Immigrant rights organization urges local police to review procedures

LA JOYA - A local civil rights organization is urging police to avoid immigration enforcement after complaints were lodged alleging officers were targeting illegal immigrants.

La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) representatives are in the midst of meetings with local police leaders in western Hidalgo County, where authorities routinely encounter human trafficking and illegal immigrants streaming across ranch lands nearly every day.

"There have been comments made to us by some of our members and other members in the community that when (police) stop them for a traffic violation they were asking for legal documents," LUPE Texas Director Juanita Valdez-Cox said last week.

Police leaders, however, assert their officers don't check immigration status and that they only contact U.S. Border Patrol agents if they are clearly dealing with a group of illegal immigrants.

La Joya police spokesman Officer Joe Cantu said if a driver who is stopped does not have a license or any form of ID, they are taken to the police station and asked to contact family. Border Patrol is never contacted in such cases, he said.

"If they got a (house) and they got a job and they are working, why mess with it?" Cantu said. "That's my philosophy."

But still, La Joya police often chase dangerous coyotes, or human smugglers, with a truckload of illegal immigrants.

In that situation, Cantu said, the coyote will almost always run from authorities after committing a minor traffic violation. Then, because they are evading police and it's clear that police are probably dealing with a human trafficking ring, they contact Border Patrol agents - who are charged with enforcing immigration law.

Often, police also encounter illegal immigrants after a property owner calls about people running across their land, Cantu said. Then they contact Border Patrol agents as well, he said.

The situation is nearly the same in nearby Palmview, where police also routinely encounter smuggling operations.

Local police spokesman Lt. Lenny Sanchez said that it's up to an officer's discretion about whether or not to call Border Patrol agents. He said an officer contacts Border Patrol when it's clear he or she has encountered human smugglers, or if the officer thinks the suspected illegal immigrant is a clear danger or possibly a fugitive.

Still, the issue is not clear cut, especially in a border town.

"We are a border town. We get dope and we get illegal smuggling," Sanchez said. "We are major corridor to all kinds."

Valdez-Cox said that so far local police leaders have been responsive to LUPE's complaints and have even pledged to meet with members of the community to discuss how their officers address illegal immigration.

She said doing so is important because a police force could compromise its own work if the communities it patrols don't trust it to report crime.

"There's no denying there are undocumented people living here," Valdez-Cox said. "It's a very complicated, federal issue that our government and representatives have not been able to figure out.

But "because it's not fixed, why should it fall upon the local police officers?"

____

Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be contacted at (956) 683-4434.