Thread: Ice: 'We don't participate in checkpoints'

Ice: 'We don't participate in checkpoints'
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Drunken-drivers targeted by law enforcement
August 8, 2008 - 2:08PM
By Keren Rivas / TImes-News

Rumors that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were going to assist law enforcement officers during traffic checkpoints this weekend are unfounded, officials say.

"ICE does not conduct on traffic and will not be participating in traffic checkpoints," said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez on Friday.

A story in Thursday's Times-News reported that rumors circulating in the Hispanic community called for widespread roundups of illegal immigrants at traffic stops, Mexican businesses, factories and even neighborhoods.

Gonzalez said all those rumors are false.

"No, we don't go door to door, we don't enter grocery stores," she said. "We don't go into supermarkets; we don't go into shopping centers and ask random people for papers."

"That's not how we operate," she added.

Gonzalez said the department does "targeted enforcement" based on intelligence and investigative leads. She said that if ICE officers go to a home or workplace to arrest somebody they do it based on a lead. "We have targets for arrests; we enforce immigration and custom laws," she said.

And though law enforcement agencies across the state held checkpoints Friday as part of a statewide campaign, the motivation was not catching illegal immigrants but drunken drivers.

"We are not targeting anybody other than impaired drivers," said Lt. Everett Clendenin, a spokesman with the N.C. Highway Patrol, which was involved in some of the checkpoints across the state.

Alamance County Sheriff's Department Spokesman Randy Jones also dispelled the notion that the event had any ties to immigration enforcement saying that it was deliberately planned for 8/08/08 since .08 is the legal limit for alcohol content in the state. He said other cities across the nation also had checkpoints planned for that date.

Burlington Police Assistant Chief Greg Seel said the checkpoint was not in response to flyers that have been circulating in the Hispanic community. The flyer, which is in Spanish, advises "undocumented" Hispanics to avoid speaking with law enforcement officers and warns them to be on the look out for raids and traffic checks designed to have them deported.

Seel said that this type of message is "counterproductive" because it undermines the department's efforts of having open lines of communication with the Hispanic community. He said that if there's a segment of the community that feels they are not getting proper services from the police that decreases the chances that they will report crimes.

Seel said the department's approach to immigration and crime has not changed since Chief Mike Williams said last October that his department focuses on serving every segment of the population regardless of their immigration status and on arresting those who have broken the law.

Gonzalez said that it is unfortunate for people to circulate unfounded rumors. But, she added, "The fact of the matter is, people who are in violation of the law, when they see law enforcement or an action by law enforcement... they start making assumptions."
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/enforc ... oints.html

WHY NOT? Sounds like a wonderful idea.
I have brown hair and brown eyes, but I can prove I am an American citizen and would not mind doing so at a checkpoint. Man, talk about making the streets safer----this would work !!!!!