Harassing Latinos

The police in the city of Orange are at it again, taking onto themselves the duties of federal immigration officers by rousting illegal immigrants--and possibly citizens and legal residents in the process--supposedly in the interest of controlling crime.

Last year Orange police directed their efforts at motorists who stopped to pick up people gathered at some street corners in the city waiting to be taken to workplaces. Police harassed the motorists--pulling them over on suspicion of traffic violations, mechanical troubles or any other technicalities that would provide legal justification for making the motorists stop.

In the last few days Orange police have launched another all-out drive, this time aimed directly at the workers who congregate on corners waiting for work offers. As the police tell it, they are not after illegal immigrants but are just trying to control crime. City Manager J. William Little said, “We’re not picking them up because they’re out there. We’re picking them up because they violate the law.”

The absurdity of his explanation is patent when you examine the pattern of the arrests, all of which were aimed directly at illegal immigrants. The pattern smacks of selective harassment, not law enforcement. In recent days about 100 Latinos have been taken to the U.S. Border Patrol station because they couldn’t prove legal residence to Orange police officers.

What laws had they violated that were serious enough to bring the police swooping down on them? Some were guilty of jaywalking. Some were charged with loitering. At least one was stopped for tossing a cigarette onto the ground. Two men were picked up for not wearing seat belts--in a parked car at a doughnut shop. Those are the kinds of “crimes” that led to the detention of scores of Latinos, and ultimately to their deportation.

This latest wave of law enforcement against Latin-looking people along Orange’s Chapman Avenue, where many workers muster for day jobs, makes one wonder how zealous police have been in pursuing others for similar offenses. How many arrests of non-alien residents in other neighborhoods, for example, were made in recent weeks for tossing a cigarette onto the ground or jaywalking?

The Orange police department policy toward illegal immigrants is alien to fairness and respect for the constitutional rights of all, regardless of their resident status.