- Originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock) March 4, 2005
Copyright 2005 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
BY MICHAEL R. WICKLINE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
A
bill that would allow the state police and the highway police to be
trained as immigration officers cleared an Arkansas Senate committee
Thursday over the objections of opponents who warned that it would
worsen Hispanic immigrants' relations with law enforcement in the state.
The
seven-member State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee voted
4-1 to send House Bill 1012 by Rep. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock,
to the Senate.
The bill would allow the
colonel of the Arkansas State Police to reach "a memorandum of
understanding" with the federal Department of Homeland Security under
which troopers could be trained to enforce immigration laws.
The
committee added an amendment to specify that any such agreement would
be subject to review by the Legislative Council's Rules and Regulations
Review Subcommittee.
The highway police,
which is the law enforcement arm of the state Highway and
Transportation Department, and the state police could receive training
paid for and provided by the federal department. Then those officers
could handle cases of people found to be in Arkansas illegally. Such
jurisdiction would be limited to federal highways and interstates.
"This
bill would have stopped Sept. 11 th or at least would have stopped
another Sept. 11 th," Hutchinson told the committee, referring to the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon.
Federal officials can't
adequately enforce immigration laws, leaving "a gaping hole" for
terrorists, snipers and drug traffickers to exploit, Hutchinson said.
He said Homeland Security officials "realized that they need help on the streets" and "have begged states to help them."
Hutchinson
said his bill would allow state police Director Steve Dozier to start
negotiating with the federal department for federal money to train
officers, educate others and to do other things.
"How can that lead to charges of racial profiling?" he asked the committee.
In response to a question from Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, who
opposed the bill, Hutchinson said four claims of racial profiling have
been filed against the state police. All were dropped, he said.
Gov.
Mike Huckabee would have to approve any such agreement between the
state police and the federal department, Hutchinson said.
Alabama and Florida have negotiated agreements with the federal department and California is negotiating one, Hutchinson said.
Dozier
said he would obtain training for several of his officers and the
program wouldn't expand beyond the agency's current interstate
interdiction program. The training would last five weeks and would deal
with immigration laws, preventing racial profiling and
determining whether documents provided by immigrants are fraudulent, he
said. "I don't want to do anything to cause fear of troopers," he said.
Alabama's
troopers in this program arrest most people on state crimes and have
found people on terrorist watch lists and chronic immigration violator
lists, Dozier said.
But officials of the
League of United Latin American Citizens, Community Leaders for Fair
Policy, the Hispanic Women's Organization of Arkansas, Catholic
Charities of Arkansas, the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers and the Arkansas Citizens First Congress urged the committee to
reject the bill.
Ana Hart of Cave Springs,
representing Community Leaders for Fair Policy, a coalition that
describes itself as valuing the fair treatment of all Arkansans, said
the bill would create a financial burden for the state to enforce
federal immigration laws and encourage ethnic and racial profiling and wouldn't help fight crime.
The bill "is bad immigration policy and does more harm than good," Hart said.
Margarita
Solorzano of Springdale, program coordinator for the Hispanic Women's
Organization of Arkansas, said some people see the bill as "targeting
the Latino community."
"We have been
working in the community to soothe those fears [of law enforcement] and
make better connections with law enforcement," she said.
The bill has revived fears about racial profiling by law enforcement, Solorzano said.
"It is going to make more crime go unreported," she said.
The bill "isn't against terrorism. It's against immigration," Solorzano said.
Hutchinson said he understands such fears.
Dozier
could ask the federal department for funds to educate Hispanics not to
fear local and state law enforcement and for the state police to train
local law enforcement, the lawmaker said.