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http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/17719.php
Migrants now face capture by police
Growing trend creates concern
By Rachel L. Swarns
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Every workday morning, before the sun creeps above the trees, State Trooper Anthony Birmingham goes on patrol with his new law enforcement bible - the "Immigration Law Handbook" - in his Ford Crown Victoria.
For 7 1/2 years, he has watched sleepy state roads and bustling highways for speeding commuters and careless drivers. Now he also serves as a foot soldier in the domestic war on terrorism, one of a smal
but growing number of police officers empowered by the Department of Homeland Security to arrest and detain illegal immigrants.
Over the past six months, Birmingham and 20 others on the state forc
e h
ve arrested 106 illegal immigrants, including a Mexican man d
riving 90 mph and a Mexican mother of two who presented invalid documents while applying for a driver's license.
In the past, such immigrants were often given traffic tickets or warnings and sent on their way. These days, they might be arrested by the state police - even if they have not broken a state law - and handed over to federal authorities for deportation.
"Before, the only thing we could do was issue a traffic citation and let them go," Birmingham said as he cruised along State Road 9. "It's different now."
Alabama is the epicenter of a widening effort by the Department of Homeland Security to encourage states and localities to help enforce immigration laws in the aftermath of t
he Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Colorado, Idaho and Virginia are considering following the examples of Alabama, which began its partnership with the Department of Homeland Security in Septe
mber
, an
d Florida,
which signed an agreement with federal officials in 2002.
In Los Angeles County,
the Sheriff's Office is close to an agreement to allow booking officers to identify illegal immigrants in county jails for deportation.
These and other efforts to involve law enforcement agencies in immigration matters have stirred a furor among both advocates for immigrants and police chiefs in Boston, Houston, several communities in California and around the country.
In Southern Arizona, officials at many police agencies have expressed concern in past years about their officers acting as immigration agents.
Opponents warn that these arrangements may make immigrants wary of cooperating with the police or reporting crime, and could lead to racial profiling at the expense even of
people in the country legally.
Many immigration violations - like overstaying a visa - are civil infractions, not criminal offenses typically handled by the police. At leas
t 30 jur
isdictio
ns bar their offic
ers from enforcing immigration laws, congressional researchers say, but others are joining
in.
Homeland Security officials, understaffed and eager for assistance, are making it easier for police officers to help by adding to an FBI crime database the names of immigrants who have evaded deportation orders, including 112,000 with criminal records and 28,000 without them. The database is used by 80,000 agencies to track felons and fugitives.
In December, immigrants' lawyers sued to stop the expansion of the database, saying the police should not enforce civil immigration laws outside of formal partnerships like those in Alabama and Florida.
Officials also are improving the efficiency of the Department of Homeland Security's Law Enforcement Support Center, which
holds more detailed immigration records than the FBI database. In March, police officers who called the center helped federal agents locate more than 2,000 illegal immigra
nts, officia
ls say.
Some Republicans in
Congress say such efforts need to be stepped up. About 5,500 agents are assigned to immigration e
nforcement, but more than 8 million immigrants are estimated to be in the country illegally.
More than 100 members of Congress are now backing legislation that would require the nation's 600,000 state and local police officers to help enforce the immigration laws.
Homeland Security officials say the cooperative efforts in place, while small in scope, represent an unusual degree of collaboration between federal officials and local police officials, who were overwhelmingly reluctant to assume any federal immigration enforcement duties before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I see the future of this being very positive," said Michael J. Garcia, the Homeland Security u
ndersecretary for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which promotes cooperation with local police departments on a range of issues.
Ga
rcia emphasized
that states were
not required to participate in
the formal partnerships and noted that local police officers involved in such arrangements receive several wee
ks of intensive training and strict warnings against racial profiling.
State officials in Alabama, as well as immigrant advocates here, say so far there have been no complaints from immigrants about the federal-local partnership.
But officials from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, who oppose the initiative, say they fear that some immigrants have already been deported and that others have been driven underground.
In June, the groups hope to start posting fliers to urge immigrants to tell them about their experiences with police. In the meantime, advocates are telling clients not to attract attention on s
tate roads by speeding or driving cars with broken taillights or missing license plates.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/17719.php
Migrants now face capture by police
Growing trend creates concern
By Rachel L. Swarns
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Every workday morning, before the sun creeps above the trees, State Trooper Anthony Birmingham goes on patrol with his new law enforcement bible - the "Immigration Law Handbook" - in his Ford Crown Victoria.
For 7 1/2 years, he has watched sleepy state roads and bustling highways for speeding commuters and careless drivers. Now he also serves as a foot soldier in the domestic war on terrorism, one of a smal
but growing number of police officers empowered by the Department of Homeland Security to arrest and detain illegal immigrants.
Over the past six months, Birmingham and 20 others on the state forc
e h
ve arrested 106 illegal immigrants, including a Mexican man d
riving 90 mph and a Mexican mother of two who presented invalid documents while applying for a driver's license.
In the past, such immigrants were often given traffic tickets or warnings and sent on their way. These days, they might be arrested by the state police - even if they have not broken a state law - and handed over to federal authorities for deportation.
"Before, the only thing we could do was issue a traffic citation and let them go," Birmingham said as he cruised along State Road 9. "It's different now."
Alabama is the epicenter of a widening effort by the Department of Homeland Security to encourage states and localities to help enforce immigration laws in the aftermath of t
he Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Colorado, Idaho and Virginia are considering following the examples of Alabama, which began its partnership with the Department of Homeland Security in Septe
mber
, an
d Florida,
which signed an agreement with federal officials in 2002.
In Los Angeles County,
the Sheriff's Office is close to an agreement to allow booking officers to identify illegal immigrants in county jails for deportation.
These and other efforts to involve law enforcement agencies in immigration matters have stirred a furor among both advocates for immigrants and police chiefs in Boston, Houston, several communities in California and around the country.
In Southern Arizona, officials at many police agencies have expressed concern in past years about their officers acting as immigration agents.
Opponents warn that these arrangements may make immigrants wary of cooperating with the police or reporting crime, and could lead to racial profiling at the expense even of
people in the country legally.
Many immigration violations - like overstaying a visa - are civil infractions, not criminal offenses typically handled by the police. At leas
t 30 jur
isdictio
ns bar their offic
ers from enforcing immigration laws, congressional researchers say, but others are joining
in.
Homeland Security officials, understaffed and eager for assistance, are making it easier for police officers to help by adding to an FBI crime database the names of immigrants who have evaded deportation orders, including 112,000 with criminal records and 28,000 without them. The database is used by 80,000 agencies to track felons and fugitives.
In December, immigrants' lawyers sued to stop the expansion of the database, saying the police should not enforce civil immigration laws outside of formal partnerships like those in Alabama and Florida.
Officials also are improving the efficiency of the Department of Homeland Security's Law Enforcement Support Center, which
holds more detailed immigration records than the FBI database. In March, police officers who called the center helped federal agents locate more than 2,000 illegal immigra
nts, officia
ls say.
Some Republicans in
Congress say such efforts need to be stepped up. About 5,500 agents are assigned to immigration e
nforcement, but more than 8 million immigrants are estimated to be in the country illegally.
More than 100 members of Congress are now backing legislation that would require the nation's 600,000 state and local police officers to help enforce the immigration laws.
Homeland Security officials say the cooperative efforts in place, while small in scope, represent an unusual degree of collaboration between federal officials and local police officials, who were overwhelmingly reluctant to assume any federal immigration enforcement duties before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I see the future of this being very positive," said Michael J. Garcia, the Homeland Security u
ndersecretary for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which promotes cooperation with local police departments on a range of issues.
Ga
rcia emphasized
that states were
not required to participate in
the formal partnerships and noted that local police officers involved in such arrangements receive several wee
ks of intensive training and strict warnings against racial profiling.
State officials in Alabama, as well as immigrant advocates here, say so far there have been no complaints from immigrants about the federal-local partnership.
But officials from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, who oppose the initiative, say they fear that some immigrants have already been deported and that others have been driven underground.
In June, the groups hope to start posting fliers to urge immigrants to tell them about their experiences with police. In the meantime, advocates are telling clients not to attract attention on s
tate roads by speeding or driving cars with broken taillights or missing license plates.