Thread: Tennessee-Serpas' immigrant outreach working, feds say

El Protector's work to dispel fears in Metro is praised

By Kate Howard • THE TENNESSEAN • March 6, 2009

It was the uniform that scared off a young Hispanic man and woman going into the Linbar Market, filled with piñatas, tortillas and fresh produce. When they saw the Metro police officers through the glass door, they turned back for the car. Gilbert Ramirez leaned out the door and smiled.

"Entre," he said, holding the door open and patting them on the back as they passed.

"They see our presence and they get scared," he said, shrugging.

Ramirez is one of two Metro officers called El Protectors, commissioned to ensure the Hispanic community knows they have someone to turn to. The program, begun in 2005, was listed as a best practice by a report, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice and released last week, about crossing the language barrier.

The officers work in a time when immigrants are leery of police because more than 5,000 people booked at the Metro jail have been deported.

Since 2007, every foreign-born person booked into the jail in Nashville has been screened by Davidson County sheriff's deputies trained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a program referred to as 287g, and anyone living in the country illegally is sent to federal custody for eventual deportation.

Though Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas maintains that the deportation is a separate process and the police are doing their jobs the same way as before, community advocates say that illegal immigrants still fear speaking to police will put them in danger.

Serpas says those fears — fear of the police, and the concern that crime is underreported — are unfounded.

"To the concern that there is some gap occurring between crime reporting of Hispanics and fear of the police department, I think we have two things to point to," Serpas said.

"Our program has been identified as a best practice in the nation, and we're seeing more crime reports from Hispanic surnames coming through the police department."


Serpas attributes success in that category to the El Protector program, which he says puts an approachable and Spanish-speaking face on the department. But advocates for the immigrant communities say that as long as people are deported for offenses such as driving without a license, their battle to win trust from the Hispanic population will be uphill.


New leadership
Ramirez became El Protector at the South Precinct in October, after the controversial face of the program stepped down.

Officer Juan Borges ran for state legislator in 2006 as a Republican opposing illegal immigration. He once refused to speak in Spanish at a public meeting, and a rift between him and some immigrant advocates was cemented.

Borges resigned from the program last October and returned to patrol. According to Metro police spokesman Don Aaron, he agreed to step back after he was questioned in a criminal investigation involving a close friend in another county. Aaron declined to name the agency or what the investigation involved.

Borges, reached by phone Thursday, said it was a demanding job and he's proud of the work that he did.

When Ramirez joined Metro police in 2006, he said he was one of a handful on Spanish-speaking officers.

"There are a lot of people who feel more comfortable speaking to someone who speaks Spanish," said Ramirez, a New York native whose parents came from Puerto Rico. "In that way, I feel that I can help."

Now, he is working with another El Protector, Rafael Fernandez, to plan a festival they're sponsoring on March 22 at Coleman Park. To officers it's a chance to see whether the efforts they've made, the school visits and radio show appearances and friendly chats at the taco stand, are working.

It was the interest in developing trust that made the program stand out to the Vera Institute, the organization that wrote the federal report and listed the El Protector program, along with the bilingual volunteer chaplains and the volunteer translators who work by Cricket phones, as best practices.


"(Other programs) usually emphasize traffic fatalities," said Rodolfo Estrada, associate at the Vera Institute. "Nashville's program (is) teaching individuals it's OK to talk to the police."

Positive message
This week the officers roamed with Spanish-language posters to find support and donations for the event. Fernandez, a native of Cuba who works at the Hermitage Precinct, hopes they'll draw a big crowd and show that if you aren't breaking the law, you can interact with the police.

"I think most people are law-abiding, regardless of where they're from," Fernandez said. "Those who have something to hide were never going to call us anyway."

At the Linbar Market off Harding Place, owner Tom Muhsin said business has been up and down since before the economy bottomed out.

"Once the word of mouth hits that people have been deported, it's dead," Muhsin said.

It's that reality that makes it difficult to divorce the police from the immigration enforcement at the jail, said Renata Soto, executive director of immigrant advocacy organization Conexion Americas. She's glad to see the change in leadership because she felt the program under Borges was out of touch with the reality of the lives of undocumented immigrants, but she also thinks there's no getting around people's fears of law enforcement.

"On one level, we are impressed with the new officer and what El Protector is doing in reaching out to the community," Soto said. "But we cannot talk about the relationship or existence of El Protector without the context of 287g, and what that has meant for families who are being divided in our community."

Serpas said the 287g program hasn't made their jobs more complicated, and it won't change the way they do their jobs either.

Serpas attributes success in that category to the El Protector program, which he says puts an approachable and Spanish-speaking face on the department. But advocates for the immigrant communities say that as long as people are deported for offenses such as driving without a license, their battle to win trust from the Hispanic population will be uphill.



New leadership
Ramirez became El Protector at the South Precinct in October, after the controversial face of the program stepped down.

Officer Juan Borges ran for state legislator in 2006 as a Republican opposing illegal immigration. He once refused to speak in Spanish at a public meeting, and a rift between him and some immigrant advocates was cemented.

Borges resigned from the program last October and returned to patrol. According to Metro police spokesman Don Aaron, he agreed to step back after he was questioned in a criminal investigation involving a close friend in another county. Aaron declined to name the agency or what the investigation involved.

Borges, reached by phone Thursday, said it was a demanding job and he's proud of the work that he did.

When Ramirez joined Metro police in 2006, he said he was one of a handful on Spanish-speaking officers.

"There are a lot of people who feel more comfortable speaking to someone who speaks Spanish," said Ramirez, a New York native whose parents came from Puerto Rico. "In that way, I feel that I can help."

Now, he is working with another El Protector, Rafael Fernandez, to plan a festival they're sponsoring on March 22 at Coleman Park. To officers it's a chance to see whether the efforts they've made, the school visits and radio show appearances and friendly chats at the taco stand, are working.

It was the interest in developing trust that made the program stand out to the Vera Institute, the organization that wrote the federal report and listed the El Protector program, along with the bilingual volunteer chaplains and the volunteer translators who work by Cricket phones, as best practices.

(3 of 3)


"(Other programs) usually emphasize traffic fatalities," said Rodolfo Estrada, associate at the Vera Institute. "Nashville's program (is) teaching individuals it's OK to talk to the police."



Positive message
This week the officers roamed with Spanish-language posters to find support and donations for the event. Fernandez, a native of Cuba who works at the Hermitage Precinct, hopes they'll draw a big crowd and show that if you aren't breaking the law, you can interact with the police.

"I think most people are law-abiding, regardless of where they're from," Fernandez said. "Those who have something to hide were never going to call us anyway."

At the Linbar Market off Harding Place, owner Tom Muhsin said business has been up and down since before the economy bottomed out.

"Once the word of mouth hits that people have been deported, it's dead," Muhsin said.

It's that reality that makes it difficult to divorce the police from the immigration enforcement at the jail, said Renata Soto, executive director of immigrant advocacy organization Conexion Americas. She's glad to see the change in leadership because she felt the program under Borges was out of touch with the reality of the lives of undocumented immigrants, but she also thinks there's no getting around people's fears of law enforcement.

"On one level, we are impressed with the new officer and what El Protector is doing in reaching out to the community," Soto said. "But we cannot talk about the relationship or existence of El Protector without the context of 287g, and what that has meant for families who are being divided in our community."

Serpas said the 287g program hasn't made their jobs more complicated, and it won't change the way they do their jobs either.


"(Other programs) usually emphasize traffic fatalities," said Rodolfo Estrada, associate at the Vera Institute. "Nashville's program (is) teaching individuals it's OK to talk to the police."



Positive message
This week the officers roamed with Spanish-language posters to find support and donations for the event. Fernandez, a native of Cuba who works at the Hermitage Precinct, hopes they'll draw a big crowd and show that if you aren't breaking the law, you can interact with the police.

"I think most people are law-abiding, regardless of where they're from," Fernandez said. "Those who have something to hide were never going to call us anyway."

At the Linbar Market off Harding Place, owner Tom Muhsin said business has been up and down since before the economy bottomed out.

"Once the word of mouth hits that people have been deported, it's dead," Muhsin said.

It's that reality that makes it difficult to divorce the police from the immigration enforcement at the jail, said Renata Soto, executive director of immigrant advocacy organization Conexion Americas. She's glad to see the change in leadership because she felt the program under Borges was out of touch with the reality of the lives of undocumented immigrants, but she also thinks there's no getting around people's fears of law enforcement.

"On one level, we are impressed with the new officer and what El Protector is doing in reaching out to the community," Soto said. "But we cannot talk about the relationship or existence of El Protector without the context of 287g, and what that has meant for families who are being divided in our community."

Serpas said the 287g program hasn't made their jobs more complicated, and it won't change the way they do their jobs either.


http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090 ... 60367/1002

Let's be touchy feely with a large population stealing the identities of Americans, fraudulently receiving food stamps and other free services and benefits, and who take jobs from those now struggling to financially survive. Nashville and Tennessee in general is one of the top receivers of illegal aliens. Groups that have moved in to squash legislation (TIRRC) and to create a "let's hold hands" with the illegal aliens to assist them, puts extreme pressure on law enforcement. To a great extent it has worked successfully. Just reading local papers verifies the fact that friends of LaRaza work the media and the system and they push the sympathy for "immigrants" without fair and missing reporting of Americans who have their identities stolen, who are victims of illegal alien crime, who have been displaced in jobs, etc.

The following is a video response from one Tennessee Sheriff who partners with ICE to aggressively stop illegal alien crime. He is now running for Congress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytf6xlkU ... annel_page

Ephesians 4:32