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The New York Times
Police Voice Concerns
Over a Directive on
Immigrants
By KAREEM FAHIM and
DAVID W. CHEN, nytimes.com on the Web, August 24, 2007
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Noah Addis/The Star-Ledger, via AP
Anne
Milgram, the New Jersey attorney general, directed local police to
question suspects about their immigration status. |
NEWARK, Aug. 23 — One local
police chief called it a publicity stunt. In a sheriff’s office, the
directive was passed out at roll call, by officials anxious to quickly comply.
And another chief — one of many who spoke on the condition he not be named for
fear of ruffling the feathers of the state’s top law enforcement officer — said
it seemed like a recipe for racial profiling.
A day after New Jersey’s attorney general, Anne Milgram, ordered local law
enforcement agencies to start inquiring about the immigration status of the
people they arrest, local officials and advocates for immigrants across the
state began grappling with how the edict would change the already complicated
relationship between the authorities and immigrants on the streets they patrol.
In Englewood, where the police estimate that up to a fifth of the population of
26,000 are illegal immigrants, the authorities have long asked about immigration
status, so “this doesn’t change things at all,” according to Arthur O’Keefe, the
deputy police chief. But in Freehold, where a lawsuit recently ended
attempts by borough officials to fine day laborers, a new police chief, on the
job for only seven weeks, said he was still trying to divine what Ms. Milgram’s
instructions actually meant.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to go about enacting it on the local level,” said
the chief, Mitchell E. Roth, adding that his 34 full-time officers do not
routinely ask about immigration status. “We have special-interest groups.
We have to be very diplomatic.”
Ms. Milgram’s order was motivated by the arrest of an illegal immigrant who was
out on bail, his status unknown to the authorities, in a brutal triple homicide
here this month. It brings immigration authorities more forcefully into
local law enforcement matters.
For a list of offenses, ranging from theft to murder and including drunken
driving, local police are supposed to ask about the immigration status of people
they arrest. If they suspect that the person is in the country illegally,
they are supposed to contact representatives from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
But concerns are already being raised about the potential fallout on immigrants’
cooperation with the authorities, despite Ms. Milgram’s order that victims and
witnesses should not be questioned about their status. Many expressed
particular concern about the consequences for victims of domestic violence, who
are often already reluctant to report their partners to the police.
Immigration advocates said Thursday that many calls had started coming in from
people worried about whether the new directive would be implemented fairly.
Shai Goldstein, executive director of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network,
said that members of his coalition were calling it “the law of unintended
consequences.”
“A mutual assault situation: Who’s the victim?” Mr. Goldstein asked.
“How do you ferret that out? A domestic abuse situation — one spouse may
want the other punished, but not deported. Is it going to have a chilling
effect on reporting domestic violence?”
And what if a suspect is arrested and does not want to answer questions about
immigration status? “The directive doesn’t address that,” Mr. Goldstein noted.
Mr. Goldstein also said he is concerned about people who are falsely arrested,
or arrested and cleared before charges are brought, and hopes the directive will
be amended so federal authorities are notified about immigration status only on
indictment.
Lt. David Ackerman, the domestic violence response coordinator in Morristown,
said he has seen some hesitance to report abuse by victims who think either they
or their spouse will be deported. In New Jersey, he said, there are
several situations that require mandatory arrests, including if there are signs
of injury, or if a weapon — even a dinner plate — has been used.
“I do get a lot of people coming forward,” Lieutenant Ackerman said, “but I
don’t know how many people are out there who are not.”
Many questioned how federal authorities would handle all the new calls the
directive was sure to bring. Chief O’Keefe, who called his department’s
relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement a good one, said that the
federal agency’s ability to respond to local calls about illegal immigrants was
spotty at best.
“They are so overloaded, unless it’s someone serious, they do not respond,” he
said, adding that when the Englewood police reported 40 or so illegal immigrants
from Iran living in crowded housing, federal immigration agents came quickly.
At a meeting of the state’s assignment judges in May, the notification of
federal immigration authorities by the judges was discussed, according to the
minutes of the meeting. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials
admitted to a court administrator that they were “not really set up to receive
notifications on a large scale.”
Scott Weber, the field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s
Office of Detention and Removal in Newark, said: “We’re doing everything
we can to be as accessible as we can.”
Wayne R. Rupert, of the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, said it was “high time”
for guidance on the arrest of illegal immigrants. His office, which patrols from
Lakewood to Little Egg Harbor Township, already worked closely with federal
immigration authorities, he said.
“This may create some more work. But I don’t see any way around it,” he
said. He added that it would be a while before his officers know for sure.
“We haven’t arrested anyone yet,” he said.
Kareem Fahim reported from Newark and David W. Chen from
Trenton.
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