Thread: Hispanics cool to police's illegal immigrant plan

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Hispanics cool to police's illegal immigrant plan
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
By WENDY REEVES
Times Staff Writer wendyr@htimes.com
Reynolds wants cops trained to conduct probes

A proposal to get Huntsville police officers federally trained to investigate illegal immigrants in the city has been greeted with a less-than-enthusiastic response by local Hispanic advocates.

Huntsville Police Chief Rex Reynolds said he made the request to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sept. 20, less than a month after the fatal shooting of officer Daniel Golden by illegal immigrant Benito Albarran.

"The officer's death was so unfortunate, and it shocked us," said Margaret Rotger, president of the Alabama Hispanic Association. "But one person does not make the entire community."

Reynolds insists the move is not about retaliation, but about being proactive in addressing a growing population in the city. This area is the fourth-fastest-growing in the Southeast in Hispanic population, he said.

"This is a diverse city, and we've got to be concerned about crimes by and to those individuals," he said.

His request to the immigration department is for local officers to be trained and certified to check immigration documents with a federal database.

"That doesn't mean we're going to start rounding up illegal aliens for deportation," Reynolds said. "But, as the illegal population continues to grow, our crime problems will continue to grow, and we've got to be able to properly investigate crimes by those individuals and the networks in which they may be connected."

The move would give officers more power and frighten members of the Hispanic community, Rotger said.

She said she's "not for the ones who are here illegally and committing crimes ... but there are many who are here to make a better life for themselves and their families; that's the ones it's unfair to."

Rotger said that, since Golden's death, the coalition's relationship with the department "has spiraled in the wrong direction."

If local officers receive the training, she said "any little offense" will be a reason to arrest and place an illegal immigrant in federal detention.

The department and the coalition are trying to maintain a working relationship, she said.

Volunteers from the Hispanic coalition will be available one night a week at the police department to help Spanish-speaking residents report crimes. Those volunteers will also be available to investigators working to solve the crimes, Reynolds said.

"That doesn't mean we're going to start rounding up illegal aliens for deportation," Reynolds said.

No, of course not.

You just need to make sure they're receiving all the benefits that they're entitled too and that no one is giving them a hard time.

If local officers receive the training, she said "any little offense" will be a reason to arrest and place an illegal immigrant in federal detention.

You mean a little offense like murdering a cop?

That would be unfair, wouldn't it?