Florida: Illegal Immigration

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* INS - Investigations - Florida (Center): *
*          Tampa Bay (813) 288-1226        *
*  INS - Investigations - Florida (East):  *
*           Orlando (407) 855-4418         *
*  INS - Investigations - Florida (South): *
*           Miami (305) 762-3610           *
* See below for South-Center and Northeast *
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The INS Investigations offices in West Palm Beach (South-Center) and in Jacksonville (Northeast) accept only mail notifications regarding illegal alien activities. The addressess are:

The state of Florida plans to refer welfare clients to jobs once held by deported immigrants. Starting in the spring of 1997, federal immigration officers will notify the Florida employment service about job positions opened by the deportation of undocumented immigrants. The employment service will send the employers names of welfare or unemployment clients to fill the vacant jobs. A similar arrangement was made in Virginia in October 1996.
(Source: Rural Migration News, January 1997)

An INS raid on December 9 in Sarasota in Southwest Florida led to the arrest of 52 illegal aliens working for the National Linen Service. All were Mexicans, and 38 were women. Because many employment opportunities are available and because unemployment is at a 25-year low, illegal aliens are being attracted to the area. The Tampa office, that was responsible for the raid, is new -- opening in 1996. It has jurisdiction for ten counties, including Manatee, Sarasota, Hillsborough and Pinellas, with only six agents.
(Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 12, 1997)

An indictment was handed down in Miami on April 23 against 16 members of a family-run prostitution ring based in Mexico and operating in northern Florida and South Carolina. Young Mexican females, some as young as 14-years-old, were lured into "sex slavery" by the promise of job opportunities in the United States. After they were smuggled into the country, crossing at Brownsville, Texas, they were forced to work as prostitutes, primarily as clients of Mexican farm laborers working illegally in the United States.
(Washington Times, April 25, 1998)

According to Rick Grennier, head of Orlando's Border Patrol office, illegal aliens now are found more often on construction sites than in agriculture. Recently, a series of raids in the Orlando area netted more than 150 illegal alien workers, although many escaped detention by jumping fences. Union sources say, some contractors are knowingly hiring illegal alien workers and paying them submarket wages.
(Orlando Sentinel, May 4, 1998)

With good summer weather has come a surge in smuggling operations to Florida from Caribbean islands. In addition to an increased flow of Cuban illegal immigrants, the number of Haitian illegal entrants has also risen. In Palm Beach County there were three landings of illegal Haitians in June and three in May. In Dade County there were two landings in May. The INS characterizes these operations as "cartel-level organization." In the most recent incident, eight Haitians were detained at Pompano Beach after being transported from Freeport, Bahamas in a 20-foot motorboat. They said they had paid $2,500 each for the trip.
(South Florida Sun Sentinel, June 29, 1998)

Coast Guard and Border Patrol officials say illegal immigration to Florida from the Caribbean has increased this year, with organized smugling rings behind many attempts. On November 12 the Coast Guard announced the interception of 56 illegal aliens, mostly Haitians, the previous night in two operations, one about 9 miles off Lake Worth and the other in international waters southwest of the Bahamas.
(Reuters, November 12, 1998)

Miami police investigating a hotel robbery called the Border Patrol when they found a group of about two dozen suspected illegal aliens. The group included 20 Indians , four Ecuadorians and a Bahamian who was being sought as part of the "Operation Seek and Keep" arrests in November termed by Atty. Gen. Reno the "largest alien smuggling case ever." The smuggling operation specialized in Indian illegal aliens and moved them from India via Moscow, Havana, and the Bahamas or Ecuador.
Additional information on Operation Seek and Keep is available at "...Largest Alien Smuggling Organization Ever..."
(INS Press Release December 4, 1998)

"Immigration officials are questioning a group of Cuban rafters who came ashore Monday morning. Seven men and a woman left Cuba on Friday in their search for freedom." (MSNBC December 9, 1998)

Four aliens who had been earlier deported for various offenses are again in prison in Jacksonville. All four had reentered the United States illegally following their deportations. One, a Colombian, was identified by the INS at the Luke Butler Correctional Institution where he was imprisoned for a variety of weapons charges. He had been deported in 1997 for a 1994 drug conviction. A second alien, a Dominican, was apprehended by the INS at the Blount Island Ship Terminal in Jacksonville in June. He had been deported from New York City also following a drug conviction. A Jamaican who had also been deported from New York City in 1998 was taken into custody by the INS as a result of a disturbance call. Lastly, a Mexican woman who had been deported in 1998 from Laredo, Texas was identified by the INS in the Duval County Jail.
(AP/Tampa Bay Online November 24, 1999)

FAIR, 11/99.