New Phoenix police policy feeble response to illegal immigration
ROBERT ROBB

The "bright line" drawn by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's advisory committee on involving the Phoenix police department in immigration satisfies the politicians and the police brass.

However, it doesn't best serve the people of Phoenix.

To understand why requires taking a step back from the instant question - what should the police do about illegal immigration - and looking at the immigration issue more broadly.

Arizona is ground zero for illegal immigration. A larger percentage of our population consists of illegal immigrants than any other state.
There are benefits from illegal immigration. Total economic output is larger than it otherwise would be. The price of certain things, such as houses and restaurant meals, is less.

There are also costs - higher education and social welfare expenditures and a depressing effect on the wages of legal workers.

The people of Arizona have fairly clearly decided the costs outweigh the benefits. And while everyone understands that immigration is preeminently a federal issue, the public wants state and local officials to do what they can to reduce the incidence and consequences of illegal immigration.

Now, it may be the case that the people of Arizona also would like to see many illegal immigrants receive legal status and some sort of program established to increase legal immigrant labor.

However, legal status and guest worker programs do require federal action. And there is zero evidence that the public wants state and local officials to refrain from doing what they can about illegal immigration while waiting for federal action.

Local law enforcement agencies can help in this effort. Contrary to the false choice posed by opponents, no one is asking that local law enforcement agencies make illegal immigration a priority - to chase illegal immigrants while allowing murderers to go free.

Instead, all that is being asked is that local law enforcement stop turning a blind eye to illegal immigration and help control the problem in ways compatible with their other priorities and duties.

The new Phoenix police department policy is a very feeble and inadequate response to this public desire for help.

Right now, the department asks about the immigration status of people arrested for felonies. All the new policy does is extend that to misdemeanants.

This is the "bright line" that the politicians and brass find so comforting: If the Phoenix PD thinks you've engaged in criminal activity, you'll be asked about your immigration status. Otherwise you won't.

Of course, asking and knowing aren't the same things. The department could actually know the immigration status of those it arrests or cites. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency maintains a 24/7 service for local law enforcement to make such inquiries. All it takes is a telephone call.

Since the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department already checks the immigration status of those booked in county jails, all Phoenix would have to check are those it cites and releases.

The sheriff's office doesn't have to call ICE. That's because it has had personnel cross-trained to enforce federal laws. So, it can tap into ICE's databases with its own computers.

Local police chiefs claim that illegal immigrants aren't a significant part of the local crime problem, but the sheriff's office's data indicate otherwise. According to it, about a quarter of the over 40,000 people booked in its jails over the last 10 months were illegal immigrants.

In an area that's ground zero for illegal immigration, it's a dereliction of duty for local law enforcement officials not to get a portion of their officers similarly cross-trained.

This would not only facilitate documenting the immigration status of those who flow through their systems, it also provides additional law enforcement flexibility.

Such flexibility would make local law enforcement agencies less dependent on ICE in situations where immigration is a key part of the criminal activity.

The police union advocates also allowing patrol officers to ask about immigration status on traffic stops based upon reasonable suspicion. This is a dicey area, and the politicians and brass are understandably wary.
However, surely policies regarding reasonable suspicion could be developed to give beat cops the discretion they want.

The beat cops at least have a sense of what the public wants from local law enforcement on the subject of illegal immigration. The politicians and the brass still do not.

E-mail Arizona Republic political columnist Robert Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com.
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