After lawsuit, local cops defend relationship with federal immigration enforcement

Gabe Hernandez
Uninsured under watch
FILE PHOTO -- State Trooper Johnny Hernandez looks through his computer, which contains up-to-date information from more than 200 insurance companies in McAllen in July 2009.


Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino

Jacob Fischler | The Monitor The Monitor
Posted on June 15, 2013
A lawsuit filed on behalf of a slain woman against immigration agents in federal court this month has immigrant activists hoping to change the dynamic between undocumented immigrants, local police and federal immigration agents.
Filed June 5, the lawsuit revolves around a 2009 incident when a Texas Department of Public Safety officer stopped a car carrying three undocumented immigrants for a minor traffic violation. All three were asked for their immigration paperwork, and eventually deported — without the benefit of an immigration hearing.
One of the immigrants in that car was killed by her violent ex-boyfriend within days of returning to Mexico. She reportedly pled with immigration officials not to force her back across the border, but her cries were ignored, her attorneys claim.
DPS spokesman Sgt. Johnny Hernandez said the state trooper in that case acted appropriately.
“When we do a traffic stop, we identify almost everybody to make sure the person’s not wanted,” He said.
While the woman’s lawyers are not necessarily trying to change any existing policies (“How about just respecting the law that’s already there? That’s what makes me tear my hair out,” attorney Jennifer Harbury said), the cooperation of local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities has upset some, who claim it undermines the trust community members need to place in their local police and federal agencies in the Rio Grande Valley, like Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I don’t know how many thousand Border Patrol agents and ICE agents in the Valley now,” said Joseph Martin, a lawyer with the South Texas Civil Rights Project representing the slain woman’s family. “I think local police authorities have plenty to do without carrying out things that are in federal jurisdiction.”
Approximately 2,500 U.S. Border Patrol officers are stationed in the Rio Grande Valley sector, which covers U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley to north of Corpus Christi.
Local authorities believe they must work together with officials from immigration enforcement agencies.
“I’m a big proponent of the Secure Communities Program,” Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said of the federal initiative that fingerprints all detainees at local jails and uses that information to check for possible immigration law violations. “Because without a doubt, there are people who come to the United States illegally with nefarious intent.”
The sheriff said cooperation with federal authorities does not undermine community members’ trust in local law enforcement, because it keeps everyone safer, regardless of immigration status.
“This is the way I explain it to them: ‘Do you want a pedophile, a child molester, a murderer, a criminal living next door to you? If he’s endangering your family, don’t you want him out?’”
But Treviño qualified his attitude, saying his office does not have the authority to enforce immigration laws.
Asked if his deputies would ever ask for immigration documents during a traffic stop — as the lawsuit accuses the DPS trooper in the traffic stop that led to the woman’s deportation and murder — Treviño was clear:
“Absolutely not, and that’s against our policy,” he said. “It really surprises me that that a state trooper would do something like that.”

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_faf8f90a-d616-11e2-a2ce-001a4bcf6878.html