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Police chiefs aren't border agents
Trespass arrests should be stopped

By ARNIE ALPERT
For the Monitor
July 05. 2005 8:00AM

Police officers have a right to their opinions. Out of uniform, they can march, picket and call members of Congress. They can even commit acts of civil disobedience. But when they wear the badge and carry a loaded gun, political publicity stunts are abuses of authority. That is why New Hampshire's attorney general should tell the New Ipswich and Hudson police to stop charging immigrants with criminal trespass.

This story started a year ago when New Ipswich's police chief pulled over a van with 11 Ecuadorians whom he believed were in this country without legal documentation.

When he tried to turn them in to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly known as the INS), the feds told him they had more important things to do than deport every undocumented construction worker and gardener in the country.

In mid-April, the New Ipswich police found Jorge Mora Ramirez parked by the side of the road with his flashers on, talking on his cell phone. (Had he been driving while talking on his phone, he probably would have escaped notice.) Ramirez had a Mexican driver's license, but the police asked him for other ID, too. When, according to the police report, the 21-year old Mexican said his other papers were fraudulent, the police placed him under arrest and charged him with criminal trespass, a misdemeanor.

The Hudson police followed New Ipswich's bad example on May 12, when they charged two Mexican nationals with trespassing. Since then, they have added several more to their list. Hearings and trials in both sets of cases are scheduled to begin July 12.
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New Hampshire law says "a person is guilty of criminal trespass if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place."

Apparently, the state attorney general's office gave the New Ipswich police the go-ahead to use the criminal justice law against people they believe are in the country without license or privilege. "It's a novel interpretation," Assistant Attorney General Robert Carey said. Outrageous, I would say.

No doubt the town's police have also pulled over drivers who were intoxicated. We all know it is against the law to drive in that condition. Or, we might say, an intoxicated person is without license or privilege to be driving. But as far as I know, the local police have never charged anyone with trespass to supplement a DWI charge.

Another example might be people who have skipped bail or escaped from jail. They can certainly be arrested and charged with serious crimes. But have you ever heard of someone being charged with trespassing in such a situation? I have not.

There are other legal reasons to object to the use of the trespass statute in these cases. The Rockingham County attorney says only immigration judges, not town police officers, have the legal authority to determine who is in the country illegally. On his advice, the Salem police have decided they will not arrest people simply for suspicion of being in the country without legal documents.

In addition to the fact that it is probably unconstitutional, charging suspected undocumented immigrants with trespassing also poses a threat to public safety. If they fear getting charged with crimes themselves, immigrants will stop seeking police help when crimes are committed against them.

The New Ipswich chief even told a group of human rights activists that if a woman complained of domestic abuse, he would respond to her complaint but would also charge her with trespassing if he believed she were in the country illegally. When fear of the police displaces trust, our communities become less safe for everyone.

If the police are licensed to search out undocumented immigrants, most of those who will be stopped and questioned will be people with dark complexions. In fact, many immigrants and people of color who are in the country lawfully have stories of unjustified police stops. An expansion of racial profiling is a serious danger to human rights.

The other possibility is that all of us will be in danger of having to prove we are in the country legally at any moment. This would require a national ID card, something many citizens have resisted as an infringement on privacy.

"My position will never change,"says New Ipswich's police chief.

It is not his position that worries me. It is his actions.

Perhaps the judges will put an end to the practice. But before they do so, the state's attorney general should instruct the police to put their political opinions aside when they put on their uniforms and to stop using state laws to protest federal policies.

(Arnie Alpert is New Hampshire coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization devoted to peace, social justice and human rights. He lives in Canterbury and is a member of the Monitor's board of contributors.)

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By ARNIE ALPERT

For the Monitor