Kansas City Star (MO) (KRT) via NewsEdge Corporation
Dec. 18--Missouri Highway Patrol troopers have lots of responsibilities.
They drive the state's highways, stopping speeders, nabbing drug runners and untangling wrecks. They help with big criminal investigations. They protect the governor.
Now they want to take on some of the duties of federal immigration agents.
Across the country, more local and state police agencies are stepping up to help the feds find and deport illegal immigrants. So far, more than 600 officers have taken on the duties.
And thousands of jailers and beat cops have started checking the legal status of people they're booking or arresting.
Illegal immigration opponents applaud the growing cooperation between local law enforcement and the feds, saying the country is safer when as many avenues as possible are used in finding illegal immigrants.
But immigrant-rights advocates worry that if immigrants see police as immigration enforcers, they won't report crimes out of fear. That will make communities less safe.
"The 'we should ask everybody' (their immigration status) is definitely the stronger sentiment at the moment," said Suzanne Gladney, an immigration attorney at Legal Aid of Western Missouri. "... The acceptance that this is a local police function" is growing.
Federal immigration agents appreciate the help.
"It's how ICE and local law enforcement help support each other, to help make communities safer," said Carl Rusnok, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. "We both have that common goal in mind. Our main priority is going after terrorists, but keeping communities safe is also part of homeland security."
More eyes and ears
ICE is training more police officers, deputies and highway patrol officers than ever to enforce immigration law.
The training was first allowed for local law enforcement in 1996. But it took until 2002, after immigrants here illegally took part in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, for a law enforcement agency to sign up. Since then, 34 agencies have trained some officers to enforce immigration law, and 80 more have started the process.
Gov. Matt Blunt is pursuing an agreement with ICE that would give 20 Missouri Highway Patrol troopers the power to enforce immigration law. The troopers will have to go through weeks of ICE training.
The troopers will be able to start deportation paperwork immediately when they come across someone in the country illegally, said Capt. Tim Hull, a Highway Patrol spokesman.
Adding 20 immigration enforcers to the roughly 50 ICE agents working in Missouri will greatly increase the number of people with their eyes and ears open for illegal immigrants, he said.
The Kansas Highway Patrol is watching what Missouri is doing, spokesman Lt. John Eickhorn said, but has not decided whether to join in.
In addition to the enforcement training, more law enforcement agencies are checking the immigration status of all foreign-born inmates they book into their jails.
Jails across the country came across 7,100 illegal immigrants in October 2006. In August 2007, more-vigilant jailers found 18,000 illegal immigrants among their inmates, Rusnok said.
An increasing number of local officers are checking with ICE's Law Enforcement Support Center to find out the immigration status of people they encounter.
Officers in Missouri, including all law enforcement agencies, made 5,028 such inquiries in the 12 months ended in September 2007, said ICE spokesman Michael Gilhooly, up from 2,578 the year before. Kansas officers' inquires grew to 3,315 from 2,656, he said.
The debate
Although cooperation is increasing, a debate continues over whether local police should be investigating immigration status, because being in the country without proper documentation is a federal issue, not a local crime.
"We don't have the resources at this time to do enforcement of federal immigration laws," said Officer Vickie Smith, spokeswoman for the Olathe Police Department. "You'll probably find that pretty common with the other agencies."
The Kansas City Police Department doesn't want to take the time to check the immigration status of every person it comes into contact with, Capt. Rich Lockhart said. It does not check the immigration status of people held overnight in the department's jail.
"We've got local issues that are more pressing" than enforcing federal immigration law, Lockhart said.
The problem with local officers becoming immigration enforcers is that it spreads fear in immigrant communities that may prevent immigrants from reporting crime, said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director for legislative affairs for the National Immigration Forum, a nonpartisan, pro-immigration advocacy group.
"You have politicians pushing for broad powers at the state and local level, and mostly police saying, 'That's not my job. My job is to protect the community. If immigrants think I'm going to have them deported if they work with me, they won't come forward when they know about crimes happening,' " she said.
Pro-immigrant advocates also worry that officers may check people's legal status only when they appear Hispanic or struggle with English.
"If it's standard procedure, I don't have a problem with it," said Cris Medina, executive director of the Guadalupe Centers Inc., a social service agency on Kansas City's West Side. "As long as we don't cross the line into racial profiling and don't just stop us for being Hispanic."
Cooperation should continue to grow because law enforcement should not miss any opportunity to nab people violating immigration laws, said Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri-Kansas City professor who helped the Department of Justice negotiate enforcement agreements with state law enforcement agencies.
"It's a good thing for the country," he said. "The bottom line is that we're vastly undermanned, ICE is vastly undermanned. So the local law enforcement can help make our immigration enforcement more effective."
That's what's happening in Mecklenburg County, N.C., authorities there say.
In the past year and a half, since the sheriff's office began checking all its jail inmates for immigration violations and taking fingerprints, it has found 3,067 illegal immigrants and begun the process of removing them from the country, said spokeswoman Julia Rush.
Many of them had been booked on traffic-related violations, such as driving without a license or driving under the influence.
"Any time you remove 3,000 law breakers from your community, you feel pretty good," Rush said. "... The argument from some sheriffs is they want to do it but they're concerned about manpower and related costs. But it's something that has to be done."
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