Latinos Protest Dallas Suburb's Deportation Practices
The Dallas Morning News has an article today about a large protest of the immigration policies of the city of Irving, a suburb of Dallas. In a nutshell, Irving's policy is to check the immigration status of anyone detained or arrested in the city. This has resulted in a very large number of immigrants who have been deported after being stopped for a traffic violation or other minor infraction.
Obviously there are two schools of thought on this subject. One is that any person here illegally should be found and deported. The other is that a city has no business trying to enforce a federal law, and it's disruptive to the community and to the lives of individuals for good, hard-working people to be deported just because they got traffic tickets.
Here are excerpts from the Dallas Morning News article:
Angered over a record number of recent deportations in Irving, more than 1,000 protesters waved U.S. flags and chanted "We are America" as they rallied Wednesday night at City Hall.
Demonstrators called for Irving officials to put a moratorium on turning over suspected illegal immigrants to federal officials until immigration laws are reformed nationally. They also urged people to call Mayor Herbert Gears and ask him to stop deporting people from the city's jail.
"We need to raise our voice and we need to ask for changes about the things we don't like here," said Hector Flores, a leader in Irving's Hispanic community.
A few people who support the deportations carried signs in favor of the illegal immigration enforcement.
"Our compassion starts at home, and our charity starts at home," said Sue Richardson, a longtime Irving resident and vice president of the Greater Irving Republican Club.
At the heart of the contention is Irving police's use of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Criminal Alien Program. The plan provides for round-the-clock communication with federal authorities and is designed to detain illegal immigrants who have been accused of a crime. It's the latest tool being used by local governments in the absence of a federal overhaul of immigration laws.
"It does not deal with illegal aliens; it deals with criminal illegal aliens," said Irving City Council member Tom Spink.
Tensions over the practice have simmered for months among residents, officials and City Council colleagues. But the program has recently become a lightning rod for controversy with publicity about the growing number of people Irving police hand over to federal officials for deportation each month.
Opponents say police are overzealous. Supporters believe the program is the perfect answer to a national problem. And some residents and council members say police still aren't going far enough to combat illegal immigration.
Irving police have turned over at least 1,600 people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement since June 2006. In response, Mexican Consul Enrique Hubbard Urrea last week warned immigrants from his country to avoid Irving. And community leader Carlos Quintanilla said he would organize a boycott of Irving businesses if the city persisted.
Opponents of the program say Irving police are unfairly targeting Hispanics. They say that many Hispanics have become afraid of police and that families are being torn apart as parents are deported thousands of miles from their children.
"This isn't justice," said Deyla Reyes, a Northlake College student. "We need to stop this. These people have come here to work. We cannot support this program."
Many people at the rally accused Irving police of racial profiling and turning Hispanics over for deportation because of minor traffic infractions.
"We're not just hurting people driving without driver's licenses," said Luis DeLaGarza, a political consultant who helped organize the rally. "We are hurting the economy in Irving. We need to have immigration reform."
Mr. Gears said a major part of the problem isn't Irving's policy. Instead, it's lack of knowledge of the law. He said many people - including natural-born citizens and legal immigrants - aren't aware of consequences that come with traffic citations, which can include license suspension. And many minorities, he said, wrongly assume that police officers who ask for identification are trying to prove citizenship.
Mr. Gears said he has overseen investigations into every complaint about the program but has found no wrongdoing or malice on the department's part.