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Monday, April 15, 2002
We, the undersigned organizations,
are astonished and dismayed by news from the Justice
Department that Attorney General John Ashcroft is prepared
to release a legal opinion establishing the principle
that states and localities posses the “inherent
authority” to enforce immigration laws, effectively
clearing the way for state and local law enforcement
officials to detain persons based on suspected immigration
law violations.
Such a move would reverse
the long-standing policy of separation of police and
immigration powers, and thus would put the lives and
property of millions of immigrants living in the state
of Florida, and throughout the country as a whole, in
very real danger. At the same time, this ill-conceived
policy reversal will almost certainly increase racial
profiling of both immigrants and non-immigrants at the
hands of law enforcement authorities.
For many years, the policy
of this country has been to leave the enforcement of
immigration law to the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, for several excellent reasons. First, effective
policing demands the establishment of trust between
police officers and the community they serve, trust
that inspires confidence in victims to come forward
and report crimes and allows investigations to proceed
efficiently. This is especially true in immigrant communities,
where statistics indicate that immigrants suffer a disproportionately
high rate of violent crime, yet many immigrants are
wary of approaching law enforcement officials, due to
both negative experiences with authorities in their
home countries and, in the case of undocumented immigrants,
fear of deportation. If, however, this policy initiative
goes forward -- and local law enforcement officers become,
for all intents and purposes, INS agents in the minds
of the immigrant community -- then any trust that currently
exists will be shattered and violent crime against immigrants,
from muggings to modern-day slavery, will almost certainly
rise. The key to providing adequate police protection
to immigrant communities is to build trust in the authorities,
not to build new walls between the community and the
police.
Second, this country’s
immigration laws are extremely complicated, requiring
years of training to understand and to enforce legally.
They involve, by definition, questions of nationality
and ethnic background, leaving abundant room for racial
profiling and other forms of discrimination by local
police not versed in the myriad types of visas and visa-extension
applications issued by the INS. Indeed, in Chandler,
Arizona, when local police stopped and questioned dozens
of individuals in Latino neighborhoods in 1997, victims
of the operation -- including citizens and permanent
residents detained only on the basis of their appearance
-- brought lawsuits that cost the town hundreds of thousands
of dollars to settle. Local law enforcement officials
are not prepared, nor is it realistically feasible that
they be prepared, to enforce immigration law.
Third, this decision would
greatly expand the enforcement role of state and local
police, generating an impossible new demand on law enforcement
budgets, courts, and jail systems already stretched
to the limit. Devoting more time to immigration matters
would only divert resources away from traditional law
enforcement activities and most likely undermine police
effectiveness and overall security in local communities.
Indeed, the law enforcement
community itself is not united behind the Justice Department’s
initiative, as officials from New York to San Diego
have voiced concerns with the new policy. In San Antonio,
Texas, law enforcement officials have been quite vocal
in their reluctance to enforce immigration laws. Police
Chief Albert Ortiz, speaking in the San Antonio Express
News, said in a Friday, April 5th, story on the initiative,
“One of the beauties of living in San Antonio is
we have a lot of diversity and we seem to pull together.
If that (initiative) happens, we’d really have
to think very hard about where it would be on our priority
list, and if it would even be a priority.” Sheriff
Ralph Lopez, also of San Antonio, was even more frank,
asking, “What are we saying? ‘Hey you’ve
got an accent. Let me see your passport.’ It damn
near leads us to racial profiling.” These Texas
officers are joined by the mayors of several major cities,
including Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, who in
the past have flatly rejected the notion of turning
local police into INS agents.
In light of these very
serious concerns, we strongly urge Attorney General
Ashcroft to reconsider his position and leave the enforcement
of immigration laws to immigration officials. This radical
and unnecessary proposed departure from well-established
law enforcement policy would have catastrophic consequences
for millions of people across the country -- immigrants
and non-immigrants alike. The Attorney General’s
initiative is especially disturbing as it comes on the
heels of several other recent decisions and policy changes
that have severely diminished immigrants’ civil
rights, including last week’s Supreme Court decision
in the Hoffman Plastics case, effectively limiting the
rights of millions of undocumented workers to organize
and join labor unions.
While many of the recent
changes have been made in the name of security, the
sense within immigrant communities is that many of these
new initiatives are unnecessarily harsh and have crossed
the line from security into scapegoating the immigrant
community as a whole for the events of September 11th.
If we continue in this direction, we as a nation may
find ourselves well down a dangerous path toward the
creation of a new caste system in 21st-century America,
with law-abiding immigrants treated as little more than
beasts of burden, doing this country’s hardest,
worst-paid labor but stripped of the basic civil and
labor rights enjoyed by all other Americans.
The Attorney General’s
initiative to convert local police into INS agents wouldn’t
strengthen our fight against terrorists, it would diminish
it; it wouldn’t strengthen our country as a whole,
it would divide it. We write today as citizens and immigrants
who care deeply about our society and this country’s
ideals. We come from all different walks of life --
business, labor, political, and religious sectors; rich,
middle-class, and poor; black, white, indigenous, and
Latino. By coming together in opposition to the Attorney
General’s opinion, we are coming to the defense
of the America we know and love, the America where the
Statue of Liberty still stands, the land where freedom
and opportunity are still equal for all of its people,
regardless of the language we speak, the country of
our ancestors, or the color of our skin.
END of Statement
List of those signing-on
to statement:
Organizations:
* SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local
1199, Florida
* Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Immokalee, FL
* State Representative Phillip Brutus, Miami, FL
* LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens),
National, Washington, DC
* ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), National, Washington,
DC
* CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.),
Washington, DC
* LCLAA (Labor Council for Latin American Advancement),
National, Washington, DC
* APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO),
National, Washington, DC
* NELP (National Employment Law Project), NYC, NY
* NILC (National Immigration Law Center), Washington,
DC
* NIF (National Immigration Forum), Washington, DC
* ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), Florida, FL
* AFSC (American Friends Service Committee), National,
Philadelphia, PA
* AFSC (American Friends Service Committee), Colorado
* Alex Chavez, Regional Director, USHCC (Unites States
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce)
* CRLAF (California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation),
CA
* Joy Zarembka, IPS (Institute for Policy Studies),
Campaign for Migrant and Domestic Workers Rights, Washington,
DC
* UNITE for Dignity, South Florida, FL
* SEIU Local 1991, FL
* Pride at Work, AFL-CIO
* Catholic Charities, Diocese of Fresno, CA
* South Florida Jobs with Justice, FL
* FIAC (Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center), FL
* Florida Legal Services, FL
* Human Services Coalition of Dade County, FL
* Coalicion de Derechos Humanos/Alianza Indigena Sin
Fronteras, Tucson, AZ
* International Institute of Boston, MA
* Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, San Francisco,
CA
* Free the Slaves, Washington, DC
* International Institute of San Francisco, CA
* International Institute of Erie, PA
* Legal Services for Children, San Francisco, CA
* CASA of Maryland, Inc., MD
* WAIRJ (Washington Alliance for Immigrant & Refugee
Justice), WA
* Queens Empowerment Center for Haitian Immigrants,
Queens Village, NY
* Maryland Latino Coalition for Justice, MD
* The Youth Law Center, San Francisco, CA
* UNITE, Florida District (Arcine Rasberry, Director),
FL
* UNITE, Florida Retiree Action Program (Hani Lipp,
Coordinator), FL
* Florida Immigrant Coalition, FL
* Colorado Progressive Coalition, CO
* Rights for All People/Derechos Para Todos, Denver,
CO
* Sosyete Koukouy Miami, Inc, FL
* Nodeler Dorcilein, NAAHD (National Association for
the Advancement of Haitian Descendents), New York, NY
* The Americas Community Center, FL
* Farmworker Association of Florida, Inc., Apopka, FL
* Little River Co-op, Wimauma, FL
* Resource Center of the Americas, Miam, FL
* Haitian Coalition for Advancement, Bridgeport, CT
* CHAIN (Community Health Action Information Network),
FL
* Hispanic Services Council, Tampa, FL
* Haitian Educators of Dade, FL
* Carribean/American Community or Greater Hartford Area,
CT
* Civil Rights Committee of the Asian American Bar Association
of the San Francsico Bay Area
* CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los
Angeles), CA
* Fanm Ayisyen nan Miyami (Haitian Women of Miami),
FL
* AIM (American Indian Movement of Florida), FL
* Galata Haitian Culture Enrichment & Self Empowerment,
Inc., Miami, FL
* CAPAC (Colombian American Political Action Community),
FL
* RCMA (Redlands Christian Migrant Association), FL
* ARCA (Asylees Resettlement Consulting Alliance), Miami,
FL
* Vickers House, West Palm Beach, FL
* HAPAC (Hatian American Political Action Committee),
Miami, FL
* Honduras Foundation of USA, Coral Gables, FL
* CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), Washington,
DC
* Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, San Francisco,
CA
* Honduran Unity, Miami Springs, FL
* Haiti Support Network, Miami, FL
* CASA (Colombian American Service Association), Miami,
FL
* American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Washington,
DC
* Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida, FL
* Tampa Bay Action Group, FL
* Phoenix Fund for Workers and Communities, New York
City (Ann Bastian), NY
* Amigos Center, Ft. Myers/Bonita Springs, FL
* National Farm Workers Ministry, FL
* Student/Farmworker Alliance, FL
* Garment Workers' Center, Los Angeles, CA
* Pressurepoint, Seattle, WA
* Students for a Free Tibet International, NYC, NY
* US Tibet Committee, NYC, NY
* Milarepa Fund, NYC/Japan
* Miami Coalition for the Homeless, Miami, FL
* Organization of Maya People in Exile, West Palm Beach,
FL
* UNITE, Georgia (Manager, Sandra Stimson)
* Haitian Neighborhood Center, Miami, FL
* COFFO (Coalition of Florida Farmworker Organizations),
FL
* Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF), North Carolina
* Women's Alliance of Miami-Dade & Broward, Inc.,
FL
* Lawrence University Students for Leftist Action, Appleton,
WI
* Haitian Lawyers Association, Miami, FL
* Chay Pa Lou Community Center, Brooklyn, NY
* North Miami Beach Civic Association, FL
* Unidad Civica Peruana (Peruvian Civic Unity), FL
* Southwest Voter Registration Project, Miami Office,
FL
Businesses:
* Humphrey and Whidden Insurance Agency, Ft. Myers,
FL
* Maya King Express, FL
* Circulo Maya Travel, Ft. Myers, FL
* DDL Executive Transport Service, Inc., Ft. Myers,
FL
* Maya King Holdings, Inc., Ft. Myers, FL
* Mapou Productions, Ltd., Spring Valley, NY
* La Bamba Trading, Inc., FL
Attorneys:
* Aidif & Friedberg, P.A., Orlando, FL
* Ellen Gorman and Star Havasreti, Law Offices of Ellen
Gorman, P.A., St. Petersburg, FL
* Richard Maney, Maney & Gordon, P.A., Tampa, FL
* M. Joy Gonzales-Hoyes, Central Florida Chapt., AILA
(American Immigration Lawyers Assoc.)
* P. Michael Villalobos, Attorney at Law, Ft. Myers,
FL
* Adijatu Abiose, Esq.
* Steve Hitov, Esq., Washington, DC
* Tondreau & Associates, Miami, FL
Faculty:
* Joan Flocks, University of Florida
* Ronald Cox, Florida International University
* Fran Ansley, University of Tenn. College of Law, Knoxville,
TN
And
individuals too numerous to list.
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