Great divide on immigration plan

01/08/2006

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposal to curb illegal immigrants gets mixed reactions from those who would have to carry it out.

Jean Hopfensperger,
Star Tribune
Last update: January 07, 2006 – 9:30 PM

On the streets of St. Paul last week, police officer Pamela Barragan chatted with leaders in a new Latino business district—a move to make inroads among a population that often confuses local cops with immigration officers.
“It’s really important that people feel comfortable talking with police, and if they witness a crime, will cooperate without fear of immigration,” Barragan said.

In the small town of Melrose, Minn., 100 miles away, Police Chief John Jensen examined a forged California driver’s license confiscated from an arrested immigrant—a sign of the growing burden his five-man department faces from criminals slipping into town with a wave of Latino workers.

Last year, Jensen had to call in help for a methamphetamine investigation that resulted in the arrest of illegal immigrants, among other suspects.

“We don’t have the personnel to do an investigation of that magnitude,” he said.

Last week Gov. Tim Pawlenty outlined a crackdown on illegal immigration that would force Minnesota police departments to become more involved in checking people’s immigration statuses. But the departments’ initial responses to the plan, much of which needs legislative approval, reveal a stark and unusual divide among officers.

In outstate towns such as Melrose, often with meat-packing plants that have attracted an influx of immigrant workers, there is clear support for the governor’s plan to get local law enforcement to take on the new role.

But in Minneapolis and St. Paul, home to the most legal and illegal immigrants in the state, police chiefs are calling the governor’s ideas “misguided, unfunded, and unworkable.”

Pawlenty wants to overturn laws in the two cities that prevent police from inquiring about immigration status unless it’s directly related to an investigation.

“We struggle each day to get enough cops out there ... to deal with gangs, drugs, crime, child abuse, any major criminal activity,” said St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington. “This is asking us to assume the additional burden of taking on immigration status.”

If illegal immigrants were responsible for a big part of St. Paul’s criminal activity, it might make sense, Harrington said, but they aren’t.

Early results of a survey by the state police chiefs’ association show its members support some aspects of the plan more than others. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is withholding judgment on the governor’s plan “until we see something concrete,” said Bill Gillespie, its executive director.

“We see it as a wedge issue and we don’t want to play,” he said.

Immigrant policy now

Local police and sheriffs are not turning a blind eye to immigration status, said law enforcement officials. The policy is much the same across the state: Officers don’t ask people walking down the street about their immigration status. But they do ask when it’s directly related to an arrest or criminal investigation.

If an immigrant is booked for a crime, federal immigration officials are notified, typically to check whether the person is being sought for deportation, police chiefs say. The immigrant is fingerprinted and that fingerprint is matched with law enforcement databases—just like with any other person.

The biggest problem for police comes before the booking, when they’re trying to figure out exactly who their suspects are. Said Jensen: “Is this someone here for work purposes? A felon? A murderer? It’s a nagging question.”

Even when someone is caught holding fake documentation, it’s tough for law enforcement agencies to hold onto the person, said Jensen, the Melrose chief. If the offense is a misdemeanor, chances are the person will face a fine and probation.

“They pay the fine, move from Melrose to Cold Spring and start all over,” he said. “For $500 to $1,500 you can buy a new ID and are back in business.”

The governor’s plan to crack down on falsified identification, using new digital technology on driver’s license photographs, would really help this, said Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson.

“It’s not so much the punitive [immigration] measures ... but the driver’s license fraud proposal, that really is key for law enforcement,” said Peterson. “It’s not so much whether someone is an undocumented alien, it’s figuring out who they are.”

And in places such as Melrose and other outstate communities with a boom in immigration, that’s getting harder. Fake driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and other identification are common. Language barriers also prevent officers from learning other important information from suspects.

Reaction to plan

To deal with some of the problems, Pawlenty has proposed a new 10-person immigration enforcement team with power to enforce federal immigration law; tougher penalties for possession, sale or creation of false identification, and banning city ordinances that specifically prevent police from arresting or detaining someone for violations of immigration law unless it’s an element of a crime.

It’s hard to predict the exact effect of such changes, said law enforcement officials, because it’s unclear how far the governor would like them to go in inquiring about immigration status.

Officers such as Barragan say the ideas are counterproductive. On her recent walk on Payne Avenue in St. Paul, a clerical worker told her about a drug deal she had witnessed in a nearby alley. “When I see things like this, should I call you?” the worker asked in Spanish.

These kinds of conversations show why police and immigration officers must be separate, Barragan said.

The governor’s proposals raise several other questions among law enforcement officials, including where the newly nabbed illegal immigrants will be detained and who will pay for it.

“I concur with the intent of the governor’s plan,” said St. Cloud Police Chief Dennis Ballantine. “But I’d want to know how we’re going to make it work. If someone’s only crime was a traffic violation ... are we going to hold them [in jail] until they prove who they are?”

“And Stearns County jail is not just full, but they’re paying to house prisoners in other counties,” he said.

Local chiefs also want to know whether the new mandates would come with more money and training.

The Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association is polling its 341 members about the plan, said Harlan Johnson, its executive director. The 52 responses sent in this week show solid support for the increased penalties for false identification, sanctions of employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and making permanent a state rule requiring a mandatory status check for visiting noncitizens with Minnesota driver’s licenses, association staff said.

Support for the creation of the immigration enforcement team, and an end to the so-called sanctuary laws, was less clear-cut.

Johnson said he’s found that opinions are “real diverse.”

“But for the greatest portion of the state, it’s not an issue for them.”