Police know better than nativists where we should be on immigration reform

Ever since Arizona’s state Legislature threw a lit match into the cannister of gasoline that is the immigration reform debate, we have endured heated rhetoric in our society.

Just on Monday, I read reports indicating that state officials in Florida are moving ahead with their own version of an Arizona-type measure that requires their local cops to more vigorously enforce federal immigration laws.

IT SEEMS THAT about 20 of the 50 state Legislatures in our nation have plans to proceed with efforts to emulate Arizona.

This comes at a time when significant numbers of people admit these measures seem aimed at the growing Latino population, although some people don’t seem to care much about that fact. It also comes at a time when a majority of people, while wanting reform to immigration laws, admit that such reforms need to include measures by which people already here should be allowed some procedural means of remaining in the United States.

Then, there was the report by the Police Foundation, a Washington-based group, that says many of the local police who in theory would be called upon to take these extra actions as part of their jobs have their own qualms about doing so.

Some 67 percent of police chiefs across the nation think that their local criminal investigations would be weakened if they have to deal with immigration issues, according to the foundation.

THE REASON OUGHT to be obvious, and it has little to nothing to do with any support that law enforcement types might personally feel for the growing Latino population in this country,.

In fact, it reminds me of a political campaign I covered once in the Chicago suburbs where a police sergeant was running for a mayoral post at a time when that local City Council was approving a measure restricting local police from inquiring about a person’s immigration status.

That candidate (who wound up losing) said she favored the measure because she liked anything that made people feel more comfortable about dealing with their local police departments.

It was not like immigration was an issue that fell within her department’s jurisdiction, so she wasn’t going to worry about questioning people about whether they had a visa – just because they came to police attention for having been in an automobile accident or some other unrelated incident.

BUT UNDER THE Arizona measure, police handling that local accident would be required to question people about their immigration status – if they fit that officer’s understanding of what constitutes a person likely to be in this country without papers.

Which means the local cops themselves largely see this issue as one causing potential for headaches – not only would some people be scared away from wanting to cooperate with (or get too close to) police, it also creates situations where an officer’s over-diligence could come back to bite his department.

All it is going to take is one U.S-born person facing deportation because some police officer in Arizona (or any state that elects to follow their lead) thought they didn’t “look right” insofar as what should constitute a U.S. citizen.

That same Police Foundation study said local departments faced with such laws are going to have to create policies and procedures to monitor racial profiling and abuse of law enforcement authority, in addition to working with leaders of the ethnic communities to develop local policies.

IN SHORT, THIS has potential to create a lot more work for police departments that already are overburdened with trying to maintain control over their communities.

I couldn’t help but notice that the same study recommends that police become the loudest lobbying group for immigration reform.

“Local law enforcement leaders and policing organizations should place pressure on the federal government to comprehensively improve border security and reform the immigration system, because the federal government’s failure on both issues has had serious consequences in cities and towns throughout the country,” their report reads.

It is a shame that many of these state officials who want to rant and rage about immigration and “too many foreigners” in this country don’t listen to their local cops on this issue.

BECAUSE WHILE MANY of these local officials claim they are acting because of the federal government failure to act, the problem is that too many of them are moving in the wrong direction on the issue, giving too much credence to the nativist thought process rather than trying to find real solutions to the bureaucratic mess that has become our nation’s immigration policy.

As far as the federal government is concerned, their failure to act has become bogged down in the Republican desire to gain more influence from the Nov. 2 elections so they can dump on the policies of President Barack Obama – who has figured the loss of political capital he would suffer from pushing the issue in vain is not worth it.

No one will ever accuse Obama of being Don Quixote, using immigration as the equivalent of a windmill. A part of me can’t even blame him for thinking there is little more he can do until the partisan mood changes on this issue.

All I know is that for every bit of energy some Latinos put into trashing Democrats for apathy and inaction on this issue, there are certain other GOP types who are showing us with their conduct on this issue why they are unfit to hold electoral office – no matter how many people actually vote for them come November.

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