Thread: CA-Imm advocates, crackdown on unlicensed drivers unfair

Immigrant advocates say crackdown on unlicensed drivers unfair



Download story podcast



11:08 PM PDT on Saturday, May 15, 2010

By JULISSA McKINNON



Video: Checkpoint Checkmate


Photo Gallery: Checkpoint checkmate

Adrianna Castellon, 16, stood on the sidewalk of a busy Moreno Valley street on a recent school night, yelling at cars rushing past.

"Checkpoint! Checkpoint ahead!" she screamed. "Turn back while you can!"

The high school student was among protesters hoping to help illegal immigrants whose vehicles were about to be impounded by police because they were driving without a license. California law got tougher in 1993, requiring a social security card and other identification to get a license and barring most illegal immigrants from applying.

Police checkpoints, such as this one in Perris, face a backlash from people who say that they unfairly target unlicensed illegal immigrants who can have their cars impounded for up to 30 days. Police say they are breaking the law and are a risk to the public.
Now the stricter license requirements and a rising number of checkpoints across the Inland area and state are stirring controversy that has reached a fever pitch in some cities with a large Latino population.

Critics say most Inland checkpoints economically punish illegal immigrants whose cars often are impounded for 30 days -- the maximum time allowed -- and can ill afford the approximately $2,000 to retrieve the vehicle. Protesters point out that drunken drivers usually lose their car for only one day. They say racial profiling is at play where checkpoints are placed.

Inland authorities said softer penalties, such as citations, for unlicensed drivers don't work because many illegal immigrants lack identification and can't be found if they skip court. Police say impounding cars is needed to deal with drivers without licenses, who account for about 40 percent of the nation's hit-and-run crashes based on statistics of hit-and-run drivers who were caught. And police say that traffic volume, not a neighborhood's racial composition, determines checkpoint locations.

"Usually people only see the fact that we're creating a monster for them and we're taking their car and taking their livelihood," said Perris police Sgt. Dan Lingo, who supervises the city's checkpoints. "The other side of it is they're breaking California law and they become a risk to the public."

Under community pressure, a few cities have dropped month-long car confiscation for a first-time unlicensed driving offense and instead hand out citations or do a one-day tow.

The California Office of Traffic Safety is calling 2010 the "year of the checkpoint" and plans a record $8 million in checkpoint grants, up from $5 million in 2009.

Some Inland residents think police can't hold enough checkpoints, which usually run from 6 p.m. to past midnight with little notice and without an announced location.

Lee Chauser, pulled aside recently at a Perris checkpoint, said an unlicensed driver once hit him.

"He almost killed me ... He rear-ended me going 35 mph," the 64-year-old Hemet man said. "The government needs to find a way for the (illegal immigrants) to get trained and drive legally."

HARSH TACTICS?

Activists and illegal immigrants such as Elder Cabrera, a 40-year-old Corona resident, say month-long impounds are too harsh.

With a wife and child to support, getting to and from the Corona glue plant where he works is his first priority.

When Perris police recently impounded his 1992 Nissan Maxima for 30 days, Cabrera never got it back from the tow company. Rather than wait a month and pay about $1,800 to retrieve it, Cabrera bought a 15-year-old Toyota Camry for $2,000 two days after the checkpoint.

"If you don't have a car in this country, you're nobody," Cabrera said in Spanish.

Not only illegal immigrants are seeing their vehicles towed at checkpoints.

In March, Perris police stopped Benjamin Gordillo for driving with an expired license and authorized a one-day tow of his 1968 Ford truck.

Police impose one-day tows on drivers with expired licenses and 30-day impounds on unlicensed drivers because those who lack a license are untrained on the rules of the road and pose a greater risk, Lingo said.

Unemployed for about a year, Gordillo, a former hotel manager, said he did not have the $250 to $300 to pay the one-day tow and police fees to recover his truck.

Ever since, Gordillo, 46, has been riding a bike or bus the eight miles from his Hemet home to Mt. San Jacinto College, where he's taking classes.

OTHER ALTERNATIVES

Meanwhile, a legal debate is brewing over the 30-day impounding of unlicensed drivers' cars.

Later this year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear arguments on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California's 30-day impound law.

A few cities around the state have eased towing policies for unlicensed drivers. These include Cathedral City in the Riverside County, San Francisco and the Los Angeles County cities of Huntington Park and Bell Gardens.

Cathedral City police Lt. Chuck Robinson said his department stopped 30-day impounds partly because of community outcry. Another motivation was a federal court ruling in Oregon that found impounding the cars of the unlicensed for 30 days violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects against "unreasonable search and seizure."

Cathedral City police now issue citations to unlicensed drivers and allow them 15 to 20 minutes to turn the vehicle over to a licensed driver, a practice allowed by state laws. Repeat offenders could face a one-day tow or 30-day impound, Robinson said.

Other Inland authorities, such as San Bernardino Police Chief Keith Kilmer, say they know immigrant advocates want an end to month-long impounds for the unlicensed but the tough penalty is important.

"What we've found is a large number of our hit-and-runs end up involving unlicensed drivers," Kilmer said.

Checkpoint opponents say 30-day impounds cause illegal immigrants to lose jobs. Some have moved to cheaper dwellings to afford $1,500-plus in tow company fees and $150-plus in police fees to retrieve vehicles.

In cities with large immigrant populations such as Perris, Moreno Valley and San Bernardino, organizers monitor law enforcement websites daily for announcements of checkpoints. At the start time, they rove the city until they find it. Then they alert hundreds to the location via text message.

Earlier this year, Moreno Valley police began conducting multiple checkpoints a night -- up to five spread across the city. About 150 protested the tactic in March outside the Moreno Valley Police Department and then moved to the City Council podium to denounce the checkpoints as unfair and racially motivated. At the next council meeting, a half dozen people called them safeguards against drunken and other unsafe drivers.



Sofia Moreno, with United Democratics, warns drivers of a Perris police checkpoint ahead. United Democratics allege that they focus on impounding the cars of unlicensed drivers.

Lori Gleason, director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Riverside County, told the council how she lost her 20-year-old son to a four-time repeat offender with a suspended license.

"Sobriety checkpoints support enforcement of traffic laws," said Gleason, of Palm Desert.

Moreno Valley police Lt. Virginia Busby said protesters could be shooing drunken drivers from checkpoints.

"How would they feel if they turn away a drunk driver who ends up killing a pedestrian or one of their family members?" she asked.

RACIAL QUESTIONS

Activists allege that Inland authorities set up more checkpoints in Latino communities.

A review of Riverside County Sheriff's Department figures shows that in 2009 Inland police in cities with larger percentages of Hispanic residents hosted more checkpoints.

For example, Temecula, a city of about 105,000 that's 22 percent Hispanic, had five. Riverside, which has 304,000 residents and a 48 percent Hispanic population, did 10. San Bernardino, a 205,000-person city with a 57 percent Hispanic community, had 14. Perris, a city of about 55,000 that's 70 percent Hispanic, had 13. Moreno Valley, where 53 percent of the city's 189,000 residents are Hispanic, held 20 checkpoints -- more than any other city in Riverside County.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department did not provide city-by-city checkpoint figures but supplied countywide totals of DUI arrests, vehicle impounds and other information.

In 2009 sheriff's stations in western Riverside County logged 70 vehicle tows in Temecula, 702 in Perris and 1,540 in Moreno Valley, where police impounded the most vehicles. Most belonged to drivers with no license or a suspended license.

Most Moreno Valley checkpoints have been in the most heavily Hispanic of the city's five voting districts. According to agency records, from 2007 to 2009, police hosted a total of 36 checkpoints throughout three city districts where Hispanics are the largest ethnic group.

During the same two-year period police held a total of five checkpoints throughout two districts that are less densely populated and cover the largest area, where whites are the largest racial group.

While activists say the numbers prove bias, Moreno Valley Police Chief John Anderson disagreed. He said police chose the busiest streets and relied on the same four or five spots because they have large areas to park tow trucks and other vehicles.

Anderson said checkpoints are a big reason why Moreno Valley's DUI injury and fatal collisions dropped 29 percent from 235 in 2007 to 166 in 2009.

Responding to community concerns, he began this year spreading checkpoints across the entire city, including the eastern end. One recent night, 12 officers staffed a checkpoint on a sleepy stretch of Perris Boulevard near Ironwood Avenue, where a trickle of cars passed through.

Some say that, regardless of checkpoint sites, the department's 30-day impoundments for unlicensed drivers already is costing them trust in the Hispanic community.

Nelly Isidoro, 14, said her family stays home on nights when they get a text warning of a checkpoint because her Mexican immigrant parents don't have licenses.

"If we have to go to the food market, we have to wait until the checkpoint is over," Nelly said. "Me and my friends say it's like the police are the owls and we're the little mice."

AT THE CHECKPOINT

As debate continues, so do the checkpoints.

On a chilly March night in Perris, three dozen protestors spread up and down Perris Boulevard, north and south of a checkpoint. Clad in yellow traffic vests and wearing glow-in-the-dark jewelry, they bobbed warning signs and yelled at cars in hopes of diverting traffic from the checkpoint ahead.

Perris officers watched as cars heeding protesters' cues turned onto side streets.

Sheriff's Deputy Angel Gasparini saw a truck pull over near protesters. Quickly, the driver and passenger switched seats. The truck began to roar off until police sirens brought it to a halt.

Gasparini told the driver, Reina Bernal, 52, that she didn't signal before turning. He then asked for her license and that of her passenger and husband Hugo Bernal, who drove before the switch.

Hugo Bernal said he had no license. Gasparini said police would impound the truck for 30 days.

Reina Bernal begged for an exception, saying Hugo drove so she could tend to her sister, who was vomiting out the window and nursing a freshly cast broken leg. Gasparini proceeded to call for a tow truck.

"This is an injustice," Reina Bernal told the officer in Spanish before signing the ticket.

A week and a half before, a police officer in Orange County had impounded the family's other vehicle because Hugo Bernal, an illegal immigrant, had been driving unlicensed.

With the truck gone, Hugo Bernal would later lose his new job at a microwave manufacturing plant. He had been unemployed a year and a half.

Reina Bernal, a legal U.S. resident, said she wouldn't be surprised if police impound the family's vehicle again. Eventually, she hopes, her husband will be able to drive to work.

"The bills don't wait, the rent doesn't wait, the insurance payments don't wait," she said in Spanish.

Reach Julissa McKinnon at jmckinnon@PE.com



http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_ ... 40e86.html

I don't understand why this woman pictured holding the sign was not arrested for interfering with the duty of a police officer. What she is doing is against the law. But then that help you understand why she condones someone else breaking the law by driving a car without a license.

Illegal aliens must not drive and must not get a driver's license.

Originally Posted by bigtex

I don't understand why this woman pictured holding the sign was not arrested for interfering with the duty of a police officer. What she is doing is against the law. But then that help you understand why she condones someone else breaking the law by driving a car without a license.

Yes...one has to wonder why this woman was not arrested for obstruction of justice. Then again, her behavior demonstrates the complete disregard for the rule of law illegal invaders and their advocates have.

Police checkpoints, such as this one in Perris, face a backlash from people who say that they unfairly target unlicensed illegal immigrants who can have their cars impounded for up to 30 days. Police say they are breaking the law and are a risk to the public.

No license, no insurance.
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/fa ... ffvr18.htm
Insurance Requirements for Vehicle Registration
California’s Vehicle Financial Responsibility and Suspension Laws
Purpose of the law
In 2006, the law changed the way the Department of Motor Vehicles verifies insurance for privately owned vehicles.

Changes were made to ensure that vehicles driven on California roads have liability insurance that provides financial responsibility for any damage or injury caused by a traffic collision regardless of fault, and to remove uninsured vehicles from the highways.

Insurance companies in California are required by law (California Vehicle Code [CVC] §1605 to electronically report private-use vehicle insurance information to DMV. Insurance companies are exempt from electronically reporting insurance information for vehicles covered by commercial or business insurance policies.

Electronic reporting of insurance information and programming changes that took effect in 2006, allows the department to monitor insurance coverage and take appropriate actions through vehicle suspension as required by law.

Law enforcement and court personnel have electronic access to insurance status on DMV records.

Mandatory requirements
Financial responsibility is required on any vehicle operated or parked on California roadways.

You must carry evidence of financial responsibility in your vehicle at all times and must be provided as specified below:

When requested by law enforcement.
When renewing vehicle registration.
When the vehicle is involved in a traffic collision.
Providing evidence of financial responsibility
In some cases, you may also be requested to submit additional insurance information to DMV by providing:

A document or identification card from your insurance company.
A DMV authorization letter, if you are a cash depositor or are self-insured.
California Proof of Insurance Certificate (SR-22) for broad coverage or owner’s policy.
Evidence that the vehicle is owned or leased by a public entity defined in Government Code §811.2.
A Notification of Alternative Forms of Financial Responsibility (REG 5085) (PDF) form for vehicle covered by a commercial or business policies and being registered for the first time.
A statement of facts (REG 256) (PDF) certifying the motor carrier has evidence of insurance on file with the Public Utilities Commission or DMV pursuant to CVC §34630.
The rest is at the website.

WAAAHHHHH! WHY DO WE HAVE TO HAVE A DRIVERS LICENSE? ITS NOT FAIR....WAAAAAHHHHH!

In my hometown, we have seatbelt checkpoints. The signs saying "checkpoint ahead" are in English. Too bad.

Hello? Why is it so unfair that Hugo lost his new job at the plant? Why was that job not reserved for a citizen? Hello ICE? Go to that microwave manufacturing plant and secure some jobs for citizens that pay your wages!

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

In my hometown, we have seatbelt checkpoints. The signs saying "checkpoint ahead" are in English. Too bad.

At least SOMETHING is still in English. But in the case of seatbelts, dont people who arent wearing one, just put it on when they see the checkpoint?

I am 100% FOR these checkpoints.....Why is is "Unfair" when you have to abide by laws??????????????