Thread: Woman detained on immigration charges after DPS traffic stop, family says

Woman detained on immigration charges after DPS traffic stop, family says



Nathan Lambrecht
Isabel Barbosa cries during a protest over her mother's detainment by Border Patrol Monday in McAllen. Barbosa's mother, Isabel Margarita Barbosa was pulled over by DPS while driving with her family and turned over to Border Patrol. photo by Nathan Lambrecht/nlambrecht@themonitor.com


Posted: Monday, August 18, 2014 8:47 pm
JACOB FISCHLER | STAFF WRITER

McALLEN — Immigrant advocates and the family of a Mexican woman who’d been living illegally in La Joya for 17 years gathered across the road from the McAllen Border Patrol station to protest the woman’s detainment on immigration charges after what they said was a simple traffic stop by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.

“This is the situation that DPS is causing for the families in the Rio Grande Valley,” said Juanita Valdez-Cox, the executive director of La Union del Pueblo Entero, a local immigrant advocate group. “They don’t know federal law, immigration law. There would have been no issues had DPS stopped them and given the lady a traffic violation.”

The woman, Isabel Barbosa, 36, was driving her Ford Expedition with her five children Monday afternoon near the intersection of Military Highway and International Parkway in McAllen.

Barbosa swerved across a lane, and a DPS trooper behind her pulled over the SUV, Valdez-Cox said.

The older Isabel Barbosa produced only a Mexican consular identification card, not a valid driver’s license, when asked for identification, Barbosa’s 21-year-old daughter, also named Isabel Barbosa, told Valdez-Cox.

The younger Isabel Barbosa, who said she was in the Expedition with her four younger siblings, aged 3, 6, 9 and 18, said another DPS trooper soon arrived. One of the two troopers called a Border Patrol agent, who arrived shortly afterward.
The Border Patrol agent then took the elder Barbosa to the station, located about a mile away.

Local DPS spokesman Sgt. Johnny Hernandez did not return calls and emails requesting confirmation of the incident.
An Austin-based DPS administration spokesman said the department needed “to research the specifics of that particular traffic stop,” but did explain some relevant department policies.

“DPS does not have the authority to enforce immigration laws,” wrote DPS spokesman Tom Vinger in an email. “However, when our state law enforcement officers make contact with someone (during a lawful encounter) who is admittedly or suspected to be in the country illegally, that individual is immediately referred to the appropriate federal authorities.”

Border Patrol spokesman Omar Zamora said federal authorities work closely with local and state law enforcement, and if in the course of that cooperation, they find people in violation of immigration law, they are obligated to detain them.
But local officials said DPS should refrain from too much immigration enforcement.

“We would lose trust, we would have a lot of people not reporting crime to us, and we would lose that section of our community if we turn around and start enforcing immigration law,” Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said.

In June, Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus announced a surge of DPS troopers to the Valley to help protect what they said were gaps in Border Patrol coverage exposed by the influx of Central American children and families to the area. With immigration authorities distracted by children turning themselves in, the thinking went, DPS needed to step up to curtail cartels and smugglers exploiting the situation.

They have not released details like the number of troopers involved, but have said the effort will cost about $1.3 million per week.

State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said those extra troopers in particular should not be asking for immigration paperwork.

“What training do they have to enforce immigration law? Can they tell the difference between an American Hispanic and a Mexican national who's here in the Valley,” he asked rhetorically. “It could possibly be a trooper who's not from the Valley, who's not very familiar with this region of the state, or who's not very Hispanic.”

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local...a4bcf6878.html

Sounds like 'Chuy" is pretty tribal and it is not with his fellow Americans. Perhaps he should go to his roots and be a politician in Mexico, he would fit right in. JMO