By George P. Hassett

A week after federal immigration agents first swooped into Somerville to arrest alleged  gang members, uncertainty surrounds the operation as law enforcement officials refuse to release information and immigrants rights advocates make accusations of warrant-less searches and false arrests.

On Tuesday, Aug. 28, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents along with the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office and local police launched Operation 13, an action they say is intended to rid communities of specific wanted criminals affiliated with the dangerous Central American gang, MS-13.

However, immigration advocates and elected officials have criticized the raids as being too secretive and aggressive. State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino, D-Somerville, said ICE has “a bad history” in similar operations.

“ICE has a history of really messing up these kinds of raids,” he said. “They should be scrutinized.” On March 6, ICE took 360 illegal immigrants into custody during a raid on the Michael Bianco Inc. factory in New Bedford. Sciortino said some of those 360 people should not have been deported or arrested and Gov. Deval Patrick called the New Bedford raid a “humanitarian crisis.”

“Now [ICE] is coming through Somerville with similar raids,” Sciortino said.

At one Somerville business, A Plus Auto Body at 297 Medford Street, authorities entered and arrested Henry Antonio Morales who worked at the shop, said the owner, Tony Fragione. Police opened Morales’ shirt to see a large MS-13 tattoo scrawled across his chest. Co-workers and supervisors described Morales as a diligent worker who never gave any indication of gang membership.

“I would have hired 10 of him, he was a respectful kid and he always did his job,” Fragione said. “Nobody would ever think this kid was involved with a gang.” Morales was cuffed and detained in a sheriff’s van while all other A Plus employees were lined up and asked about their immigration status, he said.

State Rep. Denise Provost, D-Somerville, said she was disturbed to hear that people who are not the subject of warrants are being questioned by federal agents about their immigration status. Provost called reports of illegal searches by ICE, “shocking and unconstitutional.”

“We usually associate warrant less searches and illicit disappearances and arrests with the former Soviet Union,” she said. She said the biggest issue is the lack of information coming from ICE and the Sheriff’s Office.

“I barely know anything about the raids. Community leaders and members are entitled to know about law enforcement actions after they have taken place but we have only been getting fragments of stories so far,” she said.

Fragione said ICE agents were joined by the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office and Somerville police. However, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said local police had “no official role” in Operation 13. Curtatone said he has not communicated with federal officials about the raids at all, but he does support the raids.

“Law abiding immigrants have nothing to fear. This is a narrow, strategic action targeting gang members who do nothing but disrupt their own immigrant communities,” he said.

The raids happened early in the morning and have been described as being quickly and efficiently run. 21 Franklin Street and 50 Broadway in Somerville were also inspected by ICE agents last week, but no arrests were made. Besides Somerville, Operation 13 has hit Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, Lynn and Revere, according to Pastor Louis Morales of the Vida Real Church on Broadway. Morales estimated “way more than 20” people had been arrested and detained by ICE.

The operation has paralyzed Latino communities throughout the Greater Boston area. Morales said small businesses on Lower Broadway have suffered and attendance at his church is down 60 percent since the raids began. On Thursday morning at Foss Park, a State Police vehicle sat parked a few yards from where dozens of Latino men usually gather to look for a day’s work. On that morning, no men were at the park.

“People are afraid to leave their homes, ICE has taken over the area like an occupying force. They are patrolling the streets, they are everywhere,” Morales said.

ICE spokesman Michael Gilhooly and Middlesex County Sheriff James V. DiPaola confirmed their agencies are involved in an ongoing investigation in the Boston area targeting specific individuals who are threats to public safety. They both promised more information last week but have thus far not released anything. Immigration rights advocates such as the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) are asking for names of the people arrested and more information about Operation 13 from ICE officials.

“We have not heard about any specific charges against the people being detained,” said Melissa McWhinney of CAAS. “And that makes me wonder if there are any charges. ICE could clear this up but we have not heard anything from them.”

Leaders in the city’s Latino community said authorities are using the excuse of arresting criminals to question all nearby Latino’s of their immigration status. Angel “Tito” Meza, a community organizer for the Somerville Community Corporation, said he was nearly arrested for taking pictures of a raid in Maverick Square in East Boston.
“I was taking a picture in a public space and ICE agents stopped me, harassed me and threatened to arrest me because of it. I feel like my rights were violated, I was stopped for taking pictures,” he said. “They say they are only going after criminals but I don’t buy that. Why did they bother me?”

Ismael Vasquez of CAAS said a teenager from Chelsea who is a legal immigrant was arrested after he refused to open the door for ICE agents coming for his brother. “They say they are looking for gang members but I see a lot of families suffering,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez said last week’s raids were unlike anything he had seen in the United States. Still, the circumstances seemed familiar to him, he said. “The situation today reminds me of 20 years ago in El Salvador. We’re seeing uniforms come to our homes, taking people away and offering no explanation why. Now everybody here is thinking they could be next,” he said.

MS-13 is a gang made up of Salvadoran, Honduran and other Central American immigrants. The gang was first formed in Los Angeles in the 1970s to protect recent Central American immigrants from the more established Mexican gangs in the area. In recent years, it has spread across the country to big cities and small towns alike. The Federal Bureau of Investigations deemed the gang a serious threat in 2005 and began initiating large-scale raids against suspected members.

MS-13 members were identified as operating in Somerville as far back as 1997, according to police. The gang is are associated with one of the most infamous and vicious crimes in the city‚Äôs history. In October 2002, two deaf girls, one of whom had cerebral palsy and was confined to a wheelchair, were raped by three MS-13 members in Foss Park, according to police. Two of the three men, Jose Ortiz, of Boston, and Jesus Pleitz, of Somerville, pled guilty to the crime, but Escobar was found not guilty by a jury and walked free after the verdict was announced. 

ICE last came into Somerville for gang members on July 13, when six men were arrested for their ties to the gang. Five of the men were arrested in the midst of a gang meeting being held outdoors in an industrial part of the city, according to police, and a sixth man was arrested walking down Broadway. Two of the men arrested held leadership positions within the gang, police said. All six now face deportation proceedings, according to ICE.