Group Urges Immigration Enforcement at Local Level

An Orange County-based immigration reform group plans to lobby the Anaheim City Council tonight to authorize local police officers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants.

If the plan is passed and approved by the U.S. attorney general’s office, Anaheim could become the first city in the nation to make use of a little-known federal law that allows local police agencies to arrest people under federal immigration laws.

“We are quite tired of American citizens being injured and killed by illegal aliens and it is time to put a stop to it,” said Barbara Coe, chairwoman of the Huntington Beach-based California Coalition for Immigration Reform. The organization, she said, has begun a movement to push other cities nationwide to follow suit.

The issue is likely to divide this city of 300,000 residents, where in 1999 the high school Board of Trustees voted to bill foreign countries and the federal government for the cost of educating illegal immigrant children.

The resolution died after the Justice Department said the board had no legal standing to make such demands, but the issue caused a rift in the city. Community leaders predicted a repeat tonight.

“This is purely, purely an anti-immigration move that is meant to target people who look different than what some people think an American should look like,” said Zeke Hernandez, president of the Santa Ana chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Both sides have vowed to show up in large numbers at tonight’s City Council meeting.

The issue of what role, if any, local police agencies should take in enforcing immigration laws has been a subject of ongoing debate.

When the Los Angeles City Council voted last year to bar the Immigration and Naturalization Service from its police stations, it drew the anger of immigration reform groups. Before the vote, the INS and police occasionally collaborated on crime sweeps and other operations.

Police agencies already have the authority to turn over to the INS any suspected illegal immigrants they arrest for other violations. But for the most part, police have been reluctant to get involved in immigration issues, fearing that it might discourage victims or witnesses from reporting crimes.

The proposal by Coe’s group would give police the power to arrest people on suspicion of violating federal immigration laws.

“Although we will do whatever the city government instructs us to do, we do and hope to continue to operate on the basis that immigration is a federal issue,” said Anaheim police spokesman Sgt. Rick Martinez.

Councilman Sees ‘Chilling Effect’

Anaheim City Councilman Tom Tait agreed. “It would have a chilling effect on people who are here illegally,” discouraging them from reporting crimes, Tait said. Immigration, he said, “is a federal issue and it requires a federal solution.”

Coe and others, however, argue that the federal government has not done enough to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. They say empowering local police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants would dissuade others from coming.

“They will not be suspected if they have the proper documentation,” said Coe, coauthor of the controversial Proposition 187, the 1994 measure that sought to deny public assistance to immigrants in California but was struck down by the courts.

“If they can’t provide documentation that they are here legally, then they are subject to arrest. . . . We don’t care if you are pink or blue; all we care about is the illegality,” Coe said.

The idea was introduced by Harald Martin, an Anaheim police officer and member of the Anaheim Union High School board, which passed the controversial 1999 resolution to bill foreign countries.

Martin, acting as a private citizen, introduced the petition late last year, asking the city to adopt an ordinance seeking immigration code enforcement powers from the federal government. According to a measure passed as part of the 1996 immigration reform legislation, cities can ask the attorney general’s office for such powers.

However, a pilot project scheduled for Salt Lake City was voted down by city officials there in 1998 after public protests, and no other city has taken up the measure.

Anaheim Councilwoman Lucille Kring said Monday that she did not know how she would vote if an ordinance were introduced by a colleague.

“It is a huge issue and I am not sure you can solve it with one broad sweep,” said Kring, who added that the city received hundreds of letters in support of Martin’s petition. “This is an emotional issue, and when you get emotional about issues, you don’t think clearly.”