Not a Minor Offense: Profiling is no way to find illegal immigrants

http://www.dallasnews.com
06:20 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Word's circulating among illegal immigrants that the one city you want to avoid these days is Irving. That's also the message circulating among Hispanics, including U.S. citizens, whose fears are being aroused by Irving's aggressive program to crack down on illegal immigration.

We can't fault police for doing their jobs, and those who immigrate here illegally have no basis to argue that they should be excluded from enforcement. But Irving should avoid overzealous action.

Police are using routine traffic violations or other minor offenses to arrest anyone who cannot produce a driver's license or other proof of citizenship. Police then submit the detainee's name for a federal background check, which discloses his or her immigration status.

Federal immigration officials praise Irving's aggressiveness. Mayor Herbert Gears boasts that Irving is first in the nation in illegal-immigrant apprehension. But Mexican and Salvadoran consular officials question whether the police are racially profiling Hispanics or detaining them without cause.

Applied even-handedly, as Irving maintains it is doing, the program is effective. But any presumption that a Hispanic is an illegal immigrant unless proven otherwise is a path fraught with danger. Consider the case of Alicia Rodriguez, a Texas native who doesn't even speak Spanish but who nearly faced deportation after being arrested in Arlington for unpaid traffic tickets.

She produced a birth certificate and Social Security number, but the onus was on her to prove her innocence. We doubt a white or black American would face a similar burden of proof.

Consuls are warning their compatriots to avoid Irving altogether and to consider the consequences of getting caught for minor offenses. We'd like to see them be unequivocal in counseling their nationals, above all else, to obey the law – which includes not immigrating by any means other than the legal route.

At the same time, police must recognize that the enforcement of one law doesn't justify violating another. Racial profiling might be a convenient shortcut to identify illegal immigrants, but it's a constitutionally horrendous way to carry out the law