Immigration bill’s failure brings raid in Reno, fear in Las Vegas

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Oct. 1, 2007 | 7 a.m.

Edwin Prudhomme has been an immigration lawyer for 47 years, but Friday his voice sounded like he wanted to call it quits.

"I just can't help them," he said.

Prudhomme was referring to the immigrants calling him who were spooked by Thursday's federal raid of 11 McDonald's restaurants in Reno that resulted in the detention of 56 people.

Apparently, the news traveled fast to Las Vegas.

"People are scared to death," Prudhomme said.

Ironically, he was one of the few immigration lawyers still in town because dozens of others were at a national immigration law conference in Lake Tahoe, not far from where the raids took place .

Peter Ashman, speaking from the American Immigration Lawyers Association conference, said call s were coming into the offices of other lawyers among the 60 Las Vegas association members. He said the chapter would be putting together a document advising illegal immigrants of their rights in the event they are caught in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department raid.

At the same time, his voice bore the same resignation.

"What can we do? Is there anything we can do to help them get papers? No," Ashman said.

He and others said the raid in Reno and others nationwide in recent weeks could be seen as inevitable after Congress failed to do something about the estimated 12 million people in the country illegally.

"This is something that's not going to go away," Ashman said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley said: "We don't speculate on any ongoing investigations" or raids - but added that "workforce enforcement is one of the agency's highest priorities."

The Reno raid and the expectation of others in Nevada have nonprofit organizations concerned about the effect on family members who are not in the country illegally, including children.

Ireri Rivas, an organizer for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said her organization would reach out to agencies in the Las Vegas Valley that could help families if raids occur. Her organization was helping make sure children were picked up from school after the Reno raid occurred.

However, she also echoed the lawyers when it comes to the immigrants and their probable deportation, saying: "There's not much we can do."

Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada American Civil Liberties Union, also pointed to the mixed immigration statuses of many Hispanic families .

Immigrants in the valley, he said, are "terrified - not just those who are undocumented, but people who have status and are afraid they'll get caught up in sweeps."

Rex Velasquez, chairman of the local chapter of the immigration lawyers association, said the only thing he could be sure of was that more raids could be expected.

"Since immigration reform failed ... this is going to become a way of life here," he said.