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Inland Cal. Immigration Checkpoints in Camo?

March 13, 2012 (1 min read)

"On a spring morning in 2010, Leticia dropped two of her children at their Escondido school and continued on to run errands with her 4-year-old daughter. Before long, she was stopped at a police checkpoint. According to retired San Diego police officer Carlos Ronquillo, who witnessed the incident, Escondido Police were conducting a DUI checkpoint at 9:30 in the morning. Because she did not have a driver’s license, Leticia (not her real name) was suspected of being an undocumented immigrant and officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were notified. Ronquillo watched as Leticia was handcuffed and separated from her 4 year old, a U.S. citizen. Within hours, the 34-year-old mother of four was taken to an immigration holding facility, processed, and deported to Tijuana. After living in Escondido for more than 10 years, Leticia was separated from her four children for the first time. Critics say Escondido used the state-financed DUI checkpoints mostly as a means to crack down on undocumented immigrants." - John Carlos Frey, Mar. 12, 2012.