Monday, November 12, 2007
Utah county immigration: Police pay little attention to status

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Jeremy Duda - DAILY HERALD
The national spotlight has fallen on Maricopa County, Arizona, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio has taken unprecedented steps to combat illegal immigration. In using the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to arrest undocumented immigrants for their immigration status, Arpaio has helped fuel a nationwide debate on the role of local law enforcement when it comes to federal immigration laws.

The practice, however, has not reached Utah County, where law enforcement agencies pay little attention to immigration status.

Generally, the only time police will inquire about a person's immigration status is once they're booked into the Utah County Jail, according to Sheriff Jim Tracy. Once people are arrested or charged with a crime, deputies will determine their nationality, citizenship and immigration status. If someone is in the country illegally, that information will be passed along to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"At that point in time you've got to know who you're dealing with. If we find that they're illegally here we turn them over to immigration and then they come (get them)," Tracy said.

But when a deputy pulls someone over or when a person reports a crime, immigration status is not something a deputy will ask about. The Utah County Sheriff's Office gets frequent inquiries about its policies, and Tracy said many people don't realize that deputies won't arrest them for being undocumented.

Most, if not all, law enforcement agencies in Utah County have similar policies. Orem police spokesman Lt. Doug Edwards said his department's officers don't inquire about people's immigration status. If there's a reason to involve federal authorities, Edwards said that is done at the county jail.

"We don't get involved in that," Edwards said. "We don't stop cars and say, 'Let us see your green card,' or anything like that."

If a Provo officer learns during the course of an investigation that someone is in the country illegally, the officer will report that information to ICE, according to Provo police spokesman Capt. Cliff Argyle. But officers generally will not detain people for immigration status, and they don't ask about it.

"We don't go out of our way to check status," Argyle said. "It's nothing we are going to act upon. Everybody, whether you're a natural-born citizen or an undocumented immigrant, they're all afforded the same constitutional guarantees. So we're going to treat them the same as we would anyone as far as them being a victim in the investigation."

Oftentimes when sheriff's deputies respond to calls in unincorporated parts of the county, undocumented immigrants who work in the fields and orchards will scatter at the sight of a deputy's patrol car. Tracy said there is no need to run.

Illegal immigrants who are witnesses to or victims of crimes can report them to the sheriff's office without fear of deportation.

"They should not fear reporting that crime, but unfortunately it doesn't happen a lot, and we know that. There are many cases of victimization within the illegal immigrant groups that go unreported because of that fear," Tracy said.

There are federal programs that certify police officers and sheriff's deputies to enforce immigration law, something that a handful of sheriff's departments in the country are doing. But Tracy said none of his deputies have done the training, and even if he wanted to enforce immigration laws, he doesn't have the manpower.

"We'd spend all day hunting guys ... asking people what their country of origin is," he said.

In Maricopa County, Arpaio has taken a rather unprecedented approach, arresting illegal immigrants based on a controversial interpretation of a state law aimed at immigrant smuggling organizations.

Tony Yapias, the director of Proyecto Latino de Utah, said many law enforcement agencies oppose the notion that they should be enforcing federal immigration law. Undocumented immigrants are unlikely to report crimes in their communities if they think it will put them in ICE's hands, he said, which would make those communities much less safe.

"That's why we have different roles, from federal to state to local law enforcement," Yapias said. "Each of them has its own specific responsibilities as to what types of laws they're going to enforce, and that needs to be maintained."

Mike Sizer, a board member and spokesman for Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, disagrees. Law enforcement agencies often assist their federal counterparts, he said, and his organization would like to see police take a more active role in enforcing immigration laws. Frustration is mounting at the federal government's inaction regarding illegal immigration, he said, and he expects more cities and counties to start following Arpaio's example in Arizona.

"I would venture to say we're going to see it (in Utah County) and in Salt Lake. I think we'll see it up and down the state. I think we're going to see it across the nation," he said.

Pressure is mounting in many areas for states and municipalities to take action on immigration issues. Three city council candidates in St. George pledged to take a tough stand on illegal immigration if elected, though all were defeated in Tuesday's election. Other states have taken tough stances on law enforcement's role in immigration enforcement. In 2006, Georgia passed a law requiring police officers to be trained in immigration law, and other states have considered similar measures. Alabama state troopers are now required to check the immigration status of every person they stop.



• Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or jduda@heraldextra.com.

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