Immigrant rights group seeks Racine police pledge not to inquire about citizenship
By Brent Killackey
Journal Times
http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/20 ... 828044.txt
Thursday, August 30, 2007 11:28 PM CDT

RACINE — An immigrant rights group wants the City Council to pass an ordinance that would prevent local police from asking about a person’s citizenship status or requesting citizenship documents.

Voces de la Frontera said it fears police departments will become more involved in enforcing federal immigration laws, according to Maria Morales, coordinator of the group’s Racine office. If that happens, it would create a climate of fear, she said.

Immigrants — legal or otherwise — wouldn’t call police to report serious crimes or call the fire department to report a fire out of fear their actions could trigger deportation proceedings, Morales said. Even though she’s a U.S. citizen, if she were stopped, Morales said she doesn’t carry a birth certificate and would have a hard time proving her citizenship status.

Voces de la Frontera planned to meet last evening to work on specific ordinance language.

The Racine Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Racine Interfaith Council were working with Voces de la Frontera, Morales said.

Diana Garcia, who was working on the Voces de la Frontera effort, approached Racine Police Chief Kurt Wahlen this week about creating a department policy precluding officers from asking about citizenship status.

Wahlen said he declined, noting he didn’t want the police department involved in a political statement.

The police department doesn’t deal with immigration matters unless federal officials request specific assistance regarding a particular person or business, Wahlen said, adding that he had no interest in working with immigration officials on door-to-door searches for illegal immigrants.

Some reports linked aldermen Pete Karas, Ray DeHahn and Michael Shields to the so-called sanctuary ordinance effort. Both Karas and DeHahn said they hadn’t been approached by Voces de la Frontera and had no knowledge of any proposed ordinance. Shields could not be reached Thursday.

Morales said Voces de la Frontera hadn’t consulted with aldermen or city officials; that was planned for after development of a proposed ordinance.

Alderman Greg Helding said the group shouldn’t bother asking him for support.

Helding said it’s a pointless ordinance because citizenship status isn’t something the Racine Police Department asks during routine contact with people.

"They’re not barking up the wrong tree, they’re barking up a tree that doesn’t exist," Helding said.

Also, law enforcement should not hamstring itself from investigating any sort of crime and it may not be legal to order the police department to ignore federal law, Helding said.