Thread: FL-Should Florida follow Arizona's lead on immigration?

Should Florida follow Arizona's lead on immigration?


Should local police get involved in immigration enforcement?


State Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, said he is considering introducing a bill in Florida similar to Arizona's controversial new immigration law. It would authorize local and state law officers to question people about their immigration status if they're suspected of being here illegally. Should Florida follow Arizona's lead and adopt a similar law?

Yes. Illegal immigration is a pressing concern, and law officers are in a good position to combat the problem. (105 responses)

86.1%

No. Local law enforcement officers have their hands full as it is, and have no business inquiring about people's immigration status. (17 responses)

13.9%

122 total responses

(Results not scientific)

Ben Johnson By Anthony Colarossi

9:52 p.m. EDT, May 29, 2010

Dropping crime rates, safer streets, community policing, hero cops. These are issues local law enforcement leaders like to discuss.

Immigration enforcement? Not so much.

Yet the role police departments and sheriff's offices should play in the enforcement of federal immigration law is becoming a part of a sticky national debate.

Last week, former police officer and chair of the state House Criminal and Civil Justice Committee, Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, said he is considering introducing a bill in Florida similar to Arizona's controversial new immigration law. It would authorize local and state law officers to question people about their immigration status if they're suspected of being here illegally.

Already Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott has made adoption of an Arizona-type law here a key part of his campaign.

"If you break the law, then law enforcement should be able to ask for identification that shows you are in the United States legally," Scott has said.

In 2009, Florida ranked third in the nation with an estimated 720,000 unauthorized residents, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Only California and Texas had larger illegal immigrant populations.

Immigrant advocates point out that being here illegally does not equate to being a criminal, although that position is often challenged in the political rhetoric. And Arizona's law — now the subject of several lawsuits — criminalizes being in the country illegally.

Ultimately, any change in Florida's law would have a direct local impact.

However, many law officers in Central Florida hesitated to talk about the issue despite potential ramifications for their departments.

While sheriff's offices in Orange, Lake and Volusia responded to questions, most did not. Sheriff's offices in Seminole, Osceola and Polk counties declined. So did Orlando Police Chief Val Demings.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings' spokesman Capt. Angelo Nieves said their department focuses on fighting and investigating local and state crimes. If deputies learn a criminal suspect may also be living here illegally, Nieves said they contact the proper federal authorities and jail officials.

"We're not going to stretch our resources into federal enforcement," he said

As for the department's position on bringing an Arizona-like law to Florida, Nieves said: "At this point the Sheriff cannot speculate on something that has not occurred."

Opinions divided

Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Gary Davidson said that a Florida law addressing immigration could be "helpful," but Sheriff Ben Johnson's department would object to a law requiring locals to take on immigration enforcement.

"A law mandating that we enforce federal immigration law could have negative impacts on local law enforcement and the public," Davidson said in an e-mail.

Lake County Sheriff Gary Borders said he, too, would welcome immigration enforcement authority without a mandate on his deputies.

"I think that the immigration enforcement authority, along with discretion in how it's used, would be a good tool for local law enforcement agencies," Borders said in an e-mail.

He said Florida's officers have discretion in how they use their authority and added, "I wouldn't want any of that to be taken away."

Some police departments argue federal immigration enforcement undermine their core missions, said Wendy Feliz Sefsaf of the American Immigration Council.

"It [Arizona's law] goes against all the goals of community policing," she said. "There's definitely law enforcement out there saying this kind of thing doesn't work."

In fact, last week police chiefs from Los Angeles, Tucson, Houston, Philadelphia and other cities, met with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and said laws like Arizona's would lead to increases in crime.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said Arizona's law "will likely hinder" federal efforts to detain and remove "dangerous criminal aliens." Calling for immigration reform on the national level, she said "this issue cannot be solved by a patchwork of inconsistent state laws."

Scott and others on Florida's political stage argue the federal government has forced some states to take measures of their own by failing to adopt national reform.

Some programs in place

Still, local policing agencies already have several mechanisms in place to assist federal immigration officials when they come in contact with someone whose immigration status is suspect.

Immigrant advocates like Sefsaf say these programs render Arizona's law and those like it unnecessary.

"You've got the tools at your hand," she said. "Why not use those rather than go to an SB 1070 [the Arizona law] type model?"

Volusia deputies don't routinely investigate the immigration status of people they encounter, but they notify federal officials after arresting someone thought to be undocumented or in the country illegally.

"This is an appropriate role for local law enforcement to help ensure that illegal immigrants who commit crimes are brought to the attention of federal authorities for possible deportation proceedings," Davidson noted.

In Lake County, deputies took that role a step farther by gaining federal immigration detainers out in the field for people they had stopped but not arrested on criminal charges. That practice brought complaints of racial profiling and appears to have decreased in frequency.

But Borders said securing the detainers continues "on a case-by-case basis."

"Depending upon the situation, a deputy may request a telephone screening by Border Patrol of someone the deputy suspects of being here illegally," Borders stated.

More formally, the so-called 287(g) program allows local departments to have officers who are cross-trained to carry out some immigration enforcement functions. No Central Florida departments are in that program, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Nicole Navas said.

3 counties had illegal 'hits'

Most Central Florida counties participate in another federal effort aimed at identifying and deporting illegal immigrants who are arrested on local charges and have prior criminal convictions.

Orange, Osceola, Polk, Lake, Brevard, Volusia and Marion all cooperate in the "Secure Communities" program. Jails in those counties submit the fingerprints of all arrestees — not just those whose immigration status is questioned — to be matched against a Homeland Security database.

Federal officials look for "hits" on arrestees who have prior criminal convictions in this country and who also are suspected of living here illegally.

"Local law enforcement assists us in identifying these individuals that come into their custody," Navas said. "They have to be arrested for some kind of crime they committed in the community."

Borders called the program "efficient and effective" and said "immigration enforcement authority on the local level would be a nice compliment to such programs."

Secure Communities is relatively new here. Several Central Florida counties joined earlier this year. As of April 30, three counties turned up "criminal aliens" to be removed, according to the most recent statistics available.

Marion had 22 hits, Brevard six and Lake four.

However, eight people identified in the three counties were considered Level 1 offenders, with convictions for violent felonies such as murder, kidnapping and rape, Navas said.

Local law enforcement agencies across Florida and the Southeast also assisted federal authorities in a major sweep last month resulting in the arrests of 596 illegal immigrants with prior criminal convictions.

More than 250 arrests were in Florida, including cities such as Orlando, Eustis, Deltona, Deland, Kissimmee and Clermont.

Navas said local departments may assist federal authorities in such large-scale operations by notifying them about prisoner releases, sharing information about jurisdictions they know best and securing the areas around arrest scenes.

"It could have been any number of things, the way they assisted us," Navas said.

Anthony Colarossi can be reached at acolarossi@orlandosentinel.com



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Should Florida follow Arizona's lead on immigration?
State Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, said he is considering introducing a bill in Florida similar to Arizona's controversial new immigration law. It would authorize local and state law officers to question people about their immigration status if they're suspected of being here illegally. Should Florida follow Arizona's lead and adopt a similar law?

Yes. Illegal immigration is a pressing concern, and law officers are in a good position to combat the problem. (106 responses)

86%

No. Local law enforcement officers have their hands full as it is, and have no business inquiring about people's immigration status. (17 responses)

14%

123 total responses

Should Florida follow Arizona's lead and adopt a similar law?

Yes. Illegal immigration is a pressing concern, and law officers are in a good position to combat the problem. (130 responses)

88%

No. Local law enforcement officers have their hands full as it is, and have no business inquiring about people's immigration status. (18 responses)

12%

148 total responses

Should Florida follow Arizona's lead on immigration?

Yes. Illegal immigration is a pressing concern, and law officers are in a good position to combat the problem. (139 responses) 88%

No. Local law enforcement officers have their hands full as it is, and have no business inquiring about people's immigration status. (19 responses) 12%

158 total responses