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    GA:Law puts illegal immigrants at risk as victims; profiling

    Georgia law puts illegal immigrants at risk as victims of crime and racial profiling, Latino activists say.

    By Jenny Jarvie, Times Staff Writer
    July 29, 2007



    ATLANTA — Emelina Ramirez called police to tell them her roommates were attacking her, punching and kicking her in the stomach. When the police arrived, they handcuffed her, took her to jail and ran her fingerprints through a federal database. She is now in an Alabama cell awaiting deportation.

    In the last month, Ramirez's story has spread beyond the Latino community in Carrollton, the small rural town west of Atlanta where she lived, and across Georgia, which has just enacted one of the nation's toughest laws against illegal immigration. It is a story that, for many undocumented immigrants, has one moral: Do not trust the police.

    "People are living in fear," said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Assn. of Latino Elected Officials, which is providing Latino residents information on the new law. That is difficult, he said, because of the vast differences in how local enforcement officials are interpreting the law.

    The Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, which took effect July 1, requires law enforcement officers to investigate the citizenship status of anyone charged with a felony or driving under the influence. It also directs the state Public Safety Department to select and train Georgia state patrol officers to enforce federal immigration law while carrying out regular duties.

    Across the state, however, Latino activists say that local officials are increasingly running background checks on Latinos who commit misdemeanors, such as minor traffic violations, or even those who go to the police to report thefts or fraud.

    At the same time, criminals are targeting undocumented immigrants, aware that they tend to have large amounts of cash and are wary of reporting crimes.

    "It's the Wild West out here," said Rich Pellegrino, director of the Cobb Cherokee Immigrant Alliance, which has been working with Cobb County's crime prevention police unit to persuade undocumented immigrants to report crimes and serve as witnesses after a string of home invasions had targeted Latinos living in trailer parks.

    This month, Pellegrino said, patrol officers checked the immigration status of a woman driving with a suspended tag, or license plate. She is now awaiting deportation.

    "We spent months building up trust," he said, "and now we've got to start all over again."

    For state Sen. Chip Rogers, a Republican who sponsored the security and immigration compliance act, there is no problem with local law enforcement's interpretation of state immigration laws.

    The Ramirez case, Rogers said, did not apply to the law he sponsored, because she had not been charged with a felony or DUI.

    But if Ramirez were here illegally, he said, it was the "duty and responsibility" of the local police to report her to federal officials.

    "All my law does," he said, "is require local officials to enforce federal immigration law."

    Yet some legal experts highlight the complexity of such federal immigration laws and question whether local police officers and sheriffs' deputies can enforce them without racial profiling and discrimination.

    "The fear is that if you put it in the discretion of local law enforcement, you will have situations where they go outside of the law," said Cristina Rodriguez, associate professor of law at New York University.

    Whether local law enforcement officers act constitutionally, experts say, illegal immigrants' trust in law enforcement diminishes when officers enforce federal immigration statutes, which also reduces their ability to fight local crime.

    "If you have victims of crime no longer getting help from state officials, perhaps lawmakers need to change the law or officers need to exercise more discretion," said Victor Romero, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University. "They need to understand what is their focus: Do they want to be mini federal immigration officers, or do they want to make sure their communities are safe?"

    Cases such as Ramirez's, Latino activists say, have a detrimental effect on police departments' crime prevention initiatives and efforts to build relationships within Latino communities.

    Ramirez, 30, was three months' pregnant in June when, she says, her roommates attacked her. The Carrollton police officer who arrested her did not speak Spanish. He charged her with simple battery and took her to jail.

    When jail officials ran her fingerprints through their database, they discovered that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wanted her because she had missed a deportation hearing in Texas.

    "The bottom line is: She was in the U.S. illegally," said Lt. James Perry, the investigating officer in the case. "She was involved in an incident where the system caught up with her. That was that."

    Carrollton police do not target illegal immigrants, Perry said. In the last year, the department has worked with undocumented immigrants who were witnesses or victims of a July 2006 home invasion that resulted in murder at a trailer park. Since then, the Police Department has set up a Spanish-language tip line.

    Still, the police report from the Ramirez case raises questions about whether officers do, in fact, target Latinos.

    After Ramirez was arrested and her 8-year-old daughter went to the station to give her account of the incident, Perry said, he went back to the house to interview the roommates about the allegations.

    Before asking questions, however, Perry asked the inhabitants for identification and observed "both body language and verbal language that led me to believe they might be illegal." According to the police report, "we then told everyone they would have to go to the jail to be fingerprinted."

    For Gyla Gonzalez, executive director of Latinos United of Carroll County, who has worked with local police to build trust with Latinos, the shock and disappointment that spread through the community after Ramirez's arrest unraveled much of her work.

    "I tell people here they can trust the Police Department," Gonzalez said. "I thought I was building a bridge with cement and real strong foundations. But now I feel as if it's just a rickety bridge dangling in the air."

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ome-center

  2. #2
    Senior Member NCByrd's Avatar
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    My heart bleeds for these idiots who have come here illegally. NOT!!!!

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    Senior Member CCUSA's Avatar
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    America must regain control of our immigration and borders.

    I agree with the new law.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  4. #4
    Senior Member SOSADFORUS's Avatar
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    Excuse me, They ARE breaking the law, they should be scared they are not suppose to be here, and our tax dollars again go to to protecting these people.


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  5. #5
    Senior Member avenger's Avatar
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    I've said it before...get 'em on the run, turn 'em south, run 'em across the border and close the gate!
    Never give up! Never surrender! Never compromise your values!*
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  6. #6
    Senior Member gofer's Avatar
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    "The fear is that if you put it in the discretion of local law enforcement, you will have situations where they go outside of the law," said Cristina Rodriguez,
    Are you kidding me! These people are certainly outside the law. I'm sick to death of this crap about "trusting law enforcement". If they are LEGAL, there's NO problem. All criminals are in fear of law enforcement....this is no different!

  7. #7
    Senior Member Rawhide's Avatar
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    I can't imagine what an uphill battle it is to teach the law breaking criminals who know they are here illegally to trust law enforcement officers when someone has the audacity to infringe on THEIR rights!Imagine the indignation of a criminal when another criminal has the nerve to violate them by robbery,assault,etc.*Hipocrite,party of 20 million,your table is ready.*
    Gee, the whole community was upset by the police processing this poor anchor baby machine for deportation after the police found she was wanted for skipping out on a previous deportation hearing.Ya think the latino leaders let the criminals they represent know she was wanted?I doubt it too.It doesn't serve their agenda.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Rockfish's Avatar
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    "People are living in fear," said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Assn. of Latino Elected Officials, which is providing Latino residents information on the new law. That is difficult, he said, because of the vast differences in how local enforcement officials are interpreting the law.
    If people are here illegally, they're supposed to be living in fear. How what communtiy enforcement in Georgia is interpeting the new law is irrelevant. Get them the hell out of here now!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  9. #9
    Senior Member Rawhide's Avatar
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    If the home invasion robbers at the trailer park are also illegals,would these same latino activists want them arrested or would they cry racial profiling again?
    You have to wonder who would be preying on these poor illegals,because honestly if it were Americans the sceaming about racism and the outrage would be deafening.And we'd never get Sharpton/Jackson and laraza off of TV.

  10. #10
    Senior Member SOSADFORUS's Avatar
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    WELCOME TO ALIPAC "Rawhide" glad to have you join us ! Its going to take as many Americans as we can Muster to win this one!

    Maybe its time we should go on the "offensive" with the racial Profiling thing. Startr crying they are racist against whites!!
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