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‘Out of control’ Immigration laws make local enforcement a joke
By Casey Ross
Boston Herald Reporter

Monday, June 5, 2006 - Updated: 10:01 AM EST

Police officials statewide are decrying revolving-door treatment of illegal immigrants they are forced to release when overwhelmed federal authorities fail to take action, a Herald review found.

Immigration and the law
Police fear backlash in crime-fighting
ICE query statistics

Even in cases when cops verify a person is illegal, police chiefs say their officers often can do nothing because federal immigration agents with the power to detain them are seldom available to respond.

“It’s out of control,” Wakefield Police Chief Rick Smith said. “A lot of them (illegal immigrants) are running around gainfully employed and it’s tough to get a handle on it. We have to operate within the rules.”

The nation’s rules on immigration enforcement discourage local police from becoming involved because authority is almost exclusively vested in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency empowered to detain illegals and initiate deportation proceedings.

During the past few years, high demand on the agency has forced it to focus most of its resources on smuggling rings, employers who hire illegals on a massive scale and other felony cases.

In fact, the agency’s focus on the worst criminal elements has become so pronounced that increasingly rare efforts to enforce immigration laws in non-felony cases can provoke a public outcry. In Chelsea, the recent arrest and potential deportation of a former high school honors student, Mario Rodas, 19, has led to a campaign by public officials to keep him in the United States.

Chelsea police said Rodas, who was detained during a search for other criminal fugitives, was never known to be involved in any illegal activity, and some say his arrest symbolizes the maddening inconsistency local police must deal with on a daily basis.

“We clearly need some direction from the federal government,” Lowell Police Superintendent Ed Davis said. “The policy we have in place is not to enforce immigration laws unless an attendant felony is involved.”

Davis and other officials said they do not blame ICE for having to prioritize their cases and many praised the agency’s national Law Enforcement Support Center, a Vermont-based office that responds to queries from local police and runs criminal history checks on suspected illegals. In each of the past two years, ICE has processed more than 10,000 electronic queries from Massachusetts police departments alone, according to agency statistics.

However, out of the large volumes of queries, only 254 in the past 18 months have caused ICE to lodge detainers that allow Massachusetts authorities to hold illegal aliens for further enforcement action. ICE officials say such comparisons are invalid because of the vast array of possible results to each individual query.

“The person (police are asking about) might not even be illegal,” said Mike Gilhooly, regional communications director for ICE. He and other officials said the agency also has multiple ways of responding to queries, such as referring the case to a regional office if a decision is made not to lodge a “detainer” order or immediately deploy agents.

“Even if we’re not arresting, ICE does end up taking follow-up action,” said Matthew Etre, acting special agent in charge of investigation in New England. “Police may not always be aware of that contact. It may occur in a week. It may occur in a month.”





cross@bostonherald.com.

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Casey Ross

Boston Herald Reporter





Alma Rosa Cota, an agent of Beta Group, the Mexican border patrol, receiving illegal immigrants deported by the US. (File)




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