Nogales Police Chief talks about enforcing new immigration law
Posted - 4/29/2010 at 8:39PM


NOGALES - Police departments all over the state are beginning to look at how they will be tackling the new immigration law and perhaps the ones with the biggest challenge may be border towns like Nogales.

Nogales is about 95% Hispanic and hundreds more cross the border to shop or work every day.

So to prepare the police department is depending on the special training to be provided by the state, but it's also already taking a second look at its own policies.

Nogales Police Chief Jeffrey Kirkham said, "It is a priority and I've already pulled out our policies. I just pulled them yesterday so we're going through those with a fine toothed comb."

And he said the biggest area to review is racial profiling; something the chief said won't be tolerated.

Kirkham said, "We are not going to go out and say you are of a certain nationality or a certain color of skin. That's illegal and unconstitutional and it's something we will not be doing."

He said officers need to have reasonable suspicion of a crime to approach a person, then the officer could question the person about immigration status.

But some residents don't believe him. Adrian Silva thinks cops will racially profile. He said, "It is just racist profiling. I feel some cop will take advantage of that if they are given this right and they'll take advantage of it."

But police said if they can prove those doubters wrong, they'll actually be better off than most other cities.

The chief said the border patrol will have already checked people for documentation to make sure they're legal, and if they do find someone in violation, federal agents won't be far away.

Kirkham said, "It will be a lot quicker. We can get a border patrol agent within a few minutes to respond where as up in the valley you could wait half hour or even three hours.

The chief said he's already starting to work with the city's legal experts to prepare for people making racial profiling claims but also to prepare for people suing the city saying it's not enforcing the law enough.

http://www.kvoa.com/news/nogales-police ... ation-law/