Activists calling for immigrant crackdown
NEW LEXINGTON GROUP SEEKS STRICTER ENFORCEMENT
By Danielle Trusso
Posted on Sun, Aug. 19, 2007
DTRUSSO@HERALD-LEADER.COM
http://www.kentucky.com/211/story/153771.html

A new Lexington organization is emerging to advocate for stricter enforcement of illegal immigration laws and is quickly enlisting members.

Doug Roy, one of the organizers, said Kentuckians for Immigration Reform and Enforcement only had a few people on its e-mail list when it formed a few weeks ago, but 26 people showed up for K-FIRE's rally yesterday in downtown Lexington.

Participants stood in front of the Lexington Urban County Government Center waving American flags and holding signs that read "no amnesty" and "enforce immigration law," enticing drivers on Main Street to honk their horns.

When Roy isn't rallying or maintaining K-FIRE's Web site, he works as a construction contractor.

He doesn't hire undocumented immigrants, he said, and he resents businesses that do.

"It's not because we have hatred for these people," he said. "I don't want to see them abused by other contractors."

He didn't decide to get involved in the debate, though, until April, when immigrants and activists rallied in downtown Lexington for immigration rights.

Roy rode his bike downtown to see what the protest was about.

"I realized people, not even Americans, are gathering to protest our country, and that broke something in me," he said.

"We're learning we have to do more than complain about it."

K-FIRE's complaints aren't new: It says that undocumented immigrants are taking Americans' jobs and putting unnecessary strains on hospitals and schools, and that some are contributing to crime.

Members fear that America is changing for the worse, and they're angry because they think the government isn't doing anything.

Several Lexington agencies have said an immigrant's status is not their first concern.

Assistant Police Chief Ronnie Bastin said in July that Lexington police don't ask about an immigrant's status until the person is already under arrest.

Members of K-FIRE say gathering this information should be a priority.

"It bothers me that America is losing its identity," said K-FIRE member Stephen Brown. "This is a bigger crisis than even the illegals. Our officials have to come back and obey the laws."

K-FIRE asserts that one way to solve the problem is federal immigration training for Lexington police through the 1996 Immigration and Naturalization Act.

The law, known as 287(g), has been a much-debated issue in the Mayoral Commission on Immigration as it prepares a report for Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry.

At one of the commission's public hearings, pro-immigrant groups such as the Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights spoke out against the law, saying it could encourage racial profiling.

Lexington Police Chief Anthany Beatty has said before that immigration law is a federal issue, and the majority of the immigration commission members have expressed little desire for the training.

Commission member Wendy Devier, who also was at the K-FIRE rally yesterday, and Commonwealth Attorney Ray Larson supported 287(g) at the commission's meeting Thursday. Larson said someone's citizenship status would not be determined after an arrest, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials would take over proceedings of undocumented immigrants.

Organized only a few weeks ago, K-FIRE has become one of a number of local groups across the country that have joined the Federation of American Immigration Reform, a non-profit that seeks to improve border security and stop illegal immigration.

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Kentucky Immigration panel divided on local enforcement
By Danielle Trusso
DTRUSSO@HERALD-LEADER.COM
http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/151963.html

Mayor Newberry won't find a report on immigration in Fayette County on his desk on Sept. 1, and when he does get the report, he is unlikely to find a unanimous recommendation on training Lexington police to enforce immigration laws.

During the Mayoral Commission on Immigration's first meeting to write the content of their report, members discussed health care and education for undocumented immigrants. But the most contentious debate was over the adoption of the law known as 287(g), which provides federal training on immigration enforcement.

Arguments for and against 287(g) flew back and forth across the table of a fifth-floor conference room at the Urban County government building Thursday night.

Fayette County Attorney Ray Larson and Commission member Wendy Devier spoke in support of recommending the federal training.

Larson proposed using the law only in correctional facilities. When someone is arrested, the person's citizenship status would be determined.

If the suspect turned out to be an undocumented immigrant, the federal government would take over the proceedings and deport the individual, Larson said.

"At this point, we shouldn't train police officers just to snag people that look like immigrants," he said.

Four members of the group Kentuckians for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, which plans to hold a rally in support of 287(g) on Saturday, raised their voices in opposition to commission member Marilyn Daniel when she said she isn't sure the law is necessary.

If undocumented immigrants commit a serious crime, they need to be deported, she said, but she pointed out that minor offenses, such as driving without a license, also would be an offense punishable by deportation under 287(g).

Although the majority of members didn't show support for Larson's recommendation, they won't decide the issue until they hear from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

During the two-hour meeting, members didn't have time to discuss two other topics prominent at the public hearings -- issuing local identification cards to all immigrants, regardless of status, and providing driver permits.

The commission will use its next meeting on Aug. 30 to talk about IDs, permits and 287(g). It has abandoned the Sept. 1 deadline. The deadline was set in June when Newberry formed the commission to study immigration issues.

Glen Krebs, commission chairman, said part of the problem with the issues members are dealing with is that much of the needed information is not available. That includes the number of undocumented immigrants in the county and how many commit crimes.

Census data released Tuesday revealed that Fayette County's Hispanic population grew by 66 percent.

The 14,375 Hispanics account for 5 percent of the county's population of 270,789.

Commission members did agree that no federal immigration legislation reforms are in site, with the latest Congressional legislation failing in June, and the immigrant population in Fayette County will continue to grow.

"We certainly don't have the ability to keep them in or out of the community," Krebs said.


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