NM town protests police immigration enforcement

Posted Wednesday, May. 16, 20120
By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA
Associated Press

ANTHONY, N.M. — About 400 residents of the tiny border town of Anthony have signed a petition demanding that local law enforcement officers stop random immigration checks, activists said Wednesday.

Border Network for Human Rights spokeswoman Christina Parker said the signatures were delivered to the city council Wednesday evening following a march through the community along the Texas-New Mexico border.

Anthony was recently incorporated, and Parker said her group has received information that local law enforcement officers have been acting as immigration agents, sometimes in coordination with federal immigration agencies.

City Clerk Gloria Irigoyen said the community's police department consists of one officer and that it was news to her that immigration checks could be happening.

"They are trying to make it an issue, but it's not," she told The Associated Press.

The immigration rights group contends that when police departments enforce immigration law, residents are less likely to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

The petition asks the council to support the principles of community policing by ensuring the police department gains the trust of all community members to more effectively fight crime.

"The enforcement of civil immigration law is the responsibility of the federal government," Jose Manuel Escobedo, the group's policy director, said. "It is unconstitutional and just as improper for local police to ask for immigration papers as it would be for them to ask for proof of filing taxes to the IRS."

The residents who signed the petition represent about 4 percent of Anthony's population.

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