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Town Rejects Immigration Role: Carrboro Police Won't Enforce Law

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 06:07 CDT

By Meiling Arounnarath, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

May 17--CARRBORO -- It's not a local police officer's job to enforce federal immigration laws, town officials said Tuesday night.

The Board of Aldermen unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday that instructs local police officers not to arrest immigrants on the sole basis of civil immigration violations.

This comes a day after President Bush gave a TV address, calling for as many as 6,000 National Guard troops to be sent to protect the U.S.-Mexican border from those immigrating illegally into this country.

The resolution comes from the same town board that, two months ago, called for the president to be impeached.

Mayor Mark Chilton said he hopes that the federal law will someday be just, but for now, he and the rest of the board can "feel we had a hand in the scope of this."

The decision Tuesday was triggered by an incident in April when a Carrboro police officer stopped an immigrant for committing a traffic violation. The officer ran a routine background check on him and found he was on the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency's "immigration detainer" list.

While Town Attorney Mike Brough wrote in a memo to the Board of Aldermen that the officer did everything he should have done in the situation, the local police department does not have the authority to take into custody a person who has not committed a crime.

"My understanding is, the sticking point is if the officer has not arrested the person -- the person is not in custody -- then the board may direct us to not detain the person based on the ICE detainer," Carrboro Police Chief Carolyn Hutchison said in an interview. "It's a legal issue, an interpretation of the law."

Brough said ICE's call to detain an immigrant is not an outstanding federal warrant. So, even if a person stopped for a traffic violation is on that list, Carrboro police do not have the authority to take the person into custody "because the state does not give us this authority," he said.

Tom O'Connell, resident-agent-in-charge in ICE's Raleigh office, disagrees with Brough.

"When Immigration and Customs Enforcement enters someone under [the National Crime Information Center] as being wanted, then [local police officers] have the authority to detain that person to confirm the identity of that person and incarcerate that person," O'Connell said.

The Durham City Council passed a resolution in 2003 that instructs police officers and other city workers not to inquire about immigration status unless necessary.

Chapel Hill Police Chief Gregg Jarvies said, for his police officers, it is a departmentwide policy as well.

"We're trying to establish a policy of relationships with Latino residents who are often victims of crime," he said in an interview Tuesday. "I believe that any attempt to enforce federal immigration laws would hamper that relationship, and it would negate any trust building we've had over the years.

"If there have been any serious criminal offenses -- crimes against persons -- we will take the steps necessary to notify federal immigration," he continued. "... But with minor offenses, like traffic violations, I don't believe it's the right thing to do. That's why our policy is the way it is."

Jim Sughrue, spokesman for the Raleigh police department, said he doesn't think the Raleigh City Council adopted this type of resolution, but "generally speaking, our officers are not to get involved [with immigration enforcement]."

"That's really a responsibility of the federal agencies," Sughrue said. "We certainly want people to know they can call us or report a crime, regardless of their status," he added.

Hutchison said she will send a memo to her police officers along with the aldermen's resolution to help clarify the department's role.

"In many ways, our community directs the way we police," she said. "We're compelled to follow that direction as long as it's within the bounds of the law, and I believe it is."

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Source: The News & Observer

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