KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) -- At least 30 undocumented immigrants are in federal custody following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at a Kings Mountain business on Wednesday.
"They put us in a little room for a whole hour,” Buckeye Fire employee Eric Pinon said Wednesday. “We were waiting and waiting and that's when they lead us outside. From the picture that I showed you, that's when they were checking all of us. They were asking questions like, are you a U.S. citizen?"
He wasn't expecting to see men in masks and guns wearing ICE badges at his job.
On Wednesday, personnel from the federal Homeland Security and Justice departments worked in tents, conducting on-site interrogations with undocumented immigrants working at the fire extinguisher plant.
"Employment raids aren't absolutely new, but we just hadn't seen them in a while,” said immigration attorney Italia Lima with Charlotte firm Diener Law. “We just haven't seen them in this administration. We didn't see them in the last administration. So now that we're seeing this, we're seeing we're really seeing the effects in the economy.”
ICE statistics show there have been more than 26,000 such arrests this year, with nearly 67,000 immigrants put in detention centers.
"Once ICE detains someone, they usually go to like a holding facility, so or a small jail,” Lima explained. “So in this case, we're seeing at least some of these some of these people that were detained going to Alamance County jail, like a holding cell or holding jail and then eventually to an immigration detention center."
Then they're fingerprinted and booked. Agents then check each person's criminal history to determine where they go: released for a later appearance in immigration court, transferred to another facility or deported.
Italia Lima of Diener Law."What we are seeing now with the trend is that they're not letting anybody go,” Lima said. “I mean, you either need to request bond or you're going to be detained. So that's also something that's somewhat new with the Trump administration.”
Immigration attorneys are encouraging people in the Latino community to be cautious right now.
"ICE activity has increased, and minimizing movement can help protect you. I mean that individual and their families. This is a time to prioritize safety above anything. Right. So, I think that that's kind of a national message now," she said.
Lima encourages the Latino community to designate someone to call an attorney if something happens.
"Yes, you have a right to an attorney. But one is not provided to you with immigration,” she said. “They will always either be from an organization, a pro bono organization or a private firm," she explained. "What we suggest is that if you're detained, don't sign anything. You don't understand or don't sign anything that you're not 100 percent sure. You don't know if you're signing a deportation. You don't know if you're signing a voluntary departure. You don't know if you are signing away your rights. So, if you don't understand, if it's not in a language you understand or you simply just don't understand, don't sign it.”
She urges the community to have their essential documents ready with the person who's been designated to call an attorney.
"You have the right to remain silent. You can answer questions but don't lie to ICE officers. Don't present false information, false document that's only going to aggravate the situation. And it could create bigger problems like immigration fraud, misrepresentation charges. So we don't want any of that," she explained.
Lima says attorneys are working with local organizations to be able to see how assistance can be provided to those in need.
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