Thread: Tulsa deputies say they're not picking on anyone

Tulsa deputies say they're not picking on anyone
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 3:12 AM
By Todd Jones

The Columbus Dispatch

Leonardo Carrizo | For The Dispatch
Illegal immigrants finish lunch in the Tulsa County, Okla., jail, where they are held for weeks awaiting deportation to their home country. Most of them ended up in jail for violating traffic laws, driving drunk or being caught in raids at construction sites.


Jose Molina, right, and a cellmate pass the time in jail while waiting for their deportation hearings. Illegal immigrants in Tulsa County no longer are eligible to leave jail by posting bail.


Deputy Sheriff Marlin Warren angrily denied allegations of racial profiling. "In Oklahoma, we have a lot of Native Americans. We have a lot of people who spent a lot of time in tanning beds," he said.

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TULSA, Okla. -- To see what happens when a state passes its own immigration law, look no further than Pod J5 of the Tulsa County jail.

Inside, you'll find an ever-busy way station, all 94 beds usually full of detainees awaiting deportation. Nearly all are Latinos.

"We house them in a separate pod, all by themselves, because of the language barrier, unless they're from rival gangs and might cause a problem," said Sgt. Shannon Clark of the Tulsa County sheriff's department.

How those detainees ended up in the two-story, medium-security immigration pod is a controversial subject, rife with claims and denials of racial profiling.

Oklahoma's attorney general gave no guidelines to police and sheriff's departments about how to enforce the new law, which requires them to check the immigration status of anyone arrested for a felony or drunken driving.

As Ohio lawmakers consider a bill modeled on Oklahoma's new crackdown -- considered the nation's toughest -- they already can see the fallout here.

"Only the federal government can enforce immigration laws," said Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett. "There's a misperception in our own community about new discretion our police received in our city. It's been difficult to communicate directly to our citizens."

That's been especially true in Tulsa County, where the sheriff's department has taken the lead on enforcement by partnering with federal immigration officials.

From September 2007 through June, nearly 1,400 people were booked into the Tulsa County jail as detainees to be deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of that group, 1,081 were deported or put into federal immigration proceedings.

"Gosh, the Tulsa County sheriff's department is the model in Oklahoma for the way state and local enforcement agencies ought to be cooperatively enforcing immigration law," said Randy Terrill, the Republican state representative who wrote the legislation.

Of the 742 detained in the Tulsa jail in the first six months of this year, 677 were Mexican citizens.

Such numbers have fueled cries by Hispanics, the largest immigrant group in Oklahoma, that they're being harassed and racially profiled.

"The Tulsa County sheriff has committed ethnic cleansing," said the Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders.

Stanley Glanz, in his 20th year as sheriff, scoffs at the allegation.

"We don't just stop people because they're foreign-born," he said. "What people don't understand is, who we're seeing shipped off for (immigration) hearings are a lot of people who are frequent fliers in our jail. That's who we're moving out of our community."

His deputies bristle at the attacks on their reputation. Last September, 28 of them graduated from ICE's five-week immigration training program. Since then, the jail's population has decreased 7 percent.

"Someone is running off at the mouth to gain some political backing," Deputy Joe Byars said. "I feel like I'm being accused of things. It sucks. People think we're just out here picking on people, and that's bothersome because it's not like that at all."

Opinions differed in Pod J5.

"We're like prey," said Julio Reiguero, a former Columbus resident who sat in the jail this spring, facing deportation and a marijuana-possession charge.

Outside, even Hispanic U.S. citizens feel like they're behind bars.

"Sometimes when I leave work, a patrol car follows me, sometimes maybe for half a mile," said Simon Navarro, a U.S. citizen who owns a pharmacy and money-wiring shop in Tulsa. "What I feel angry about is, because of my mustache, my appearance, they look at me as if I was a criminal."

Fear of crime contributed to the climate that produced Oklahoma's new immigration law.

"Our standard of living was going down and our crime was going up," said Dan Howard, a retired Oklahoma state trooper and founder of Outraged Patriots, an anti-illegal immigration Web site based in Beggs, Okla.

Oklahoma's violent crimes -- murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault -- rose from 17,176 in 2000 to 18,066 last year, a 5.2 percent increase at a time when the state's Hispanic population jumped nearly 45 percent.

Oklahoma's annual crime report does not break down how many Hispanics were arrested, so there's no direct way to gauge whether there's a connection.

In July, an ICE sting operation -- including help from the Tulsa County sheriff's office and the Tulsa police -- led to the arrest of 45 gang members, gang associates and immigration violators.

"Buddy, if we don't stop illegal immigration, drugs and crime, our kids aren't going to have the same America, and it's coming real fast," said Ron Dampf of Tulsa.

The new law, however, hasn't changed how most law-enforcement officers operate. Only the Tulsa County sheriff's department has partnered with ICE.

"Nobody has really ramped up to go out and be the border patrol," said Jim Cox, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Police Chiefs.

"We are struggling with overcrowding in our penal system."

Tulsa has been the exception, resulting in an estimated 25,000 Hispanics' fleeing the county, and likely the state.

The Tulsa City Council passed a resolution in May 2007 that required police to determine the immigration status of "all suspected illegal aliens" they encountered.

A month later, the sheriff's department signed a contract with ICE to be a "force multiplier." Since then, Tulsa County has been home to rumors, mistrust of the police and a general uneasiness."If I see a cop pull up behind me, my heart starts to race," said Victor, a U.S. citizen and Tulsa resident whose wife is undocumented.

Oklahoma's immigration law doesn't give state or local police the authority to arrest someone solely for being in the country illegally, because that's still a federal offense.

Likewise, the law doesn't give state or local police the authority to pull people over and ask them to prove their citizenship, nor can they follow up on a complaint if ethnicity is the only cause of suspicion.

Sgt. Clark said the Tulsa sheriff's department budget didn't increase because of its partnership with ICE, and no one was added to the staff, because the immigration training was considered a secondary assignment.

"It's actually a money-making project for us," Clark said.

ICE pays the county jail $54.13 per day for each detainee not facing a local charge.

While the jail's budget didn't increase, turmoil in Tulsa's Hispanic community went up. Last fall, rumors were flying about Latinos being stopped for minor reasons so officers could check their immigration status.

With deputies completing ICE training, the Tulsa County jail conducted nearly 1,000 status checks in the four months before the new law took effect. The checks led to 760 immigrants' detention.

"It was a witch hunt," said the Rev. Jose Alfonso, pastor of Iglesia Piedra Angular (Cornerstone Hispanic Church).

Alfonso said his phone rang nonstop during the fall of 2007 with calls from parishioners upset that a friend or relative had been detained.

The Rev. Julian Rodriguez, pastor of Iglesia Eficaz in Tulsa, said he has a 3-inch notebook full of descriptions he took from families calling about police stops.

Blanca Thames, secretary for the American Dream Coalition, an immigrant-advocacy group in Tulsa, said the sheriff's department had checkpoints for detainment and conducted sweeps of illegal immigrants.

"We don't do racial profiling in my office," countered the sheriff. "None of that has occurred.

"We'll set up roadblocks periodically for drunk drivers, and I normally ask (the deputies) if they found any illegals," said Glanz, running unopposed for re-election this year. "We've arrested drunks on those blockades, but no illegals."

Replied Alfonso: "Come on. Someone is lying."

A black four-door Dodge turned off S. Garnett Road in East Tulsa and into the parking lot of Plaza Santa Cecilia, a mall considered the nerve center of the surrounding Hispanic district.

Deputy Sheriff Marlin Warren, behind the wheel of his undercover car, described the plaza as "shady, shady, shady."

The deputy was waiting for an informant to call so they could meet at a house where they suspected a Hispanic man was dealing drugs.

Warren and his partner, Byars, graduated from the federal immigration training program last fall -- "another tool on our gun belt," Warren said -- and work with ICE officers while probing gang and drug activity.

"When we first started, and it was a hot-button issue, so many people thought we were out knocking on doors and throwing families out of the country," Byars said. "That's so far from the truth. We don't even go to a home until there's a crime."

Both deputies angrily deny allegations of racial profiling.

"I don't know who I'm pulling over in a vehicle," Warren said. "In Oklahoma, we have a lot of Native Americans. We have a lot of people who spent a lot of time in tanning beds."

If motorists lack a license, they'll be taken to jail, where their status will be checked, he said. "They weren't pulled over for status. They were pulled over for their taillight not working. They were pulled over for breaking the law."

Warren said sheriff's deputies are "righteous" in their duty and that "The people being deported are criminals nine times out of 10."

Of the nearly 1,400 immigration detainees booked in the Tulsa County jail from September 2007 through June 2008, more than 1,200 had traffic violations (people may face more than one charge).

None of those detainees were booked for murder or robbery. Five were accused of breaking and entering, 12 of sex crimes and 122 of drug crimes.

Inside Pod J5, the detainees in orange jumpsuits -- nearly all Hispanic and none eligible for bond -- watched another day pass while waiting to face an immigration judge.

There was little hint of danger, though one prisoner had allegedly attacked a Tulsa man with a machete.

"Many are in here for minor offenses," said detainee Lucio Salgado-Toribio. "It's very tranquil and peaceful."

Outside his cell, the bright room was quiet.

"On average, we have very little trouble with them," Sheriff's Capt. Tom Fike said. "Some of the people are real criminals. Some of them are not."

Free-lance photographer Leonardo Carrizo served as interpreter for interviews with Spanish-speaking sources.

tjones@dispatch.com

Taking the lead
Last year, states enacted 240

immigration laws -- nearly triple the total of 2006. The toughest law took effect in Oklahoma, and Ohio now has a bill pending that would mimic that crackdown.



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Of the 742 detained in the Tulsa jail in the first six months of this year, 677 were Mexican citizens.

Such numbers have fueled cries by Hispanics, the largest immigrant group in Oklahoma, that they're being harassed and racially profiled.

The only thing I want to know is, did they end up in jail because they're INNOCENT? I don't think so! They're breaking any number of laws and are getting caught. Don't want to go to jail or deported? THEN DON'T DO THE CRIME!

I don't want to hear, "But it was just a broken tailight!" That's not why you're in jail buddy, it's because you're driving without A LICENSE!!! Take some responsibility for your actions and stop babbling like an infant!