Why some immigrants are let go (Arizona Republic)

Why some immigrants are let go
On the beat, a person's immigration status may or may not become an issue

by Daniel González - Jun. 14, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

In a city with one of the largest undocumented populations in the nation, Phoenix police officers frequently encounter people who could be in the country illegally.

But a recent three-hour ride-along with a Phoenix police officer showed that deciding who should be questioned about their immigration status - and turned over to federal authorities for possible deportation - and who shouldn't isn't always so clear-cut.

That is where a year-old immigration policy is supposed to help out. The policy gives officers more discretion to question people about their immigration status. But the policy places emphasis on people involved with crime and requires officers to document contact with ICE to help prevent racial profiling.

One recent Tuesday evening, Sgt. Mario Leoni was cruising north on 35th Avenue when he came up on a Ford Taurus that was going much slower than the speed limit. That made Leoni suspicious. He decided to run a license-plate check on the car. The query showed the vehicle had no insurance. So Leoni pulled it over.

The stop took place in the Maryvale precinct on the city's west side. The area's residents are mostly Latinos, and a large proportion of them are immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala, both legal and illegal.

The driver and passenger, both wearing dusty clothes and ball caps, told Leoni they were construction workers driving home from a job.

As it turned out, the driver did have vehicle insurance. But several clues indicated the men might be in the country illegally. They spoke only Spanish and neither had an Arizona driver's license. The driver showed Leoni a matricula consular card, which many illegal immigrants from Mexico rely on for identification, and the passenger carried only a Mexican driver's license from Durango.

After a computer check revealed no criminal records or outstanding warrants, Leoni told the men to switch places so the one with the driver's license was behind the wheel. In this case, Leoni could have cited the driver for driving without a license, a misdemeanor.

But he let the men drive away, without a citation and without asking a single question about their immigration status.

"Those are just a couple of hard-working dudes," Leoni said, climbing back in his patrol vehicle.

That might shock anti-illegal immigration advocates, who want local police to arrest every illegal immigrant they encounter so they can be deported, usually the federal government's job.

But Leoni said he was just following the department's immigration policy. Officers may question people about their immigration status as part of a criminal investigation. But to Leoni this was just a routine traffic stop; he didn't believe the men were engaged in criminal activity. Leoni said the policy has other goals as well.

It's intended to prevent officers from questioning people about their immigration based on race or appearance, a practice known as profiling that could lead to civil-rights abuses.

And more importantly, it's aimed at keeping officers from being tied up for long periods of time attending to immigration violators when they could be needed for more serious crimes. That's why a supervisor must be the one to decide whether to contact ICE.

For all those reasons, officers frequently let suspected illegal immigrants go.

"We have that discretion," Leoni said. "Our main concern is whether a crime has been committed."