Thread: Advocates question reason behind high number of deportations

Sept. 27, 2007, 4:20PM
Advocates question reason behind high number of deportations


By ANABELLE GARAY Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

IRVING, Texas — Latino advocates accuse police officers of racial profiling and overzealously arresting suspected illegal immigrants so they can be deported, a claim the Mexican Consulate takes so seriously it's advising people to avoid driving through this Dallas suburb.

Police Chief Larry Boyd, however, says he's merely providing information to immigration agents as part of a national program designed to streamline the deportation of illegal immigrants who have been incarcerated.

"In terms of immigration enforcement, we're not doing anything on that," said Boyd, whose city joined the program last year. "The officers are arresting people for offenses like they always have."

But many Latinos don't believe that and feel they're being targeted for arrest and deportation. An estimated 2,000 people marched outside City Hall on Wednesday calling for Irving to withdraw from the nationwide Criminal Alien Program.

"This has become an immigration operation," said Enrique Hubbard Urrea, the Mexican Consul General in Dallas. "All of this is being done by racially profiling."

Father Pedro Portillo, of Santa Maria de Guadalupe Church in Irving, said he's talked to several people who say they were approached by officers without cause and asked for immigration documents. He's gathering the data in case advocates file a lawsuit.

"We still don't have a concrete plan of what to do in the future, but we are looking for cases to show the police," he said.

From September 2006 through Tuesday, 1,600 people taken to the city jail have had a detainer placed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A detainer is a legal order that says a jailed person, once the sentence is complete, should be released into ICE custody for possible deportation.

Those with immigration detainers in Irving included people representing 36 different nationalities, said Officer David Tull, a police spokesman. Police didn't immediately provide the charges behind the arrests.

Mexican Consulate staff in Dallas attempt to interview Mexicans being deported, and say that over the past few weeks it appears a disproportionate number have been from Irving. The consulate covers a huge area, from East Texas all the way to the Texas Panhandle, and Hubbard Urrea said about half those interviewed were from Irving, a Dallas suburb of 206,000.

The program Irving participates in is available to federal, state and local detention facilities. In some places, including the Dallas County Jail, ICE has officers stationed at detention facilities to handle the process of determining deportability. At the Irving jail and others, jailers can call a 24-hour number and have ICE personnel check databases or speaking with detainees to determine if they are legally in the country, said Nuria Prendes, director of detention and removal operations at ICE's Dallas field office.

"It has to be somebody incarcerated," Prendes said. "It can't be just someone pulled over."

But immigrant advocates allege that's not the way it's happening in Irving.

"It's in the streets where they are looking for people," said Hubbard Urrea.

The Mexican Consulate and church leaders have fielded a number of complaints, including allegations that people were stopped and asked for immigration documents in seemingly harmless situations.

"This is perpetuating a stereotype that confuses immigrants with criminals," Hubbard Urrea said. "The program is to find criminal aliens, not undocumented aliens."

Police disagreed, saying the department has checked out each complaint of an officer overstepping his bounds and found each arrest to be warranted.

"As much as possible this is not a program that has anything to do from what patrol officers do out in the field," Boyd said.

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On the Net:

City of Irving http://cityofirving.org

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement http://www.ice.gov

Mexican Consulate http://www.sre.gob.mx/dallas/

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5170408.html

DEPORT DEPORT DEPORT
"The program is to find criminal aliens, not undocumented aliens."
uh...that is a crime

So what!!!! It can't be racial profiling if there are 36 nationalities there. If they don't like the American way they can leave. No one asked them to come here. Like the Autralian president says, Why should we have to change our ways to accomodate them? They are in our country and if they can't get along or learn our language they can just leave.

Let them whine all the way to Mexico.....

I agree, they can whine all they want.

If their lost, we can show them the way home
I'm still amazed at how "they" find small towns so far away from Mexico.

They have to have a lot of help from up here.

"This has become an immigration operation," said Enrique Hubbard Urrea, the Mexican Consul General in Dallas. "All of this is being done by racially profiling."

Considering over 70 percent are Mexicans of course they're going to mostly Mexicans. The Mexican Consul General should be encourage it's illegal alien citizens to obey the laws by going back to Mexico...

Those with immigration detainers in Irving included people representing 36 different nationalities, said Officer David Tull, a police spokesman. Police didn't immediately provide the charges behind the arrests.

WHAT PART of 36 countries do these morons NOT understand