Thread: TX: Operation Wrangler problems

Groups: Immigration-police operation crossed the line

Racial profiling alleged in crackdown; officials say Hispanics not targeted


11:44 AM CST on Friday, February 9, 2007
By KATIE FAIRBANK / The Dallas Morning News
kfairbank@dallasnews.com

Gov. Rick Perry's office pitched Operation Wrangler to the public as a statewide crackdown on cross-border criminals – gang members and smugglers of drugs and humans. Illegal immigrants were not targets, officials said.

But immigration agents were not far away while police worked the operation. An immigration official said the agency set up "deportation and removal" sites and questioned immigrants on police officers' cellphones after some traffic stops. At least 137 people were returned to Mexico from North Texas during the weeklong operation.

The hand-in-glove collaboration between local and federal agents won applause from advocates of stronger immigration enforcement, who called it a pragmatic way of dealing with a growing problem.

Some civil liberties groups, meanwhile, said they were frightened by the ways that the joint operation weakened the already blurry line between public safety and personal freedom.

Mexican Consul Enrique Hubbard Urrea called it a form of racial profiling. The law requires probable cause before arrests are made, but Mr. Hubbard said he believes that some law enforcement officers acted as immigration agents during the operation and that people were pulled over because they were Hispanic.

"It doesn't seem to be clear here why they were stopped," Mr. Hubbard said. "There has to be a cause."

Standard procedure
Under state law, sworn officers are forbidden to ask about immigration status unless they've had specialized training. "Unlawful presence" is a federal civil offense, although repeat offenders can ultimately face federal criminal violations. Local officers questioned about their participation in Operation Wrangler say they didn't pose such questions and were not out to catch illegal immigrants.

But Carl Rusnok, a regional spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, said immigration agents were at times on site with police during traffic stops. Other times, officers who made the stops called agents and handed their cellphones to detainees. Police say some of the people were neither ticketed nor charged with any crime.

"They [immigration officials] may ask to talk to people in the car and talk to them via cellphone," Mr. Rusnok said. "They then can ask them pointed questions over whether they are in the country legally or illegally."

Mr. Rusnok said such cooperation is standard procedure and has been for years.

"We routinely support other law enforcement," he said.

José Alfredo González, 18, a former resident of Grand Prairie, said he and three other construction workers were sent back to Mexico after they were stopped on Interstate 20 east of Dallas on Jan. 22. Mr. González said an officer stopped the vehicle for speeding, which they deny doing. The officer spent several minutes on a cellphone, and then immigration agents showed up.

"I would say the policeman called immigration," Mr. González said by telephone from San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

Law enforcement officials bristled at the suggestion that local officers acted the part of immigration agents during traffic stops, but they referred questions about the operation to the governor's office.

The governor's office has said only that the operation involved 90 sheriff's offices and 133 police departments, along with state troopers and other agencies, whose goal was to provide a law enforcement "surge" that would disrupt human smuggling and drug traffic.

The state has refused to say which local departments participated or give any figures on the number of people ticketed or arrested.

"We can't comment on any specific situation. This particular operation did not target illegal immigration," said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry. "I can tell you that ICE is certainly integrated in Operation Wrangler. This targeted all crime. So if anyone was pulled over for any reason, if a law officer could not do a duty, they should call the appropriate authorities."

The Dallas Police Department says it did not participate, but the Dallas County sheriff's office did, making 283 traffic stops that were related to the operation. Of those, 99 citations were written and nine people arrested, according to a department official who said one person was turned over to ICE after his arrest.

Mr. Rusnok said ICE made 659 arrests and seized $88,000 during the operation. Of those immigrants arrested, at least 72 had criminal convictions, he said.

Mr. Hubbard said his staff at the Mexican Consulate in Dallas interviewed people who were detained in the operation and heard story after story about groups of Hispanic workers stopped while traveling together in trucks. The workers told consular officials that police would ask for their identification, and an immigration agent would soon appear.

Reyna Espinoza said her husband, Adelfo Neri Aguirre, was in a group of 11 immigrants from Mexico and Central America who were detained while riding in a van with a broken taillight in Denton County. According to Ms. Espinoza, an officer asked for immigration papers and then turned the group over to federal officials.

Mr. Hubbard said his office is aware of at least 137 people in North Texas who were stopped under the same pattern and returned to Mexico as part of Operation Wrangler. A list of those people, compiled by the consulate, included three toddlers who were born in the U.S. Mr. Rusnok said the government typically sends U.S.-born children to Mexico with their parents if the parents make that request.

'Blurs the line'
Collaboration between local police and federal immigration agents in this way is "creative in a very scary way," said Paul Heller, president of the Dallas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Certainly, it blurs the line dramatically," he said. "Obliterates it might be more accurate."

A similar state effort along the border, Operation Linebacker, caused similar complaints last year.

"What is new about Wrangler is it extends inland along trade corridors. Basically, our fear is that state funds will be used for state-sponsored racial profiling," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, an El Paso Democrat.

For police departments, it's a change in philosophy to get involved in immigration law. In the past, they tried to keep their distance for fear of losing hard-earned trust in the communities they protect.

"Without the Hispanic community trusting the police, we would have a hard time doing what we do. We need victims and witnesses of crimes, regardless of status, to contact us," said Johanna Abad, spokeswoman for the Houston Police Department, which says it participated in Operation Wrangler.

State law prevents police officers from arresting illegal immigrants unless they are charged with a criminal offense. And police departments interested in checking immigration status would have to send officers through special federal training.

"We're not authorized to check for citizenship. It's against the law for us to check. We're not trained in that, and we don't do that," said Michael Ortiz, a spokesman for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department.

Even so, there has been an evolution in practice.

For instance, many Texas police departments decided during the past few years that it was OK to bring in immigration officials if an illegal immigrant is being held on a criminal charge.

Dallas built an office for immigration agents at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center for that purpose. After an illegal immigrant was charged with killing a Houston police officer last fall, that department clarified that it was allowable for federal officials to check immigration status after an arrest.

Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said police are in a tough spot that would be unnecessary if existing federal immigration laws were better enforced. He is in favor of officers getting proper training in identification and detention techniques to avoid any problems.

"The local enforcement that you see is really a reaction to inaction in Washington," Mr. Dane said.


Al Día reporters Sergio Chapa and Isabel C. Morales contributed to this report.

José Alfredo González, 18, a former resident of Grand Prairie, said he and three other construction workers were sent back to Mexico after they were stopped on Interstate 20 east of Dallas on Jan. 22. Mr. González said an officer stopped the vehicle for speeding, which they deny doing. The officer spent several minutes on a cellphone, and then immigration agents showed up.

"I would say the policeman called immigration," Mr. González said by telephone from San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

I hope EVERY cop calls ICE any time they stop a carload of illegals. He denies that he was speeding but has no problem with the fact that he was here illegally. Well that's 137 of them I don't have to worry about crashing into me on the road, at least until next week when they get back from messico.

I was stopped while traveling through Texas and asked to provide ID. I have red hair and don't speak a word of spainish but I didn't feel that the officers were profiling me. They were polite and asked me several questions about my ID and then let me go. If you are legal, you don't have problems, but if you are illegal you feel that people are picking on you. POOR LITTLE ILLEGALS, Americans are picking on them.

Originally Posted by Beckyal

I was stopped while traveling through Texas and asked to provide ID. I have red hair and don't speak a word of spainish but I didn't feel that the officers were profiling me. They were polite and asked me several questions about my ID and then let me go. If you are legal, you don't have problems, but if you are illegal you feel that people are picking on you. POOR LITTLE ILLEGALS, Americans are picking on them.

I don't think they are "profiling" either because they could have alerted ICE about you as a potential Irish messican illegal. Just kidding! This is interesting though: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...ed=rss.bayarea