Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office employee owns home where undocumented immigrants arrested
By Kennedy Mason
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SARASOTA, Florida (WBBH) — The owner of a home where eight undocumented immigrants were arrested is a Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office employee.
Deputies were looking to arrest Jorge Pineda on a warrant for assaulting a Border Patrol agent. When deputies arrived, they said Pineda attacked them.
That’s when the other seven tried to run away from the home on Little Falls Avenue to avoid getting caught. They were arrested for trespassing.
However, one of their family members, Emilize Rodriguez, said they were just worried about being deported.
“I feel like there should be justice for the ones that were only trespassing because all they were doing was trying to work,” Rodriguez said.
On Tuesday, family members came to clean out the house.
“Today, we came back for the belongings of my stepfather so we can take them back and continue the work out there because without him being here, we can’t provide for ourselves. So we need his material. We need his belongings,” Rodriguez said.
Immigration attorney Ricardo Skerrett said the owner should be responsible.
“Landlords have to be more careful because, for example, if that place was being used to traffic drugs, then according to the law, the government can even take over the property,” Skerrett said.
Skerrett said the situation when officials can arrest everyone is called collateral damage.
“If they’re undocumented, they end up being also placed in removal proceedings if they haven’t committed any crimes. They’ll go directly to an immigration detention center,” he said.
He said this situation is common.
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