Illegal immigrant Uber driver raped passenger then fled to native Ghana, police say

An Uber driver charged with raping a passenger earlier this month was able to walk free because officials failed to notify immigration agents about his arrest, authorities said.

Frederick Amfo, 30, an illegal immigrant from Ghana, was arrested after a female passenger said that on April 8 he forced her into the backseat of his car and raped her, police said. Hours after he was released from police custody, he fled to his native Ghana. He was supposed to surrender his passport but did not.

“A loss for words,” Emily Murray, the victim who insisted on being identified by the press, told Boston 25. “I was angry, I’m still angry. I’m confused.”

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Boston 25 that a federal immigration detainer should have been placed on Amfo. Weymouth police claimed it forwarded the detainer to Quincy District Court.

“The court chose not to forward the detainer to Norfolk County, allowing for his subsequent release on bail from custody,” the agency said in a statement. “This case highlights the potential dangers of policies that prohibit cooperation with ICE.”

The court told the Patriot Ledger that there was no record of an immigration detainer at the time of his arraignment.

A ruling last year made Massachusetts a sanctuary state – meaning illegal immigrants accused of a crime cannot be transferred to immigration officials.

Murray claims on April 8 she was trying to get home when Amfo allegedly locked the doors to his vehicle and sexually assaulted her in the backseat.

“Within minutes, I was in a situation I couldn’t control and I was assaulted,” she said.

Police said DNA collected from a rape kit and Amfo’s car led to his arrest days later.

Amfo was charged with sexual assault. On Friday, a Quincy District Court set bail at $10,000 and he was given a stay away order.

Court records show that Amfo was also given 24 hours to surrender his passport if he made bail. But he made bail later that afternoon without surrendering his passport.

Three days later, Murray was told that Amfo had fled to Ghana.

“If I went to Ghana and I committed a crime, I wouldn’t expect to be able to hop on plane and say sorry about that, here’s some money,” she said Tuesday. “I would expect to answer for it. Accountability. And there had been just zero.”

She told the Boston Herald that Amfo is a coward.

“He proclaims his innocence and then just leaves?” she said. “I feel hurt. … People get blamed for not coming forward and then get victimized more when they do.”

She said she doesn’t believe she will ever get justice.

“But I hope this shines a light and it won’t happen in the future,” she said, “because of me coming forward and me releasing my name and putting a face behind this whole situation.”

ICE REPORTEDLY arrests 225 in NY immigration raids, many with criminal records

Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have arrested 225 illegal immigrants in New York state as part of a six-day operation “Operation Keep Safe.”

The detainees, from numerous countries, were taken into custody in New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley, according to a news release published Tuesday.

New York has long been considered a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants as local politicians created initiatives that hinder the cooperation with federal authorities. Oleg Chernyavsky, a top New York City police official, said in February that more than 1,500 requests from ICE to detain illegal immigrants for up to 48 hours were ignored last year.

ICE officials said that more than 180 of those detained were convicted criminals or had criminal charges pending and more than 80 of them had been issued a final order of removal and failed to leave the U.S. voluntarily -- or had been previously removed from the U.S., but illegally returned.

Several detainees had prior felony convictions for serious or violent offenses, including child sex crimes, weapons charges and assault, or had past convictions for significant or multiple misdemeanors.

Some of the arrested will now face federal criminal prosecution for illegal entry into the U.S. or illegal re-entry after their initial deportation. Others will be processed administratively for removal from the country. Those who already have outstanding orders of deportation will be immediately deported to their home country.




Federal immigration officials celebrated the deportation operation, but criticized local politicians for creating sanctuary city policies that hinder the effectiveness of immigration control and allow dangerous illegal immigrants “prey on the people in their communities.

"ICE continues to face significant obstacles with policies created by local officials which hinder cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement. Yet, with the tireless efforts of the men and women of ICE, this operation was a great success," said Thomas R. Decker, field office director for ERO New York.

He added: "The fact is that a so-called ‘sanctuary city’ does not only provide refuge to those who are here against immigration law, but also provides protections for criminal aliens who prey on the people in their own communities by committing crimes at all levels.”

ICE arrests 150 people around Bay Area as a result of Democratic mayor's warning

Federal immigration officials have arrested more than 150 individuals in violation of federal U.S. immigration law in Northern California this week despite the Oakland mayor warning of an impending raid.

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made the arrests in the San Francisco Bay Area starting Sunday as part of “targeted immigration enforcement operations,” the agency said on Tuesday.

Roughly half of those arrested by deportation officers have convictions for assault and battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUI, according to the agency.

ICE highlighted the arrest of one fugitive of the federal agency in particular, who officials stated is a documented gang member.


Armando Nuñez-Salgado, 38, of Mexico, was arrested Sunday as part of ICE’s widespread raid, spokesperson James Schwab, of the San Francisco bureau, told IPRESSTV.

“Over the past 18 years [Nuñez-Salgado] has accumulated criminal convictions in California that have resulted in more than 15 years of prison sentencings,” Schwab said, adding the man “has been previously removed by ICE on four prior occasions” and is a member of the Sureño street gang.

Other arrests include that of another Sureños gang member and other illegal immigrants with criminal convictions from Mexico and Guatemala throughout Northern California.

The arrests come in the days after Libby Schaaf, the Democratic mayor of Oakland, posted a press release to Twitter warning constituents in the sanctuary city that “multiple credible sources” told her ICE would be conducting a raid in the Bay Area as soon as Sunday.

Schaaf received swift backlash following her post, with many arguing over the legality of such a warning.

"The Oakland mayor’s decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens — making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda,” ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said in a statement Tuesday. “Unlike the politicians who attempt to undermine ICE’s critical mission, our officers will continue to fulfill their sworn duty to protect public safety.”

However, the mayor stood by her decision, saying she felt as though it was her "duty" to share the information. ICE officials told IPRESSTV  they're asking the Department of Justice to look into whether Schaaf broke any laws by giving the warning.

Further details of ICE's immediate activities in the Bay Area remain unclear, although the agency says 864 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions and other public safety threats "remain at large" in the area — two of whom are believed to be living in Oakland.

Homan believes Schaaf's warning aided those illegal immigrants in eluding law enforcement.

Judge temporarily stops the deportation of Indonesian Christians

A federal judge has temporarily halted deportation proceedings against Indonesian Christians who are in the U.S. illegally but are seeking to gain legal status, including a man honored for his work helping to rebuild more than 200 homes after Superstorm Sandy.

The order Friday was issued by U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and applies to Indonesians who have orders of removal dating to before 2009.

The order affects roughly 50 people in New Jersey who had identified themselves to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2009 as part of a program to obtain work authorization and stays of deportation, according to the ACLU and Seth Kaper-Dale, co-pastor of a church where some of the immigrants sought sanctuary.

The lawsuit came after several enforcement actions by immigration authorities in New Jersey that targeted Indonesian Christians and rekindled fears in a community that includes people who left Indonesia years ago to escape religious persecution.

Two men were arrested last month after they dropped their children off at school. Harry Pangemanan, who has been in the country since 1993 and lives with his wife and two daughters in central New Jersey, sought sanctuary at the Reformed Church of Highland Park, where he is an elder and where he spent nine months in 2012 under similar circumstances.

Two other men, Arthur Jemmy and Yohanes Tasik, already were living there to avoid detention.

Salas ordered both sides to file briefs over the next month.

A spokesman for ICE's Newark office didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

Pangemanan has been staying in a room that doubles as a children's library at the church and had to move his belongings when the library is in use. His family joined him recently after their home was broken into and vandalized after his name was included in news reports.

"We are trying to stay strong as a family, take one day at a time," he said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. "You do your best today, do something useful, and tomorrow is in god's hands."

Pangemanan came to the country in 1993 on a tourist visa that was to lapse in five years, he said. His wife came in 1998 during a period of turmoil in Indonesia when Christians were being targeted. They cite that as one reason for not going back.

"A thousand churches were burned to the ground between 1996 and 2003," said Kaper-Dale, of the Highland Park church. "Some islands are safer than others, but it's too simple to say it's safe now."

Pangemanan concedes he didn't know enough about immigration law when he first arrived, and wasn't aware he had one year to apply for asylum. At the time, it didn't seem to matter.

"Nobody asked you, as long as you are a good man, you work hard and help your company, and you pay your taxes," he said. "You're working like everybody else, you don't bother anybody. Then everything changed after Sept. 11."

Working through the church after Sandy devastated the New Jersey coast in 2012, Pangemanan organized more than 2,000 volunteers, matching their skills with the needs of homeowners whose homes had been destroyed. He said he traveled to other areas of the country to perform similar work, including the Carolinas, West Virginia and Texas.

A system put in place after Sept. 11 required non-citizen men and boys from predominantly Arab or Muslim-majority countries to register and be photographed and fingerprinted.

Pangemanan and Jemmy said they complied, and have repeatedly tried to gain legal status since then, without success.

About 200 illegal immigrants caught in just three January smuggling bust

Nearly 200 people from Mexico and Central America were stuffed inside large trucks and caught trying to enter the United States illegally during three huge January smuggling busts that occurred in just nine days.

Officials in southern California said 77 people, including 5 children, were found near the Mexico border Monday packed inside a sweltering truck that had been painted to resemble a UPS truck.



The San Diego Union-Tribune reported a U.S. border patrol agent in Boulevard, Calif., noticed the truck was riding low and “could smell body odor mixed with a distinct type of pungent soap which is commonly used in Mexico.”

Inside the truck's cargo area, officials found people sweating and standing shoulder-to-shoulder.


A similar scene greeted authorities last week in Laredo, Texas, where border patrol agents found 76 immigrants, including 13 children, from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala lying on the floor or crouching against the walls of a tractor-trailer rig.

A week earlier, also in Laredo, border agents stopped a tractor-trailer with 29 illegal immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala crossing into the U.S.

Laredo and southern California are home to two of the largest trade and transportation ports along the U.S.-Mexico border, and hundreds, if not thousands, of tractor-trailers move goods between the two countries.

Smugglers are taking advantage and carrying human cargo that can be easily transported across country lines without easy detection.


Jessica Vaughn, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News on Thursday that these locations are funnels for an “enormous” volume of international trade, making them easy targets for smugglers.

“There is no way that all of them are screened [as closely as they should be],” she said, adding the financial incentive from smugglers and drivers is just too high to discard.

In the case out of Boulevard earlier this week, the driver was identified as Shawn Lee Seiler, a U.S. citizen who told authorities he was “an alien smuggler” who expected to get paid $100 per immigrant that he got across. According to court documents, Seiler was surprised to learn there were 77 people in the truck as he was only expecting 50.

“[This] is only a fraction of what the smugglers [who are putting them on the trucks] are getting,” Vaughn said. “It’s a couple thousand – I believe the going rate was around $3,000 a person.”

She continued: “The cartels that control the flow are making a huge amount of money...It’s a multi-million dollar business.”

Miguel Contreras, the special operations supervisor for U.S. Border Patrol in Laredo, told Fox News Thursday that the cost is more around $5,000 to $8,000 that people pay the criminal organizations from point of origin to point of destination.

All of the immigrants swept up during the three January busts were in good condition when they were found -- but this is not always the case.

Last July, 10 people died as they were being smuggled through Texas. Thirty-nine immigrants were found packed into a semitrailer in the parking lot of a San Antonio Walmart. Eight were already dead when officials opened the trailer's door and two more died at hospitals.

The truck's refrigeration system wasn't working and the day's temperature had climbed to 101 degrees.

The truck driver, identified as 60-year-old James Mathew Bradley Jr., of Clearwater, Fla., later pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to transporting immigrants resulting in death.

“These criminal organizations view these individuals as mere commodities without regard for their safety,” Gabriel Acosta, assistant chief patrol agent for the Laredo Border Patrol sector, said about the recent incidents. “The blatant disregard for human life will not be tolerated.”

It’s unclear how many tractor-trailers cross the border filled with human cargo and go undetected.

Contreras said they have seen an increase of tractor-trailer cases within the last few months. He said when spring hits, they expect to see an uptick.

In Laredo, border patrol are working to raise awareness among drivers that even though moving human cargo is “a quick buck” that there are consequences including jail time and losing their commercial driver’s license for life.

Vaughn believes law enforcement are seeing more immigrants crossing illegally into the U.S. in these conditions because it has become tougher to move in between the ports of entry. She said under the Trump administration, agents have shifted to patrolling the actual border, especially places where there is no actual border wall.

“We were missing a lot of people crossing the border,” she added.

The Trump administration’s hardline rhetoric and ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration does not appear to be deterring people from making the arduous trek across the southern border – mostly because the incentives awaiting them appear to outweigh the challenges or cost.

“They don’t know the details of the U.S. programs and the law; they just hear that there is going to be amnesty,” Vaughn said, adding that many believe they can work illegally once they make it to the U.S. “We have a moral duty to crackdown on this.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ICE Recent raid Targets 77 businesses in Northern California

Less than a month after federal immigration officials raided nearly 100 7-Eleven stores nationwide, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted another sweep this week in Northern California, officials said Thursday.

This time, ICE agents searched 77 businesses in the San Francisco and Sacramento areas in what was believed to be the largest localized raid since President Donald Trump took office, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The raid underscores ICE acting director Thomas Homan’s call for a “400 percent increase” in agency operations focusing on workplaces, the paper reported.



Unlike the 7-Eleven raids in January, which resulted in 21 arrests, ICE didn’t identify the businesses it this week, nor did the agency make any immediate arrests, the paper reported.

However, federal immigration officials issued notices of inspection, and ordered the businesses to provide proof their employees are legally allowed to work in the U.S. -- giving them three days to comply, the paper reported.

Democratic lawmakers and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had been on edge since a report in the Chronicle last month that federal officials were planning such a raid.

"We will, as always, work with our federal partners in every respect to go after drug dealers, human traffickers, potential terrorists," Becerra said in January. "We're not in the business of deportation. We're in the business of public safety."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

German pilots stopped 222 deportations by refusing to fly, report says

More than 220 deportations were stopped in Germany when pilots tasked with transporting them out of the country refused to fly the plane with them on board, a report says.

Between January and September 2017, a total of 222 planned deportations were classified as “failed” due to a pilots’ refusal to take off, government figures show. Most of the flights were taking people back to Afghanistan, where violence is still rife. Germany deems the Middle Eastern country a “safe country of origin.”

The figures were obtained and released by the Die Linke political party, which is commonly referred to as the Left Party. Westdeutsche Allegeimeine Zeitung newspaper first reported the figures.

It's unclear whether the reason the pilots refused to fly was fear of terrorism or humanitarian concern.

According to the report, some of the grounded flights belonged to Lufthansa Airlines and its subsidiary, Eurowings.

A spokesman for the airline told Westdeutsche Allegeimeine Zeitung that the decision not to carry a passenger ultimately is the pilot’s on a “case-by-case decision.”

“If he has the impression that flight safety could be affected, he must refuse the transport of a passenger,” spokesman Michael Lamberty added. “Should security personnel at the airports have some sort of information in advance which indicates that a situation could escalate during a deportation, they can decide ahead of time not to let the passengers onboard.”

According to the figures, most of the grounded flights occurred at the Frankfurt Airport. Others refused to fly from Cologne and Bonn.

Pilots who refuse to fly on moral ground could face disciplinary measures.

Lufthansa Group spokesman Helmut Tolksford told RBB24 that he was not aware of “any case where one of our pilots has refused to take them for reasons of conscience.”

Donald Trump Put His Weight Behind plan to cut US immigration in half

WASHINGTON — President Trump embraced a proposal Wednesday to slash legal immigration to the United States in half within a decade by sharply curtailing the ability of US citizens and legal residents to bring family members into the country.

The plan would enact the most far-reaching changes to the system of legal immigration in decades and represents the president’s latest effort to stem the flow of newcomers to the United States. Since taking office, he has barred many visitors from select Muslim-majority countries, limited the influx of refugees, increased deportations, and pressed to build a wall along the southern border.

In asking Congress to curb legal immigration, Trump intensified a debate about national identity, economic growth, worker fairness, and American values that animated his campaign last year. Critics said the proposal would undercut the fundamental vision of the United States as a haven for the poor and huddled masses, while the president and his allies said the country had taken in too many low-skilled immigrants for too long to the detriment of American workers.




“This legislation will not only restore our competitive edge in the 21st century, but it will restore the sacred bonds of trust between America and its citizens,” Trump said at a White House event alongside two Republican senators sponsoring the bill. “This legislation demonstrates our compassion for struggling American families who deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first and that puts America first.”
Get Ground Game in your inbox:
Daily updates and analysis on national politics from James Pindell.
Sign Up

In throwing his weight behind a bill, Trump added one more long-odds priority to a legislative agenda already struggling, in the wake of the defeat of legislation to repeal and replace former president Barack Obama’s health care program. The president has vowed to overhaul the tax code and rebuild the nation’s roads, airports, and other infrastructure.

But by endorsing legal immigration cuts, a move he has long supported, Trump returned to a theme that has defined his short political career and excites his conservative base at a time when his poll numbers continue to sink.

Democrats and some Republicans quickly criticized the move. “Instead of catching criminals, Trump wants to tear apart communities and punish immigrant families that are making valuable contributions to our economy,” said Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “That’s not what America stands for.”


The bill, sponsored by Senators Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, and David Perdue, Republican of Georgia, would institute a merit-based system to determine who is admitted to the country and granted legal residency green cards, favoring applicants based on skills, education, and language ability rather than relations with people already here. The proposal revives an idea included in broader immigration legislation supported by President George W. Bush that died in 2007.

More than 1 million people are granted legal residency each year, and the proposal would reduce that by 41 percent in its first year and 50 percent by its 10th year, according to projections cited by its sponsors. The reductions would come largely from those brought in through family connections. The number of immigrants granted legal residency on the basis of job skills, about 140,000, would remain roughly the same.

Under the current system, most legal immigrants are admitted to the United States based on family ties. US citizens can sponsor spouses, parents, and minor children for an unrestricted number of visas, while siblings and adult children are given preferences for a limited number of visas available to them.
Donald Trump Put His Weight Behind plan to cut US immigration in half
Legal permanent residents holding green cards can also sponsor spouses and children.

In 2014, 64 percent of immigrants admitted with legal residency were immediate relatives of US citizens or sponsored by family members. Just 15 percent entered through employment-based preferences, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an independent research organization.

But that does not mean that those who came in on family ties were necessarily low skilled or uneducated.

The legislation would award points based on education, ability to speak English, high-paying job offers, age, record of achievement, and entrepreneurial initiative. But while it would still allow spouses and minor children of Americans and legal residents to come in, it would eliminate preferences for other relatives, like siblings and adult children. The bill would create a renewable temporary visa for older-adult parents who come for caretaking purposes.

The legislation would limit refugees offered permanent residency to 50,000 a year and eliminate a diversity visa lottery that the sponsors said does not promote diversity.

The projections cited by the sponsors said legal immigration would decrease to 637,960 after a year and to 539,958 after a decade.

Cotton said low-skilled immigrants push down wages for those who worked with their hands. “For some people, they may think that that’s a symbol of America’s virtue and generosity,” he said. “I think it’s a symbol that we’re not committed to working-class Americans and we need to change that.”

But Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, noted that agriculture and tourism were his state’s top two industries. “If this proposal were to become law, it would be devastating to our state’s economy, which relies on this immigrant workforce,” he said.

The National Immigration Forum, an advocacy group, said the country was already facing a workforce gap of 7.5 million jobs by 2020.

The plan endorsed by Trump generated a fiery exchange at the White House briefing when Stephen Miller, the president’s policy adviser, defended the proposal. Pressed for statistics to back up claims that immigration was costing Americans jobs, he cited several studies that have been debated by experts.

“But let’s also use common sense here, folks,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, why do special interests want to bring in more low-skill workers?”

When a reporter read him some of the words from the Statue of Liberty — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — Miller dismissed them. “The poem that you’re referring to was added later,” he said. “It’s not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty.”

US Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, condemned Trump’s push to reduce legal immigration.

Instead of focusing on xenophobic half measures, the Trump administration should support comprehensive immigration reform and help create a pathway to citizenship for the millions of immigrants who are our family members, neighbors, co-workers, and friends,” Markey said.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said the Trump approach “makes no sense.’’

“We need comprehensive immigration reform, not shortsighted policies that pick on refugees and legal immigrants — and don’t fix any of the actual problems with our immigration system,” she said.

Governor Charlie Baker’s spokeswoman released a statement that praised the value of immigration but did not directly address whether Baker supports or opposes the bill. Baker called on Washington to “fix the broken immigration system and secure our borders with comprehensive, bipartisan legislation.’’

Hollywood Celebs Are Panicking As Trump Edges Closer To Victory. See Photos of Their Sorrowful Reactions Here.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PHOTOS

There was misery for Hillary Clinton's band of Hollywood megafans as the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency appeared likely. 

Many of them, including Lena Dunham, Miley Cyrus and Amy Schumer, have said they will leave the United States if Trump was elected. 

Canada took to Twitter to welcome them, writing that immigrants are 'encouraged to bring their cultural traditions with them and share them with their fellow citizens.' 

And the country's immigration website kept crashing as a Trump victory looked imminent and thousands went online seeking a way out of the country.

It came as Clinton superfan Katy Perry revealed her parents voted for Trump, while her Hollywood pals began to panic on Twitter that the election results weren't going the Democratic nominee's way. 

But Dunham posted a video on Instagram at around 11pm, in which she and Lady Gaga told their followers: 'We still believe.'