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Community Set for Immigration Airing

By Lori Harrison-Stone
The Morning News
ROGERS -- A Northwest Arkansas organization hopes to bring perspective to the issue of illegal immigration now that two cities are considering their own immigration law.

Just Communities of Northwest Arkansas has invited 35 "local leaders" to participate in what the group calls "Dialogue for Solutions," a plan to discuss the matter and then develop a report on local illegal immigration issues and how the community should deal with them.

Anne Shelley, executive director of Just Communities' local chapter, said Tuesday the organization's leaders selected participants for the "closed think group" sessions who are both Anglo and non-Anglo community leaders.

Rogers Mayor Steve Womack suggested last month the city adopt its own regulations for dealing with illegal immigrants. He first suggested fines and penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them, but has since suggested city police officers participate in a federal program that trains and authorizes them to act as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Springdale officials last week started looking into regulations on illegal immigration.

"Everything is still on the table in Rogers," Womack said this week. He acknowledges a court hold on local immigration law in Hazleton, Pa., may eliminate the city's ability to adopt similar laws.

For now, he's waiting to hear from authorities with Homeland Security on whether Rogers police officers will be allowed to participate in the training program.

Womack isn't among the participants in the Just Communities meetings, Shelley said, explaining the group's goal is to provide the city with alternative solutions. Just Communities doesn't represent one side or the other, but hopes to offer "some understanding and respect" for both sides, Shelley said.

The meetings start next week and Shelley said the group hopes to have a report to the city by Jan. 5.

Raymond Burns, president and CEO of the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber will do all it can to facilitate community discussion on the immigration issue.

"We want there to be some ongoing dialogue on this thing and eventually get where we need to be," Burns said. "Constructive dialogue is what we need."

Jim Miranda of Bella Vista is a vocal opponent of Womack's plan to adopt immigration law and train police officers. It's a national issue local authorities should let be, he said.

Miranda takes exception to the crime statistics regarding serious narcotics arrests Womack released last week. Those numbers -- of 57 arrests for delivery or intent to deliver drugs in Rogers since early 2005, 25 were illegal immigrants -- are a "lone wolf statistic" that doesn't reflect what's really going on, he said.

Miranda compiled statistics from numbers gathered at the Rogers Police Department reflecting only 2005 arrests showing a much lower percentage. Of the 6,946 total arrests last year, only 1,535 were Hispanic, and only eight of the 50 arrests for narcotics were Hispanic, according to the crime information statistics he gathered.

Miranda is particularly concerned the Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program would give Rogers police officers a lot of power without a warrant. Rogers doesn't have a good history when it comes to dealing with immigrants, Miranda said, referring to the civil rights lawsuit over alleged racial profiling that forced the department to adopt strict guidelines for dealing with Hispanics. He fears local action on illegal immigration will hurt the entire immigrant community, even those who may have been born in the United States.

"Is it Hispanics or is it illegals we're worried about?" Miranda asked.

Chris Lisle, a Springdale attorney, is also concerned local government is overstepping its legal bounds by trying to enact laws to deal with illegal immigration. Lisle said this week the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government "exclusive authority" to deal with immigration.

Federal immigration courts have to determine someone is an illegal immigrant before a city could successfully prosecute a business owner accused of employing illegal immigrants or a landlord accused of renting to them, Lisle said. He noted employers can already be punished for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Training local police officers to enforce immigration laws is "a better approach" because it's an attempt to work through Congress on the problem, Lisle said. It would be even better if the federal government provided more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and enforced the existing laws, he said.

"The way to solve this is to make government do its job," he said. "By not doing anything, we just create more problems and everybody is reacting."

Womack agrees and said the city wouldn't need to take any action if the federal government was handling it.

"I believe in my heart that the continued failure on the part of our country to deal with the illegal immigration issue causes more and more conflict in the immigration community as a whole," Womack said.