Thread: Enforcing immigrant laws still difficult

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/m ... difficult/

Enforcing immigrant laws still difficult
By GAVIN LESNICK
Courier & Press staff writer 464-7449 or lesnickg@courierpress.com
Sunday, March 18, 2007

When Brad Ellsworth was Vanderburgh County Sheriff, he experienced first-hand the difficulty of enforcing illegal immigration laws.

Ellsworth, now the Congressman for the 8th District, said deputies would occasionally uncover groups of illegal immigrants only to be forced to let them go without an arrest.

"I've had cases where we caught obvious illegal immigrants in the train yards and in vehicles," he said.

"We would call ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) or INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) and were told basically, 'We can't. We're not going to come. Just let them go.'"

While Vanderburgh County law enforcement agencies do not routinely find large groups of illegal immigrants, that lack of enforcement remains an issue.

Neither Evansville Police nor the Sheriff's Department has jurisdiction to hold illegal immigrants if that is their only offense, and federal authorities will respond only to very large busts.

"I think it's always frustrating when you have someone breaking the law," said Sheriff Eric Williams. "... But we don't have any local or state legal authority to detain someone purely for that. The federal government can give us authority to detain for them, but that's a pretty arduous task to get that."

Evansville Police Chief Brad Hill said even if his department had the jurisdiction and the resources to arrest illegal immigrants, it would still be difficult because the root of the problem - the U.S.-Mexico border - has not been adequately addressed.

"That issue needs to be taken care of first - the border," Hill said. "You're not going to be able to address the problem if that's still going unchecked, if the flow is still constant from the border. To me, if there's going to be a fix for this issue, it's got to start there."

The issue, however, poses a more immediate problem for Hill's department.

During one of Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel's Traveling City Hall programs, police officials met with a woman who had not reported a burglary to her residence because she feared she would be deported.

As they looked further into the issue, officers discovered more and more examples of similar situations.

Evansville police have since established the Latino Outreach Program, a monthly community meeting aimed at encouraging both legal and illegal Latino residents to learn about the department and to report all crimes.

"That's the obligation of law enforcement in general - you want to address criminal activity," he said. "Granted, I know illegal immigration is a criminal activity. However, that's not something we on a local level can enforce. But we can enforce robberies, and we can enforce burglaries. So that's what we do."

Hill acknowledged that some people think illegal immigrants should uniformly be arrested and deported, although he said he hears few complaints from citizens about the issue.

He noted that while his department is not empowered to arrest illegal immigrants for immigration violations, they will be arrested like anyone else if they commit another crime. And if it's a felony, the federal authorities are alerted, Hill said.

"We're not giving illegal immigrants a pass on abiding by the laws of our lands," he said. "But we can't pull a bus up and start loading them up. And I wouldn't want to do that. It's not something we're authorized to do ... it's an impossible task."

Ellsworth said he hopes to address the immigration issue through his new role in Congress.

He said he is in favor of first securing the border with Mexico and becoming stricter in enforcing laws against employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Once those initiatives help stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country, Ellsworth said it would then be time to consider empowering local law enforcement agencies to arrest them. He admitted, though, that it would take a lot of expense so that local judicial systems weren't bogged down.

"I think that would be helpful," Ellsworth said.

"But you're also talking about then expanding when you do that. ... I think there's a lot that needs to be worked out before you can allow that. But it's like anything else, where local law enforcement is the closest link."

Your Turn

I cannot understand why pulling up buses and loading up illegal people sounds so absurd to our leaders? It is the right and lawful thing to do.

What about using frieght trains? We could make them safe for human travel. we could pull hundreds of cars at a time.

Originally Posted by sgt_shlitz

What about using frieght trains? We could make them safe for human travel. we could pull hundreds of cars at a time.

Mostly because we don't transport you in freight trains. Ease up.

Originally Posted by loservillelabor

Originally Posted by sgt_shlitz

What about using frieght trains? We could make them safe for human travel. we could pull hundreds of cars at a time.

Mostly because we don't transport you in freight trains. Ease up.

O.K. then, what about AMTRAK?

Originally Posted by loservillelabor

Originally Posted by sgt_shlitz

What about using frieght trains? We could make them safe for human travel. we could pull hundreds of cars at a time.

Mostly because we don't transport you in freight trains. Ease up.

At least they'd be safer inside a freight train than on the outside of them, this is how they travel here from Southern Mexico. They didn't have a problem traveling this way on the way here.

your getting a bit harsh on sgt_shlitz aren't you? at least american's pay for traveling on trains, when you don't pay for your own travel, you can't be beggers on how your deported.