In one raid, "they entered, they handcuffed 12 people into pairs, asking them whether they had weapons or drugs," Campos says. "A number of people were taken in.
"I think many were deported or signed for voluntary departure," Campos says.
Saucedo says her office also has videotaped footage of one of the Mission Street apartments as it appeared after immigration agents allegedly ransacked it.
"It was upside-down by the time the INS agents were through," Saucedo says.
INS Director Schiltgen says he is unaware of any wrongdoing by his agents in the Mission raids.
"I've heard all sorts of wild and crazy accusations with regard to things that went down there," Schiltgen says. "We did not have keys to those apartments -- at least to the best of my knowledge. My understanding was we had received consent to enter into a number of apartments."
"We might encounter somebody who's an illegal alien, where they have a document that they claim to have in their residence," Schiltgen says. "[The immigrant] is escorted back into a residence. But we will only go into a residence either with a warrant or with their consent. People take us into their apartments at times. But we will only go in with proper authority and with consent."
Despite the allegations of heavy-handedness in the raids, some immigration attorneys praise Schiltgen as a trustworthy official who is open to hearing their concerns.
"He brings a human face to the agency," says Stephen Rosenbaum, an attorney with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. "I think he's really trying to have good public relations and means well. I think most people who've met with him have found him to be personable and interested in the good-guy part of INS -- the part that puts out the welcome mat and not the part that has to close the door."
Campos, the attorney for the Lawyers Committee, agrees that Schiltgen is personable. However, she says he has yet to honor a promise, made during the September meeting, to produce manuals on procedures INS agents are supposed to follow in raids.
"He was very open when he met with us," she says of the September meeting. "It led to the feeling that we would have some mutual cooperation. I don't understand why it's taking them so long to produce their handbook for their patrol officers."
Kindly though Schiltgen may be, Campos says, she and her colleagues will not be satisfied with a non-answer -- much less a "no" -- from the INS.
"It's surprising that it's happening in San Francisco," Campos says of the raids. "People are still shocked when law enforcement enters a house without a warrant. But we're in a really bad anti-immigrant period. So that kind of sentiment leads to these kinds of acts generally.
