 37 IRA activists took part in a famous prison break — dubbed “The Great Escape” — from the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast.

He'd served eight of 16 years after being convicted of bomb and firearms possession.

Brennan's new shadow life, settling down in San Francisco as a carpenter, thrived until he applied for a U.S. passport under a newly assumed identity.
Background checks on his application eventually led authorities to unearth his fugitive status, and the FBI arrested him in 1993.

He was imprisoned in the Bay Area for more than three years. But he thought he finally was home free in 1998 when, as part of a U.S.-brokered agreement to end the violence in Ireland, Brennan and other IRA militants in America were given “deferred action” — immigration limbo status allowing renewable yearly work permits with governmental discretion to seek deportation at any time.

That discretion now is being applied to Brennan's case, after Border Patrol officials questioned him and his wife, Joanna Volz, at the agency's checkpoint in Sarita on U.S. 77 in January when they were on their way to Austin after visiting Volz's mother in Brownsville.

Brennan pleaded his case with border agents for six hours to no avail, even as his lawyer faxed records from San Francisco.

Border agents concluded Brennan's work permit had expired — he countered he had applied but not yet received a new one — and thus he was in the country illegally.

“You should have seen those border agents — they thought they had caught Osama bin Laden,” said Volz, 62.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for the detention and deportation of unauthorized immigrants, declined to comment on the case.

Besides the expired work document and fraudulently entering the country, the agency's deportation case also is backed by Brennan's 1995 felony conviction for buying a gun with a fake identity.

Representatives with the Irish and British governments also declined interviews, citing confidentiality issues. They wouldn't clarify which country would take Brennan back if he's ordered to leave.

Beyond the terms of the international agreement allowing him to stay, Brennan also cites a years-long asylum application that has yet to be decided, as well as a more recent sponsorship petition through Volz, who's a U.S. citizen.

There's also a fledgling political movement backing Brennan, including an online petition that has garnered nearly 1,000 signatures.

Three U.S. congressmen are calling for him to at least be released on bond — a call seconded by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the largest Irish-American group in the country — saying he's not a flight risk since he previously put up a $1 million bail in California and never disappeared.

Brennan's not shy about openly discussing his past revolutionary politics, but his dedication to Irish independence has got nothing to do with his clean life in the United States, he insisted.

“They did nothing to us in the eight years since they let us out and now all of a sudden we're being thrown into the terrorist threat mix,” he said. “I haven't been hiding. And if you look at my record here, I'm a law-abiding citizen. I pay my taxes. I'm a working stiff.”

Should he lose his case and end up deported, Brennan said he undoubtedly will be dispatched straight to prison in Northern Ireland. That move would be equivalent to a death sentence, he noted, since his former enemies would find a way to get him.

If he's sent packing, Volz is not sure what she will do. She already has uprooted her life in San Francisco and settled in Brownsville to be closer to him, as well as to care for her ailing mother.

She was clueless about the past politics of the man she fell in love with after he asked her to dance in a bar. Volz initially was shocked when, after they had moved in together, he told her a family featured in a U.S.

magazine article she was reading on the Irish conflict was his family.

He was the unidentified man mentioned as being on the lam.

Though she would have preferred to hear the story up front, Volz agreed with Brennan's political convictions and they stayed together, eventually marrying.

The conflict in Ireland is centuries old, dating to the 16th-century Reformation when the British, who claimed Ireland, adopted Protestantism.

The independent Republic of Ireland was created in 1949, but deep divisions turned into bloody struggle in the smaller northern portion of the island that maintained allegiance to London, as Northern Ireland and as the Catholic majority unsuccessfully tried to boot out Protestant British loyalists.

Flores broke the law, but punishment is unlikely

Sara Perkins

MISSION -- State Rep. Kino Flores, D-Palmview, will likely not be sanctioned for hiring an illegal immigrant.

In the wake of a violent slaying on Flores' ranch property north of Mission, local and Mexican law enforcement agencies are tracking a 24-year-old Honduran man who had been living and working there. But federal law enforcement agencies have expressed little interest in pursuing Flores for hiring Froilan Caseres, who authorities said was in the country illegally when he allegedly beat another man to death.

Flores denied any knowledge of Caseres' immigration status. His cell phone was turned off Tuesday and a message left at his home was not returned.

On Monday, he told The Monitor that Caseres had only been doing a few days' worth of work on the ranch, and that because of Caseres' appearance and family connections in the area, Flores did not check his immigration papers.

However, it appeared Caseres had been living in a building on the ranch, and Flores' son told investigators the man had been there as long as three weeks before the killing, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.

It was unclear whether Flores withheld Social Security or federal income taxes from Caseres' pay.

ON THE RUN

Mexican officials and the FBI were still tracking Caseres in Mexico as Tuesday evening.

Treviño said the man made several phone calls soon after Adin Jaret Rodriguez, a Mexican national in his early 20s, was beaten to death. In one call Caseres made to his sister, he apparently admitted to killing Rodriguez and robbing him.

Caseres caught a ride to the border and was filmed crossing the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge just before 2:45 a.m. Monday. He boarded a bus bound for Monterrey and another to Mexico City, but Mexican authorities have yet to locate and arrest him.

The victim's brother helped county officers locate Rodriguez's body just after 5 a.m. Monday.

"We are assuming (Rodriguez and Caseres) were friends, at least at one time," Treviño said. Rodriguez was not working at the ranch, but the initial investigation indicates he was also in the United States illegally.

The body was found by a small house at the back of the ranch, where Treviño said it appeared Caseres had been living.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

In general, federal immigration authorities must prioritize in deciding which cases to refer to the U.S. attorney's office, said Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE is one of several agencies that would have authority to charge Flores for hiring Caseres. However, Flores' case had not been referred to ICE as of Tuesday afternoon, Pruneda said.

"Issues of worksites and individuals knowingly hiring illegal immigrants is obviously a priority for us," she said.

However, Flores' case would be small-time. In past years ICE has made prosecuting large employers a priority, along with cases that affect public safety or involve substantial fraud.

In 2006, a Houston security company was charged with arming the illegal immigrants it hired to stand guard, falsifying documents and knowingly lying on forms to get the men licensed to carry weapons.

On Thursday, the owner of Texas company Shipley Do-Nuts pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor federal charge of continuing to employ unauthorized workers. The company is expected to plead guilty to illegal hiring and pay a $1.3 million fine.

In late July, Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies alleged Silvestre Delgadillo, an illegal immigrant tasked with guarding a Mercedes convenience store, shot and killed 17-year-old Roberto Garcia as the teen tried to break in to the store. The owner of the business, Olivia Lopez, who employed the immigrant, was not expected to face federal charges at the time.

POLITICAL FALLOUT

Some high-profile cases reveal that while there can be consequences when a public official hires an illegal immigrant, those consequences are usually political, not legal. And even the political consequences can be limited.

In 1993, lawyer Zoe Baird - whom President Clinton had nominated to the post of attorney general - withdrew her name from consideration when it was revealed she had hired an illegal nanny and driver. She paid a fine to the now-defunct U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service as well as back income taxes on both.

Christine Todd Whitman, a former administrator of the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, also paid back taxes when it was revealed she had sheltered and employed an undocumented couple.

However, the political damage was limited, since her opponent at the time in the race for governor of New Jersey had also used illegal immigrant help without withholding income and Social Security taxes.

Flores does not have an opponent in the November elections and is set to be elected to a seventh term. His political allies in western Hidalgo County are likewise safe from immediate voter backlash: All of the seats on the La Joya school board are uncontested, and Flores' mother-in-law, Irene Garcia, is set to replace opponent Joe Aguilar, who chose not to run.

Other cities within Flores' sphere of influence are not due to hold elections until spring next year.

Flores' violations also do not qualify for oversight by either the Texas Ethics Commission or the Texas House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics.

"That's typically not the type of scenario that the committee has looked at," the committee's Republican chairman, Rep. Larry Phillips, of Sherman, said Tuesday. "If it's something unrelated to their office or their electoral duties, we leave it to local law enforcement and to the voters."

Suspect in Ranch Murder in Mexico City

Murder suspect, Froilan Casares giving America the finger, as he is entering Mexico on the Hidalgo international bridge.

Victim beaten to death on state representative's ranch

MISSION - A murder suspect who worked at a state representative's ranch has been tracked down to Mexico City.

Froilan Casares, an illegal immigrant, is accused of beating another worker to death with a baseball bat. The victim was Adin Rodriguez, who was also an illegal immigrant.

The two worked for State Representative Kino Flores. The murder happened on Flores' ranch, located off 8-1/2 Mile and Trosper Road in Mission.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino says U.S. investigators contacted Mexican authorities, who tracked down Casares.

Video had shown the Honduran national crossing into Mexico at the Hidalgo international bridge. From there, Casares took a bus to Monterrey and then headed to Mexico City.

In addition to the charge of capital murder, investigators say Casares also stole $400.

State Representative Flores says he had no idea either worker was illegal. The sheriff tells us federal authorities will handle any investigation into Flores' hiring of illegals.

U.S. Border Patrol blotter Aug. 8-20, 2008

August 20, 2008 - 7:45AM
The Monitor
From the U.S. Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector:

Aug. 8, 2008
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested an undocumented immigrant from Mexico near Falfurrias. Records checks revealed the person was arrested and convicted in Marietta, Ga. for armed robbery and the hijacking of a motor vehicle. The subject told authorities he was a member of the Sureno 13 gang.

Aug. 12, 2008
Border Patrol agents arrested a person illegally in the U.S. without immigration documentation from Mexico who admitted to being a member of the Mexican Mafia gang.

Aug. 13, 2008
Border Patrol agent seized 1,293 pounds of marijuana valued at $1.03 million and a 1994 Freightliner tractor-trailer at the Falfurrias Station checkpoint. A man presented the tractor-trailer for inspection and a service dog detected drugs in the trailer. Further inspection of the trailer revealed the marijuana hidden in a false compartment inside the vehicle.

Agents also seized a 1994 Ford Aerostar van with 1,271 pounds of marijuana valued at $1.01 million inside. The vehicle was found abandoned near the Rio Grande. The driver was not found.

ICE deports Mexican man wanted for murder in Chihuahua, Mexico

BEST team members locate, arrest fugitive at his mobile-home park residence

EL PASO, Texas - Local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Wednesday deported a Mexican fugitive who is wanted for murder in his home country.

ICE immigration enforcement agents escorted Luis Miguel Quintana-Aguilera, 23, to the middle of Stanton Street Bridge at the El Paso Port of Entry where he was turned over to Mexican authorities. Quintana-Aguilera was sought by authorities in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, for the November 2007 murder of Rigoberto Romero Enriquez.

The Office of the Attorney General of Mexico contacted the ICE Attaché Office in Ciudad Juarez May 14 requesting assistance locating and arresting Quintana-Aguilera, who was believed to be in the El Paso area. Local Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) members arrested Quintana-Aguilera the same day.

BEST members arrested Quintana-Aguilera in a mobile home park in the 14000 block of Colonia Campo, west of Horizon City, Texas. Quintana-Aguilera was previously deported in 2002 after he was convicted for alien smuggling and transporting. After his arrest in May, he was processed and placed into removal proceedings while detained at ICE's El Paso Processing Center. He contested his removal, alleging that he was eligible to remain in the United States. However, an immigration judge denied his request on Aug. 18.

"The partnership between ICE and Mexico's Attorney General has proven beneficial to both countries," said Robert Jolicoeur, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in El Paso. "In this case, ICE officers removed a dangerous individual from our country, and Mexico took custody of an individual who fled to the United States to elude justice."

Quintana-Aguilera is the sixth murder suspect local ICE officers deported to Mexico since Oct. 1. ICE officers also deported an individual wanted for attempted sexual assault, and another wanted on drug charges. In fiscal year 2007, local ICE officers deported four fugitives wanted for murder, one for sexual assault, one for vehicular homicide, one for kidnapping and two child predators.

BEST is an ICE Office of Investigations-led, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), national initiative created along the U.S. southern border. The El Paso BEST team was formed in October 2006. Since its inception, the El Paso BEST team has arrested and prosecuted 357 individuals, obtained 185 federal indictments, and secured convictions against 162 people.

The BEST concept is for DHS law enforcement agencies, working cooperatively with other law enforcement entities, to develop a comprehensive approach to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations that pose a significant threat to border security.

BEST includes officers from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that are collocated to share information. This close coordination among law enforcement agencies also helps to identify and eliminate cross-border criminal organizations, such as alien smuggling networks, and the supporting infrastructure that sustains them.

In addition to ICE, El Paso BEST members include: U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Border Patrol and El Paso Field Operations, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, the El Paso Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas.

Immigrant could be sent to his death if deported

05:08 PM CDT on Sunday, August 17, 2008

Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO -- Federal agents consider him a fugitive subject to deportation, but friends and family members of Alexis “Alex” Nguitte-Bekongo fear the jailed immigrant will suffer a worse fate if authorities send him home: death.

Considered a deserter by his government’s military, Nguitte-Bekongo could be killed the second he steps off the plane in his native Central African Republic, loved ones say.

“They know who he is. The moment he arrives, they’ll grab him and we’ll never see him again,” said his best friend, Jean Ballet, 47, a Central African Republic native who won a petition for political asylum in the U.S.

Immigration agents arrested Nguitte-Bekongo, 44, last week in San Antonio. He was being held in Karnes City while officials try to obtain travel documents to deport him.

Authorities say Nguitte-Bekongo was supposed to leave the United States in 2001 but ignored a deportation order. Rudy Rodriguez, who heads up regional fugitive operations teams for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, described the case as routine.

Nguitte-Bekongo came to the U.S. to participate in a training program for foreign soldiers. He was completing the U.S. military training in San Antonio in 1996 when he received reports of violent unrest back home. Members of his tribe were targeted, according to his wife, Jamie.

Although his superiors had recommended him for the training in the U.S., he was labeled a deserter and traitor.

Gail Erlitz, Nguitte-Bekongo’s former U.S. Army instructor, recalled writing to military authorities in the Central African Republic, assuring them that Nguitte-Bekongo was not a deserter.

“We were really worried about him,” said Erlitz. “He was very respectful, dedicated—if I can help him in any way, I’ll do it.”

Nguitte-Bekongo’s wife said her husband lost a bid for asylum. A U.S. citizen, she tried to sponsor him so he could remain in the country but the application wasn’t approved.

The family blames shoddy legal work for their plight. Their lawyer, Earl Levis, had seven disciplinary cases filed against him, according to records at the Texas State Bar.

Levis said he could not remember details of the case but blamed the couple for failing to follow through. He said they disappeared not long after seeking his services.

Local Fugitives Believed To Be Border Hopping

Eight fugitives in our Fugitive File are still on the loose while 20 have been caught so far this year.

Amarillo Crime Stoppers hopes you can help them add to that number.

Due to the seriousness of the crimes he is accused of, Amarillo police want this week's fugitive off the streets as soon as possible.

Take a close look at Martin Urias Rodriguez.

He is wanted by Potter County for aggravated assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child, sexual contact.

Rodriguez, an illegal alien, has had a brush with the law before. He was arrested last year.

Corporal Brian Thomas of the Amarillo Police Department says it was "something to do with domestic violence and they found out he was undocumented and he was deported back to Mexico."

Police believe he may be going back and forth across the border. Thomas says even "if someone has contact with him in Mexico, that may be enough to work with marshals down there to get him picked up."

Another fugitive recently featured is also believed to be going to and from Mexico.

Tomas Romero is wanted out of Potter County for homicide. But he may have been killed in Mexico.

Thomas says, "information on that, even if there is no arrest, we still need it so the detectives can clear out that case as well."

If you have any information on any of the other fugitives, you are asked to call Amarillo Crime Stoppers at 374-4400. Information leading to an arrest could make you $300 richer.

Operation FALCON 2008 Rounds Up Dangerous Fugitives in the Permian Basin

Operation FALCON 2008 Rounds Up Dangerous Fugitives in the Permian Basin
June 30, 2008

Midland, TX – Following a four-year tradition of success in its national efforts, the U.S. Marshals Service locally conducted another successful Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) from June 23-June 29. Led by the U.S. Marshal Service, Operation FALCON is a nationwide law enforcement effort.

Operation FALCON 2008–Permian Basin, combined the collective efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies focusing on capturing individuals wanted on Federal and State felony charges including narcotics violations, state parole and probation violations, and other crimes of violence. Over the course of the six-day operation, the combined resources of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers arrested 105 fugitives, and cleared 121 warrants in the Permian Basin.

“This operation, along with the ongoing efforts of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force in the Western District of Texas, provides a clear indication of our commitment to ensuring the safety of our community” said LaFayette Collins, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas. “The combined efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement should send a strong message to those who are wanted, that there is no safe haven for them to hide.“

Operation FALCON – Permian Basin, consisted of officers with The U.S. Marshals from Midland, Pecos, and Alpine, Midland Police Department, Odessa Police Department, Midland County Sheriff’s Office, Ector County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Texas Department of Public Safety, and Midland Independent School District Police.

Since its inception in 2005, Operation FALCON has made over 36,500 arrests and cleared over 45,300 warrants. It continues to be the largest and most successful fugitive apprehension effort in U.S. Marshals history.

For more information about the U.S. Marshals Service, visit http://www.usmarshals.gov.

America’s Oldest Federal Law Enforcement Agency

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
June 30, 2008 Phill Maxwell, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal
(432) 686-4100, ext.223
Billy Johnson, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal
(432) 445-5495, ext. 44

223 arrested in sweep

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 06/30/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT



A U.S. Marshals deputy and another law enforcement officer take positions to secure an El Paso home during a warrant roundup last week named Operation Falcon 08. (Courtesy of U.S. Marshals Service )More than 200 fugitives, including a reputed member of a street gang linked to soldiers at Fort Bliss, were arrested last week in El Paso by a small army of law enforcement officers as part of one of the largest warrant sweeps in the city in years.

The massive number of arrests were part of Operation Falcon 08, a multi-agency effort lead by the U.S. Marshals Service intended to catch people wanted on warrants for violent crimes, sex offenses and other crimes.

"We measure success one fugitive at a time," LaFayette Collins, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas, said in a statement. "Any time we remove a sexual predator, gang member, or other violent felon, that street, a neighborhood and a community became a little safer."

Operation Falcon, which stands for Federal And Local Cops Organized Nationally, is an effort that has taken place in different cities throughout the United States in recent years but had not in El Paso since 2006. The effort included the work of El Paso police, sheriff's deputies and several state and federal agencies.

The operation netted 223 arrests with 321 warrants cleared, including 69 people wanted for violent crimes, 14 for sex offenses and 70 in drug cases, officials said.

U.S. Marshals Service officials said arrests began throughout El Paso in the pre-dawn hours a week ago today and continued daily through Saturday. The arrests were conducted by 80 officers from various federal, state and local agencies organized into 10 teams.

"We participate in many initiatives and this is one of them," El Paso County Sheriff Jimmy Apodaca said. "We do this to make sure El Paso is a better and safer place to live by going after people wanted on warrants."

Among those arrested was Elbert Mullin, an alleged member of the Georgia Boys, connected to the Gangster Disciples, U.S. Marshals Service supervisory deputy Gerry Payan said.

The Gangster Disciples, which was created in south Chicago in the 1960s, is one of the largest street gangs in the nation.

The Georgia Boys have been linked to soldiers at Fort Bliss, according to a U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command report in 2006 about gang activity in the military.

In 2006, four soldiers believed to be associated with the Georgia Boys assaulted and robbed two soldiers in a parking lot on post, stated the report labeled as law enforcement sensitive. Two of the soldiers in the robbery were court-martialed and found guilty. The other two were found guilty of violating Army regulations.

The report assessed the gang threat at Fort Bliss as "low."

Mullin, 28, was allegedly in possession of a handgun when he was captured Friday on two prior counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and other charges, Payan said. It was unknown if Mullin has ties to the military.

The round up included a total of 12 suspected members of various gangs.

Assistant Chief Deputy Michael Troyanski of the Marshals Service in El Paso said such warrant operations are vital since fugitives pose one of the greatest risks to the law enforcement because they are more likely to assault an officer in an attempt to evade capture.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com;546-6102.

Operation Falcon
Operation Falcon 08 in El Paso consisted of officers from:

U.S. Marshals Service, Border Patrol, Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Probation, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Texas Office of the Inspector General, El Paso County Sheriff's Office, El Paso Police Department and El Paso County Constable Precinct 5.

Local construction, roofing businesses eyeing feds' immigration team cautiously

Saturday, June 28, 2008

By Mike Copeland

Tribune-Herald business editor

A fugitive enforcement team that will track down undocumented workers who miss court dates will call Waco home beginning in mid-August — and local employers are wondering if this seven-member squad will come knocking on their doors.

“I think anybody who uses immigrant labor from any country is going to be a little nervous with an enforcement office nearby,” said K. Paul Holt, president of the Waco office of Associated General Contractors.

Word of the fugitive squad is getting around, he said. And though contractors generally do a good job of complying with immigration rules, he said, there’s often uneasiness when someone involved in enforcement comes on the premises.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office, or ICE, reportedly will station a new enforcement team in downtown Waco.

ICE was created in March 2003 to serve as the largest investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security. It combines the law enforcement arms of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and the former U.S. Customs Service.

Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for ICE in San Antonio, confirmed the agency is creating a Waco-based team that will pursue fugitives in several Central Texas counties. They’ll target undocumented workers who served time for crimes but didn’t show up for scheduled court appearances to be sent back to their home countries, Pruneda said.

“There happens to be a significant number of these fugitives in Waco and the surrounding areas,” she said.

This team will not target individuals simply in this country illegally, Pruneda said, but it may show up at businesses in pursuit of fugitives.

Holt said local members of the AGC should have no problems with the enforcement team if they’re obeying the law.

“Anybody who doesn’t try to ensure that employees have proper documentation is asking for trouble,” Holt said.

He added that local builders may want to recruit this squad to provide education on documentation it should require of job applicants.

Longtime local builder Jim Bland said people in this country illegally “are working around us every day.”

“We need to start picking them up and levying fines on those hiring them,” Bland said, adding: “Most are good people just trying to make a living. They just need to be here the correct way.”

Bill Johnson, owner of Johnson Roofing, employs about 200 people in his roofing business. Like most roofing companies, he said, a high percentage of his employees are Hispanic. He said he doesn’t know exactly what this new enforcement team will be doing but added he already takes steps to ensure his workers are here legally.

Johnson said he’s taking part in a program that will let him employ 20 workers from Mexico for 10 months beginning in September. He said it has become a challenge to find people who want to do roofing work.

Electronic verification

Several employers contacted by the Tribune-Herald said they use the E-Verify service to check on the status of job applicants. It is an Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for chicken processor Pilgrim’s Pride, said the company relies on the ICE Best Hiring Practices program to comply with laws on hiring foreign workers.

“These practices include participating in E-Verify, prompt attention to Social Security No-Match letters, and retention of outside experts in immigration compliance,” Atkinson said.

Sanderson Farms, a Mississippi-based company with a new chicken-processing plant in Waco, has been using E-Verify but is testing a new program called Choice Point at plants in Georgia and Mississippi and soon will have it in Waco, chief financial officer Mike Cockrell said.

Once an applicant provides his or her name and Social Security number, the Choice Point system poses questions the applicant should be able to answer, Cockrell said.

Ray Heck, who manages the Clayton Homes plant at 6800 Imperial Drive, said, “We always anticipate some sort of inspection from whatever agency might be involved along those (immigration) lines.”

For that reason, he said, “we do a pretty thorough background check on all our applicants, and we welcome anybody to come on by.”

The status of undocumented workers is an issue that generates mixed responses, but there’s no denying their economic impact.

Waco-based economist Ray Perryman prepared a report that says if the 8.1 million undocumented immigrants who cut lawns, roof houses and do other jobs disappeared overnight, the nation’s economy would lose nearly $1.8 trillion in annual spending.

Texas, the second-hardest-hit state after California, would lose 1.2 million undocumented workers and $220 billion in expenditures.

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

757-5736

Immigration fugitive team to work from Waco

© 2008 The Associated Press

WACO, Texas — Immigration authorities plan to station a team of agents in Waco to pursue fugitives in Central Texas, officials said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is creating the team to track down people wanted by immigration authorities and immigrants with criminal records, said Nina Pruneda, an ICE spokeswoman in San Antonio.

"There happens to be a significant number of these fugitives in Waco and the surrounding areas," Pruneda said.

ICE had 75 fugitive apprehension teams deployed around the country by the end of fiscal year 2007 and proposed adding six more in fiscal year 2008.

Agents on the fugitive operations teams focus on finding people who haven't appeared for immigration hearings, or who stayed in the country after being ordered to leave by an immigration judge. Teams also prioritize cases, looking for those who have criminal records or are considered a threat to national security, ICE officials said.

___

Information from: Waco Tribune-Herald, http://www.wacotrib.com

Local construction, roofing businesses eyeing feds' immigration team cautiously

Saturday, June 28, 2008

By Mike Copeland

Tribune-Herald business editor

A fugitive enforcement team that will track down undocumented workers who miss court dates will call Waco home beginning in mid-August — and local employers are wondering if this seven-member squad will come knocking on their doors.

“I think anybody who uses immigrant labor from any country is going to be a little nervous with an enforcement office nearby,” said K. Paul Holt, president of the Waco office of Associated General Contractors.

Word of the fugitive squad is getting around, he said. And though contractors generally do a good job of complying with immigration rules, he said, there’s often uneasiness when someone involved in enforcement comes on the premises.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office, or ICE, reportedly will station a new enforcement team in downtown Waco.

ICE was created in March 2003 to serve as the largest investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security. It combines the law enforcement arms of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and the former U.S. Customs Service.

Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for ICE in San Antonio, confirmed the agency is creating a Waco-based team that will pursue fugitives in several Central Texas counties. They’ll target undocumented workers who served time for crimes but didn’t show up for scheduled court appearances to be sent back to their home countries, Pruneda said.

“There happens to be a significant number of these fugitives in Waco and the surrounding areas,” she said.

This team will not target individuals simply in this country illegally, Pruneda said, but it may show up at businesses in pursuit of fugitives.

Holt said local members of the AGC should have no problems with the enforcement team if they’re obeying the law.

“Anybody who doesn’t try to ensure that employees have proper documentation is asking for trouble,” Holt said.

He added that local builders may want to recruit this squad to provide education on documentation it should require of job applicants.

Longtime local builder Jim Bland said people in this country illegally “are working around us every day.”

“We need to start picking them up and levying fines on those hiring them,” Bland said, adding: “Most are good people just trying to make a living. They just need to be here the correct way.”

Bill Johnson, owner of Johnson Roofing, employs about 200 people in his roofing business. Like most roofing companies, he said, a high percentage of his employees are Hispanic. He said he doesn’t know exactly what this new enforcement team will be doing but added he already takes steps to ensure his workers are here legally.

Johnson said he’s taking part in a program that will let him employ 20 workers from Mexico for 10 months beginning in September. He said it has become a challenge to find people who want to do roofing work.

Electronic verification

Several employers contacted by the Tribune-Herald said they use the E-Verify service to check on the status of job applicants. It is an Internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.

Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for chicken processor Pilgrim’s Pride, said the company relies on the ICE Best Hiring Practices program to comply with laws on hiring foreign workers.

“These practices include participating in E-Verify, prompt attention to Social Security No-Match letters, and retention of outside experts in immigration compliance,” Atkinson said.

Sanderson Farms, a Mississippi-based company with a new chicken-processing plant in Waco, has been using E-Verify but is testing a new program called Choice Point at plants in Georgia and Mississippi and soon will have it in Waco, chief financial officer Mike Cockrell said.

Once an applicant provides his or her name and Social Security number, the Choice Point system poses questions the applicant should be able to answer, Cockrell said.

Ray Heck, who manages the Clayton Homes plant at 6800 Imperial Drive, said, “We always anticipate some sort of inspection from whatever agency might be involved along those (immigration) lines.”

For that reason, he said, “we do a pretty thorough background check on all our applicants, and we welcome anybody to come on by.”

The status of undocumented workers is an issue that generates mixed responses, but there’s no denying their economic impact.

Waco-based economist Ray Perryman prepared a report that says if the 8.1 million undocumented immigrants who cut lawns, roof houses and do other jobs disappeared overnight, the nation’s economy would lose nearly $1.8 trillion in annual spending.

Texas, the second-hardest-hit state after California, would lose 1.2 million undocumented workers and $220 billion in expenditures.

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

757-5736

Burmese refugees fill meatpacking jobs

June 14, 2008, 12:01AM
Burmese refugees fill meatpacking jobs

By BETSY BLANEY Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press

CACTUS, Texas — Foreign-born workers have been the mainstay at a meatpacking plant in this small Panhandle town for decades.

When the plant opened in 1974, Vietnamese and Laotians filled many of the jobs. Then came workers from Mexico and Guatemala, many of them in the U.S. illegally.

Most left or were arrested after a 2006 immigration raid that took nearly 300 workers from the Swift & Co. plant.

Now a new group of foreign-born workers are employed at the plant, where starting pay begins at $12 an hour.

Since January about 450 Burmese refugees have arrived from places like Houston, Florida, New York and Indianapolis, lured by lower living costs, safe neighborhoods and jobs. More are on the way.

"They found a legal way to get a low-end work force," Moore County Judge Rowdy Rhoades said of the plant, which employs about 3000 workers and now operates as JBS Swift & Co. "These people take pride in their jobs."

A similar-sized group of Somalis answered Swift's ads last year.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids targeted six Swift plants across the U.S. in December 2006 hit Cactus' economy hard. Just a few months later a tornado leveled about half of the town's homes.

Officials at Greeley, Colo.-based JBS Swift said the company feels fortunate to provide the refugees good jobs.

"Our refugee employees are a vital part of our work force, helping us recover from the ICE raids when we were struggling to keep operations running," Jack Shandley, a company spokesman said in an e-mail. "The refugees are legally living and working in the United States."

The adjustment hasn't been easy, for either Moore County residents or the Burmese, whose war-torn Myanmar homeland was hit by a catastrophic cyclone killing thousands in May.

Many who fled settled near the Thai border before gaining refugee status, said Lori Bigham, a supervisor at Catholic Family Service in Amarillo, about 60 miles from Cactus and already home to a Burmese population.

The newest Burmese immigrants live in Cactus and Dumas, about 15 miles south of the plant.

Only a few speak English, and the language barrier has resulted in some confusion over how to obtain driver licenses or otherwise ease into their new lives.

At Moore County Hospital, translators provided by Bigham's agency have helped, as has a telephonic interpreter service, said chief executive officer Jeff Turner.

The staff also has received training in cultural issues; some of the Burmese are Muslim.

"We have found that those issues have not prevented us from giving care," he said.

The Dumas school district hired two Burmese who speak English to help the 107 Burmese students — one of them a 20-year-old woman — who have enrolled in local schools. Swift officials have told the district that more will enroll in the fall, district superintendent Larry Appel said.

The district also purchased software and will conduct an intensive summer program to help students learn English. Appel said many Burmese are learning Spanish as well.

"It's a great tribute to their desire to learn," he said. "They've not been a problem to us. A challenge, yes. A problem no."

There have been differences, though.

"For the most part they've not been accustomed to attending school for a full school day," he said. "It's more an adjustment. It's certainly not a behavioral issue."

There has been both joy and heartache since the Burmese arrived. In mid-May, a man, 41, and a woman, 23, were killed when the van in which they were riding with eight other Burmese rolled several times on U.S. 87 just south of Dumas.

Most were ejected and the language barrier impeded rescue efforts, Moore County Attorney Scott Higginbotham said.

"We can't get past, 'who are you and are you hurt,'" he said. "I'm grateful they're here because we're a nation of immigrants. The problem I have ... is we are ill-equipped to take care of these people."

The two communities are coming together to help. Elected officials from Dumas, Cactus and Moore County, and others from churches and social services agencies meet regularly.

Stan Corbin, international mission pastor at First Baptist Church in Dumas, said he's proud of his town and his county for stepping up to help the group.

"They're anxious to be independent but they're not there yet," he said. "Right now they're dependent on citizens to help them."

Bigham, the Catholic Family Service supervisor, said the number of Burmese moving here from other U.S. cities is greater than many expected.

"It usually doesn't happen with such large number in a short amount of time," she said.

But complaints are few in Cactus. The Burmese walk many places and because men wear dress-like garb, heads turn, Cactus City Manager Steve Schmidt-Witcher said.

"It's rather unusual to see a man walking with a skirt," he said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/5837392.html

Woman Stabbed In Face, Eyes, Survives

Woman Stabbed In Face, Eyes, Survives
By Daniella Guzman

POSTED: 7:43 am CDT June 11, 2008
UPDATED: 10:21 am CDT June 11, 2008

HOUSTON -- A Houston-area woman was stabbed more than 10 times in the face and eyes after her ex-boyfriend attacked her, officials told KPRC Local 2.

The stabbing left her blind in one eye. She will completely lose her right eye after she said her ex dug his fingers into it and tried to dig it out.

The victim, Yufan Zhang, 42, said she was visiting a friend on June 1 and in the middle of the afternoon, Shun Ping Lin attacked her from behind.

Police said they are looking for Lin, who is from China and an illegal immigrant. In the past, he has worked as a chef at several local restaurants.

Zhang said she tried to fight back, but she said he would not stop.

"I begged for my life but he wouldn't stop. He kept slashing me all over my body, my face and my eyes," said Zhang.

Investigators said this kind of attack is unusual in the local Chinese community.

"This is too much hate for the Chinese culture. He slashed her face, which is worse than killing her and he took her eyes, so she wouldn't be able to see another man again," said Sgt. L.W. Liu with the Houston Police Department.

Zhang is now safe with family, but she said she will not feel safe until Lin is caught. She said she has nightmares every night.

"I'm always so scared because I feel like he's at my window looking at me. I'm scared he'll try to kill me again," said Zhang.

Police believe Lin is still in the Houston area or could be hiding with family in Florida or in New York.

If you have any information on Shun Lin's whereabouts, call Houston Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

Copyright 2008 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/16569703/detail.html

Sting nets 84 illegal immigrants

Sting nets 84 illegal immigrants
Arrests for ignoring deportation orders or skipping hearings were in Austin, San Antonio and Rio Grande Valley.
By Juan Castillo

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Saturday, May 24, 2008

Federal officials on Friday announced the arrests of 84 people on immigration violations, including 56 who had failed to appear for hearings or had ignored a judge's final deportation orders.

The arrests in Austin, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley were part of a four-day operation that began Sunday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

Those arrested are from El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua, Kenya, Guatemala and Honduras. They were arrested by fugitive operations teams based in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. The agency said it created its fugitive operations program in 2003 to eliminate a backlog of fugitives and ensure that deportation orders are enforced.

"If you ignore a federal immigration judge's deportation order, ICE will find you, arrest you and return you to your home country," said Marc Moore, field office director of the agency's office of detention and removal operations in San Antonio. Moore oversees an area that includes Austin, San Antonio, Waco, Harlingen, Brownsville and Laredo.

About half of the arrests were in Austin. Among those arrested was Maximo Flores-Avila, 57, a Mexican citizen who was living and working in Austin. The agency said Flores-Avila has a criminal history that includes assault with bodily injury, unlawfully carrying a weapon and forgery. He was ordered deported in 2006 after an immigration appeals board reaffirmed a federal judge's 2005 deportation order, the agency said.

Twenty-eight of those arrested were immigration violators the teams encountered during the operation.

jcastillo@statesman.com; 445-3635

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/05/24/0524icearrests.html

Federal agents sweep Athens businesses

April 30, 2008 09:47 am

Federal agents sweep Athens businesses

Homeland Security ICE team in town to hunt for fugitives with help of local police department

By Rich Flowers

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents searched at least two Athens businesses Tuesday as part of a nationwide effort to locate and remove fugitive aliens.

ICE Public Information Officer Carl Rusnok, from the regional office in Dallas, confirmed the searches were part of an ongoing operation, but would not give details about the size or area covered by the fugitive roundup. ICE operates under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security under the Auspices of Detention and Removal.

Shortly before noon, ICE agents, aided by local law enforcement officers, entered Donut Supreme at 707 W. Corsicana St. and Dallas Manufacturing at 300 Athens Brick Road. Witnesses said officers converged on the Donut shop in a large white van, a black SUV and a vehicle that appeared to be a police car. Agents entered the business and stayed inside for several minutes. Later, the owner and his family got into a personal vehicle and left the business. There did not appear to be any arrests made at the scene, witnesses said.

Rusnok would not comment on whether any arrests were made in Athens Tuesday.

“All I can say is we’re specifically targeting fugitive aliens. These are aliens who have received final orders of deportation from a federal immigration judge,” Rusnok said.

“The agents are seeking individuals in a specific geographic area,” Rusnok said. “This is what our Fugitive Operations Teams do.”

Athens Police Chief Buddy Hill said his department was notified of the presence of federal agents in town Tuesday morning. His officers were asked to assist at several locations.

ICE established the first Fugitive Operations Teams in 2003. By the end of 2007, there were 75 teams deployed in various locations around the United States. The agents in Athens are from the Dallas office, which was set up last year.

According to DHS figures, there are more than 450,000 absconders and the number is growing by more than 40,000 each year. The DHS goal is to eliminate the fugitive population within 10 years.

Arrests of illegal immigrants double in Dallas-Fort Worth

08:58 AM CST on Wednesday, December 5, 2007

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News

New fugitive operations teams more than doubled their arrests of illegal immigrants in North Texas during the past fiscal year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Tuesday.

ICE officials said the teams made 1,635 arrests in the 2007 fiscal year, up from 606 arrests in the previous year.

But only 699 of those arrested – fewer than half – were people classified by ICE as "fugitives" – foreign-born people in the U.S. unlawfully who have failed to appear for immigration hearings or who fail to leave the country after having been ordered to do so by a federal immigration judge. The rest were illegal immigrants captured at locations visited by ICE. Arrested immigrants with criminal convictions numbered 168, according to ICE.

Tina Tucker, deputy field operations director for detentions and removal, attributed the increase in arrests to an increase in the teams. There are now 75 such teams in the nation, up from 50 a year ago. Three teams, up from one a year ago, are located in the Dallas regional office of ICE.

A year ago, an inspector general's report for the Homeland Security Department found that there were about 624,000 illegal immigrants classified as fugitives in the U.S. Since then, the backlog has been whittled to fewer than 595,000, ICE officials said Tuesday.

"This is the first year that we have actually shown a reduction in fugitives," Ms. Tucker said.

Teen says fugitive admitted killing UNT student

Teen says fugitive admitted killing UNT student
By TRACI SHURLEY
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Fri, Sep. 28, 2007

The Goodwin Family

Handout photo of 2006 Bowie High School graduate Melanie Goodwin, a 19-year-old whose body was found in Carrollton on Tuesday.

The Carrollton teenager arrested Thursday as part of the investigation into the killing of a 19-year-old Arlington girl this week is accused of providing the money and a gasoline can that was used in an attempt to cover up the crime, according to an arrest warrant affidavit released Friday afternoon.

Donovan R. Young, 19, was being held on suspicion of tampering with evidence.

Police are seeking 20-year-old Ernesto Pina Reyes of Denton in connection with the death of Melanie Goodwin, a Bowie High School graduate who was a sophomore at the University of North Texas in Denton.

"We're hopeful he is close. We are hopeful he...wants to come in or at least somehow make contact with us, either directly or through a family member or a friend, and come talk to us and give us his side," said Sgt. John Singleton of the Carrollton police department. Police are asking the public to call a tip line, 972-466-4775, with information about the case.

Authorities found Goodwin's body in Carrollton early Tuesday. The Dallas County medical examiner's office said she died of multiple blunt-force injuries. Her body had been burned.

Young told detectives Thursday night that Reyes showed up at his apartment Tuesday between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. asking for help, according to the affidavit.

Reyes told Young that, "he killed someone, didn't mean to and needed to get rid of her body," the affidavit states.

Young told police he then saw a dead woman in the back of a red 2002 Saturn Reyes was driving. He then told police that he gave Reyes gas money and a gas can to put it in, the affidavit states.

Reyes then told Young that he would have to go back to Young's apartment after he finished because he had nowhere to go.

After leaving, Reyes returned to Young's apartment one to three hours later. He explained to Young that he had burned the woman's body, the affidavit states.

Both men went to sleep before taking Goodwin's car to the 2100 block of Marsh Lane in Carrolton "to blow it up," the affidavit states.

The car was found later in a different location along Dallas Drive in Denton.

Young and Reyes live less than a quarter mile from each other in Denton, according to addresses listed in their court records.

Young has been charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession twice, according to Denton County court records. He received deferred adjudications, meaning a conviction was not to appear on his record as long as he completed terms of the probation.

On Friday, an assistant district attorney filed a motion asking that Young's probation be revoked and that a judge enter findings of guilty against him in the marijuana cases. One of those motions says Reeves didn't do community service and had a urine test that was positive for marijuana on Sept. 4.

Police said it appears Reyes did not know Goodwin. According to an arrest warrant affidavit released Thursday, a clerk at a Denton QuikTrip saw Reyes asking a woman matching Goodwin's description for a ride about 1:40 a.m. Tuesday.

A little over two hours later, the surveillance video, from a Carrollton business near the site where the burned body was found, captured Reyes driving up in Goodwin's car, according to the affidavit.

Carrollton police Sgt. John Singleton said Thursday afternoon that detectives are working with other law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. marshal's office, to find Reyes. They released a driver's license photo of him and asked anyone with information on his whereabouts to contact local police.

According to the affidavit, police traced calls that Reyes made from a telephone at the convenience store to an acquaintance who identified him as the man seen with Goodwin. That person also told police that Reyes had singed hair and burns on his forearms.

Criminal history

According to court records, Reyes was indicted on a charge of burglary of a building in February 2006 in Denton County. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, three years' probation and given deferred adjudication, meaning the conviction does not appear on his record as long as he completed terms of the probation.

Then, in early February, Reyes was arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge and was later released. A Denton County assistant district attorney filed a motion April 12 to revoke his probation and enter a guilty finding on the burglary.

That document says Reyes failed to fulfill the terms of his probation by not completing a drug education program ordered by the court, by failing to attend weekly counseling, by not completing four hours of community service weekly and by possessing marijuana. He was back in the Denton County Jail in late April.

While being held there, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a hold on Reyes, who was born in Mexico but has U.S. permanent resident status, according to officials and police records. The agency took custody of him June 20, jail officials said.

Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a prepared statement Thursday that the agency eventually released Reyes because his crime was not a deportable offense for legal residents.

Reyes returned to Denton County court Aug. 2 and was sentenced to 180 days in jail on the burglary charge. He was released Aug. 26, according to jail records.

Prayers for family

On Wednesday night, more than 400 people gathered at an Arlington church to pray for Goodwin's family and remember her. She was a graduate of Arlington's Bowie High School and was active in Theatre Arlington.

Patti Diou, former director of Theatre Arlington, met Goodwin about 10 years ago. Over the years, Goodwin was a constant figure for the group, helping with theater camp, setting up children's productions and working the box office.

Staff writers Eva-Marie Ayala, Mitch Mitchell and Domingo Ramirez Jr. contributed to this report.

Suspect at large

Carrollton police issued an arrest warrant late Wednesday for Ernesto Pina Reyes, 20, of Denton. He is wanted on suspicion of murder in the death of Melanie Goodwin, 19, of Arlington, police said in a news release.

Description: Six feet tall, 245 pounds, black hair and brown eyes. Last seen wearing a white striped shirt, short pants and white tennis shoes, according to police.

Seen with a woman matching Goodwin's description about 1:40 a.m. Tuesday at a Denton QuikTrip in the 3700 block of south Interstate 35E, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Left the QuikTrip with Goodwin in a red 2002, two-door Saturn with Texas license plates Z57-WBT, police have said. The car was found Wednesday near Dallas Drive in Denton, police said.

Captured on surveillance camera about 4 a.m. in the 3200 block of Keller Springs Road in Carrollton, according to the affidavit.

Have a tip? Anyone with information is asked to contact the Carrollton Police Department at 972-466-4775.

Traci Shurley, 817-548-5494
tshurley@star-telegram.com