Hiding in plain sight.
Via Helena IR:
Agents with Immigration Customs Enforcement have arrested at least 16 people in western and central Montana in the last month and charged nine, primarily from Mexico, with crimes related to being in the country illegally.
All of the arrests occurred after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement in early May of a zero tolerance policy in prosecuting illegal immigration.
A Missoula group plans to protest the latest arrests and the shift in national policy next week.
Ten of the arrests were in a raid of a morel mushroom harvesting camp in Mineral County. Two other people were picked up in an ICE raid in Whitefish. The other four people were arrested in isolated incidents around western and central Montana.
The Mineral County raid on May 31 led to charges against three men: Tomas Andres-Gregorio, Fernando Cruz Matias and Rogelio Jaimes Estrada.
According to court records, the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office told ICE agents that several people staying at the Quartz Flat Campground as part of a commercial morel mushroom harvesting business might be in the country illegally. The sheriff’s office said deputies had twice had interactions with some of the men driving around the area.
“On one occasion two of the passengers in the vehicles presented MCSO with what MCSO believed to be forged immigration visas. MCSO believed these documents were forged because the writing was smeared and the pictures appeared to be altered,” court records said.
At the end of May, the sheriff’s office also reported a stabbing at the campground where the mushroom pickers were staying. ICE agents received copies of the identification the harvesters supplied to get mushroom harvesting permits from the Forest Service. Many used passports from foreign countries, which ICE called a “possible indicator” they were not in the country legally.
On May 31, deputies, Forest Service and ICE agents went to the camp to attempt to locate two men believed to be involved in the stabbing, “as well as determine if individuals residing in the camp possessed the proper permits and identification documents,” records said.
Andres-Gregorio, a Guatemalan national who is alleged to have no legal documentation, is charged with assault on a federal officer as well as eluding examination after court records said he tried to push past one of the agents at the raid. He did not respond when asked for his papers and allegedly punched the agent in the leg multiple times when he was eventually put onto the ground and handcuffed, records said.
Matias and Estrada, also arrested in the campground raid, are each charged with illegal reentry of a deported alien. According to records, Matias said he was previously arrested by Border Patrol agents in October 2017 and deported the next day, but returned to the country later that month by crossing into California.