Thread: Deval's false promise

YVONNE ABRAHAM
Deval's false promise
By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Columnist | July 11, 2007

When Governor Mitt Romney struck an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security late last year that would allow state troopers to arrest illegal immigrants, it was grandstanding of the highest order, tailored to cement his bona fides with Republican presidential voters on his way out of office.

In January, on his way in, Governor Deval Patrick made a big production of scrapping the deal.

"With all that State Police have to do to enforce the laws of this Commonwealth, I do not think it is either practical or wise to ask them to enforce federal laws as well," he said at the time.

Patrick won major kudos for reversing Romney, not just from immigrant advocates but also from his own State Police superintendent, who agreed that having troopers arrest and detain illegal immigrants would erode trust.

They had a point. A carjacking victim who happens to be an illegal immigrant isn't going to rush to the nearest barracks to report the crime if she associates the State Police with federal deportation centers and flights back to Honduras.

But as Patrick has learned several times in his administration's short history, it's a lot easier to make crowd-pleasing public gestures than actually shift the gears of state government.

Tossing out Romney's agreement has not taken troopers out of the immigration equation. Illegal immigrants unlucky enough to choose the Berkshires for their travels have been stopped for routine traffic violations and then turned over to federal authorities when they could not prove they were here legally.

And the State Police are still participating in immigration raids. With Patrick's knowledge, they were part of the planning for the raid on a New Bedford leather goods factory in March that rounded up 361 workers. Federal immigration officers took the lead, but troopers escorted workers from their sewing machines to the detention center.

They were also involved in putting together last month's raid that netted 16 illegal immigrants on Nantucket.

Not that you'd know that. Because hours before the raid went down, the State Police were called off the case by their higher-ups.

Kevin Burke, Patrick's secretary of public safety, said troopers were barely involved in putting together the Nantucket operation. But Nantucket police say they were integral from the start.

"We were counting on them," said Police Chief William Pittman.

Burke said that there was already "a massive presence of [federal] agents" in Nantucket on the day of the raid and that the troopers weren't needed.

Local and State Police officers say it wasn't about overtime pay, but politics: The administration didn't want to have to answer questions about state troopers and immigration enforcement.

No kidding. If troopers had been part of that raid after the uproar over New Bedford, Patrick would have been pilloried by immigrant advocates.

"They knew we were watching very closely," said Ali Noorani, head of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

To be fair, a lot of troopers, trained to enforce laws, want to act when they suspect somebody is violating immigration rules. And federal regulations on whether troopers should get involved in immigration matters are gray enough to allow them to do so, unless the administration sets a clear policy telling them not to.

So right now, there's not a lot of difference between Romney deputizing a couple of dozen troopers to arrest people for immigration violations in the course of their normal duties and the situation that exists under Patrick, in which troopers are taking part in federal operations or turning over to the feds illegal immigrants encountered during traffic stops.

Except that Patrick's approach seems more haphazard, with troopers in every corner of the state apparently left to do their own thing.

All of which makes his January reversal look a lot like grandstanding, too.

Yvonne Abraham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at abraham@globe.com.



© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... e_promise/

I am tired of hearing if the police are going to detain them for being illegal they won't report crime - so what!

Do we give other criminals a pass - for fear they won't report crime?

It is time these 'little tidbits of wisdom' are shot down for the bilge they are. When dissected, they make no sense at all.

Emergency 911, how can I help you?

"Victim": Hello, yes, I have just been robbed.

Are you hurt ma'am? Do you need medical attention?

"Victim": No, I'm not hurt, but these bastards just stole my entire inventory...at gun point.

Could you be more specific ma'am? What do you mean by inventory?

"Victim": All my weed... 40 dime bags and 60 nickel bags!

A carjacking victim who happens to be an illegal immigrant isn't going to rush to the nearest barracks to report the crime if she associates the State Police with federal deportation centers and flights back to Honduras.

A person who is NOT supposed to be in the country and NOT supposed to be driving is carjacked and who gives a flying flip whether they are afraid to call the police????!! Explain just how one crime should be ignored just so someone can report another crime.