"We're trying to make sure that the authorities are not going to start racial profiling" in the community, said David Quiroa of the Guatemalan-American Alliance.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 14, 2006

BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer

NEWPORT -- At a fact-finding forum last night, a Salvadoran man who gave his name as "Juan" said six law enforcement agents knocked on his door on June 6 and demanded the whereabouts of a friend who had recently been denied temporary protected status in this country.

Speaking through an interpreter, Juan told his story at St. Joseph Church, where four dozen people gathered to discuss allegations of recent civil-rights violations against immigrants by local police and federal agents.

"They banged on my door," Juan said. "They confiscated my wife's cell phone and checked the phone messages and began interrogating us. They began to search my entire apartment. At no time did they present a search warrant." They also did not show any ID, he said.

Juan said the six men, whom he presumed to be federal immigration agents, told him that if he did not tell the agents of his friend's whereabouts, "they were going to arrest me, arrest my wife, and take my children away."

The forum was convened by the Comite de Inmigrantes en Accion (Immigrants in Action Committee) of St. Teresa Church in Providence and the Guatemalan-American Alliance of Rhode Island.

Jose Salazar said he too was visited by six agents that same week, who were apparently looking for the same man. Salazar said the men did not show a search warrant or an ID. At least two were armed.

The agents left after Salazar's American roommate told them to do so. But Salazar said, "I'm concerned about my own personal safety. I'm afraid they'll come back and put me in a trunk."

David Quiroa, president of the Guatemalan-American Alliance, and Juan Garcia, head of the Immigrants in Action Committee, said the allegations are similar to those raised by many Latinos in Newport during what they referred to as immigration sweeps and raids in 1999.

"We're trying to make sure that the authorities are not going to start racial profiling" in the community, Quiroa said.

Garcia instructed forum attendees that constitutional rights apply in such situations, regardless of legal status in this country.

"Officials must have a search warrant, and even if they do show a warrant, the officers must also show an ID," said Garcia. "And no one [being questioned] has to say anything if they don't want. And if there's no search warrant, you have the full right to shut the door."

Garcia and Quiroa said public officials, the police and others will be invited to a future meeting to discuss the allegations.

Paula Grenier, Homeland Security spokeswoman in Boston, said she was unfamiliar with any such activity in Newport recently.

However, Grenier said, "Generally speaking, ICE [the bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement] does have very active fugitive apprehension teams around the country whose priority is to identify and arrest those fugitive aliens who are wanted on warrants of removal.

"Those who are fugitive aliens have had their case before the immigration court and ordered removed by a federal immigration judge and failed to comply with an immigration judge's order," said Grenier.

Newport Police Lt. Michael Brennan, department spokesperson, said he was not familiar with any recent sweeps by federal agents that Newport police assisted with. He suggested that anyone alleging violations of constitutional rights can feel free to file a complaint.

"If it's an illegal activity or an allegation, we'd be happy to investigate that," said Brennan. "I understand what people's concerns are about their constitutional rights, and there's no way we want to infringe on them."

kziner@projo.com / (401) 277-7375