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10 Monday, March 21, 2016 The San Juan Daily <strong>Star</strong> US Gov’t Cites PR for Violations at 3 Airports The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says it is considering a $917,000 civil penalty against Puerto Rico for violations at three of its airports. The agency said Friday that the government was not maintaining aircraft rescue and firefighting capabilities. Officials said most of the violations occurred at the Rafael Hernández Airport in Aguadilla, which is Puerto Rico’s second largest international airport. Among the complaints there was that the runway had a larger than permitted hole and that one of its aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicles was not functioning properly. Mercedita Airport in Ponce was cited for conducting self-inspections at inappropriate times. Meanwhile, Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport in Vieques was cited for its vehicles not having two-way radio communications with its fire station. Puerto Rico’s Ports Authority has 30 days to respond. Feds Apprehend 11 Undocumented Cubans on Mona Island CARPET WE ARE YOUR INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANING SOLUTION RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL • INDUSTRIES We Steam Clean.. • 2 Matresses - Any Size! lncluded dust mite anti allergent for only $139.00 regular price $189.00 save $50.00 .............................................................. • 1 sofá 1 love seat for $139.00 regular price $189.00 save $50.00 (dry time 45 minute) Metro Area Only Special until March 31, 2016 Dust Mites is one of ASTHMA sufferers worst enemies!! CARPET Sale Commercial/ Residential 10% Off Discount - Only in Cleaning Services For More Information Call Us (787)765-1584 • (787) 717-0897 • (787) 748-8169 By The STAR Staff U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents apprehended 11 undocumented Cuban immigrants after landing on Mona Island late last week, federal officials announced in a written statement. “We issue a concerned warning on the danger of traversing the Mona Passage with the hope of avoiding an unfortunate event during this coming Easter holiday season,” said Ramiro Cerrillo, Ramey Sector chief patrol agent. “Migrants have drowned as smugglers have forced them to swim to the shore.” Park Rangers from the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) contacted the Border Patrol Station, indicating the landing of a group of undocumented immigrants, 10 males and a female, who claimed to be Cuban nationals. The U.S. Coast Guard transported the group to the Mayagüez port, where Border Patrol agents assumed custody for screening and processing. On March 7, a group of 12 Cubans, including a pregnant female, reached Mona Island. During fiscal year 2016, the Ramey Border Patrol Sector has apprehended 143 Cuban migrants. According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), while smuggling by sea accounts only for a small portion of overall migrant smuggling around the world, the particular dangers of irregular travel at sea make it a priority for response due to the reported fact that more deaths occur by sea. The administration of President Barack Obama has no plans to change the current immigration policy toward Cuba or seek legislative changes in relation to the Cuban Adjustment Act. CBP continues to promote safe, legal and orderly migration from Cuba under existing migration accords and deter dangerous and illegal migration from Cuba. CBP maintains a strong position regarding the enforcement of our immigration laws along the country’s borders and coastal areas. After admissibility processing at the Border Patrol Station, Cuban nationals will receive a notice to appear (NTA) before an immigration judge for further proceedings under the Cuban Migration Agreement of 1995 and the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966.
The San Juan Daily <strong>Star</strong> Monday, March 21, 2016 11 Mainland DHS Using Unpopular Raids to Curb Border Crossings The Obama administration is openly stepping up efforts to find and deport immigrants who were part of the 2014 surge of illegal crossings by unaccompanied children and families. The politically fraught endeavor is a follow-through on a nearly 2-year-old warning that those immigrants who don’t win permission to stay in the United States would be sent packing. It comes at a time when Republican presidential candidates are pushing for tougher immigration action. Homeland Security officials have kept a wary eye on the border since more than 68,000 unaccompanied children and roughly as many people traveling as families were caught crossing the border illegally in 2014. The effort to step up enforcement against families and young immigrants started in the midst of a new flood of such immigrants. Previous efforts to curb illegal crossings seemed to work initially, as the number of children and families crossing illegally dropped about 40 percent between 2014 and 2015. But that number started to rise again late last summer. At the same time, the immigration court system faced a backlog of more than 474,000 cases. Now the Obama administration is touting its efforts to find and deport families as well as those unaccompanied children who are now adults who have been ordered home. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has highlighted his department’s deportation efforts. One of those unaccompanied childrenturned-adults targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement is 19-year-old Wildin David Guillen Acosta. He said he came to the United States from Honduras by bus, car and on foot after a gang member threatened to kill him. “I wouldn’t go out at night. He’d call me and say, ‘I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you,’ “ Acosta said in Spanish. “I told my mother and she told me to come to the United States.” Acosta, speaking from an immigration jail in rural Georgia, said he was afraid to go home. “I’m scared. I don’t want to go back. There’s a lot of violence, a lot of death,” Acosta said. “They’ll kill you for a telephone. How is this possible?” His mother, Dilsia Acosta, said her son came to the U.S. in June 2014 at the peak of a wave of immigrant children. His father, Hector Guillen, came to the United States illegally in 2005 and his mother followed in 2013. Wildin Acosta was arrested in January after a judge ruled that he should be deported. Wildin Acosta, who had been going to school and working since arriving in North Carolina, said now he hopes to win asylum. But the odds are against him because he has a pending deportation order. Immigration advocates have rallied around Wildin Acosta and others and are pressing the administration to reverse course. But U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement isn’t backing down. Since October, more than 800 immigrants who arrived as unaccompanied children have been sent home, according to ICE statistics. Other formerly unaccompanied child immigrants with pending deportation orders have been detained in preparation for deportation. ICE’s head of enforcement operations, Tom Homan, told Congress in February that his agents are aggressively pursuing unaccompanied former-child immigrants and families. “We have sent out thousands of leads on (unaccompanied children) who have final orders issued by the immigration courts, some in absentia, some in person, and we are out looking for those leads,” Homan told lawmakers. “I have 129 (fugitive operations) teams out there every day.” About 10,000 unaccompanied children have been ordered out of the country since July 2014, but roughly 87 percent of those orders were issued in absentia, according to Justice Department figures. In early January, DHS started targeting families who had lost their bid to stay in the United States, and ICE announced the arrests of 121 people — more than half of whom have been sent home so far. Johnson said the arrests should come as no surprise since he announced in late 2014 that new border crossers were an enforcement priority. “We do not have, and cannot have, an open border so we have to have enforcement at the border,” Johnson told The Associated Press. “Are enforcement actions against families pleasant? No, of course not. In a very personal way, I recognize that.” Nonetheless, he added, “We have to enforce the law.” The arrests have angered immigration advocates and Democrats who argue it is dangerous to send families and young immigrants back to dangerous and impoverished Central American countries. And the efforts come at a complicated time for Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who are both vying for the Hispanic vote. Clinton and Sanders have both denounced the January arrests of families and promised to be more lenient in enforcing immigration laws than President Barack Obama. Kevin Appleby, director of international migration policy for the Center for Migration Studies, said the administration is “caught in a difficult spot.” “Before they start deporting unaccompanied children wholesale they have to fix ... the legal system so these children have a fair opportunity” to fight to stay in the country, Appleby said. Johnson said it’s a matter of adhering to the agency’s priorities. “We can’t have a policy that if you come here and you do not qualify for asylum or other relief, and you’ve been ordered removed by an immigration court” you can stay anyway, Johnson said.
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