Undocumented Immigrants With Outstanding ICE Warrants May Be Deported Via Routine Police Stops

Danbury, Conn., police chief Alan Baker explains to community leaders the details of a new partnership, known as ICE ACESS, between Danbury Police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). (Photo: TribunaCT.com)

The Tribuna newspaper - based in Danbury, Conn. - has published a brochure that answers questions about the Danbury Police Department's new partnership, known as ICE ACCESS, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The brochure explains what Danbury drivers and their passengers can expect when stopped by the police, and how they can file formal complaints against police officers.

The brochure is available online in:

English, at tribunact.com/images/English.pdf
Portuguese, at tribunact.com/images/Portugues.pdf
Spanish, at tribunact.com/images/Espanhol.pdf.

Story Location

Danbury, CT

United States

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After entering the United States illegally, Robson Nunes Da Cruz received a deportation order. He disregarded it and moved north, to Danbury, Conn.

But his new American life came to a halt when he wound up in the custody of immigration agents as a result of a routine traffic stop.

Da Cruz was pulled over last December [2007] for having too much snow on his car, covering its rear lights. He did not have a license.

But the reason for his arrest was the outstanding deportation order that popped up on the laptop screen when the officer entered his name. Da Cruz was held at the Danbury Police Department until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents picked him up.

A large number of undocumented immigrants faces this fate daily. Since 2002, hundreds of thousands of names of people with outstanding deportation orders, or who have failed to appear in Immigration court, have been added into an FBI database, which police officers across the country use to search for warrants.

This alone has transformed police departments across the country into extensions of the immigration bureaucracy, even if the department has no formal partnership with the federal agency, like the recently-approved ICE ACCESS program in Danbury.

"This is a much bigger danger to illegal immigrants then our partnership with ICE," said Danbury Police Chief Alan Baker, referring to the recently-approved program to train two [Danbury Police Dept.] detectives to act as immigration officers.

Baker says that the immigration partnership looks for undocumented immigrants linked to specific crimes, which the detectives will investigate and eventually make arrests.

But this FBI database of warrants is visible to all police officers in spite of (not) having received any ICE training.

The swift approach by the Immigration Department has been the number-one reason for random deportations in the area, since police officers are forced to arrest those with outstanding warrants.

"Folks have to understand that if they have outstanding warrants, and come to the attention of the police, it's inevitable that they will end up in the hands of immigration authorities," said the police chief.

On average, ICE comes into Danbury two to three times a week to pick up individuals who have outstanding warrants, Baker says. Those stopped for a traffic violation, regardless of nationality have their name checked in the database.

"If there is a warrant, the officer arrests the individual, and he is held until the agency that issued the warrant comes to pick [him or her] up," he said.

The database is a depository of all sorts of criminal records. A few non-criminal records have been introduced, including missing-persons files and protective orders for victims of domestic violence. Congress authorized the inclusion of deported felons' records in 1996 to help authorities identify those who reenter the country illegally.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Department of Justice issued an opinion concluding that local law enforcement agencies have broad authority to enforce immigration laws. And this coincided with the inclusion of immigration fugitive files in the database.

But the database does not include immigrants who have overstayed their visas or those who have entered the United States without being detained.

Today, thousands of local, state, federal law enforcement agencies continue to consult the powerful database, at a rate of 3.7 million times a day, with an average response time of 0.12 seconds. Especially during routine traffic stops or patrols.

Consequently undocumented immigrants who failed to appear in court and or have deportation orders face a constant Russian roulette. While the great majority of the population would not lose sleep over a traffic stop for a broken taillight, for people like Da Cruz, snow covering their rear lights can result in grave consequences.

According to the Danbury Police Chief, the only way that an undocumented can dodge the bullet is to stay out of trouble.

"Do no come to the attention of the police. No matter how insignificant the violation is, you never know if your name is in that database," he said, adding that the database is resulting in deportation in many other cities, including Bridgeport and Waterbury [in Conn.].

"Just try to follow the laws, do not take unnecessary risks, like drive downtown without a license. Police officers are very understanding in emergencies, but if you get stopped, your name will be run through the database," said Baker.

Source: TribunaCT.com

Copyright 2008 New England Ethnic News, EthnicNewz.org. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten oR redistributed without the express permission of the source. Contact Newz for more information.

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