Council proposal on immigrants hit
City mulls office on immigration
By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff | June 17, 2007

A Marlborough City Council proposal to look into opening a federal immigration office in the city drew sharp criticism from an immigrant advocacy group last week.

"We think that the Marlborough council is really choosing to target and scapegoat anyone who looks or sounds like an immigrant," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. "The net result of this kind of action -- if it is legal -- is fear within the community and mistrust of police."

The council last week asked Mayor Nancy Stevens to investigate whether the city could fund an office of the U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

It wasn't clear if the proposal was realistic; supporters of the idea acknowledged it would be a first in the nation.

Councilor Paul Ferro said at a council meeting that the office is necessary because illegal immigration is a growing problem.

"I think it's time we as local officials try to do something," he said.

Council president Arthur Vigeant, who submitted the proposal with Ferro, said after the meeting that illegal immigrants cost the city a lot of money in services. Having a federal immigration office in the city would discourage illegal immigrants from moving to Marlborough, he said.

"It also would be a resource where legal immigrants could go ask questions and get problems resolved and clarified," said Vigeant. "Most importantly, it will assist our department heads in an area they really tread lightly on."

Police Chief Mark Leonard said it appears that illegal immigration may be causing problems in the city, but there are no firm statistics to prove it.

Leonard said the local police can't enforce immigration law but if they run across people wanted by immigration authorities, they call ICE's Boston office.

Just this past weekend, a man was pulled over for failing to stop at a stop sign. He had no driver's license, and a routine check revealed that there was an ICE warrant for deportation against him, so he was turned over to federal authorities, said Leonard.

"If you're a legal immigrant, we want to help you and help you assimilate to our ways," Vigeant said. "If you're an illegal immigrant, you need to go through the legal process."

The number of foreign-born residents living in Marlborough doubled during the 1990s to about 5,800, roughly 16 percent of the city's known population, according to the 2000 Census. There is no reliable estimate of how many illegal immigrants are in the city.

Noorani, the immigrant advocate, said a local ICE office would be a waste of money.

"Frankly I think ICE has a limited set of resources," he said. "And those resources, our tax dollars, should be put toward finding violent criminals and people who are really here to harm us."

Councilor Maura Navin Webster was the only board member to vote against the proposal. After the meeting, she said the mayor has more important things to do, and giving her 90 days, as the council did, to investigate the feasibility of opening such an office is not much time given everything else she is busy with.

"I think it sends an extremely poor message, that all the problems we have in the city are because of illegal immigrants," Webster said of the proposal.

Asked if a local office funded with local dollars is a possibility, a Boston ICE official said she didn't know.

"I can't speculate about it," said Paula Grenier, agency spokeswoman at the Boston office. "I can tell you that we work with our partners and will continue to work with our partners. If they have a specific concern, we'll work with them to address it."

Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or lkocian@globe.com.

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