Issue of August 26, 2009

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Farm Bureau to Ask for Border Patrol Inquiry

Louise Hoffman Broach | Wayuga Editor
Wednesday, August 26 2009


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Photo by Louise Hoffman Broach | Wayuga Editor

NORTH ROSE – Border patrol officers can’t break the law to enforce it, the Wayne County Farm Bureau is asserting.
Farm Bureau is in the process of gathering information for a formal complaint to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Buffalo, asking for an investigation into the circumstances of the stop of four migrant farm workers on Route 414 in front of Barbara Jean’s Furniture Store Aug. 17.
Also, U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand was made aware of the incident last week and indicated she will write a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napalitano regarding border patrol activity in Wayne County.
Farm Bureau’s complaint alleges that the Border Patrol officers racially profiled the men, pulling them over solely on the basis they were Mexican and had out-of-state license plates. It also alleges the officers decided they were undocumented at the scene, before attempting to authenticate their paperwork or rely on a fingerprint check, which was done later when the men were taken to a federal holding center in Batavia.
Brian Doyle, who employed them and was called to the scene by a friend of the men, said the officer in charge, E Rodriguez, called him a “federal criminal” and referred to the men as “illegal immigrants.”
The men were later determined to be undocumented; although border patrol officers acknowledged that Doyle, of Wolcott, could not have known because their paperwork checked out, but did not match their fingerprints. Two of the men had worked for Doyle for at least four years and Doyle had never gotten a “no-match” on their social security numbers, so he assumed they were in the U.S. legally.
Doyle and County Farm Bureau President Phil Wagner said the issue goes beyond the legal status of the four men to the underlying problem of intense racial profiling of Mexican farm workers in Wayne County, regardless of their legal status.
“It’s guilty until proven innocent,” Wagner said. “That is not the way justice works in this country.”
Border patrol denies racial profiling, but has acknowledged officers have engaged in stops and detentions of people who they later have determined to be in the U.S. legally. They say they offer to return those people to the area where they were taken into custody, but several growers dispute that, noting they have had to go to Batavia to retrieve their workers.
Farm Bureau will also inform the U.S. Attorney’s Office that statements the Border Patrol made to the media after the fact were a clear attempt to cover up a racially motivated stop and discredit the farmers.
Border Patrol spokesman A.J. Price insisted to reporters from the Syracuse Post Standard, the Finger Lakes Times and several area television stations that that stop was not a stop at all. Price said that the men’s car was disabled at Route 414 and Route 104, was a hazard in the intersection and that officers offered assistance. Price told the media that the men volunteered to Border Patrol officers they were undocumented.
Photos that appeared with last week’s story on the stop in the Wayuga Community Newspapers show Barbara Jean’s Furniture Store in the background during the incident. The store is more than four miles to the south of the Route 104 and 414 intersection. State police were also at the scene at the furniture store. The car was not disabled and was driven away by a farmer after the men were detained.
Doyle said the men were returning from Wal-Mart and would not have had any reason to even be near Route 414 and Route 104.
Additionally, Price told reporters that border patrol officers were held to a high standard and that no complaints had been lodged against them in Wayne County.
 In July, after the Wayne County Star found three racist and other inappropriate posts on its website that showed Internet protocol addresses belonging to the Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol servers, the Star complained to Wayne County District Attorney Richard Healy. Healy brought the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Buffalo and an investigation was launched in which the newspaper cooperated. The results of the investigation, or whether it is completed, have not been released.
Because some of the comments on the website threatened farmers, Farm Bureau also complained to Healy.
Price himself was quoted in a New York Times story regarding the investigation.


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Posted: Thursday, August 27, 2009
By: jc@yahoo.com
Subject: Percentages

What is percent of the aliens or migrants arrested by immigration authorities in Wayne County that turn out to actually be in the U.S. legally once someone checks their records out?



Are those figures available anywhere?
Posted: Friday, August 28, 2009
By: J. Hayes
Subject: illegals

Conversely, If we can determine the number of aliens that are in Wayne County illegally and where they have been employed; can we then have the employer fined and/or arrested for breaking our immigration laws? Will those who champion the rights of the illegal alien come to the aid of the employer (farmer) who hired the illegal worker in the first place? Just wondering.
Posted: Friday, August 28, 2009
By: dumpy doo
Subject: complicity

It's amazing to hear so many farmers and the Farm Bureau advocating the harboring of illegal aliens. Usually only criminals want to avoid entanglements with the law (and law enforcement). Next they will want to legalize narcotics.
Posted: Saturday, August 29, 2009
By: Local Farmer
Subject: Illegals AGAIN !

Again I say..The H2A program has been a great resource for my farm...these local farmers are an embarrassment and I will withdrawing my membership within the Farm Bureau. It truly seems to me that the Wayne County Star is advocating Illegal Immigration and protecting farmers who KNOWINGLY continue to hire ILLEGAL immigrants.....SHAME SHAME SHAME....you farmers know who I am.
Posted: Saturday, August 29, 2009
By: jc@yahoo.com
Subject: Interesting fact.

I was looking at some legal websites the other night and one of them brought me to a government employment website. On that website there was a list of forms that are used for getting a federal job. The form is called a Standard Form 181. This form is used for a person to claim their race and ethnicity. As it turns out, Hispanic is not a race. It is an ethnicity that is derived from being from a country that has its origins in the Spanish (as in Europe) culture. The legally defined races, by the federal law, are Native American/Alaskan Native, Asian, Black/African American, White, and Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander. Anyone from any race can be ethnically Hispanic.

Having discovered this, it leaves me with a couple of questions regarding all the claims of ‘racial profiling’ of Hispanics in all these articles.

If Hispanic in not a race, how can someone ‘racially profile’ a Hispanic person? A Hispanic person can be black, white, asian, or ANY other race.

Just for the sake of debate if you say Hispanic is a race can a Hispanic racially profile a Hispanic? Mr E. Rodriguez, the officer who arrested the illegal migrants, seems to have a Hispanic name too.

If so, then a white cop could arrest a white guy and then be accused of ‘racially profiling’ and that makes no sense at all.

This just makes me doubt the sincerity of the support for migrants, on the basis of humanity, in these articles, and makes me believe it is truly all about the exploitation of the illegal migrants for financial gain and that is heinous to me.


Posted: Saturday, August 29, 2009
By: dinky dum
Subject: arresting illegal aliens

E. Rodriguez could certainly "racially profile someone from his own race. That term refers to what the law officer is looking for; it has no connection to the officer himself. But of course in this incident, the four were all illegal aliens, so E.Rodriguez wasn't profiling; he was 100% right and he knew exactly what he was looking at.
Posted: Saturday, August 29, 2009
By: jc@yahoo.com
Subject: Good point, but.....

Good point for the sake of a "what if" argument but since Hispanic is not a race by legal definition why do all these article keep using terms like "racially profiling Hispanics"? It's a legally incorrect and inaccurate term.

Either the author and the interviewees don't know what they are saying or they know exactly what they are saying and merely using the terms to try to incite a public uproar by thowing out buzzwords and phrases that tend to upset people.



Now, it goes back to their motivation for doing so. Do they really care about the migrants (legal or illegal) or is there a less noble financial consideration here?



It keeps bringing me back to people trying to make a financial gain at the expense of illegal migrants. I really doubt there is much humane concern or regard for these migrants by the people who are making the most noise. They are trying to make more money and hiding it behind another issue.




Posted: Tuesday, September 1, 2009
By: Screech
Subject: Breaking the law

The first line of this story says it all: "NORTH ROSE – Border patrol officers can’t break the law to enforce it, the Wayne County Farm Bureau is asserting.". It could conversely state "Farmers can't break the law to make money". They are all breaking the law and the fines for hiring illegals is pretty stiff.


Posted: Friday, September 4, 2009
By: Pete Dundo
Subject: wetback

right on screech; a wetback is a wetback is a wetback, from the second he/she steps into the Rio Grande for the duration of his illegal stay in our country. That Rio Grande mud just won't wash off, and their presence here is just as illegal as a pound of MJ, Cuban cigars, you name it. Throw the book at 'em.
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