Thread: Immigration plan foes fear driving crimes

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=53971

Immigration plan foes fear driving crimes

By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
January 08, 2007

In the eight months since the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), N.C. Sheriff’s Department implemented its own 287 (g) program to screen foreign-born arrestees for immigration violations, the percentage of persons arrested by the police department for driving-related offenses decreased by 15 percent.

Sheriff’s Department officials in Mecklenburg County – the last jurisdiction to adopt a 287 (g) program and in whose shoes Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall hopes to follow – said both driving and minor crime arrests of persons who were later identified as illegal or suspected illegal immigrants actually declined by 15 percent once the program was up and running.

Those figures were viewed favorably by Nashville’s local law enforcement officials, who were fighting to allay fears that the adoption of 287 (g) in Nashville would be co-opted by Metro police in their conducting of sobriety checkpoints.

Some immigrant rights advocates and others have expressed concern that police who are conducting sobriety checks in Nashville’s high-crime and high-DUI areas – many of which are also heavily Hispanic – will exploit a new immigration enforcement program to profile drivers on the basis of race.

In response to that concern, officials with both the Sheriff’s Office – which runs the county jail and would administer the immigration program – and the Police Department – which is responsible for all traffic enforcement – reiterated that the two departments do not coordinate when it comes to fighting crime, enforcing traffic laws or implementing the 287 (g) program.

“We don’t conduct traffic stops or make arrests, so we would bear no responsibility for who is or who isn’t coming into the jail,” Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Karla Crocker said.

And Metro Police officials stressed that DUI enforcement – through checkpoints or otherwise – is based solely on officer observation of driving and driver behavior.

“The police department never has and never will base its sobriety checkpoints on an area’s racial and ethnic makeup,” said Department spokesman Don Aaron.

Aaron also said that sobriety checkpoints are not roadblocks, as immigrant advocates said many immigrants would fear.

“When a person approaches a sobriety checkpoint, there is always an avenue to bypass the checkpoint,” Aaron said. “Officers are not stopping cars asking for driver’s licenses or identification.”

He said the only instance an officer would ask for passenger driver’s license would be if an impaired driver consented to having a sober passenger transport his or her vehicle home.

A total of 3,093 vehicles passed through the eight sobriety checkpoints that Metro Police set up last month. Of those vehicles, 98 were required to pull over. Checks of the drivers of those 98 cars resulted in eight DUI arrests.

But for immigrant rights activists who say they remain skeptical of the 287 (g) program, the fact that many driving offenses are treated as crimes is what poses the greatest threat to the illegal immigrant population in Nashville should the immigration screening program begin.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph said fears about racial profiling serving as the driving force behind the implementation of the immigration enforcement program are unfounded.

“It holds no water that there’s profiling and more arrests are being made,” Pendergraph said.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department – like the Metro Police Department – does not categorize arrestees by immigration status, said Charlotte police spokeswoman Julie Hill.

But Hill said that between 2005 and 2006 – while the Sheriff was processing fewer suspected illegal immigrants for driving offenses – the overall rate of arrests made for hazardous traffic violations, including DUI, rose by 10 percent.

Pendergraph said the increases in foreign-born arrestees he has seen have been for crimes like drug possession, drug trafficking and weapons charges.

“So while we have many more people to process, we’ve actually seen fewer arrests of illegal individuals arrested on driving-related charges.”

Since their program became operational in May, Pendergraph’s Department has screened about 2,200 persons and removed over 1,100 individuals who were found to have immigration violations.

And while he said communicating with the immigrant community and their advocates has been challenging, it is getting better.

“We have credibility, because the things we told them we were going to do before we started are the same things we are doing right now,” he said. “We told them the people who are arrested would be processed, and that we would not be going out with nets trying to catch them on the street corner. And we’re not.”

“When a person approaches a sobriety checkpoint, there is always an avenue to bypass the checkpoint,” Aaron said. “Officers are not stopping cars asking for driver’s licenses or identification.”

He said the only instance an officer would ask for passenger driver’s license would be if an impaired driver consented to having a sober passenger transport his or her vehicle home.

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Originally Posted by MW

“When a person approaches a sobriety checkpoint, there is always an avenue to bypass the checkpoint,” Aaron said. “Officers are not stopping cars asking for driver’s licenses or identification.”

He said the only instance an officer would ask for passenger driver’s license would be if an impaired driver consented to having a sober passenger transport his or her vehicle home.

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I've seen people try to avoid the checkpoint and were chased down. They usually have someone stationed away from it to catch the "bypassers." I've never seen them NOT ask for a driver's license!!! I live in Nashville. I think they mean, the DL of the passengers.