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Elgin tells policy on crimes by foreigners
Cases such as DUI not reported to U.S.


By Amanda Marrazzo
Special to the Tribune

July 28, 2006

An Elgin resident's questions about police enforcement of immigration laws were answered this week, and Doug Heaton didn't like what he heard.

Police Chief Lisa Womack told a overflow crowd at Wednesday's City Council meeting that the department reports to federal officials all foreign-born known gang members 18 and older and all felony arrests of illegal immigrants.

But police do not, on orders from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, report crimes such as driving without a valid license or driving under the influence, Womack said.

Heaton, a resident since 1988, said he questioned police officials in May on policies regarding illegal immigrants. He is a member of the Illinois Minuteman Project, a group concerned with illegal immigration and enforcement of immigration laws.

Heaton said he believes the department is not doing enough to protect residents from crimes committed by illegal immigrants.

"I am puzzled that all this information wasn't brought forward to me months ago," he said after the meeting.

In front of about 150 people in council chambers, the hallway and outside City Hall, Womack said that since the city teamed up with the immigration agency in 1989, about 800 illegal immigrants arrested in Elgin have been deported. The police reports go to the Department of Homeland Security branch for residency-status verification and deportation, she said.

"We will continue to partner with [federal] authorities to ensure citizens of this community are safe," Womack said. "We do the best with the tools we have to work with.

"This is a politically charged issue around the nation. I am taken aback by the recent attention."

Police Officer Steve Hill, who is with the city's gang unit, said the department reports to the immigration agency an average of 20 crimes a month committed by illegal immigrants.

Heaton said he believes that all crimes committed by illegal immigrants should be reported.

"I am not at all pleased," he said. "I don't think [the department's procedures] are as effective as they would lead us to believe."

Heaton mentioned a crash in May in which Patricia Henneken of Hoffman Estates was killed. Javier Rico of Hanover Park, allegedly in the country illegally, was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence. Because the federal agency was never notified of Rico's previous DUI arrests, he was not deported, Heaton said.

"We need to be proactive rather than just play by the rules of the federal immigration enforcement," said Heaton, who would like the Police Department to become a partner in a federal program that would train officers and authorize them to arrest undocumented immigrants.

Jo Ann Armenta, president of the Elgin-area council of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said she is opposed to officers serving as "surrogate immigration officers."

"I am a former state police officer, and that just is not the role of the police officer," she said.

The Police Department got a vote of confidence from Mayor Ed Schock.

"Immigration is a national issue, and I think a lot of what we have been hearing is frustration," Schock said. "But the answer does not lie at the local level. The federal government needs to step up to the plate."

Juan Silva, president of the Organizacion of Cultural Mexicana de Elgin, spoke in Spanish to more than 100 Latinos after the presentation. The group, many of whom waved American flags, cheered.

"They were scared new rules would be made," Silva said.