Thread: KY: Immigrants' status not agencies' first concern

Posted on Fri, Jul. 20, 2007
Immigrants' status not agencies' first concern
By Jennifer Hewlett
JHEWLETT@HERALD-LEADER.COM
Too many people living in one house, junk cars, domestic violence, and Latino gangs were among the topics of conversation at a meeting last night of the recently created Lexington-Fayette Commission on Immigration.

The main message that seemed to come out of presentations by leaders of several agencies who appeared before the commission was that legal citizenship of the people they deal with is not their No. 1 concern.

Darlene Thomas, executive director of the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program, said she does not ask the legal status of anyone who comes to her agency for help, that her job is to keep people safe.

She said that in the past fiscal year, the domestic violence program sheltered about 25 people who spoke 11 different languages.

"Immigrants are really challenged," she said.

Some immigrants who are victims of domestic violence are reluctant to push for prosecution of their batterers because they fear law enforcement and the English-speaking world, in general, she said.

Many illegal immigrants don't know that they might qualify for legal status in the United States if they can provide evidence that they're victims of violent crimes, she said.

Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson, a commission member, also seemed unaware of that.

"You mean that by taking a punch in the nose that somebody can become a legal citizen?" he asked.

Thomas said it wasn't quite that easy. "You can't just come into my program and say 'oh, I've been beaten up,'" she said.

Lexington police don't ask people about their citizenship until they're already under arrest, said Assistant Police Chief Ronnie Bastin. If the local police force has to enforce federal immigration laws, he said, "It's going to tax our ability to do what we're doing, significantly."

Bastin said the police department's Spanish language and cultural immersion program, in existence for several years, has been invaluable. But, he said, Lexington's immigrant population, especially people from Mexico, has presented a serious challenge because of its apparent lack of trust in police and the government.

Commission member Wendy Devier, a community volunteer, said that the Cardinal Valley neighborhood is not a safe place to live because of Latino gangs and that gangs are spreading to the Gardenside neighborhood.

Larson said that intelligence officers in the police department have told him that Latino gangs are more of a problem in Lexington than white or African-American gangs.

http://www.kentucky.com/211/story/128640.html

Some immigrants who are victims of domestic violence are reluctant to push for prosecution of their batterers because they fear law enforcement and the English-speaking world, in general, she said.

Go back to where they speak spanish only and they want have that problem...duh!

Many illegal immigrants don't know that they might qualify for legal status in the United States if they can provide evidence that they're victims of violent crimes, she said.

What the heck?!?!?

Of course, this 'domestic violence' director wants them there. Her jobs depends on it and she doesn't want any of her 'clientele' deported.



But, he said, Lexington's immigrant population, especially people from Mexico, has presented a serious challenge because of its apparent lack of trust in police and the government

That's the ONLY challenge they have presented? Do these people think before they open their mouth? Have we totally lost our ability to speak plain English? Have we gotten so frightened of the 'correct expression police', we can't even express a reasonable thought?

All politicians, local and national, have begun to sound so ridiculous.