Thread: WashPost-Officials Reluctant to Battle Illegals

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 23, 2008; Page B01
Although law enforcement agencies in Prince William and Frederick counties have agreed to help federal authorities enforce immigration laws, officials in many other parts of the country remain reluctant to do so, saying they fear losing the trust of immigrant communities and worry about being accused of racial profiling.
This Story
Many Officials Reluctant to Help Arrest Immigrants
The Battle Over Immigration
Despite a nationwide clamor against illegal immigration, only 55 of more than 18,000 police and law enforcement agencies across the country have signed agreements to coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Although they face public and political pressure to crack down on illegal immigrants, officials say such efforts can backfire by making immigrants reluctant to report crimes, exposing departments to lawsuits, and putting local police officers in confusing and dangerous situations that can lead to mistakes and abuse.
El Paso's mayor, John Cook, described his mostly Hispanic city on the Mexican border as "the second-safest city in America," in part because it stresses community police involvement. While recognizing that illegal immigration is a crime, he said he is also worried about a growing public perception that immigrants are criminals.
"There is a danger," he said. "Once people don't trust a police officer in immigrant communities, they become communities that foster crime, where people won't report domestic violence or the theft of a TV. If people feel they are under threat of being deported, they become silent. There has to be a delicate balance."
Houston's police chief, Harold Hurtt, said that the city has been labeled a "sanctuary" for illegal immigrants by some conservative commentators but that his department has focused on catching those who commit other crimes. He said it is extremely difficult to track down illegal immigrants without infringing on the rights of others, especially in minority and ethnic communities with many legal immigrants.
Hurtt posed a hypothetical case in which "your wife runs a red light on her way to the store" and has forgotten her driver's license. She is detained and booked, and her immigration status is checked. "Can you imagine doing that to every resident?" Hurtt asked an audience of several hundred police and local officials at a conference on immigration policing and civil liberties this week in the District. "There is a moral issue here. We are here to provide not only law enforcement, but justice."
Most of the agencies that have agreed to work with ICE are in the Southeast, including North Carolina, Georgia and Arkansas, where mostly non-Hispanic communities have been dramatically changed by influxes of immigrants, many of them illegal Mexicans and Central Americans, seeking work at farms, mills and slaughterhouses.
Many of the local cooperating agencies are overseen by county sheriffs, who are elected and run regional jails, rather than city police departments with appointed chiefs.
The Police Foundation, a private national group that sponsored the conference, held four focus groups with law enforcement and other officials in Kansas, Texas and Florida. Anita Khashu, a foundation consultant, said three of the four groups decided that immigration enforcement should remain "solely a federal responsibility."
James Pendergraph, director of the office of state and local coordination for ICE, told conference participants that his agency is eager to form more local partnerships. He said that ICE does not seek to intimidate immigrants and that only those involved in criminal activity are likely to face arrest.
"Some people talk of fears of terrorizing immigrant communities, but if you're not involved in criminal activity, you'll probably never come in contact with these programs," Pendergraph said. "The media make it seem like if you are out mowing your grass, we'll snatch you from your yard and arrest and deport you. That is just not the case."
Several scholars at the meeting expressed concerns about public perceptions that illegal immigrants are linked with high crime. Rubén Rumbaut of the University of California at Irvine said crime rates across the country have steadily declined as immigration rates have increased. His research showed that the percentage of foreign-born men in U.S. jails and prisons is far lower than that of African Americans and in some cases close to the level of native-born whites.
Other legal experts and advocates at the meeting said that immigration law is increasingly being "criminalized" to prosecute people who have crossed the border to find work, especially by charging them with identity fraud, and that civil immigration warrants are being used like criminal warrants, even though they do not carry the same powers, such as the right to enter a home without permission.


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The people have got to fire Mayor, City Manager, and City Boards; and then the policemen.

There is no more balance on the ball; no gray area. Enforcing the law for some and not on others is the reason Americans are paying the higher price.

Give the elected official; and aider and abettor, higher paycheck for the do nothing attitude for 30 years or more

NO MORE!

Officials refusing to enforce our immigration laws, including sanctuary cities, should be charged criminally as accessories, obstruction of justice, racketeering, malfease in office, harboring illegal aliens..........throw the book at them.

Shouldn't those who shield gang members be charged with engaging in terrorist activities?

Americans, stand up and unite against illegals. We each need to do everything we legally can to force the illegals to leave our country. Boycott employers of illegals and let them know why. Email your government officials. Report illegals. Be pro-active!!!

State by State listing of House Of Representative members
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml
Links to State Legislatures
http://www.fvap.gov/links/legislativelinks.html
State and Local Government on the Net
http://www.statelocalgov.net/50states-legislature.cfm
State Legislatures, State Laws and State Regulations - Web Site Links and Telephone Numbers
http://llsdc.net/sourcebook/state-leg.htm
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Immigration Legislation - Automatically Send emails, letters, faxes to your representatives
CAPPS Immigration Issues
http://capwiz.com/caps/issues/
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NumbersUSA Action - free faxes
http://www.numbersusa.com/actionbuffet
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TOLL FREE Congressional Switchboard Numbers
800-833-6354
866-340-9281
877-762-8762
866-808-0065
888-355-3588
866-220-0044
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suspicious activity??
1-866 DHS 2ICE.
1-866-347-2423
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Report Employers/Employees
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) fraud/criminal investigations number is 1-800-829-0433
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Thanks Buzz. I have saved all the links and tomorrow will be on the job of drafting some golden words to give some of the folks in Congress a small piece of my feelings about the problem of IAs that just seems to be accelerating by the actions of those sworn to represent the American CITIZENS, not giving solace and preference to those that crawled through the border.

Originally Posted by vortex

Hurtt posed a hypothetical case in which "your wife runs a red light on her way to the store" and has forgotten her driver's license. She is detained and booked, and her immigration status is checked. "Can you imagine doing that to every resident?" Hurtt asked an audience of several hundred police and local official

I don't have to imagine it, it is happening right now where I live and most Citizens approve of it!! Why not check the immigration status of everyone the police stop that do not have ID?