Thread: Illegal is not a crime? Double standard or incompetence

Illegal is not a crime? Double standard or incompetence?
We wonder sometimes if we have a problem of a "double standard" or "incompetence?" Last time we checked it was a "crime" to be in our country illegally, and it is a "crime" to aid or abet an individual in our country illegally.
Take look at statements such as:

"Our job is crime control and public safety," he said. "Our focus is not everybody's immigration status."

But don't blame the police. They are just trying to their jobs - as they are instructed to. These instructions are coming from your elected officials who are responsible for establishing "policy."

After all it is only your tax dollars that pay for the social costs associated with illegal immigration. If they run low on these tax dollars they just raise your taxes, or decrease some service to compensate. Besides, companies, corporations and special interests that benefit from cheap labor help get these officials re-elected - so they can continue to ignore the law when desired.



Jailers may check immigration status under plan
Officials stress that illegals facing charges, not victims, would be subject to deportation

By Dan Galindo
JOURNAL REPORTER






When Angel Saguilan was found shot in a parking lot near his apartment building on New Year's Day, the discovery started a difficult homicide investigation for Winston-Salem police.
Investigators are sorting through evidence from an outdoor crime scene, which could have been altered by weather, or passers-by.

Police say they recovered bullet casings, but it isn't clear how many were connected to his death. Neighbors and his wife say they don't know anyone he had crossed, and it doesn't appear that Saguilan, 27, had a criminal record.

"We haven't received any promising leads and we're just hopeful to get to the bottom of what happened, but we're nowhere near that yet," Capt. David Clayton, who oversees the Criminal Investigations Division, said Friday.

The death of Saguilan, who was here illegally, also highlights the type of investigation that could become more difficult to solve in the coming years. That's because local officials are interested in a program that joins local law-enforcement officers with federal authorities to check the immigration status of anyone arrested in Forsyth County who jailers have reason to believe may not be here legally.

Those found to be here illegally would be charged with immigration violations, starting the process to deport them.

By current practice, local police check into immigration status of people arrested only in certain felony cases, or investigations of gang members.

District Attorney Tom Keith, Sheriff Bill Schatzman and Forsyth County commissioners have said they're interested in such a program to do more checks, although they have not figured out the details of how to make it work.

Forsyth officials say that the program they are interested in would most likely resemble the one at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Jail.

Jailers there have been trained by the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to check the immigration status of people they suspect are here illegally.

Alamance and Gaston counties also have entered agreements with ICE.

The benefits far outweigh any drawbacks, local law-enforcement officials said in interviews last week, but they acknowledged that it could heighten fears of law enforcement within immigrant communities, notably the local Hispanic community.

Some say that may not be a bad thing.

"Maybe it would open up their eyes to take the laws of this country seriously," County Commissioner Debra Conrad said.

A key distinction, local officials stressed, is that any immigration program would apply only when someone has been arrested for a crime - police say they do not want to check the immigration status of victims of crimes or witnesses.

"We make it a point, basically, not to broach that subject because we don't want to lose that cooperation" with witnesses and victims, said Lt. Brad Yandell, a spokesman for Winston-Salem police.

"Our job is crime control and public safety," he said. "Our focus is not everybody's immigration status."

Law enforcement already has immense challenges working with the community of recent Hispanic illegal immigrants, as many have learned to distrust officers because of their experiences in their home countries, Schatzman said.

"Think of the domestic-violence issues, the husband perpetually beating the wife, and she (feels) she can't say anything because he's not here legally and neither is she," he said.

In Saguilan's killing, his neighbors and family said they feel comfortable talking to police because they know that their status here is not an issue.

"We didn't do anything," said Yolanda Dominguez-Dieges, Saguilan's wife. "The one who did this, they should take him away."

If local law enforcement began checking immigration status, even if only at the jail, that might be worrisome, neighbors and friends said.

"That's why a lot of people don't talk to police, because they fear deportation," said one neighbor, who would not give her name because she is here illegally.

In Charlotte, jailers have charged nearly 1,000 people with immigration violations since April, and at least 128 have been deported.

Charlotte police say they have seen some anecdotal evidence that the program is making victims or witnesses who are illegal immigrants more hesitant to work with officers, said Julie Hill, a spokeswoman for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

"I think we certainly have a sense that that's happening," she said, adding that some of the chilling effect could be due to the national debate on immigration and local immigration raids.

Still, police strongly support the program at the jail, she said, since it focuses on people arrested.

"We're not interested in your immigration status here, unless you're committing crimes - then we're very interested," she said.

In Forsyth, county officials say they are likely to discuss the program in the next budget season. It would probably require opening an unused floor at the jail.

"Hopefully, it will be federally funded," said Gloria Whisenhunt, the chairwoman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, "but I've learned in the past that nothing is free."

• Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.


Source: http://www.winstonsalemjournal.com

Welcome Chairman

I believe it's both and not enforcing our nations laws is treasonous.