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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 2014)
3 Street roots Feb. 28, 2014 S k i ICE case reveals complexities in local policies BY NATHAN GILLES ST A FF W R IT É R he knocks came early. At around 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 23, Daniel Hernandez Garcia and his girlfriend of five years, Josefina Aguiniga, answered the door of their Southeast | Portland home to find two officers. “They told me they were police officers and they were knocking on doors in the neighborhood to make sure everything was okay,” says Aguiniga. Thinking nothing of it, Aguiniga left Hernandez with the officers and went bo check on her and Hernandez’s two young daughters in the back bedrooms. Moments later, she heard her boyfriend yelling, “Josie, Josie, they’re taking me.” Aguiniga raced bo the front door. There an officer handed her Above, Daniel Hernandez Garcia with his a card with the words “U.S, Immigration children during happier times. A t right, his and Customs Enforcement” on it. wife, Josefina, outside the office o f Hernandez, an immigrant from central Immigration and Customs Enforcement Mexico, is now being held at ICE’s after Daniel was placed in the Tacoma, Wash., detention facility awaiting possible detention facility in Tacoma, Wash., awaiting deportation. possible deportation for violating U.S. immigration law. Aguiniga, a legal resident, has been petitioning for his release. to honor the holds at all, as the city of New Hernandez’s case is the latest in a series Orleans has opted to do. However, this in Multnomah County that immigrant rights activists hope to point to as proof that ICE’s freedom from ICE doesn’t extend to opting out of a critical information-sharing policies aren’t working. But Hernandez’s program. detention by ICE also reveals a hole in the The program is called*Secure advocates’ strategy. Communities, and it’s closely tied to ICE’s In Portland, the Activists Coming Together for Justice and Dignity Network, or detainee program. Secure Communities requires local law enforcement to share ACT Network — a coalition that includes information they, gather on arrestees with Oregon DreamActivist, the Center for ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, Intercultural Organizing, and Jobs With andthe FBI. Justice, among others — has been keeping a In August 2011, following several watchful eye on ICE’s activities. To date, the municipalities’ and states’ attempts bo opt- coalition’s goal has been to persuade Multnomah County Sheriff Daniel’ Bbatofi to | out of Secure Com munities, the Obama Adm inistration m ade it clear th at stop 'T247’TiiiiftigiSi©6iif'■ •' .participatiQnixiJdieprQgram .wasn’t a i i , “detainers,” commonly called ICE holds. option; local law The holds work enforcement had to like this: If you’re not participate. a U.S, citizen or legal people who are Attempts to drop resident, and you’re Secure Communities victims ©f domestic violence arrested and charged followed multiple ; with a crime, ICE can often thin k If they c a ll the reports that ICE was ' request'local law p o lice they m ig h t get deporting people after enforcers detain you deported, o r the fa th e r of local law enforcers an additional 48 arrested them for - , their children who helps hours, long enough minor infractions such for ICE to come get | p u t food- on the ta b le and as traffic violations. you. | helps pay the re s t — w ill get Similar cases were In April 2013, deported, We u ltim a te ly feel reported in Portland. following a Multnomah nonbinding resolution th a t the cnrrent from Multnomah c o lla b o ra tio n between p o lic e ' County’s continued participation in Secure County ; and ICE Is d o in g an injnstlce Communities was the commissioners I© v ic tim s ©I dom estic reason Hernandez was recommending later picked upby. v io le n c e /' reforms to Staton’s ICE. — nicoue brown ICE policy, the sheriff CCIsITCR FOB IMTCRC! J L T U R A - C R C A N IZ IIs IG Hernandez’s initial crafted new rules charge was a felony; stating under which This charge was later circumstances his jail dropped to a would honor ICE | misdemeanor at arraignment. While he was holds. in custody, ICE called in a hold on The new policy, which continues to honor Hernandez. The Multnomah County Jail ICE holds under certain circumstances, honored the hold, but following pressure wasn’t what activists wanted, but it was a from Aguiniga, Hernandez’s friends and the step forward. Since last spring, the ACT ACT Network, the sheriff’s department Network has closely monitored how the admitted it had held Hernandez m violation sheriff has implemented his policy. of its own policy and released him. But while ACT Network members have “Basically there was an error in the *kept an eye on Staton,- as Hernandez’s case illustrates, not getting an ICE hold or having charge or an error in the hold, so they took it off as soon as somebody said this one one removed doesn’t mean ICE won’t come doesn’t qualify,” says Sheriff’s Department for you. spokesman Lt. Steve Alexander. “Whether or not the sheriff’s department Sheriff Staton’s current policy states it honors an ICE hold is one thing, but they do will honor ICE holds only if ICE has a have to share that information with ICE. warrant or an arrestee as been chargedwith And unfortunately I don’t think there’s a serious crime. Qualifying crimes are anything [Sheriff Steton’s] policy can do typically felonies. But they also include about that,” says Nicole Brown from the lower, Class A misdemeanor , chargés that Center for Intercultural Organizing. are person-tò-person crimes. These include Local governments have a good deal of resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of legal discretion in how and when they honor a minor and driving while intoxicated. ICE holds. This varies from honoring Staton’s policy largely excludes lower B’ , requests only for certain crimes, as we do and C misdemeanor charges, but makes here in Multnomah County, to choosing not ■ exceptions for person-to-person crimes especially when violence. A s S tre e t R o o ts firs t re p o rte d in o p r O ct. deported for the charge, Aguiniga asked the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office to drop the charges. The DA refused, but did agree to lower Hernandez’s charge to misdemeanor harassment. On Jan. 9, Hernandez entered a guilty plea of one count of harassment. He was allowed to return home. As a condition of , his release he was ordered to take.classes related to domestic violence and anger management and meet regularly with a case manager. Following the court order, his record would have been expunged of the charge at year’s end. ICE arrested him two weeks later. He didn’t make it to his first class. ' Luna, who has done the lion’s share of organizing and advocating for Hernandez, says her group realizes , a case involving domestic violence isn’t going to win a lot of sympathy. . “I myself, I identify as a feminist,” says Luna. “And it was really hard, to be hpnest, [to advocate for Hernandez] because of my personal beliefs and experiences. .But I don’t . believe a family should be torn apart because of domestic violence, because we don’t know what will happen if Daniel (Hernandez) gets deported.” The CIO’s Nicole Brown says Hernandez’s case, illustrates a larger problem with ICE’s policy. “Many people who are victims of domestic violence often think if they call the police they-might get deported; or the father of theiir children — who helps put food on, the table and helps pay the rent — will get deported,” says Brown. “We ultimately feel that the current collaboration between police and ICE is doing an injustice to v ic tim s o f d o m e s tic v io le n c e .” ' L u n a calls Á güm igá’s d ecisio n to p h o n e th e p o lice “b rav e.” S h e says A guiniga h as 11 edition, Sheriff Staton made these ? faced criticism in the community by changes in fall-2013, following the arrest of a "advocating for Hernandez and visiting him at 19-year-old immigrant who violated a 1 the detention center in Tacoma. restraining order by contacting an Aguiniga says the situation has been ex-girlfriend. The violation earned the young stressful, especially for her kids. She says . man a B misdemeanor charge. Noting the Daniella now refuses to be held or fed by connection to domestic violence, the anybody but her mother. Denise is also sheriff’s department chose to honor the ICE taking it hard. She vomited for days after request when it dame in. ICE took her father. The one-year-old “The sheriff’s office realized in reviewing witnessed the event through her bedroom 1 its policy and moving forward, the violation window. . . . of a restraining order is an inherently I “She wakes up in the middle of the night person-affected violation,” Chief Deputy crying, calling for.her daddy,” says Aguiniga. Drew Brosh told Street Roots in the fall. Hernandez’s bond hearing is set for . Despite protests from the ACT Network March 5. His immigration lawyer is Sandy and the detainee’s family members, the Restrepo, from the nonprofit Colectiva Legal sheriff didn’t budge. Brosh says the policy del Pueblo. She says she’s working for hasn’t changed since then. Hernandez’s release either on the grounds “When you get down to the nuts and bolts that he has family in the US or on asylum. of a policy you find things, and we found Aguiniga says Hernandez is afraid of that restraining order violations were not being deported back to Mexico because of identified on the list of misdemeanors,” says the violence there. Brosh. “We included that because of the “ICE might think he’s á high priority,1 but connection to domestic violence [we would he’s really not,” says Restrepo. “He’s a honor holds connected to these charges]? Hernandez’s case also brings up the issue husband and father and this is his first offense. And there is no reason he should of domestic violence. be detained in my opinion,” On the night of December 8, 2013, ICE spokesman for the Tacoma field Hernandez and Aguiniga had gotten into an office Andrew Muñoz said due to privacy argument, according to court and police concerns his agency eouldn’t comment on documents. The argument started at a friend’s house where the two verbally fought Hernandez’s ease. He also declined Street Roots’ request for an interview with Tacoma over who was going to change their seven- Field Office Director Nathalie Asher, Asher month-old daughter Daniella’s diaper and >• clean up after their other daughter, one-year- sent this response via email: . “‘While aliens may be placed, in removal old Denise, who had gotten sick and proceedings by ICE, it is immigration judges vomited. When they got home, Hernandez, according to his arrest report, told Aguiniga, from the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review who decide “Don’t ever talk to me like that in front of whether or not an alien will be ordered other people.” Hernandez then slapped removed from the U.S.”' ' Aguiniga. She called the police. On Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, Hernandez “Immediately, I knew that was bad idea,” and Aguiniga received their marriage says Aguiniga. Aguiniga spoke with Street Roots with the license. Aguiniga says they plan on having a formal wedding ceremony when Hernandez aid of Liliana Luna from Oregon is released. On ICE’s detention program she DreamActivist. says, “We need a policy to protect, those that Portland police arrested Hernandez on a aren’t really criminals, to protect them from domestic violence charge of felony assault. deportation.” Fearing that her boyfriend would get
