Police role on migrant status at issue

Florida law-enforcement agencies lack a standard policy on whether to ask foreign-born criminal suspects about immigration status.

BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com


http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/263944.html

Three friends are killed in a schoolyard in Newark, N.J. The suspect?

An undocumented immigrant.

José Láchira Carranza, 28, had previously been in police custody, but local officials didn't check on whether the Peruvian was in the country illegally.

The New Jersey slayings prompted that state's attorney general, Anne Milgram, to issue a directive in August ordering law-enforcement agencies to ask criminal suspects about their immigration status. Milgram's order triggered several calls and e-mails from Floridians to Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, asking whether his office plans a similar move.

McCollum says most law-enforcement agencies in the state routinely check the immigration status of foreign criminal suspects under arrest. But a check by The Miami Herald of several law-enforcement agencies' policies reveals a patchwork of contradictory or vague rules across Florida.

''As a matter of routine, most law-enforcement agencies in Florida already investigate the alien status of anyone arrested,'' McCollum's office wrote in an e-mail.

Yet, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, as well as several South Florida police agencies, have no written policy on which situations should require police to ask about immigration status. Immigration authorities routinely track the entry of foreign convicts into state prisons -- but suspects are not systematically queried when encountered by local police or sheriff's deputies.

''It's on a case-by-case basis,'' said Michael Ramage, general counsel for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Ramage said agents have discretion to ask, if the case demands it. He said Florida would adopt a uniform statewide policy only if the Legislature enacted such a law.

McCollum will discuss the issue ''at a later date if/when we develop an immigration-related policy for the [attorney general's] office,'' his press office said in an e-mail.

Miami Police Chief John Timoney and the Broward Sheriff's Office said officers will ask, but only if an arrest occurs. Miami-Dade police, meanwhile, generally won't ask -- unless the question is deemed relevant to an investigation.

With an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country -- about one million in Florida -- the question of how aggressive local law-enforcement agencies should be, in what has always been a federal role for immigration, continues to challenge officials. The killing of a police officer in Phoenix during a routine stop of a jaywalking pedestrian in September has also raised the public's ire.

In that case, the suspect, Erik Jovani MartĂ*nez, 22, had been deported to Mexico last year, after he was convicted on a theft charge, according to immigration officials, but he apparently sneaked back into the country. MartĂ*nez was killed by police last month when he pointed a gun at a hostage's head after shooting the officer.

`POSTER CHILD'

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called MartĂ*nez a ''poster child'' for failed federal efforts to secure the U.S. border. But some Phoenix residents are clamoring for local police to take a more active role. Under a long-standing policy, Phoenix officers are barred from alerting immigration authorities about undocumented immigrants detained at routine traffic stops or for petty crimes.

Some local law-enforcement officials say that having police conduct immigration-related duties only hurts their crime-fighting abilities and can result in discriminatory profiling of Hispanics and others who are legally in the country or born in the United States. Immigrant-rights activists say that immigrants will not trust police to solve crimes in their neighborhoods if police are also working with immigration officials on finding those who are in the country illegally -- a noncriminal offense.

Barbara Gonzalez, the Miami spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said her agency is generally satisfied about the level of cooperation it receives from local police.

''We cannot dictate local policy,'' she said. 'We say to our local law-enforcement partners at the local and state level, `Here are the resources that ICE can bring to the table. We can work together to identify what it is that your particular department needs.' And at the end of the day, our priority is national security and public safety.''

Gonzalez cited the recent graduation of 27 Collier County Sheriff's Office deputies who completed a four-week course that will allow them to enforce immigration law with the same authority as federal officers.

''These partnerships are crucial in our fight to keep our communities safe,'' Michael Rozos, Florida field office director for the ICE office of detention and removal, said in a statement.

Immigration officials said they hope to expand the program to other law-enforcement agencies in the state. The FDLE has a similar program, Gonzalez said.

Despite the absence of a uniform Florida policy, many officers do ask about immigration status. Lt. Pat Santangelo, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman, said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks raised awareness about the potential link between immigration and national security. ''If we encounter a driver without a license, that may be an indication the person is in the country illegally,'' he said. ``At that point, we ask.''

Robert Diers, Miami-Dade police legal advisor, said officers will not ask about immigration status unless the question is ''related to the reason for the stop,'' such as an investigation into ``human trafficking.''

NO WRITTEN RULES

The Broward Sheriff's Office said it does not have written rules on immigration status, but spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said the BSO will ''do a thorough background check'' if a suspect is arrested.

Many immigrant-rights advocates believe that police departments have policies not to ask about status to avoid intimidating witnesses or crime victims.

''Most police chiefs across the country agree that . . . they shouldn't be acting as ICE agents,'' said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. ``They claim, and I think it's a valid claim, that it's going to erode the trust they've worked so hard to build with the immigrant community.''

Timoney said that ensuring cooperation is a driving force -- unless an arrest is made. ''In the area of criminal activity, our policy is pretty clear that we will not enforce the immigration laws in and of themselves, that we will not stop people, inquire of people of their immigration status,'' he said.

But if a person is charged, immigration status may come up during questioning or when officers check the suspect's background.