By Wilson Ring, Associated Press
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - At 6:34 p.m. on Aug. 24 a call to a federal immigration tip line at the Law Enforcement Support Center in Williston told of a woman in Wisconsin who had been held as an indentured servant for 20 years.
Officials at the center, a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, passed on the information to agents in Milwaukee.
Earlier this week two physicians from Brookfield, Wis., were indicted in Milwaukee on federal charges that they held a woman from the Philippines for 20 years without paying her.
The tip that led to Filipina maid Erma Martinez was one of 27,671 tips from across the country that reached the center in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The center also answered nearly 670,000 requests for information from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the country, up 12.5 percent over the previous year.
“It’s one of those things. The more people use it, the more efficient it is and the better able we are to protect the nation and the nation’s security,” said center chief J. Scott Blackman.
The center is a part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
The center provides support to law enforcement agencies nationwide by researching and providing information on the immigration status of foreign nationals who are the subject of police investigations.
For example, if a police officer in Texas stops a driver that he suspects is an illegal immigrant he can query the support center about the individual. The officer can have an answer back in minutes.
The officer can learn the individual has a criminal record, is in the country illegally after overstaying a visa and needs to be detained so federal agents can take him into custody or has nothing outstanding against him.
Calls and computer inquiries come from across the country. Last year the center received 180,000 inquires from California and another 79,000 from Florida. There were 790 requests from Vermont.
While the focus is on helping law enforcement, the center is also set up to receive tips about immigration cases. The number is 866 DHS-2ICE.
The center employs about 300 people, most of whom were hired and trained locally.
“Men and women from the Champlain valley are having an impact in all 50 states,” Blackman said.
In the Wisconsin case, Jefferson N. and Elnora M. Calimlim are facing federal charges of harboring an illegal immigrant and conspiracy to harbor an illegal immigrant. Their attorney denied the allegations and said the maid’s pay was sent to her family in the Philippines. The Calimlins were freed without bail.