Fla. Sheriff Targets Illegals: Funny Tactics

AP ^ | June 27, 2007 | Melissa Nelson

[oakcon]

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The sheriff's department has developed a remarkably effective—and controversial—way of catching illegal immigrants: Deputies in patrol cars pull up to a construction site in force, and watch and see who runs. Those who take off are chased down and arrested on charges such as trespassing, for cutting through someone else's property, or loitering, for hiding out in someone's yard, or reckless driving, for speeding off in a car.

U.S. immigration authorities are then given the names of those believed to be in this country illegally.

"It's not wrong for them to run, but it's not wrong for us to chase them either," said Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who created his Illegal Alien Task Force in April to target construction sites in this Florida Panhandle county.

Immigrant advocates say the technique is repugnant, and the ACLU says its constitutionality is questionable.

Illegal immigrants are leaving town. And builders are worried the crackdown will deprive them of the labor they need to take part in a building boom in which Panama City's Beach cheap spring-break motels are being torn down and replaced with high-rise condos.

The sheriff said the raids are justified under a long-standing Florida law prohibiting employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

His department has conducted dozens of these raids over the past three months, sometimes using five or six patrol cars, and has reported more than 500 people to immigration officials since November.

The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund is investigating the arrests because "the intimidation factor is of great concern," said Elise Shore, regional counsel for the organization.

Benjamin Stevenson, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, said he finds the tactic troubling.

"Why are they sending out six or seven agents to investigate a paper crime, and are they causing them to run in the first place through intimidation?" he asked.

As the debate over illegal immigration plays out in Washington, McKeithen is among a growing number of state and local officials taking it upon themselves to enforce immigration laws that up to now were regarded as a federal responsibility.

[Moseley]

We should start calling the "Z" visa what is -- Talk about the "Z AMNESTY VISA." SECOND after the bill is signed, 12 million illegal immigrants can file a very simple application for the "Z AMNESTY VISA" and 24 hours later they will have the right to live and work in the USA. Worse, the government will have no right to stop or question these people. So we won't even have the ability to check them out to see if they are terrorists.

I also think you should call this the "Terrorist Welcome Mat Bill of 2007."

[AaronBSam]

I applaud this sheriff hero!