Salt Lake City police, lawmaker at odds over illegal aliens
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Salt Lake City police, lawmaker at odds over illegal aliens
By Pat Reavy and Arthur Raymond
Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 7:13 p.m. MDT
Saying it would have a "chilling impact" on the community and "drive a wedge" in it, Salt Lake police Chief Chris Burbank Wednesday said his department will not deputize officers for immigration enforcement, one of the voluntary parts of Utah's new immigration law that is set to take effect in July.
"Salt Lake City is choosing not to participate in this. As outlined by law, we are allowed to do that," Burbank said. "The police officers of Salt Lake City are not going to be put in the position to violate the human rights of any person."
Burbank defended his decision not to participate by speaking several times to the media Wednesday, including being a guest on KSL Newsradio's Doug Wright show.
The problem, he said, is that deputizing officers as immigration agents is essentially asking police to place a certain segment of the population under extra scrutiny because of their skin color.
"It's biased, racially motivated enforcement action," he said.
Burbank said another concern was that innocent people would hesitate to call police for fear of deportation.
Salt Lake police already hold illegal aliens for possible deportation if they are arrested for a felony, he said.
The immigration law was passed in 2008 as SB81, but implementation was delayed until July 1 of this year. It is a broad bill that includes everything from the screening of potential state employees or anyone receiving public benefits for legal presence in the country to criminal punishments for anyone transporting or harboring illegal aliens.
The cross-deputization of officers is also part of the bill, but is voluntarily coordinated between the Utah Attorney General's office and law enforcement agencies.
Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, the House sponsor for the bill, said that Burbank's stance is not acceptable and threatened legislative action against the department.
"I absolutely do not agree that they have the authority not to uphold this law," Noel said. "If they want to play hardball, we can do that. The first thing that comes to mind is jail reimbursement."
House GOP leadership qualified Noel's comments later Tuesday, registering support for the provisions of SB81 but squelching the possibility of any punitive action involving jail reimbursement.
"I certainly respect Rep, Noel's opinion, and he has been on the forefront of jail reimbursement issues," House Majority Whip Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace said. "In this particular area, however … as far as leadership would be concerned, there won't be any retribution."
Dee, who co-chaired the legislative interim committee that spent most of last year studying provisions of SB81 in meetings held around the state, said he continued to be in support of the bill.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder said he also did not have a problem holding criminals in his jail who were also not legal citizens, but he was reserving judgment about whether to cross-deputize.
Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is backing Burbank's stance, and said the cross-deputization program called for in SB81 works against local law enforcement efforts.
"Police cannot deter or solve crime if victims and witnesses are afraid to cooperate with police because they might be deported," Becker said.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, at a speaking engagement Wednesday at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, appeared to side with Salt Lake City officials when asked about the controversy.
"I don't want to do it. No law enforcement agency wants their cops to be cross-deputized as ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcment) agents because then we can't attack the bigger problem of the felony crimes–the drug dealers, gang bangers, human traffickers who are also illegal aliens," Shurtleff said. "They're preying on the illegal immigrant population, the Lation population. We need the confidence of that community, the entire immigrant community, that if we come knocking on their door to investigate the more serious crime, they're going to open the door and talk to us and not close it because they think we're ICE aganets."
Shurtleff said he expected a legal challenge to SB81 along the lines of a current challenge to Oklahoma immigration statutes that is scheduled for a May 4 hearing by the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. (SB81 was fashioned, in part, on the content of the Oklahoma statutes being challenged.) He told KSL Radio Wednesday that in the event a preliminary injunction were filed against SB81, the prudent action would be to wait for a ruling in the Oklahoma case or federal action instead of spending taxpayer dollars.
Two groups that have voiced opposition to SB81's mandates — the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah — essentially confirmed that lawsuit threat. Karen McCreary, the ACLU of Utah's executive director, said Wednesday that the legal aspects of SB81 have been under review since it's inception, and the AILA's executive committee vice chair, Jonny Benson, acknowledged that work is under way on framing a legal challenge, including filing to delay the law's implementation.
CONTRIBUTING: Ben Winslow
E-MAIL: preavy@desnews.com; araymond@desnews.com
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7052 ... .html?pg=1
