Posted on 09/06/2002 5:28:26 AM PDT by 4Freedom
Ombudsman Carlos J. Lopez Nieves lashed out at the commonwealth and San Juan police forces Thurday for allegedly detaining undocumented aliens here and then handing them over to federal authorities for deportation.
"This is undue intervention of the Puerto Rico Police Department in immigration issues," Lopez Nieves said, adding that the local police don't have the jurisdiction to detain foreigners for immigration violations.
He also said that the San Juan police were also detaining foreigners, an action he said local police "here or in any state of the union" lack the authority to undertake.
Police Superintendent Miguel Pereira denied the practice was taking place, and San Juan municipal police officials did not return STAR phone calls on the matter.
"I have no knowledge that police are doing this," Pereira said.
The ombudsman said his office has been investigating the matter since August 2001, after complaints were made by Dominican Republic Consul Rolando Acosta.
Acosta, who accompanied Lopez Nieves at the press conference, said that muncipal police routinely detain suspected illegal aliens in the Dominican community of Barrio Obrero and turn them over to the INS for deportation.
"The only time a foreigner should be arrested is if he or she is committing a crime. Only then can police ask about immigration status and check to see documentation," said Nieves Lopez.
The ombudsman said he has referred his report to Gov. Calderon, House Speaker Carlos Vizcarrando and Senate President Antonio Fas Alzamora. He said such police actions can open the door for a class-action lawsuit.
These are civil rights and immigration law violations," he said.
Lopez Nieves said no agreement exists between the local police and the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service calling for local police to detain persons suspected of being illegal aliens.
He said the INS only has such an agreement with the state of Florida and "their degree of intervention is well established."
Pereira said that he has heard of the accord, but also did not know if one existed between the INS and commonwealth authorities.
"In many cases, we haven't found anything that can justify intervention with foreign citizens," said the ombudsman.
Acosta said he will soon release numbers of Dominican nationals detained by police and the reasons for the detentions that he will also share with Calderon.
The ombudsman also called on Pereira to comply with the federal hate crimes law, which requires police to keep statistics on this type of crime. He also called on the police to create and activate a hate crimes specialized unit.
In another issue, Lopez Nieves asked Pereira for a comparative report of the last two years regarding the number of traffic tickets issued on the island because of citizen complaints that police are giving out too many tickets, leading some to see it as a way for the commonwealth to raise funds.
Pereira said that the force is merely strictly enforcing the laws.
Get this. The police are the ones violating immigration law, when they arrest illegal aliens, according to these dim-wits.
Looks like the Dominican Republic Consul is stealing a page from the Mexican Consul. Can Dominican Republic ID cards be far behind?
Being that I live in the largest Dominican city in the world (New York), I have a perspective on this issue. Dominican immigration has actually dropped off as, according to a friend, "everyone who wants to be here is already here." This doesn't mean that NY's largest ethnic group is not coming anymore, just that they are coming in smaller numbers. This is why you now see tons of Mexicans coming here, taking the jobs that were held by Dominicans 15 years ago.
BTW: What do you call Dominican settlers in Puerto Rico?
A: An improvement.
More Dominicans are deciding to stay in Puerto Rico as opposed to risking detection and deportation in a try for the mainland.
The Puerto Rican residents on the island consider themselves 80% white and, according to this article, aren't comfortable with a large influx of dark skinned Dominicans that aren't just passing through.
They're worried about losing their culture. Can you believe that? /sarcasm
Puerto Rico: Illegal immigration from D.R. culture clash
They refuse to serve Dominicans in some cafeterias or let them drink from their water fountains? Probably make them ride in the back of the bus, too.
They're deluding themselves. Remember that in PR, those with just a little (ie their great-grandmother) black blood consider themselves "white." The majority of the population has at least some black and/or Taino indian ancestry. Believe me, the average Puerto Rican is far from "white" by our standards. Just take a look at any Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York to see what I mean.
The Puerto Ricans are lighter skinned than the Dominicans, who are lighter than the Haitians. Each group looks down on each other in this pecking order. Trujillo (Dominican dictator), whose grandmother was a Haitian mulatta, tried to "whiten" his country by encouraging European immigration and carrying out a pogrom on illegal (and some legal) Haitian residents in the late 50s-early 60s.
Look at their government officials. They're all light skinned like Mexico's. Look at their recent governors, for instance Sila Calderon and Rosello. They're white.
From what I've read, the Tainos were slaughtered. We're talking genocide.
All I can tell you is that according to the 2000 U.S. Census, 80% of the residents of Puerto Rico consider themselves white.
I've been around the island and I've seen a lot of white people. They have the better jobs and more money. They're the doctors, lawyers, politicians, executives, federal and local government employees, etc. and you won't see them hanging around the hotels and regular tourist spots.
Take a look at the leader of the Independence Party, his wife and other party officials. They're white.
Put a helmet on Ruben Berrios's head and you'd swear you were looking at a 15th or 16th century conquistador, beard and all.
As far as the Taino are concerned, remember that many escaped to the mountains and eventually intermarried with poor whites.
Never use American preconceptions of color when looking at Latin American censuses. According to the Brazillian census, the majority of its inhabitants identify as "white." What this doesn't tell you is that most middle class and upper class Brazillian of racially mixed ancestry consider themselves "white," whiteness being a sociocultural construct than a genetic identifier in this case. For more info on this phenomenon, check out "Black into White" by Thomas Skidmore and "Race and Ethnicity in Latin America" by Peter Wade.
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