Posted on 06/12/2002 2:19:35 PM PDT by skeptic1801
A recent rash of arrests in Missouri have one thing in common: a lack of valid identification
By Mariana De Maio and Elizabeth Gorman Adelante Staff Writers
Daniel Amaya recently spent his 18th birthday at the Audrain County Jail, where he has been detained since Dec. 12. “Daniel came to the United States with one dream: the dream of having his own house, his own car,” said a friend. “Daniel knew he had to work to make his dream real,” added another. Now he faces up to seven years in prison on a felony forgery charge and driving while intoxicated.
Francisca López, mother of six-year-old Edgar, was arrested for driving without a license in the parking lot of Mexico Plastics in Mexico, Mo., on April 4 and awaits a deportation hearing. Friends are taking care of her son, who is a U.S. citizen, while her fate is decided.
“The problem is that some people already have kids here, like Francisca who has been here for more than seven years. My wife takes care of her son while we wait what will happen to her,” said Elpidio Sandoval, pastor at Nazarene Church in Mexico.
Francisca and Daniel are two of the many undocumented immigrants that have been detained since Sept. 11 in what seems to be an increasingly aggressive treatment of fake documents nationwide. In Mexico, Mo., which has taken a particularly hard-line approach, there have been about 28 arrests since Sept. 16. In southwest Missouri, more than 500 have been detained in the past year, including about 20 who used false IDs in an attempt to get a drivers’ license. Those individuals, like Amaya, were charged with forgery.
“Daniel did not come here with the intent of forging anything; he came here with the intent of working, to support his family,” said Gail Printz, one of Daniel’s friends and advocates. “Being very young, Daniel took a job that nobody else wanted; he did it out of desperation, he didn’t have any other choice.”
Sandoval said he understands the police have to follow the law, but he thinks sometimes their motives are racial.
“They go hard with Hispanics,” he said. “They have to know we are only working here. They go after us as if we were evil dogs, but we are human beings, like everybody else in this country.”
INS seeks help from police
Law enforcement officials elsewhere might be following the lead of the Audrain County Sheriff’s Department following a Department of Justice proposal issued late last month. The announcement revives the 1996 immigration law authorizing state and local governments to enter into agreements with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to enforce immigration laws. Under the agreements, local police officers will be empowered to act as INS agents. Before they can do this, however, they must receive special training.
The Justice Department and state officials have not yet posted regulations for this law to take effect in Missouri. But, “no doubt it will be implemented,” said Chester Moyer, officer in charge of the INS in St. Louis. In fact, Moyer said, Missouri may be of prime importance if the law is put into effect because of Attorney General John Ashcroft’s strong ties with the state.
This law would encourage local police to extend their jurisdiction. Right now, if police officers can identify an undocumented person or has knowledge of one, they call the INS local office. And the INS has federal contracts with the county jails. “We will pay anywhere from $30 to $100 a night, depending on the ‘maintenance’ provided,” said Moyer. Some advocates believe this payment gives local governments further incentive to detain undocumented immigrants.
War on terrorism hits Latinos hardest
Although the Justice Department announcement was spurred by recent terrorism attacks by Middle Easterners, the Latino community will be the largest population to feel its effects.
“If you enforce the law, you have to enforce it across the board. Numerically, any attempt to enforce the law would affect more people from Mexico than from the Middle East,” said the director of research of the Center for Immigration Studies, Steven Camarota.
Sgt. Danny Grant of the Columbia Police, said that the problem right now is that “illegal immigrants don’t get dealt with because the local police departments don’t know how to go about it.” If the INS educated them, he added, they would enforce the law.
Many people fear that the immigration law will obstruct the relationship between the Latino community and the police department.
“This won’t help. The trust of the people is very important, because those who can help find the criminals won’t do it if they are afraid,” said Lisa Navarrete of the National Council of La Raza. Since Sept. 11, “police harass Latinos because of their look. This is racial profiling; civil rights are being violated, and this doesn’t help them to feel safe...” said Navarrete.
Alonzo Rivas of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund thinks the law can send the wrong message to local law enforcement, that even without the proper training they may think they have the power to act as INS agents.
“It will create an aggravation of racial profiling. A person who fits some description will probably be harassed,” said Rivas. “The message that the INS is sending to local police departments is that you have this power — and even without the proper training you can do it.”
Dan Kesselbrenner of the National Lawyers Guild worries that crime victims will be more vulnerable if local police begin working as INS agents. “I think it’s terrible,” he said. “Police are often viewed with hostility by people of color; this is going to make it worse.”
But Grant of the Columbia Police was reassuring. In a rape case, for example, “We’d deal with the sexual assault,” he said. “The fact that she’s illegal would take a second seat.”
The line between the INS and local law enforcement is narrowing. In southwest Missouri, an immigration office opened three years ago as part of a nationwide program. The Quick Response Team is not a public office where you can go ask questions; it is an INS facility that works hand in hand with local police departments.
According to Randall Grimes, supervisor for the INS Quick Response Team, the forgery problem began about a year ago, when people traveled from all over Missouri and adjoining states to the Neosho area in order to get their drivers’ license and identification.
“All of the people presented fraudulent social security cards. So the police made about 40 arrests in a 30-day period in February 2001,” he said. In the past four months, his office has identified about 1,000 people under this identity fraud. “It is a major, major problem,” added Grimes.
Sgt. Doug Dickey of the Carthage Police Department said forgery is one of the most common causes of arrests among undocumented immigrants. Upon the request of the Carthage police, the INS gave presentations on how to spot illegal documents and works of forgery.
“Forgery was new to us. It’s something we didn’t recognize as a problem,” Dickey said. “Are we arresting more illegals? Yes, because the INS has worked with us in training.”
A string of arrests in the Carthage area resulted after the INS told the police department about the forgery law, and the police in turn talked to licensing centers about recognizing stolen or fake documents. “There were quite a few arrests at DMV centers, but they dropped off because people started to realize that it’s not a good idea to go there,” he said.
California has taken the lead in arresting thousands of people for using false documents, said Kesselbrenner.
Tennessee may be cracking down on undocumented immigrants soon, as the state legislature is considering changing a lenient law allowing everyone to get a drivers license without requiring documentation.
In Missouri, immigrants have a harder time. In Marshall, for example, Police Chief James Simmerman said if someone commits a traffic violation, the police have to ask for identification. “If they don’t have one, we have to check them, because we have to make sure they will go to court,” said Simmerman. “If we find out the person is undocumented, we have to call the INS.” Having fake IDs is a violation of law and “we have to proceed if we get anybody with a fake document,” he said.
Using the forgery law is “certainly indicative of a fairly high anti-immigrant sentiment now,” said Suzanne Gladney, an immigration attorney with Legal Aid of Western Missouri. “Yes, it’s a crime; and yes, I suppose it could be charged,” she said. But she believes the practice is clogging up an already overburdened justice system with relatively minor cases.
Felony vs. misdemeanor
Meanwhile, Amaya’s future hangs in the balance. Thomas Osborne, Audrain County prosecutor, said, “The judge may or may not grant Daniel Anaya probation. Just because the jury finds him guilty and sentences him, it doesn’t mean the judge is going to sentence him to what the jury recommends.”
The state of Missouri’s forgery statute is enforced case-by-case, and implementation is not equal for everybody. Daniel Amaya had a fake ID and is in jail, while most young people who use fake IDs get out with a misdemeanor.
“As a prosecutor, could we potentially claim forgery for a MU student that uses a fake ID? Yes,” Kevin Crane, Boone County prosecutor, said. “Typically what we do is file a misdemeanor offense, and that is sufficient to address the conduct,” he said. There is a clear difference between buying beer and presenting false identification of citizenship, Crane said. He would charge an undocumented person without hesitating.
George Batek, Missouri assistant public defender — Daniel’s lawyer — agreed there is a difference between the MU student and an undocumented immigrant when they use fake documents. But his sympathies lie with the immigrant: “One uses the fake ID to buy alcohol; the other one uses it to work.”
Well!
How dare anyone take that dream from him over a little forgery and DWI!
I am shocked and appalled.
Also, these people have kids here to get their ticket punched: You have a child on American soil, you automatically move to the front of the line for legalization, even if you came here illegaly to give birth. All along the Texas border, women in labor catch cabs to the American side, get free medical care for their deliveries in Texas' public hospitals, and they are home free. This is happened, literally, hundreds of thousands of times. You and your baby are automatically qualified for all kinds of benefits.
This is called "birthright citizenship," another situation Congress should have fixed in '96, but couldn't because of all the bleeding hearts. Next scene: authorities can 1) deport mother, and listen to her scream about being "separated from her child," as if she couldn't take the little darling with her back to Cacalandia, or 2) let her stay on humanitarian grounds. Oh, and it's not just people from Latin America, Asians by the hundreds of thousands have obtained short-term visitors visas so they can come here (usually to the Northwest and northern California) and give birth, get their toe in the door and bring in all of their relatives; the elderly of which are immediately enrolled in the SSI program, which is Social Security for people who never paid into the SS program.
But the current system has many faults, only one of which is that the illegal immigration sea can too easily hide terrorist fishes. It is also a form of corporate welfare to the Tysons, among others. It also breeds crime. It leeches off our welfare system. It provides wth fodder for election fraud. It has got to stop, but this can be done in a way that does not blow a hole in the economy.
And The National Lawyers Guild is an incomplete title without the word Communist in it somewhere.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
if mexicans would straighten out their own mess, just like we did in the civil war and rev. war, they can set up the govt. they want. freeloading illegally is not an option.
AAAAARRRRGGGGG..... the red doper diaper baby American hating lawyers that defend illegals are going to be the death of us all.
He didn't have the intent when he came over, but I didn't have the intent of gaining 45 pounds in eight years, either. Still I AM RESPONSIBLE for over-eating!
This guy was a demoncrat in the making -- "I don't know HOW it happened....!"
Under the "How Times Have Changed Category":
My grandmother married a Canadian citizen somewhere around 1918 or so, then divorced him. When my father died, among his papers was my grandmother's petition for U. S. citizenship, which had us all puzzled since she was born in Connecticut.
My brother-in-law made inquiries at the INS about this.
It seems that in those days, if a female American citizen married a non-U. S. citizen, her American citizenship was revoked (this was not applicable to male Americans who married non-citizen females).
I think the law was changed sometime in the late 20's, but I can't remember.
The only rationale we could come up with for this law was that since women were in charge of child rearing, this would guarantee that the children would not be raised feeling more loyalty to their father's country than the U. S. Just a guess.
It seems the laws have done a complete 180 regarding this issue, huh?
My TN fake license name choice would be Achmed Medulla-Oblongata.
Where are your statics to support this?
According to research conducted by The Center for Immigration Studies (Tired & Poor: The Bankrupt Arguments for Mass, Unskilled Immigration By Steven A. Camarota ), it is estimated that over their lifetime, each illegal TAKES $55K more FROM the system than they contribute.
From the sound of these people you would think it is America's fault these people are here illegally. But you know what? MALDEF, et. al. actually do think we are flawed in our demand that people go through a process to immigrate here. They believe that anyone (especially Mexicans) should be able to get up in the morning, have breakfast, and if they decide by noon to come into the US, be able to be here by dinner time. It is so ridiculous.
But it seems like the folks in MO have turned on the lights in their kitchen and upon seeing all of the roaches, have pulled out their can of Raid and started to get busy. If only they would do so here in CA. I know, I know. but I can dream can't I?
Just what exactly do they add to the economy?
Now they do add to the bottom line of greedy employers and this, in turn, adds to contributions to greedy politicians.
Don't forget to pick up your fake SSN from Jorge on the corner for 25$.
Well, that has been a long standing arguement in this part of the country. The "we need foreign labor for..."arguement has now grown and included most mass agriculture products, assembly work, restaurant help on the lower end and apparently, we need computer experts on the higher end. I pay less for my goods and services and I am happy about that! However, my medical bills are unreal and I am required to carry health insurance because some individuals under the poverty line cannot begin to pay their bills and somebody else, namely me, has to pick up the tab. My daughter's classes have 50 students in them while Francisco's class of 15 goes on down the hall in his native language. My credit has to be checked every so often as individuals who have no right to be here steal ssn numbers so that they can work without any hassle, get bank accounts and even apply for credit cards. My taxes increase seemingly yearly to pay for programs which to me seem more interested in keeping more in their illegal status than getting rid of them or their status. I must watch what I say and do lest I be labled a racist, a charge which carries no defense. No, I think I'll just pay a little extra for my chicken leg.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.