http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0123/dailyUpdate.html

posted January 23, 2006 at 11:00 a.m.

Immigration grows as security issue

California departments differ over role of local police in enforcing federal immigration laws.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

A move by two Orange County, California, police agencies to have their officers receive special training in order to enforce federal immigration laws has opened up a rift with the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The Costa Mesa Police Department and the Orange County's Sheriff's Department are among the first in the nation to seek this training. Officials from both departments say their actions have generated many requests for information from across the country.

"Dozens of jurisdictions have reached out to us and asked us for copies of this policy," said Jon Fleischman, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department. "Like with any instrument that provides a resource to find criminals, departments are looking at this to see if this will help fight crime."

But some other officials say that such a policy will ultimately have a detrimental effect on the Orange County forces' ability to fight crime.
The two top police officials in neighboring Los Angeles County – Sheriff Lee Baca and police chief William Bratton – repeated publicly that they do not support such actions, which they say damage the local forces' hard-won ties with immigrant communities. They say immigration enforcement should be left with the federal Department of Homeland Security, where it belongs.

"The Orange County talk is cheap," Baca said. "I want to see how arresting a young 18-year-old girl trying to get a job goes down when robbery and burglary calls for service aren't being responded to. The public will say, 'We've had enough of this.' Let the federal government do its job."

The Christian Science Monitor reports that concerns about terrorism, identity theft, and the national methamphetamine epidemic (fueled by Hispanic gangs from Mexico) have pushed the issue of illegal immigration onto the front burner of the nation's politics. Currently there are 11 million illegal immigrants in the US, with about 500,000 more arriving each year. Most come for work. The Center for Immigration Studies says that there are 35 million immigrants living the US, both legal and illegal, a total of 12 percent of the overall population.


Reaction against the influx of immigrants has sometimes resulted in violence against them.

In some areas, the rise in extreme anti-immigrant sentiment has resulted in attacks on Hispanic men, and conspiracy theories. One theory warns of "la reconquista," the invasion of the US southwest by Mexicans determined to take back territory lost in the 19th century.
Movement across the US-Mexico border has gone on for centuries, says Jean Rosenfeld, of the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion. But today, says Dr. Rosenfeld, "The nativist narrative ... signals a high tide of resurgent xenophobia."

The Associated Press reports that some state lawmakers have considered taking actions against the employers of illegal immigrants. Georgia has seen a surge in illegal immigration as people come to the state to work in the Atlanta area. Bills before the Georgia House would prevent business that hire illegal labor from being eligible for government contracts, while another would prevent businesses from declaring wages paid to illegal workers as business expenses.

"If you need to violate the law to stay in business, you need to look into another business," said Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, who has introduced two of the bills.

But immigrant advocates and scholars point out that one reason so many enter the country illegally is that there are "not enough legal ways to fill the US economy’s labor needs." Also, some employers who use illegal labor often lower their wages in order to get business, so that it hurts other employers who follow the rules in bringing labor into the country.
Immigration laws are also increasingly being used against Muslims, a move that some say will make it harder for the government to gain cooperation in the fight against terrorism in the US.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Abu Abrahim Sheik Mohamed, the leader of a Rainier Valley mosque, is to appear before an immigration judge today to be charged with giving false information to immigration officials in order to gain entry into the US. The paper reports that federal officials believe the imam has no connections to any terrorist organization. But as the scrutiny of all immigrants increases in the US, there are accusations that some people are using the government's new focus on illegal immigration to settle old scores.

"Do not use my name because I will be a target," said the member of Seattle's Somali community. "We killed each other in Somalia, and then we came here. It was tribalism there. What makes me sad is tribalism is still working in America, too. Sheik Abrahim is a victim of tribalism. We don't want anyone arrested because of tribalism.
"He is a very peaceful man. He is not a terrorist. What we think is that some people gave the wrong information (to federal agents). We think people of one tribe, they make propaganda against Sheik Abrahim."

The Boston Globe reports that the US government will also change its citizenship exam to remove what it considers "trivial questions," such as what colors are on the US flag, and replace them with questions about what it means to be an American.

Finally, an editorial in the Los Angeles Times looks at the opening of a new Home Depot in Burbank that some people had threatened to turn into a showdown over illegal immigration. The new store also includes a workers' center in a corner of its parking lot where people can hire laborers, many of whom are probably in the United States illegally. But despite the threats, nothing much actually happened, to the relief of community members who would like to avoid such a confrontation.

By lunchtime, the workers had gone. If anybody from Home Depot was concerned about the ethical or legal implications of supporting an operation that would place undocumented workers, he didn't show it. A company spokesperson had already left the premises. The store had filled up with shoppers. Orange carts floated like buoys among the cars in the parking lot.

Sometimes, as the saying goes, no news really is good news.