Raid has repercussions

The arrests of 31 suspected illegal immigrants at valley bus stations last week have stirred outrage and fear in the Hispanic community.

They also could be bad for business.

"All of my clients are tourists," Emmanuel Corrales, owner of Las Vegas Shuttles, said Tuesday. "My clients were harassed."

Corrales and Rogelio Gaytan, manager of another bus station that was targeted Thursday by agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, worry tourists from Mexico will stop buying tickets to and from Las Vegas as word spreads.

The federal agents "really scared our passengers," Gaytan said.

The agents were in Las Vegas as part of an operation "aimed at disrupting human smuggling activities at transportation sites that are used as a means to further illegal trafficking into the interior of the United States," the federal agency said.

Las Vegas has become a hub increasingly used by smuggling organizations to transport people and drugs, said Chris Van Wagenen, a supervisory border patrol agent in Yuma, Ariz. Such organizations have been forced by stepped-up identification requirements at airports, including McCarran International Airport, to use bus lines instead, he said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Yuma sector includes Nevada and parts of Arizona and California.

"Our intelligence suggested that alien smuggling and drug smuggling organizations are using bus terminals there in Vegas," Van Wagenen said.

Immigrant rights groups called the actions at valley bus or shuttle-bus stations "raids" and said family members at Tufesa Internacional, the North Las Vegas bus station Gaytan manages, were separated when federal agents arrived.

Some family members were taken away as others remained behind crying, said Michael Flores, a local activist with ProgressNow Nevada, who arrived at Tufesa while agents were still there.

"It was heartbreaking," Flores said.

Agents arrived at Tufesa at the same time Thursday that immigrant rights groups were celebrating a judge's decision to delay the most controversial sections of a new Arizona immigration law.

Gaytan said the agents did not identify themselves and were not wearing badges. But video footage shot at Tufesa by Telemundo Las Vegas shows two agents whose badges were clearly visible on their chests.

Agents, who were wearing street clothes, were shown waiting as family members or friends, some crying, said goodbye to people who were loaded into a black SUV. The black SUV then followed a white van away from Tufesa.

Flores said the agents' badges were not visible when he arrived.

Van Wagenen said agents were dressed in street clothes for "pretty obvious" reasons.

"If we had shown up in uniforms and stood at the bus depot, everyone would have known right away, and word gets out," he said.

But agents "are required by law to identify themselves," he said. "It wouldn't make sense for us not to identify ourselves. We must do so to make an arrest."

Van Wagenen also said the local operation includes "several phases" and that in later phases "agents will be wearing uniforms," suggesting that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has more enforcement activities planned for the valley.

Corrales, a U.S. citizen, said agents asked for his "documents" Thursday along with about 40 customers at Las Vegas Shuttles. Agents arrested only one person from the site, he said.

"It was very disappointing to see a lot of American citizens like myself being harassed," he said. "I'm not against enforcing the law. I'm against harassing people for their looks."

But federal agents have the authority "in a public setting to request documentation proving citizenship in a consensual encounter," said Kelly Ivahnenko, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

She added, "Anyone who is a U.S. citizen clearly has no cause for concern if asked for their citizenship."

Those who are not U.S. citizens or who agents suspect are not U.S. citizens are asked to produce proof of their legal status, Van Wagenen said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada does not object to "lawful immigration raids," said Maggie McLetchie, an attorney with the organization.

But "federal immigration officers should not go on fishing expeditions and should instead target individuals about whom facts exist indicating that the person is in the country illegally," she said.

"Raids should not be conducted in a dragnet manner and sweep in citizens and lawfully present aliens," McLetchie said. They should not "target individuals based on their race, appearance, or accents."

Of those arrested Thursday, 12 had prior criminal histories or past immigration-related offenses, Ivahnenko said.

Some of the 31 were taken for processing at the border patrol station in Blythe, Calif. Others were released pending upcoming immigration hearing dates or have already been deported, she said.

Word that agents were in town busting suspected illegal immigrants spread quickly through the Hispanic community, Flores said.

"We've had rumors flying off the wall. People are just worried and scared."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com.