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Florida - Homeland Security in Fort Meyers, 163 illegal immigrants arrested in sweep

By Michelle Start

Erin Gillespie

mstart@news-press.com

egillespie@news-press.com

Originally posted on September 25, 2006

Fort Myers resident Luderick Lalanne was getting ready for work when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers broke into his home around 5:20 a.m. Thursday and took him into custody.

He was one of 163 illegal immigrants who were arrested as a part of an

initiative called "Operation Return to Sender." Twenty-six of them had criminal history. One of them was wanted for murder in Italy.

The immigrants came from 11 countries, including Brazil, Mexico and Haiti.

The weeklong sweep ended Friday.

Hearings are pending for some of those arrested. Others faced immediate deportation.

Lalanne's attorney, Ricardo Skerrett, said his client should never have been arrested.

"My client was on supervisory release," Skerrett said. "He had to report every three months in Tampa. I went with him and July and he did not have to go again until October. He is a Haitian and is married to a U.S. Citizen."

Lalanne, 38, fled Haiti in 1998 after his brother was murdered and applied for political asylum. Authorities found his testimony creditable but denied the asylum request.

An order was issued on Aug. 30, 1999 to detain Lalanne,

but he appealed it. The appeal was not dismissed until 2001.

By then, Lalanne had married an American citizen and was eligible to adjust, which included obtaining a green card. By April 30, 2001, Lalanne had applied for the new status change, but his request was referred to another court.

Throughout the process, Lalanne has been cooperating with authorities,

attending court sessions and obeying the law.

"We're talking about a person who wasn't hiding," Skerrett said. "They broke into his house like he was a common criminal. They took him away in front of his children."

Lalanne's children are 1,2 and 3, according to family members.

They also said Lalanne, who works as an air conditioning technician, was the sole source of income for the family.

Lalanne is being held at the Krome Detention Center in Miami and will likely be there two to three weeks before his attorney is able to have him released.

Skerrett said he intends to file for a stay against deporting Lalanne and thinks chances of obtaining one are good, but he worries about the other immigrants who were also detained.

He said his sources told him that a portion of the detainees were Colombians living in Cape Coral who were in similar situations.

"These are non-criminal aliens," Skerrett said. "They are no threat to the community and their worst violation was a judge issued a removal notice in absentia. The majority are decent, honest people who just want to make a living in the U.S."

At a press conference this afternoon, Robert Weber, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Special Agent-in-Charge of the Office of Investigations in Tampa, and Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter discussed how the sweep happened.

Authorities were looking for illegal immigrants wanted on criminal charges. In the process, they found immigrants who overstayed their visas, had fraudulent documents or were otherwise in the United States illegally.