CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Mecklenburg jail officials said Wednesday they determined that 10 of 15 protesters arrested at an immigration rally Tuesday are in the country illegally.
But the protesters won’t be turned over to federal immigration officials for possible deportation.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told jail authorities Wednesday not to put detainers on the protesters, said Julia Rush, the spokeswoman for the Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Office. The detainers are used to keep defendants in jail while immigration authorities decide whether they should be deported.
Tuesday’s arrests were expected to be one of the first chances to see how a new Obama administration policy on illegal immigrants is implemented. The administration announced last month that those without criminal records – who are found to be a low priority because they are students, were brought to the United States as children or have long family ties to the country – would be released from jail and granted work permits.
Three of the protesters appeared in court by video from the jail on Wednesday.
“I want to confess that I am an undocumented student,” Martin Rodriguez told Mecklenburg District Judge Donald Cureton.
After Cureton set his next court date for Oct. 27, Rodriguez asked the judge if the upcoming hearing was for his immigration status.
“Any immigration matter you will have to take up in federal court,” the judge replied.
Cureton later informed Manuel Vazquez that he does not have jurisdiction on federal immigration matters.
“If they are not holding you, you will be released later today,” the judge told Vasquez.
At Tuesday’s rally, nearly 200 participants gathered at Central Piedmont Community College’s central campus to protest policies that they say discriminate against undocumented immigrants. The protesters blocked traffic, at the intersection of Kings Drive and Fourth Street, while chanting “education not deportation” and “undocumented and unafraid.”
The rally was organized by the N.C. Dream Team, a Raleigh-based group of students. Most of them are in the country illegally. They called for passage of the Dream Act – legislation that would provide a chance for legalization for some young people brought to the United States illegally by their parents. The bill has been introduced several times in Congress without success.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Office said that in keeping with the jail’s policy to screen all arrestees, the 15 people arrested at Tuesday’s rally were fingerprinted, photographed and screened to determine whether they are in the country legally.
Jail authorities also did criminal background checks on the protesters, Rush said, and found that none of them had criminal records.
“Per Immigration Customs Enforcement, any arrestee charged by CMPD during the protest was not to be given detainers, but released on their own recognizance,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
Domenic Powell of the N.C. Dream Team attended Wednesday’s court appearances for the protesters charged with disorderly conduct.
Ten of those arrested at Tuesday’s rally, he said, are students or recent students. Those 10, he said, are undocumented.
“The threat of deportation is very real…,” Powell told reporters. “People have been deported for less – speeding, running a stop sign.”
Powell said the protesters were motivated by what he called “the lack of options.”
“No one in Washington is going to help them until they speak out,” he said.
