Thread: Chief: Illegal immigrants a growing threat

Chief: Illegal immigrants a growing threat

By Wade Malcolm, Staff Writer
03/21/2007

SCRANTON — Enduring hours of cross-examination, Hazleton Police Chief Robert Ferdinand tired of suggestions that his department lacks proof of an illegal immigrant influx.

A plaintiff attorney suggested no substantial illegal immigration problem exists because statistics show relatively few crimes involving illegal immigrants in the past six years.

Even-keeled for most of his testimony, Ferdinand suddenly shot back.

“I think you make a valid point,” Ferdinand said sarcastically from the witness stand at the William J. Nealon Federal Building. “I think we might be one (crime) short of that magic number where it becomes a problem.”

On day seven of the case to decide whether Hazleton can punish landlords and employers doing business with illegal immigrants, Ferdinand’s testimony continued a theme Mayor Lou Barletta started last week. Any number of illegal immigrants, no matter how great or few, causes problems for the city.

Ferdinand conceded he only produced reports showing fewer than 30 crimes involving illegal immigrants. But he is certain they have a considerable impact on the city’s crime.

“I think it’s pretty clear,” he said after his testimony concluded. “We went from no involvement, or very little involvement, with illegal aliens to frequent involvement.”

But in addition to the total crimes committed, police reports showed only two out of more than 200 violent crimes in the last six years involved illegal immigrants.

Those numbers do not tell the whole story of the strain illegal immigrants cause, Ferdinand testified. Hazleton police officers began only recently to include immigration status on arrest reports.

Any crime involving illegal immigrants is particularly time consuming, he testified, because many illegal immigrant criminals operate under multiple aliases, leading to difficulties in positive identification of suspects and witnesses. Nearly a third of all drug arrests, which are also time-consuming investigations, involved illegal immigrants in 2006.

To demonstrate the problems even a small number of illegal immigrants can bring, he cited the May 10 murder of 29-year-old Derek Kichline, a crime Barletta frequently references as motivation for proposing the ordinance.

Two illegal immigrants allegedly shot Kichline — “by all accounts a regular guy,” Ferdinand said — for no apparent reason. The police department spent about $17,000 making an arrest, Ferdinand testified. The chief stated his belief that the city’s opposition minimized Kichline’s death in pointing out the relatively few crimes illegal immigrants have committed.

“After this, I’m going to go see Mr. Kichline (Derek’s father) and tell him we don’t have a problem and that his son wasn’t killed because of an illegal alien,” he said, directing a rare cutting remark at the opposing attorney cross-examining him.

Until that point near the end of his testimony Tuesday, Ferdinand answered questions from attorneys critical of the city’s reasons for passing the ordinance with a simple “yes” or “no.”

Those attorneys want the ordinance declared unconstitutional, believing it will lead to discrimination and due process violations if enacted.

Ferdinand, however, said the city must do something to protect residents.

“Let me put it in nautical terms,” Ferdinand testified to the threat illegal immigration poses to the city. “I don’t know how much more of the tip of the iceberg we need to see before I say we need a hard turn of the rudder. We need to get away from it.”

An expert’s estimate

Based on national trends, between 1,500 and 3,400 illegal immigrants live in Hazleton, a demographer estimated on the witness stand this afternoon.

Using nationwide figures and applying them to Hazleton, Dr. Steven Camarota arrived at that estimation by examining how many students in the Hazleton area enroll in English-as-a-second-language classes.

If Hazleton mirrors the entire country, the nearly 800 students taking ESL in the Hazleton Area School District provides an estimate of the illegal population in Hazleton, Camarota said.

This number of illegal immigrants would subject Hazleton to a substantial financial burden. Cities like Hazleton are “hardest hit,” Camarota said, given the city’s earned-income tax structure. According to most estimates, about 40 to 50 percent of illegal immigrants do not pay wage taxes. Ordinances like Hazleton’s would lower the financial burden of illegal immigration, he said.

On cross-examination, the plaintiffs suggested Camarota made too many assumptions about Hazleton based on national statistics. Camarota should not use ESL enrollment as the basis for his conclusion, they argued, because any immigrant, legal or illegal, and even U.S. citizens could be in such programs.

The plaintiffs tried to preclude the next expert witness for the city from testifying, calling him an advocate with a clear bias.

But the judge allowed John Martin, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, to testify to the rising cost of housing illegal immigrants in prisons. FAIR is one of groups that helped Hazleton draft its ordinance and is providing free legal help. The group generally advocates for more restrictive immigration policies.

wmalcolm@citizensvoice.com


http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 5154&rfi=6

“I think you make a valid point,” Ferdinand said sarcastically from the witness stand at the William J. Nealon Federal Building. “I think we might be one (crime) short of that magic number where it becomes a problem.”

“After this, I’m going to go see Mr. Kichline (Derek’s father) and tell him we don’t have a problem and that his son wasn’t killed because of an illegal alien,” he said, directing a rare cutting remark at the opposing attorney cross-examining him.

Looks like the good chief's had about as much of the ACLU as he can stand.

You tell 'em Chief!

Two illegal immigrants allegedly shot Kichline — “by all accounts a regular guy,” Ferdinand said — for no apparent reason. The police department spent about $17,000 making an arrest, Ferdinand testified. The chief stated his belief that the city’s opposition minimized Kichline’s death in pointing out the relatively few crimes illegal immigrants have committed.

“After this, I’m going to go see Mr. Kichline (Derek’s father) and tell him we don’t have a problem and that his son wasn’t killed because of an illegal alien,” he said, directing a rare cutting remark at the opposing attorney cross-examining him.

They, the illegal aliens, their defenders and supporters, will stop at nothing to excuse them(selves). One life taken is too many. It is not a minimal thing. The entire argument that they commit relatively few crimes - they already committed a crime getting here.

Sounds like the chief has mastered the art of ironic humor too.

Thanks Chief.