Thread: Deputies told not to inquire about citizenship status

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Not in Hidalgo County

Deputies told not to inquire about citizenship status

BY CARI HAMMERSTROM
The Monitor

EDINBURG — A new policy on illegal immigration went into effect at the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department this week, clarifying in writing what has only been “common practice” so far.

“Deputies shall not make inquiries as to the citizenship status of any person, nor will deputies detain or arrest persons solely on the belief that they are in this country illegally,” the policy states.

The policy, modeled after the one that has existed at the Houston Police Department for more than 24 years, is a step forward for an office that has been behind the times, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.

“Now’s the time to reduce it to writing, to make it official,” he said.

Although the order comes at a time when some border sheriff’s departments are coming under fire by members of the Texas Senate’s Hispanic Caucus — particularly Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa — for setting up road blocks to allegedly catch undocumented immigrants, Treviño said his policy wasn’t formalized in response to the controversy.

However, Treviño — who has had ideological differences with the other 15 members of the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition and who has recently stood out as the coalition’s black sheep — did say he does not agree with the road blocks conducted in El Paso County. His disagreement is based on questions of legality and civil rights issues, he said.

According to the letter Hinojosa sent to Gov. Rick Perry late last week, El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego “is setting up roadblocks and asking the vehicle occupants for driver’s licenses, car insurance information, and social security cards.

“These raids and roadblocks are questionable in their legality, may give rise to civil rights lawsuits against Texas and will distract local law enforcement from focusing on criminal activity such as drug trafficking and violent crime,” the letter stated.

The Associated Press reported that Rick Glancey, the coalition’s former interim director and spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department, said Hinojosa’s letter was politically motivated.

Glancey said checkpoints are designed to keep unlicensed and uninsured drivers off the road and “have long been used by police agencies.”

Houston Police Department spokesman Lt. Robert Manzo, however, said roadblocks are rarely used in their department, one of the largest in the state. The legality of such roadblocks is often challenged, he said.

Most major police or sheriff’s departments have immigration policies, he added.

“It all goes back to the community policing idea, that you have to have the trust and line of communication of people who live in your area … regardless of how they got there,” Manzo said.

Former chairman and current director of the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition, Sigi Gonzalez, said he agrees that trust is the key, and he said he is not in the business of rounding up undocumented immigrants in Zapata County, where he is the sheriff. He doesn’t believe his El Paso counterpart is in the business of that either.

The roadblocks are not for the purpose of checking on immigration status, he said. They are done to see if people have insurance and driver’s licenses, but if someone comes across with some marijuana, “Are you going to let them go?”

“The real purpose (of the roadblocks) is to look for terrorists and weapons of mass destruction,” Gonzalez said, but not undocumented immigrants.

“Our deputies are not going to violate any rights,” he said, calling the letter from Hinojosa — a legislator who “tries to tie the hands of law enforcement” — unwelcome, but hardly a surprise.

The governor’s office’s response to Hinojosa’s letter has been nothing so far because “to our knowledge, there’s been no misuse of the funds,” said Rachael Novier, referring to Operation Linebacker grants. Hinojosa alleges that El Paso County deputies are using this money to conduct their roadblocks or as he calls them “immigration raids.”

The $367,500 each county got is only a small part of the El Paso County’s overall budget. Operation Linebacker funds are to be used to deter border crime, which may be a byproduct of illegal immigration, by increasing patrols and technology, Novier said. The funding has been used for that purpose, she said.

“I plan to do some myself in the very near future,” Gonzalez said.

Zapata County’s unwritten policy is the same as the written ones in major police departments, and now, the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department.

The bottom line, Treviño said, is that Texas peace officers are obliged to follow the code of criminal procedures. It is clearly not the duty of a peace officer to detain solely based on immigration status. And he wanted to make the department’s position unmistakable, even if it’s a well-accepted practice among most law enforcement agencies.

“If we deviate from this, we put ourselves in a litigious position,” he said. “Everybody is offered equal protection under the law.

“That’s what makes this country so great.”

This whole issue is stupid. Post 9-11 if someone does not present ID or is suspected of having fake ID, they can be detained until their ID can be verified. OK, so we hold the illegals until we can ID them and Deport them.

Dixie

Ditto, re post 9/11 issues. How can illegals have the RIGHT to litigate? They have the right to be deported.