http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060504/ap_ ... NlYwN0bQ--

TIFTON, Ga. - Since the home-invasion killings of six Mexican immigrants last fall, the police chief in this quiet farm town has tried to win the trust of the thousands of immigrants who come to south Georgia to pick peanuts, peaches, and cotton in the rolling fields.

Four people have been arrested in the slayings, but authorities believe others in the area are committing similar crimes, preying on illegal immigrants who sometimes carry lots of cash because they lack bank accounts.

Chief Jim Smith has stepped up patrols in the trailer parks where most immigrants live, worked to recruit Spanish-speaking officers and given others cheat sheets with basic phrases in Spanish.

But he has run into a roadblock: Legislative pressure to enforce immigration laws that adds to illegal immigrants' fears that any run-in with even local police could lead to deportation.

"We've some strong concerns that if they think we're INS, we'll never gain their trust," Smith said, referring to the former name for the federal immigration enforcement agency. "We work real hard to gain their trust and don't want to jeopardize that if we can."

Many local law enforcement officers across the country share that concern as are urged to take on immigration duties mostly delegated to federal authorities, but others are embracing the new role.

Some federal officials say they need at least some of the nation's more than 660,000 police officers and sheriff's deputies to help crack down on illegal immigrants, especially those who are convicted criminals.

"Immigration and Customs Enforcement is vastly undermanned right now. It's not able to effectively scan the whole country," said Kris Kobach, a former counsel to the U.S. attorney general who worked on several local-federal immigration partnerships. "You've got 2,000 people whose full-time responsibility is to look for those 11 to 12 million (illegal immigrants). Even if a very small proportion of officers help only passively, that's a huge help."

A new Georgia immigration law, considered one of the nation's toughest, requires local officers to check the immigration status of anyone arrested for a felony or drunken driving. It also makes Georgia the first state directed by law to enter into an agreement with the federal government to train local officers so they can start the deportation process for any illegal immigrants found during normal law enforcement activities, like traffic stops or drug busts.

Congress and at least 14 other states have been working on similar legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.