What Is You Think Of This Hispanic Residents Complain Of Police Harassment?
February 6, 2010 | Posted by vvt9 
ASHTABULA, Ohio — Dozens of Hispanic residents complained Wednesday that they are harassed by local police acting on behalf of federal immigration authorities.
Law enforcement agencies in Lake and Ashtabula counties deny singling out Hispanics, and say they are treating Latinos like everyone else.
Veronica Dahlberg, executive director of the Organization of Hispanic Women in Lake and Ashtabula, or HOLA, said the increased roundups have created such fear in the Latino community that people will not call police even when they are crime victims.
About 50 Hispanic residents from Lake, Ashtabula and Geauga counties appeared at a HOLA news conference to complain about unwarranted traffic stops, houses raided in the middle of the night, and about families being split up by deportations.
Roberto Arrieta, 18, of Ashtabula, said he was stopped last Saturday by Ashtabula police, and complained that they checked the identification only of the three Latinos in the car, not that of his non-Hispanic girlfriend.
Arrieta said he was told that he was stopped because his high-beam headlights were on, but he denied that.
Ashtabula police did not respond to inquires for this story, but Ashtabula County Sheriff Billy Johnson said his deputies stop people only if they believe a law has been broken.
Johnson said his department gets state funds for special programs, including running drunken-driving checkpoints. He said even if they pull over a bus with 100 people on it, they check the IDs of everyone aboard.
David Leopold, a Cleveland lawyer specializing in immigration issues, said the Ohio attorney general’s office issued an opinion in 2007 that he thinks applies to all local law enforcement, stating that undocumented immigrants could be held, arrested or detained only if they were suspected of having committed a crime.
The opinion was directed at county sheriffs. It said they could enforce federal immigration laws only through an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security extending some federal authority to them.
Khaalid Walls, a Homeland Security spokesman in Detroit, said the department has such an agreement with the Butler County sheriff, but not with any other Ohio agency.
The Ohio attorney general’s opinion said local authorities can hold illegal immigrants — if federal authorities issue a detainer — or if the immigrants have committed a crime.
Lake County Sheriff Dan Dunlap said his deputies do not make so-called pretextual traffic stops, in which they have no real reason to pull someone over.
Dunlap said targeting immigrants would be futile “because if they do get deported, they’re back here in six weeks.”
Dahlberg said that the Latinos, undocumented or not, are wage earners whose taxes help subsidize the police who are not protecting them.
Terry Gilbert, a Cleveland lawyer with an extensive background in civil rights issues and criminal law, said, “These people are powerless. They get ensnared in the legal system and deported, even if there’s a legal basis to challenge the deportation because they don’t have the knowledge or resources.”
Leopold complained that while the number of Homeland Security personnel dealing with immigration issues has increased markedly since the terrorist attacks of 2001, they nab few terrorists.
Andrew Scharnweber, patrol agent in charge of the Customs and Border Patrol office in Erie, Pa., said that since 2001, his station has grown from six agents to 50.
Scharnweber said they apprehended about 500 undocumented immigrants last year, and another 500 this year. But he said he didn’t know how many Ohio residents were among those. About 40 percent of those apprehended are Mexican, while 5 percent are from countries with ties to terrorism, he said. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/10/…
Categories: Questions | 
Tags: Complain, Harassment, Hispanic, Police, Residents, Think, This, What | 
9 Comments »
why is it that wherever latinos set foot, they believe they are entitled to some type of special treatment while everyone else gets stepped on? we might as well cease to continue applying our laws to them exclusively
anyhow i wouldnt blame the county for singling many of them out, enough of these criminal illegals infesting our country
I have seen the police mistreating Hispanic people too many times before. I think their complaints are very valid. Hispanic people are human beings too. They deserve to be respected like human beings with dignity.
BTW I’m not Hispanic. I’m SE Asian.
I would dismiss the whole thing until the Hispanic Organization took a polygraph.
I would like to point out that the Immigration Program on CNN was filled with a great deal of fabrication. There is a stillness on the nation while that is being digested, but moving away from the truth, and presenting fabricated here-say, was a really bad mistake. These folks are trying to do the same thing to avoid deportation and they just don’t care what they do, while they are doing it.
Keep this in mind too: the International Community, the United Nations, and the United States, clearly tell us Mexico is one very nice place to live. And it is if you get out of the crime business.. the narcotics distribution. Why in the world do we want those folks up here? So when they complain and tell us it is terrible down in Mexico, do a search engine on it. The are the 13th largest economy in the world, and the Standard of Living is higher than ours in some cases. So put Terry Gilbert on a polygraph and get those people deported.
This is what happens when they are not required to learn English! They think that Hispanic means diplomatic immunity! And the lawyers are only in it for the money! The illegal, immoral, criminal invaders get sent back to their country and some idiot lawyer says “These people are powerless. They get ensnared in the legal system and deported, even if there’s a legal basis to challenge the deportation because they don’t have the knowledge or resources”! They are back where they belong! Einstein!
Leopold complained that while the number of Homeland Security personnel dealing with immigration issues has increased markedly since the terrorist attacks of 2001, they nab few terrorists.
Illegal aliens kill 10,000+ people EVERY YEAR in the US. The world trade center attack killed 2,750. Who are the real terrorists?
i just would like to know what the hispanics expect the authorities to do , my opinion is most ,if not all Hispanics, have a ulterior motive for complaining. they have reasons to feel this way because a whole butt load of them are doing something underhanded, like driving without insurance, hiding illegal family members,or maybe dealing in drug trafficking.
Well, since according to that “specialist” immigration lawyer-David Poldi, “Police are entitled to stop & detain illegals only on suspicion of them committing a crime”, Police are doing NOTHING wrong, since all illegals have commited crime-entering U.S. illegally, and cops have right to protect American citizens by stopping and questioning all those who look suspicious/illegal….Their complaints are without merit and for toilet paper usage….More power to police who fight this horrible invasion of illegal criminals.
I think that police should be able to do their jobs, which is to uphold the law and to protect and serve its citizens.
Back when my husband was driving his new car, he was pulled over. He had done nothing to get pulled over other than be a chicano driving a bmw. The cop didn’t ask for his license, insurance or registration. All he wanted to see was the bill of sale. My husband showed it to him and was on his way. Was that a form of discrimination? Sure it was. Can I blame the officer for discriminating? Not really, considering that our city is plagued with “Mexican” gang members who like to steal cars among many other things.
Being female, I don’t worry about being pulled over when driving alone or with my husband and kids. When I’m giving a ride to 2 or more of my male cousins, I worry. Do I blame cops? No. I blame all the thugs in my town that are involved in gangs and other illegal activities. Most of them are Mexican. They give the rest of us a bad rap. The cops are just attempting to keep our city streets safe. If you are not doing anything wrong, you’re fine. It’s an inconvenience but that’s about it.
good! I hope more people follow suit. This is happening way too often now. One of my friends was beaten by a cop, just because he reached for his wallet to quickly, as he accused him of being a gang member to. My friend is a college graduate!
I agree with Monica. It is happening way too often.
Hispanics allege racial profiling in La.http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articl…
Racial profiling, Hispanics, found in LA Police http://thelatinojournal.blogspot.com/200…
Racial Profiling in Houston Hasn’t Declinedhttp://soc.hfac.uh.edu/artman/publish/ar…
Roswell Hispanics claim police racial profilinghttp://www.artesianews.com/roswell-hispa…
Feds Allegedly Profiled Hispanic Day Laborershttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story…