Thread: Imm. advocates hope to trim alleged abuse by law enforcment

Published: 11.02.2006

Immigrant advocates hope to trim alleged abuse by law enforcement
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Border rights activists are launching a monthlong drive to document alleged abuse of immigrant families by law enforcement officers and want to present their findings to White House staffers.

The aim is to demonstrate policies and practices needed to guarantee not only border security but also community and human rights security, said Jennifer Allen, executive director of the Border Action Network.

Trained volunteers will go door-to-door in immigrant communities in Tucson, Nogales and Douglas seeking to interview people who have been stopped and quizzed by law enforcement officers, Allen said.

Allen said she expects them to find a number of people who report that they or their relatives have felt threatened when questioned.

"A lot of the incidents that we get, especially in an immigrant community ... involve Border Patrol," she said.

In the past, immigrants particularly in Nogales and Douglas have told of experiencing what they "feel is verbal harassment, unnecessary targeting based on appearance, abuse of authority _ when there is not enough reasonable cause to be stopping and questioning somebody," Allen said.

"One of the dynamics within immigrant communities is that you'll have some folks who don't have papers, you'll have legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens all within one household," she said. "Our focus is definitely the violations that are happening in immigrant communities."

Calls to the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector weren't immediately returned late Thursday afternoon.

Allen said she also anticipated receiving narratives complaining of agents entering homes without search warrants or the owner's permission.

One documenter, Elga Gutierrez, said during her training that people in one Tucson neighborhood told her of one policeman "using the power of his uniform" to allegedly turn over two or three families to immigration authorities to be deported after they failed to produce such documents as passports. She said she was told "the people there were terrified."

The results will be part of a report to be released Dec. 10. They also will be presented by about a dozen elected officials, academics and lawyers - with similar documentation compiled by border rights advocates in New Mexico and in El Paso, Texas - at a tentatively scheduled Nov. 30 meeting with White House staffers, Allen said.

The results also will be presented to members of Congress, to Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar and in meetings with local law enforcement and Border Patrol officials, she said.

The interviews will seek to detail whether people were asked for papers, told why and where they were being stopped, whether they felt threatened, how they were treated, what they were asked and how they responded.

A lawyer panel will review the forms and categorize domestic laws and international human rights protocols potentially violated, Allen said.

Then, the information will be put into a database and analyzed by the agency involved, types of alleged abuse, potential violations, groups targeted and geographic patterns, among other things.

It's hoped that the findings will help shape recommendations for alternative guidelines for border enforcement policies, Allen said.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/154117

It's hoped that the findings will help shape recommendations for alternative guidelines for border enforcement policies, Allen said.

What would you like? Tea & scones?

.

I hope we can trim abuses of law enforcement by illegal aliens.

W