Thread: Highway Checkpoint for drunk drivers or Illegal aleins?

Kristin Collins, Staff Writer
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Highway checkpoints will go up statewide today as part of a push to catch drunken drivers -- but some fear they will catch more illegal immigrants than imbibers.
State law prohibits illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses, and word of widespread checkpoints prompted panic this week in the Hispanic community.

Immigrant advocates, religious leaders and doctors who work with immigrants said they have gotten calls this week from people all over the state who fear a massive immigration roundup.

"People are scared to death and going underground," said Dr. Luke Smith, a child psychiatrist from Hillsborough who works with Hispanic patients. "People are afraid to get health care. They're staying home from their jobs. Their kids are missing days of school."

Some of the fear was based on unfounded rumors that federal immigration officers were arresting undocumented people this week at Wal-Marts, fast-food restaurants and highway checkpoints. Those stories were false, and officials with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that they were not conducting large-scale enforcement efforts in North Carolina this week and that they were not participating in checkpoints.

"We do targeted enforcement," said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez. "We do not go into shopping centers or supermarkets and ask people for papers."

The checkpoints going up today were coordinated by the state Governor's Highway Safety Program and will be run by local law enforcement agencies.

Still, they could result in deportations.

In several counties, including Wake and Alamance, jailers can now check the immigration status of inmates. An illegal immigrant taken to jail as a result of a checkpoint in one of those counties could be deported.

The agency running each checkpoint will decide which drivers go to jail and which get citations, sparing them a trip to jail.

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said those without licenses or other identification are likely to be jailed.

"If I stop a person on the road and I don't know who that person is, yes, I'm probably going to bring you down to the magistrate's office," Harrison said. "We treat everybody the same."

Harrison said traffic checkpoints, which his department sets up about four times a year, are not designed to target immigrants. He said those who obey the law have no reason to fear arrest.

Raleigh Police Sgt. Robert Strickland, who is organizing a separate checkpoint, said Raleigh officers do not plan to jail those committing simple traffic violations such as driving without a license.

"We have too many things going on to be taking everybody to jail who doesn't have a license," Strickland said.

But Strickland said those committing more serious crimes will be jailed regardless of immigration status. Of the panic the event caused, Strickland said, "If they're panicked and they're concerned about what's going to happen, then they shouldn't be driving."

Officials with the Governor's Highway Safety Program, which encouraged law enforcement agencies to hold the checkpoints, said they have nothing to do with illegal immigration. They say the campaign is aimed at drunken driving and is being held today to play on the unique date 08/08/08, which echoes the state's legal threshold of drunkenness, 0.08.


kristin.collins@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4881

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