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Immigrants' fear of police aids criminals
(Daily Oklahoman, The (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 11--Criminals are increasingly targeting illegal immigrants -- or people they perceive to be illegal immigrants -- because the victims are reluctant to report crimes due to fear of being deported, police say.
The victims also are targeted because they are not likely to have bank accounts and are more likely to carry large amounts of cash.
Tulsa police say about 40 percent of all robberies target Hispanic immigrants. It's a problem in Oklahoma City as well, a police spokesman said.
Some say the trend illustrates the danger of local enforcement of federal immigration laws, as is being done in Tulsa County. Others think it points to the problem of sustaining a presence of noncitizens within our borders.
'Perfect victims'
"In a way, they are the perfect victims," said Michael Brooks-Jimenez, an Oklahoma City immigration attorney. "I just hate the fact that HB 1804 has brought this out in people. Whatever inroads the Oklahoma City Police Department and the police in other places have made with the Hispanic community to re-establish their trust has been eroded by these criminals that continue to target them."
'An imperfect world'
Oklahoma City police say last summer, gangs were targeting residents of an apartment complex where Hispanic immigrants lived.
"The only solution to this problem is a consistent policy of enforcement that reduces illegal immigration. Illegals are always going to be hesitant of the police," said Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Virginia-based public policy group that advocates strict enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
Immigrants will remain apprehensive because they typically come from countries with rampant police and government abuse and corruption, Camarota said.
"I am sure there are a lot of illegal immigrants who do not report crime. I am sure there are a lot of prostitutes and chronic substance abusers who also do not report crime, but that's all a part of living in an imperfect world," he said. "Unless we are going to completely look away and turn a blind eye to illegal immigration, we have no alternative. You cannot rule out the constructive role that law enforcement can play."
Crime in Tulsa is up about 6.4 percent this year, despite a drastic decline in homicides. The robbery rate against Hispanics is high even though there are fewer to victimize; Tulsa County is coordinating the deportation of about 100 immigrants a month, more than a thousand since the passage of House Bill 1804, the state's immigration enforcement law.
"It appears the immigrant population does have a direct effect on robberies," said Jason Willingham, spokesman for the Tulsa Police Department. "And it's simply because people are going into Hispanic neighborhoods, and they are targeting them."
Trust broken by arrests, or rumor?
After the passage of HB 1804, members of the Hispanic community began making allegations of racial profiling. Willingham says the allegations were investigated, but none were substantiated.
The department then launched a campaign to better explain its policy. Willingham said police distributed cards printed in Spanish outlining what people can be arrested for and cards alerting Hispanics that they were being targeted by criminals.
"We have not had one violation of 1804, that I have been told about," Willingham said. "When we make an arrest for DUI, we are going to ask those questions. Are we going out and making car stops and asking people to show us your papers? No we are not doing that. We will not do that."
Some immigrants still fear police and fear reporting crime. Willingham says it places them in unnecessary peril.
"But they can't read our language. All they hear is what is going in the rumor mill," Willingham said. "We are trying to do what we can to educate the Hispanic community in Tulsa."
Some Hispanic leaders have doubts.
Immigration is a federal issue that local authorities don't have the training, funding, facilities, manpower or governing policies to handle, said Eric Levy Witemberg, a deputy Mexican consul in Little Rock, Ark.
Witemberg says Tulsa police routinely stop people for simple traffic infractions and turn them over to the sheriff's office.
"We believe they know full well what is happening, that these people are being deported for basically nothing, and they are fine with that."
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Oklahoman
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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