All,

Sorry for the long article. It hits close to home.

Regards,
Sal

States, counties cracking down on illegals
Traffic stops can lead to deportation; some Latinos cry foul

Peter Whoriskey / The Washington Post

CHARLOTTE - Police here operated for years under what amounts to a "don't 
ask, don't tell" policy toward illegal immigrants.
As elsewhere in the United States, law enforcement officers did not check 
the immigration status of people they came into contact with, and in the 
vast majority of cases, a run-in with the law carried little threat of 
deportation.
But that accommodation for the burgeoning illegal population ended abruptly 
in April, when the Mecklenburg County sheriff's office began to enforce 
immigration law, placing more than 100 people a month into deportation 
proceedings. Some of them had been charged with violent crimes, others with 
traffic infractions.

The program takes one of the most aggressive stances in the United States 
toward illegal immigrants, and officials in scores of communities, including 
Herndon and Loudoun County, are considering adopting their own version. The 
House earlier this month was weighing a measure "reaffirming" the authority 
of local law enforcement agencies to arrest people on suspicion of violating 
immigration laws.
Some Latino leaders say the program here is contributing to a discriminatory 
climate in which Hispanic drivers feel as if they are being "hunted" by 
police. And some law enforcement agencies elsewhere have rejected that 
enforcement function, saying such programs would rupture any trust that 
agencies have developed in Latino neighborhoods.
But advocates see it as a way to catch illegal immigrants who slip through 
the porous federal enforcement measures but run afoul of state or local 
police.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph says there should be little 
sympathy for illegal immigrants caught by his program: They have already 
broken the law once by being here illegally, and then been arrested on 
suspicion of another crime.
"When any of them cross that border without proper documentation, they've 
violated the law -- however insignificant it may seem to some people," he 
said. "I've heard sad stories about folks wanting to come up here and have a 
better life and earn money for their family. I've arrested bank robbers 
who've had the same excuse."
‘Very tense’
While the program has led to the removal of many illegal immigrants charged 
with felonies, people arrested for lesser charges such as traffic violations 
are also subject to deportation. That, according to Hispanic leaders, has 
created a constant worry for people who are in the United States illegally 
and now fear deportation after a simple traffic stop.
Many illegal immigrants lack valid licenses. As a result, they now risk not 
only arrest but also deportation whenever they drive.
"It's tense, very tense," said Angeles Ortega-Moore, director of the Latin 
American Coalition in Charlotte. "It used to be everybody here loved the 
Latinos. They would say, 'We like you more than the blacks.' Now we're like 
the Big Bad Wolf."
"The law enforcement community is split on this issue," said Gene Voegtlin, 
legislative counsel for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. 
The local agencies against enforcing immigration law "are concerned about 
the chilling effect it will have on immigrants' cooperation with law 
enforcement," he said.
In Mecklenburg County, about 1,200 foreign-born people have been arrested 
since April, on charges ranging from traffic violations and trespassing to 
sex crimes, and nearly 600 have been found to be here illegally.
Among those snared earlier this month was Guadalupe Lara, an 18-year-old 
Mexican carpenter.
The fifth of eight children born to farmworkers in Queretaro, he walked 
across the border when he was 16 to find work. Two years later, he has only 
a wispy beard and stands 5-foot-3.
He makes $7.50 an hour and lives with four others in a small, sparsely 
furnished apartment. Though they lack beds, they have a television on which 
Lara watches his favorite telenovela, "Heridas de Amor." He sends money home 
monthly and calls home every week.
"It's difficult," he said in Spanish. "When I call they say 'How are you?' I 
say 'I am fine.' " On Monday night, Lara was pulled over by police after 
buying a pack of cigarettes. He was not drunk but had an open bottle of beer 
in the car. He also lacked a license. He was arrested and when asked 
admitted he had no papers.
Had he been detained elsewhere, that he was an illegal immigrant might not 
have mattered.
But in Mecklenburg, two sergeants and 10 deputies at the jail are trained to 
handle immigration infractions, running checks in databases and holding 
people in custody if necessary
Some of those arrested face immediate deportation. Some are held on bond 
pending an immigration hearing. Lara was relatively lucky. Because he had no 
prior immigration or criminal charges, he was given a notice to appear 
before an immigration judge in Atlanta and released. He is likely to be 
ordered deported.
Lara says police now unfairly target Latinos. More than 90 percent of those 
discovered to be illegally in Mecklenburg are from Latin America.
"The police are just looking for problems with Hispanics," Lara said. "They 
know we don't have driver's licenses -- we can't get them -- and so they 
pull us over."
A lot of people here are very afraid because they think the police will pull 
them over for anything," said Liliana "La Chula" Ramos, a host on local 
Spanish radio. "It's very difficult for people to get licenses now, and 
people have to go to work, so they're out there driving."
Philip Turtletaub, a Charlotte immigration lawyer, says he sometimes 
receives six or seven calls a day from relatives of illegal immigrants 
caught by the program. He tells them not to waste their money.
"Most people I can't do anything for," he said.
‘Putting the pressure on these people’
While he ventured no opinion on the program's fairness, he said he thinks it 
could make life as an illegal immigrant in the region so uncomfortable that 
fewer illegal immigrants would choose to live there.
"They're putting the pressure on these people. They're scaring them. People 
say we can't deport 10 million. But you don't have to. If you deport enough 
of them, others will go back voluntarily because they don't want to live in 
these conditions."
Besides Mecklenburg, six other state and local law enforcement agencies have 
started similar programs in recent years. A dozen more are being worked out 
with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And in the past three months, 
hundreds of state and local departments have inquired about similar efforts, 
said Robert J. Hines, who heads the program for the ICE.
"When you are removing the criminal element from the community, it's hard to 
point a finger and say it's a bad thing," Hines said.
Loudoun County Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said his department is considering 
participating. Last night, Herndon Police Chief Toussaint E. Summers Jr. was 
expected to ask Town Council permission to apply for such a program.
Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William officials said they are 
not considering the idea, and police officials in suburban Maryland say 
there is lukewarm interest in deputizing officers to enforce immigration 
laws.
"In the Montgomery County area, we've taken more the track that we celebrate 
diversity," said Gaithersburg Police Chief Mary Ann Viverette, who is also 
the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. 
Immigration is "not an issue we want to enforce."
In federal testimony from August, Pendergraph, the Mecklenburg County 
sheriff, said "political correctness" is preventing some communities from 
adopting the program, and that "will eventually be the downfall of this 
country if someone doesn't wake up."
Influx of Latinos
Like much of the mid-Atlantic region, Charlotte has seen a rapid rise in the 
number of Latino immigrants over the past 15 years, many of them here 
illegally. Between 2000 and 2005, the estimated number of illegal immigrants 
in North Carolina rose 38 percent, from 260,000 to 360,000, according to a 
Department of Homeland Security report.
The influx, particularly conspicuous in a metropolis clinging to its 
small-town past, has caused ripples of concern.
"Texas, New York and California might be used to large influxes of illegal 
immigrants -- but we're not," said Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill 
James, who favors stronger enforcement. "James Carville had it right: We're 
just Mayberry with a major airport."
Local support for broad enforcement coalesced in July 2005 after a truck 
driven by an illegal immigrant whose blood-alcohol level was nearly triple 
the legal limit, hit a car, killing a local teacher and leaving the 
teacher's wife in a vegetative state. The accident resulted in Ramiro 
Gallegos's fifth impaired-driving charge in five years -- and led to the new 
enforcement policy.
"No more excuses," U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick said at a news conference at the 
time, calling for tougher enforcement. "You're drunk. You're driving. You're 
illegal. You're deported. Period."
Staff writers Bill Turque, Karin Brulliard, Ernesto Londoño and Candace 
Rondeaux contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company

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