Lawyer: Police traffic stops become immigration checks
By JOHN MARTINS
Published: Sunday, October 28, 2007
Related Story: NJ politics law targets illegal immigrants' vehicles

BRIDGETON - For years, it was common practice in New Jersey for police officers not to ask drivers about their immigration status during routine traffic stops or during arrests for minor infractions.

One local lawyer, however, is saying that it seems some county police departments have recently abandoned that courtesy.

Valentine Brown, an immigration attorney with offices in Bridgeton and Woodbury, Gloucester County, said that for the past three weeks, she has received calls - about one per day - from undocumented residents claiming that loved ones have been arrested for lacking proper auto-related paperwork.

"Down in Cumberland County, what's happening is that they are all being taken into custody and referred to immigration authorities," Brown said. "They're being detained by local police for lack of documents."

The referrals, Brown said, come on the heels of a directive from state Attorney General Anne Milgram, who issued a set of rules Aug. 22 formalizing the procedures by which local law enforcement makes inquiries to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
The new directive changes the previous practice of making federal immigration referrals only after a person has been convicted of a crime. Now, federal authorities are called when a suspected undocumented immigrant is arrested for a serious offense or driving under the influence.

The Press of Atlantic City was unable to verify Brown's claims last week. A lieutenant at the Bridgeton Police Department said officers don't keep track of that data and instead report it to the county prosecutor.

Cumberland County Prosecutor Ron Casella said that since his staff members don't personally make those ICE referrals, they have not been keeping it, either. The issue, he added, was addressed in a recent meeting with county police chiefs.

"We're going to have to have some centralized reporting," Casella said.

In response to claims that local police officers were making referrals for minor traffic stops, Casella said that while the guidelines are clear on what offenses are included, going beyond them isn't against the law.

"All that is going beyond the scope of the Attorney General's directive," he said. "I think what we have to be careful of here is that we're not doing any racial profiling."

Scott Weber, a field office director for ICE detention and removal in Newark, said Friday that his office welcomes all referrals to its 24-hour Law Enforcement Support Center.

"I'm not going to turn away any requests for information," he said. "If a state or local agency wants to refer a suspected alien to us, we're happy to oblige."

According to Weber, what happens after those referrals - which have jumped by more than half from fiscal years 2006 and 2007 - is largely dependent on factors such as an alien's criminal history, available detention space and whether those aliens are current fugitives.

If ICE is interested, he added, a detainer hold is placed for transfer into federal custody once the local court matter is resolved.

While Weber said he doesn't want to discourage the referrals, he insisted that ICE does not approve of local police departments engaging in immigration profiling.

"I don't think we've seen this, but I would not approve of a situation where any law-enforcement agency was deliberately picking up illegal aliens on minor charges and then dismissing those charges to turn them over to federal authorities," he said. "What we don't want to see is officers engaging in immigration enforcement under color of enforcing local laws."
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