As promised in a previous blog post, here's videographer Dennis Gilman's take on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's anti-immigration worksite raids on two locations of the local Uncle Sam's restaurant chain.
The video includes interviews we did with two of the workers arrested by the MCSO. These were two of five men, against whom the Maricopa County Attorney's Office ultimately decided not to pursue charges.
Those five men were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which subsequently released them with pending immigration hearings.
See Also: Arpaio Fires Up Hispanic-Hunting Raids, Going After the Smallest Fish He Can Find Joe Arpaio, Bill Montgomery and the Five Undocumented Workers Who Got Away Joe Arpaio Retaliates Against Katherine Figueroa, Hits Uncle Sam's with Immigration Raid
They are the lucky ones. Four Uncle Sam's workers remain in county jail charged with ID theft and forgery. They are being held nonbondable under the dictates of Prop 100.
Gilman's latest, documenting Arpaio's recent raid on the Uncle Sam's restaurant chain
Ironically, the five released by ICE likely will be able to score temporary work permits and driver's licenses as their cases wind through the immigration courts over the next couple of years.
Katherine Figueroa in the 2009 viral video that first began telling her story
Those not released may be in Arpaio's jails for months, if they fight the charges.
As Gilman makes clear, the Uncle Sam's raid was obvious retaliation for the case involving now 13 year-old Katherine Figueroa's parents. ICE recently decided to close that high-profile case, and that decision received significant publicity locally and from the New York Times.
Discerning viewers will note that Channel 12 used in its report Gilman's 2009 viral video of Katherine, during which she pleaded with President Obama to help her mom and dad.
Katherine had just watched her parents, both workers at a local car wash, on TV news as they were zip-tied and perp-walked by MCSO deputies during an immigration raid.
She later became the heroine of the award-winning documentary Two Americans. She also participated in pro-immigration marches and testified about her experiences before Congress.
