Thread: Huntsville police say hands tied on illegals

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Huntsville police say hands tied on illegals
By Lee Roop
The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE (AP) — A Huntsville police officer sees a car run a red light and pulls the driver over. At the wheel — holding a smudged, crudely printed green card — is obviously an illegal immigrant. The officer writes a ticket, climbs back in his patrol car and drives away.

What's wrong with this picture?

Plenty, if you're on the side of America's immigration debate that believes being here illegally is reason enough to be arrested and deported.

Nothing, if you're a law enforcement officer coping with today's maze of federal laws, limited jail space and other demands on your time.

In fact, the scenario above is how Huntsville police officers routinely handle encounters with illegal immigrants here, officials say.

None has been taken into custody based on routine police encounters, Police Chief Rex Reynolds said.

That's a big surprise to a lot of people.

The surprise was evident July 11 in the second public forum on immigration issues sponsored by the Huntsville Human Relations Commission. The first question asked of Reynolds was why police don't arrest illegal immigrants that they find on routine patrol.

Not enough for an arrest

You could see the stunned expressions and hear the surprise in the follow-up questions after Reynolds repeated what he's said before: Being illegal isn't enough to get arrested. Not nearly enough.

"You are correct (that) a traffic stop due to a violation does not mandate notification of (federal immigration authorities)," Reynolds said by e-mail in response to questions last week, "and (federal agents) have been clear in the past that they will not respond to individual misdemeanor violations for custody and deportations."

To understand why, begin with federal law.

Most legal scholars agree that the U.S. Constitution gives authority over immigration to the federal government.

Huntsville City Attorney Peter Joffrion said as much again recently in explaining why he thinks Councilman Glenn Watson's proposal to penalize those who hire or rent to illegal immigrants wouldn't survive a legal challenge.

"Federal pre-emption," Joffrion called it.

Joffrion, as city attorney, is also the legal adviser to the Huntsville Police Department.

In 1996, Congress amended the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Act to permit state and local authorities to make immigration arrests, according to Temple Black, New Orleans district spokesman for the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

ICE

ICE is the agency formed when several bureaus, including the old Immigration and Naturalization Service, were merged into the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after 9/11.

But Congress insisted that local authorities get involved only after training and the signing of a "memorandum of understanding" with ICE, Black said.

Those agreements are still relatively rare among the states, but Alabama state troopers have one. It's something Gov. Bob Riley speaks proudly about in campaign appearances.

Federal law, and each memorandum of understanding, spell out the federal government's deportation priorities, Chief Reynolds said.

The key deportation targets — those whom ICE agents will take into custody — are drug dealers, gang members, sex offenders and serious felony suspects. ICE agents will also take custody of previously deported immigrants.

And that's all. As Reynolds put it, federal agents "will not respond to individual misdemeanor violations."

House measure

One way around that hurdle for those wanting more deportations was legislation passed last year by the House making it a felony to be in the country illegally. But the House measure didn't pass the Senate, meaning its chances of becoming law are slim.

Why are the federal government's priorities so limited? Simple numbers, state and federal officials say.

Require ICE to take anyone caught here illegally, and the wheels will come off.

"The infrastructure won't support it," says Scott Hassell of Gadsden, who runs the only jail in Alabama certified to hold federal immigration prisoners. That jail is already at capacity every day.

In the meantime, Huntsville police have cooperated with federal agents in major roundups that met the priorities, most recently the arrest of 15 suspected drug traffickers.

Huntsville police will pursue ICE training and a memorandum of understanding with the federal department, Reynolds said.

But even if he gets an agreement, Reynolds' problems won't end there.

"Our challenges are twofold," he said. "We must enforce the law, while also maintaining a working relationship with the Hispanic community in an effort to provide basic police services.

"Hispanics, both legal and illegal, become victims of crime. It is our mission to provide police services to all aspects of our community."

"Hispanics, both legal and illegal, become victims of crime. It is our mission to provide police services to all aspects of our community."

And, uh, what about the rest of the community? We are victims when it comes to illegal aliens in our community.....breaking the law to get here, driving down our wages, using up our social services to which they should not be entitled, using social security numbers for fraud.....disgusting!