New immigration policy may lead to police abuses, Hispanics fear

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Many Hispanics are angry about a new immigration policy that will allow local police to arrest illegal immigrants, saying the policy change may lead to abuses of Hispanics who are U.S. citizens.

"It's sheer folly," said Corpus Christi attorney Ruben Bonilla. "It's a continuation of a very regressive movement we are presently experiencing in the Southwest. It is just a chip off the old block of progress and the dismantling of policies that help minorities."In early October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower court had ruled that Oklahoma law enforcement officials are free to arrest illegal immigrants for immigration crimes to the full extent permitted by state law.

Federal immigration crimes include illegal entry, illegal presence, smuggling, harboring or transporting illegal immigrants, use of false documents or making false statements regarding immigration status.

Prior to the Supreme Court decision, local police could not arrest illegal immigrants for being in the country but could only detain them for state crimes such as burglary. Arresting them on federal crimes was left up to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

"What are we going to do, dress up the police as storm troopers with swastikas on their arms?" Bonilla said. "It is going to become a litmus test based on how you are dressed and how good your English is."

Said immigration attorney Debbie Rodriguez: "It means an overzealous police officer can stop a Hispanic on probable cause because he might be an illegal immigrant. And what does an illegal immigrant look like?"

Rodriguez said the law is particularly bad for women and children.

"Men who are batterers want control, and they will threaten women with deportation," she said. "With this law, women have reason to fear deportation. What woman will go to the police now?"

Hispanics talked about the fears that their elderly parents, many of whom don't speak English but are U.S. citizens, may be falsely arrested.

"We don't carry our birth certificates around with us," Rodriguez said.

Bonilla said illegal immigrants are a positive influence on American society, taking jobs that others won't. He said that by creating the policy, the United States is backing away from the progress it made with the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Gilbert Jasso, former national director for civil rights for the American GI forum, compared the tactics of those who want the law with those of the Third Reich.