Immigration Policy Grants Broad, Unchecked Authority to Local Law Enforcement

Feds Fail to Prevent Police Abuse
Immigration Policy Grants Broad, Unchecked Authority to Local Law Enforcement
By Daphne Eviatar 3/9/09 1:00 PM



U.S. Border Patrol agent Gabriel Pacheco walks back to his vehicle along the border fence with its concertino wire topping it Monday Nov. 17, 2008 in San Diego. The government is planning to add concertino wire to additional fenced areas.The Border Patrol is completing installation of razor-sharp wires atop a 5-mile stretch of fence, a move that authorities credit for a sharp drop in attacks on agents by rock-, bottle- and brick-wielding assailants from Mexico. Critics say the prison-style fence is a menacing eyesore. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)


When Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaiao parades undocumented immigrants in pink underwear before news cameras, puts them to work on chain gangs and houses them in sweltering “tent cities” behind coils of barbed wire, it’s easy to dismiss him as a rogue public official who’s taken legitimate law enforcement a bit too far.

But Arpaio’s publicity-seeking stunts in Arizona are enabled by a federal policy that deputizes police officers to enforce U.S. immigration laws, with few rules and little supervision to prevent exploitation. Recent reports and testimony reveal that the program, known as 287(g) for the section of the law that created it, and intended to target terrorism and violent crimes, has encouraged officers to arrest and imprison people who look foreign for such minor infractions as driving with a broken tail-light, carrying an open alcoholic beverage container, or fishing without a license.

The result has been such gruesome treatment as forcing a pregnant woman arrested for an alleged traffic violation to endure labor in shackles; deporting a disabled U.S. citizen to Mexico where he was reduced to begging on the streets; and jailing an immigrant who’d called the police to save her sister from domestic violence.

Many more immigrants may have been deported under the program despite being lawful residents or having legitimate claims to remain in the United States. The citizenship of people with birth certificates from midwives in Texas, for example, is now being questioned by federal authorities.

Although the 287(g) program has existed for more than a decade, it’s only recently come under serious scrutiny. At least three separate studies plus Congressional testimony in just the last month have concluded that a lack of regulations or clear directions to local law enforcement and insufficient oversight by federal authorities has permitted the program’s widespread abuse.

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http://washingtonindependent.com/32926/scrutiny-of-immigration-policy-finds-wide-spread-abuse