Thread: Hispanics feel arrests unfairly target them

Friday, 09/07/07
Hispanics feel arrests unfairly target them
Advocates suspect targeting is behind more driving-without-license charges

By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer

A sharp increase in the number of Hispanics charged with driving without a license in Nashville has some immigrant activists wondering if police are deliberately targeting undocumented people so they'll be deported.

The increase, about 26 percent, occurred in the three months after the Davidson County Sheriff's Office began a program in April that checks the immigration status of inmates in the jail.

From May 1 to July 31, nearly half of the people arrested in Nashville for driving without a license were Hispanic, up from 23 percent during the same period last year.

"That confirms what I have suspected all along, and that is Hispanics are being targeted for pullovers by certain members of the Metro police department in the hopes that they will be caught driving without a license," Nashville attorney Elliott Ozment said.

Ozment says that he is seeing more and more clients who are being arrested on charges of driving without a license after being pulled over for a minor traffic violation, such as a loud muffler or broken tail light.

But Metro police officials blamed the increase, in part, on last year's change in the Certificates for Driving program, which had allowed illegal immigrants to obtain license-type documents so they could drive legally.

Certificates expired

Certificates were issued only to legal immigrants after the program changed in late February of 2006. The last of the one-year certificates issued to illegal immigrants didn't expire until this year.

"A significant issue here appears to be the expiration of driving certificates," Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said. "It would appear quite possible that driving certificates for undocumented immigrants were valid in 2006 but expired prior to May of this year."

From 2004 until February of 2006, immigrants who were in the country illegally were allowed to get a Tennessee driving certificate. In February of last year, Gov. Phil Bredesen suspended the controversial program amid security concerns and complaints that immigrants from all over the country were coming to Tennessee to get a driving certificate.

In two of every three cases, Hispanics caught driving without a license are issued citations, not taken directly to jail, Aaron said.

Other figures show that, for all crimes, police are not arresting a higher percentage of Hispanics than they did before the immigration-screening program launched, he said.

"It's our understanding that the number of foreign-born arrestees is holding essentially constant at 10 percent," Aaron said.

Fairusorg estimates the foreign-born population in Nashville-Davidson MSA is 6.3 %.)

"From the police department's standpoint, it continues to be business as usual."

Prompted by a number of high-profile crimes after which illegal immigrants were implicated, the Davidson County Sheriff's Office joined the federal 287(g) program.

More than two-thirds of the illegal immigrants identified in Nashville are turned over to federal authorities for deportation proceedings.

Some immigrant activists are withholding judgment.

Stephen Fotopulos, policy director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said there still isn't enough data to prove whether police are targeting Hispanics.

"We believe that the existence of the … program has an impact on police officers' decisions to arrest people," he said.

"We are working hard to get better data to better understand what's going on."

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /1001/NEWS

God what BS. We should all ignore the law because a distinct subset or ethnicity of people commit the crime? It's insane.

I think its crazy that someone can say " yea i was breaking the law, but you only caught me because i was Hispanic so you are the one in the wrong"

DUH!!! ...if Hispanics didn't make up 85% or more of the illegal aliens in our country, I guess they wouldn't get arrested with such frequency!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!

i wonder if the city, county or state decided to block all the exits and entrances to a freeway and did a check on every damn car if the illegals and their supporters would complain then???

Welcome to ALIPAC, MidwestMike. Glad to have you aboard.