http://nctimes.com/articles/2006/06/..._476_20_06.txt

Sweeps may sweep crime under rug

By: North County Times -

Our view: Immigration roundups hurt public health and safety as much as they help


The immigration sweeps that swept through the nation in recent weeks netted 2,179 illegal immigrants, about half of whom authorities say also had criminal records. In Vista's Townsite neighborhood, a series of "directed patrols" by sheriff's deputies and federal immigration agents arrested 53 people for various crimes and violations, while the feds arrested 76 illegal immigrants.

And yet they may have made our communities less safe and healthy all the same. Of course, our nation needs to enforce its immigration policies, but that battlefield belongs in the jails, in workplaces and especially at the border ---- not in our neighborhoods.


The fear that ripples through mixed Latino communities ---- some here legally, some not ---- when federal and local law enforcement agencies jointly troll for people without proper citizenship has a crushing effect on those communities' quality of life. When a household, an apartment complex or a neighborhood contains some illegal immigrants, many of their friends, neighbors and family members will go to great lengths to avoid tipping off the authorities. Communities already gripped by fear of violence and crime are thus doubly penalized.

Most of the illegal immigrants caught in the federal sweeps weren't the hardened criminals targeted by the feds. They were just in the wrong house in the wrong country at the wrong time.

The Associated Press' Elliot Spagat reported in Monday's paper from the San Diego neighborhood of Linda Vista, where one mother had withheld her daughter from medical treatment and other parents had stopped walking their children to school. In communities targeted by federal immigration enforcement, many people are opting to avoid social services like health care, after-school programs and welfare assistance.

Of course, that prospect delights many reading this, as the drain on such services is a central argument against illegal immigration. Those arguments are not to be discounted: Illegal immigration has undoubtedly burdened our public schools, health care system and other community institutions. It is likely the case that most low-earning immigrants don't pay enough federal, state and local taxes to make up for the government services they receive.

But the same fear that keeps the "trembling class" of illegal immigrants from tapping into government services also hurts the American citizens they live with and near. The American child with the uncle here illegally may not be treated for the nagging cough. The father without American citizenship might not allow his American children to get the free lunches at school they deserve. The undocumented immigrant might be too intimidated to report his abusive neighbor to the police.

The sheriff's deputies who worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to crack down on Vista's Townsite neighborhood in the last two months are well aware of this risk. Capt. Ed Prendergast of the Vista substation said the chilling effect was "absolutely a concern for us." Cmdr. Kim Quaco said illegal immigrants are already unlikely to go to the police because of their bad experience with corrupt cops in Mexico. Both pointed to the department's many efforts to reach out to Vista's Latino communities.

We welcome those vital efforts, but they may not be enough. Especially after last summer's deadly week, in which three Latino men were shot to death by deputies in Vista within seven days, the Sheriff's Department must take care not to alienate the very people it needs as allies in the fight against crime. Through the "directed patrols" deputies conducted alongside immigration agents, the Sheriff's Department may have taken the "community" out of "community policing."

It's hard enough to get good tips from poor communities; consider the "stop snitching" slogan permeating gangsta rap, and the inscrutable and ever-evolving gang codes and symbology. Law enforcement agencies are good at keeping track of crime, but who knows how many crimes go unreported in besieged barrios as a result of overzealous immigration enforcement?