http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... 569158.htm

Posted on Tue, Sep. 06, 2005



The enforcement debate
Politicians call for police efforts on immigration, but some say trust is at stake
JIM MORRILL
Staff Writer

Yolanda Orellana, who runs a Central Avenue hair salon, has seen employees and customers victimized by crime. That's why she doesn't want cops to act as immigration agents.

"If this happens, these people (will not) report crime, because they're scared to say if they're illegal," Orellana, a native Guatemalan and naturalized citizen, said outside her salon.

In North Carolina and across the country, a growing number of politicians are calling for state and local police agencies to help enforce federal immigration laws. They're responding to a growing influx of illegal immigrants -- estimated at more than 10 million nationwide and about 330,000 in the Carolinas -- as well as to a federal enforcement system that's clearly undermanned.

But many say that could cripple policing efforts.

"That's going to destroy the trust we've built up," says Officer Carlos Pozo of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's International Relations Unit. "We work so hard on developing a relationship with the Hispanic community, or any community."

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, has called for local agencies to take a bigger role in identifying illegal immigrants, particularly those accused of drunk driving. She's among five Carolinas House members cosponsoring the CLEAR Act, a bill that would authorize state and local police to enforce immigration laws.

An April Zogby Poll found that 81 percent of Americans would support that.

But police are divided.

"Some chiefs think that enforcement is something they want to do and they should do," says Gene Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "And others feel that enforcing immigration law could have a detrimental effect on their abilities to police their communities effectively."

That hasn't stopped officials from jumping into the debate:

• This summer, police chiefs in two New Hampshire towns charged illegal immigrants from Mexico with trespassing in the state. One chief told reporters he was frustrated by federal officials who refused to detain undocumented immigrants found in town. A court has since dismissed the charges.

• The mayor of Danbury, Conn., called for deputizing state police to enforce immigration laws. A state official killed the idea last month, but not before it ignited a statewide debate and a protest that brought 1,200 people to town.

• Florida and Alabama are taking part in a Department of Homeland Security program that trains local and state law enforcement officers to enforce immigration laws. Supporters say the program works. Critics say it's made immigrants wary of all law enforcement officers.

Myrick wants a federal database for drunk driving charges, even though they are misdemeanors in North Carolina. Beyond that, she says she sees nothing wrong with officers checking the legal status of someone they stop for a traffic violation.

"Basically we are very concerned about terrorism in the United States," she says. "We know they come across our borders regularly and we ... aren't doing anything substantial to stop that. That's why we want to know who's in the country ...

"I don't see why it's going to destroy a level of trust in the community. People who are legal have no problems with it."

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph says even identifying the status of a person accused of a crime can be "extremely burdensome and draining." There's also the question of detention space. He estimates he has nearly 400 illegal immigrants in a jail population of 2,300.

"If we charge somebody with an immigration violation ...what are we going to do with them?" says Pendergraph. "It boils down to jail space. We're getting near maximum capacity here on local cases. And I don't have room to seek out federal offenders when that's the federal government's responsibility."

Mauricio Castro, an organizer with the N.C. Latino Coalition, says enforcing immigration laws would not only burden police, but also erode trust with immigrant communities.

"It would be very difficult to try to keep people trusting, reporting (crimes), being a witness of any kind of a crime, because of the fear they would have that would bring legal implications," he says.

Alvaro, a 38-year-old Mexican sitting outside Yolanda's Central Avenue salon, agrees.

Last year, he paid $1,800 to cross the border and the Arizona desert to find work in Charlotte. A construction worker, he makes $10 an hour, five times as much as he did in an entire day in Mexico. He told officer Pozo he's not about to talk to a policeman who may send him back.

"Trust is trust," Pozo says. "You can't change that."

Learning the Language

Latinos are the largest immigrant group in the Carolinas. And only three dozen Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers speak Spanish -- on a force of about 1,600.Sgt. Chris Couch of the International Relations Unit says officers are enrolled in four Spanish classes. Eight more are taking immersion courses this year in Costa Rica and Mexico, thanks in part to a grant from the Bank of America.

What Police Do Now

In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, police typically check only for outstanding warrants, says Sgt. Chris Couch of the International Relations Unit. They check legal status only if an offender is accused of a felony. Unless an illegal immigrant has committed a serious crime, there's no database that contains their name.

"We don't want our police even looking to see if they're here illegally," says Couch. "It's basically a waste of energy and resources."