Immigration referrals by local police up after Milgram directive
March 23, 2008

WOODBURY, N.J. (AP) _ Local police departments are reporting more suspected illegal immigrants to federal authorities, according to a newspaper report.

The New York Times reported Sunday that the rate of such referrals has nearly doubled since a directive seven months ago by state Attorney General Anne Milgram requiring that local authorities ask about immigration status during arrests for certain crimes and report suspected illegal immigrants.

New Jersey law enforcement authorities, from September to February, referred 8,874 cases to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Vermont. That was up from the 4,589 reported during the same period the previous year.

Milgram's directive came last August after a triple murder in Newark in which three college-bound students were gunned down in a schoolyard; one of the suspects is an illegal immigrant who was out on bail.

Under the directive, law enforcement authorities are to ask about immigration issues in felony arrests or drunken driving cases.

But some immigrants and activists said some local police are either confused about when they can ask about immigration status or overzealous in their enforcement of the directive.

They cite examples of people being asked for documents during routine traffic stops and said the directive is chilling relations between immigrants and the police.

"They fear contact with authority. Any remote or direct link with the government is now a risk for an immigrant," said Maria Juega of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Milgram defended the directive, saying it was helping keep serious offenders in jail and that she'd received only two credible complaints since the policy was launched.
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