Don’t Make the Police an Arm of the INS

Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar announced in early December that the names of more than 300,000 immigrants scheduled for deportation will be entered into an FBI criminal database. This is to facilitate the identification by the police.

With this order, Ziglar not only deputized every police officer in the U.S. to collaborate with immigration officials, he classified these undocumented immigrants in the same category as convicted felons and fugitives charged with severe crimes. Even Ziglar’s congressional liaison has indicated that most of the individuals who will be entered into the database under this order have committed only administrative violations by overstaying their visas. Failing to submit to an order of deportation is considered a civil infraction--not a misdemeanor or a felony.

The federal government and community organizations must inform and educate the public and police officers about these facts.

With Ziglar’s announcement, issues such as racial profiling, fear of the police and a reluctance to report crimes will resurface and intensify.

In the city of Los Angeles, Special Order 40 was implemented in 1979 to prohibit the police from questioning people only because of their immigration status. A spokesperson for City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, has said the new federal ordinance will not conflict with Special Order 40.

However, the reality on the streets can be very different. Police officers may feel they have the green light to use the database against immigrants--legal and undocumented. Some of the immigrant detainees may be unfairly treated as criminals when in fact they may not be.

There are a number of scenarios in which unsuspected immigrants can fall under the database trap. Many immigrants are ordered deported in absentia. Sometimes they move and never receive a notice for a court appearance. Without knowing that they have been ordered deported, many immigrants apply for an adjustment of status under a family petition, temporary protected status asylum or because of marriage to a U.S. citizen. Unknown to them, they have been listed in a criminal database and can be detained by a police officer and arrested and transferred to an INS facility for deportation.

History has taught us that in prosperous times the United States favors immigration.

In particular, the U.S. favors undocumented immigrants willing to work long hours for little pay in agriculture, service and manufacturing jobs. These immigrants work hard and pay billions of dollars in taxes.

But in economic recessions and difficult political times, immigrants become scapegoats. Many anti-immigrant groups and some elected officials are using the call for national security as a vehicle to propel an anti-immigrant agenda. We now see an anti-immigrant wave supporting legislation that limits our civil rights, restricts noncitizen rights and feeds hatred toward minorities, especially those of Middle Eastern descent.

Some of the alleged perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks had entered the U.S. legally with tourist and student visas. Thus, the problem facing the Department of Justice in terms of national security goes beyond illegal immigration, border protection and deportation of undocumented immigrants. Issues such as the proper background checks of Border Patrol agents, adequate administrative services, better control at ports of entry and a restructuring of the screening process for visa applicants in foreign countries need to be addressed.

More emphasis must be placed on the process used by the embassies for investigating and interviewing individuals who want to enter the U.S. We must do a better job of identifying terrorists before they enter this country.

The criminalization and deportation of these people with families and roots in this country are not going to produce significant progress in our battle against terrorism. The collaboration between the INS and law enforcement officers, however, will likely create civil rights violations of innocent individuals. We must not forget about preserving our civil liberties in these very difficult times.