Thread: Policy in Irving has a price attached

Policy in Irving has a price attached
By David Sedeño
Sun, Sep. 30, 2007

Star-Telegram Staff Writer
There were speeches in English and Spanish. There were clergy and youths rallying the masses. There were chants that came from the back and, like a wave, carried through the crowd of some 2,000, mostly Hispanic, people: "¡Somos América!" "We are America!"

The handful of counter-demonstrators carried a variety of signs, some showing photos of people they said were killed by "an illegal alien." Others merely read, "Enforce the Law." A couple of those counter-protesters were arrested.

If anyone in Irving thought the city has been diversifying itself quietly and successfully and avoiding the immigration debate that has split Washington, Hazelton, Pa., and Farmers Branch, last week's rally on the steps of Irving City Hall proved them wrong -- very wrong.

From a distance, dozens of police officers watched -- some directing traffic, others mingling with the crowd to keep the demonstrators and the handful of counter-demonstrators separated.

It's those police officers and a federal law enforcement program in which they participate -- not a city ordinance or resolution aimed at illegal immigrants -- that are in the middle of this latest immigration controversy.

Under the Criminal Alien Program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers check the immigration status of people who end up in the Irving City Jail on myriad charges.

Earlier this month, Enrique Hubbard Urrea, Mexico's consul general in Dallas, warned Mexican immigrants to avoid Irving because, he said, it appeared that police were targeting them indiscriminately. More than 1,300 people have been deported since the Irving police began participating in the program last summer. (The city is home to roughly 205,600 people.)

Irving officials are going back through their statistics more closely, but they have steadfastly denied they are doing anything that borders on racial profiling. Officers are merely doing their jobs, they have said, and if someone arrested is in the country illegally, he or she is passed on to ICE. Most of those seek voluntary deportation, and many will be back soon.

What many Irving police officers have found is that the program is quickly impeding how they do their jobs -- not because of the people they arrest and eventually get deported, but because of the crimes that are being committed that are not being reported, and might no longer be reported.

Irving is growing more Hispanic, now about 40 percent of the population. How many illegal immigrants are in the city? No one really knows.

Over the years, many officers have worked diligently to gain the trust of Hispanics, including citizens, legal residents and even those who are in the country illegally. Hispanics -- especially illegal immigrants -- do not readily call police to report crimes.

Several officers fear that people on both sides of this immigration issue, many of them non-Irving residents, are fueling a national debate that will jeopardize local public safety, health and criminal justice concerns.

"I can tell you this: There are many officers who do not support this," said a veteran officer who did not want his name used because he was not speaking on behalf of the department. "Many of these people involved in this -- on both sides -- don't even live here, and those of them who do live here, they just want to make a name for themselves."

There is talk of a Hispanic-led boycott of local businesses to pressure them to tell City Hall to change its policy. Some events that draw large numbers of Hispanics could be in jeopardy.

Irving's southern sister city -- León, Guanajuato, Mexico -- will not participate in the Irving Sister Cities International Conference next month because of what León's City Council called racial profiling and discrimination targeting Hispanics, according to Mexican media reports.

"What we're seeing is merely a microcosm of what the federal government has to do to address the issue of real, logical immigration reform," Maura Gast, executive director of the Irving Convention & Visitors Bureau, said in an interview last week.

"Irving has a diverse population that includes not only a wide range of Hispanic cultures, but also Asians and Eastern Europeans," she said. "Irving has been transforming itself and is now extraordinarily diverse and cosmopolitan.

"But as far as our environment, our industry and our customers are concerned, and even many of the people that the city is hearing from, they say that the city is doing what it should be doing to uphold the law."

That comes at a price.

dsedeno@star-telegram.com
David Sedeño is publisher of La Estrella(Spanish Newspaper) and a member of the Star-Telegram
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/colum ... 52210.html

Why is it so hard for these folks to do the math: If illegals can impact the economy, then we simply know we have a problem with illegals. I moved to Irving because it wasn't overrun with illegals, but it didn't take long for it to happen. And this invasion will come to a town near you real soon if we don't take steps like Irving has. The question is do you want to be American or Mexican...