Thread: Officers' hands tied on illegal immigrants

Enforcement power
Officers' hands tied on illegal immigrantsSunday, February 3, 2008 3:27 AM
By and Stephanie Czekalinski

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/lo ... ml?sid=101


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH (Columbus, Ohio)
It began as a tip to America's Most Wanted: An anonymous caller said the No. 1 fugitive was holed up in a South Side house.

With the TV show's cameras in tow, deputy U.S. marshals raided 788 Stambaugh Ave. on Jan. 7 looking for Manuel Penaloza, who was wanted in two killings and a carjacking in Pasadena, Calif.

Instead, they found five undocumented immigrants in the tiny bungalow. The immigrants were deported; there was no evidence that Penaloza had ever been there.

"Something's fishy," said Tom Genz, who supervises the Marshals Service office in Columbus. "As time goes by, I'm skeptical with that tip."

Was it an honest mistake, Genz wondered, or did the caller just want to get rid of some Latinos in the neighborhood?

E. Dennis Muchnicki said he wouldn't be surprised if it was on purpose. He's a lawyer who represents people facing deportation, and he said citizens complain even to him that when they alert authorities about illegal immigrants, nothing happens.

Lax law enforcement is a major complaint of people who think illegal immigration is out of control. But authorities, especially local police departments, are limited in what they can do, although some politicians are pushing to give them more authority.

Generally, local and state police agencies cannot enforce federal immigration laws, mainly because lacking proper documentation is a civil infraction, not a criminal act.

State Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester, has proposed a bill that would give Ohio sheriffs the authority to enforce immigration laws. It had its first hearing last week.

Last year, 244 immigration bills became law in 46 states. Such laws have been challenged as unconstitutional because they infringe on the federal government's power to enforce immigration laws.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security can, under the Criminal Alien Program, deputize state and local officers to enforce immigration laws.

No such agreements existed with Ohio agencies as of last year, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site, but the Butler County sheriff's office was to finish training for the program Friday.

Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones has been vocal about cracking down on undocumented immigrants. Groups advocating immigrants' rights and civil rights criticized Jones last year after deputies detained 18 undocumented immigrants, only to release them the same day.

If Columbus police are asked to investigate whether someone is legally in the country, they pass the tip on to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, police spokes- woman Amanda Ford said.

Ford and Perry Township Police Chief Robert Oppenheimer said his officers do not contact ICE about minor violations, such as a driver being unable to provide identification. If they did, they'd swamp immigration agents, he said.

Oppenheimer's department handled the case of Alfonso Martinez, 29, whose pregnant wife, Paulina, died after the car he was driving on New Year's Day hit a salt truck at Hayden Run Road and Riverside Drive. The fetus also died.

Martinez is in jail on charges including aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault and driving under the influence. He had no driver's license, Social Security number or other document showing he is in the country legally.

Oppenheimer said his office did not call ICE, but held Martinez for federal agents after seeing media reports that he had no documentation.

As in other felony cases, if Martinez is convicted, he will serve his sentence and then be deported, prosecutors said.

The Columbus area is estimated to have 60,000 Latinos. Joseph L. Mas, chairman of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition, estimates about two-thirds are undocumented.

Immigration and Customs received 3,198 inquiries from Ohio authorities in the past fiscal year, resulting in 570 detention orders for undocumented immigrants, spokesman Mike Gilhooly said. He couldn't say how many people were deported.

Both figures are up from the previous fiscal year, when the office received 2,750 inquiries and issued 258 detention orders in Ohio.

ICE spokesman Greg Palmore said more police departments now know to contact the immigration agency when they have questions about someone's status.

The agency's regional office in Detroit, which covers Ohio and Michigan, said 4,144 people were deported from those two states in the past fiscal year, up from 2,974 the previous year and 2,243 the year before that. Palmore said he couldn't break out the numbers for Ohio or Columbus.

The agency encourages people to call a toll-free number, 1-866-DHS-2ICE, to turn in undocumented immigrants, he said.

Some citizens assume that all Latinos are illegal and threaten to turn them in to la migra -- immigration agents -- said an immigrant who has lived in central Ohio for 11 years. Although she is a naturalized citizen, she asked that her name not be used because she feared retaliation from her employer and harassment from other people.

"People assume that because you are Hispanic, you are illegal, which is insulting," she said. "They assume I'm breaking the law, and they assume that none of my people have any right to be here.

"Saying 'We're going to call la migra,' it's in the same category as telling a black person you're going to get a rope."

Mas cited a case five years ago in which a Westerville police officer detained a 19-year-old Salvadoran man -- Mas contends illegally -- when the officer and a school secretary thought the student didn't have the proper documents. The student was not in the country legally and was deported.

Schools generally do not turn in undocumented students to ICE because, under federal law, such children are entitled to a K-12 education.

mferenchik@dispatch.com

sczekalinski@dispatch.com

Saying 'We're going to call la migra,' it's in the same category as telling a black person you're going to get a rope."

That's some broad category! It's absolutely and always about race with these people. Their rhetoric will never change. Never.

Some citizens assume that all Latinos are illegal and threaten to turn them in to la migra -- immigration agents -- said an immigrant who has lived in central Ohio for 11 years. Although she is a naturalized citizen, she asked that her name not be used because she feared retaliation from her employer and harassment from other people.

"People assume that because you are Hispanic, you are illegal, which is insulting," she said. "They assume I'm breaking the law, and they assume that none of my people have any right to be here.




I'm sure there are some people out there who do engage in this, but they are few and far between.

My husband is an American born hispanic and in the many years we've been together, and in all of the thousands of places we have been in public, not once has this been said to him. Same goes for the many times I've been in public with my in laws and hispanc friends. In fact, I've never even heard this said to any hispanic anywhere I've been.!

If this was the norm, then surely I would have heard it more times than I can count by now. ?

Why must these people constantly drag race into everything?