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Attorney Ricardo Skerrett

has been an immigration practitioner in the Southwest Florida

area since 2001. He is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association Read more...

ATTORNEY-AT-LAW

IMMIGRATION PRACTITIONER

Text Box: Stop abuses against immigrants
A call to public officials, news media, police and other leaders to start talking http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006610070449
Originally posted on October 07, 2006 The community of undocumented immigrants is composed in its majority of people that abandoned their countries due to economic reasons, yearning to earn a livelihood for their families. The majorities are not criminals, they are mostly people that labor under harsh conditions and contribute to the economy of this country by filling labor market demands and by becoming consumers. Most of them have very little or no education, and come from low socio-economic and cultural levels.

They have a lot in common with other immigrants from previous generations, and, given the opportunity and the social mobility that only this country offers them and their offspring, will prosper and contribute to our country's general well being. However, this community is currently under attack, being misled and abused by different sectors of our society.

First, the government has increased raids and deportations in this area. Second, the media, most notably the national Hispanic media, is spreading misleading information, distorting the truth and creating false hopes and expectations in an already desperate community. Finally, there are vultures that feed from this human misfortune and make false promises deceiving these undocumented immigrants with offers to obtain legal documentation. The cases of immigration fraud are increasing at an alarming rate. Law enforcement authorities should be using their resources to curb the rate of immigration fraud and processing the criminals who commit various types of fraud against undocumented immigrants instead of spending resources to make raids and deport people who are not criminals. COLLIER MISGUIDED The Bush administration wants to have it both ways in the immigration debacle, with the result that the issue has become a political football. The Bush support for a guest-worker program that was included as part of the immigration reform package approved by the Senate was meant to lure Hispanics to vote Republican, a very effective tactic in the last presidential election. The increase in immigration raids and deportations and the stern immigration measures approved by the House are designed to make immigration a national security issue before the November congressional elections because of the imminent danger that Republicans will loose control of the House. Unfortunately, some local law enforcement authorities, most notably Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter, have become willing participants in this political game that only breeds fear and hysteria among a politically destitute community: the undocumented immigrants.

Whereas the Lee County Sheriff's office has elected not to execute with the federal government a Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, authorized under a federal immigration statute to utilize local law enforcement officers to assist in the implementation of immigration laws, the Collier County Sheriff's office has executed such MOU with the federal authorities. This understanding between the Collier County Sheriff's Office and the federal government goes against the community policing model used by the majority of local law enforcement agencies across the country, which emphasizes the use of local law enforcement resources to serve the needs of local communities. The International Association of Chiefs of Police ("IACP") has stated its opposition to any plan to facilitate local or state law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws. The president of the Association, Joseph Estey, chief of police department in Hartford, Vt., has stated: "Many leaders in the law enforcement community have serious concerns about the chilling effect any measure of this nature would have on legal and illegal aliens reporting criminal activity or assisting police in criminal investigations." POLICE NEED TRUST Local police need the cooperation of the community to fight crime. The recent actions by the Collier County Sheriff's office will only dissuade immigrants from reporting criminal activity or testifying as witnesses against criminals out of fear of being detained and deported. Sheriff Hunter has made the primary job of his department a lot more difficult to accomplish. His actions will probably spill over to Lee County, where the Sheriff's Office has tried to bridge gaps between the police and the immigrant community by combating thefts and other crimes of violence against poor Hispanics who carry cash when they get paid because they can't (due to lack of documentation) or won't (out of fear or ignorance) open bank accounts.

The national Hispanic media is not contributing to diminishing the hysteria prevalent among the immigrant community. Univision, Telemundo and The Miami Herald have disseminated reports over the past few weeks that thousands of immigrants that have removal orders entered against them will be able to reopen their cases. This is simply not true. A recent operational change will enable Cuban nationals to adjust status directly with the immigration service (CIS) rather than through the immigration court and this will benefit Cubans and immediate relatives even if they had removal orders entered against them, but that is as far as the operational change will go. The assertion by Univision's immigration consultant that this would benefit thousands of immigrants (quoted in news report by the national Hispanic media) only served to create false hopes. PRODUCTIVE DIALOGUE The government actions and the misleading information spread by the media feeds the mass hysteria and the desperation of undocumented immigrants, dramatically increasing the number of immigration fraud cases. Through the pro bono work I do at the Nations Association Immigration Law Clinic, I have come across countless of cases where undocumented immigrants pay money to unscrupulous persons in exchange for "their papers," which they never get. Many are put in removal proceedings because fraudulent or frivolous immigration applications are filed on their behalf by these vultures.

The immigration issue is multilayered. The immigration code ranks second only to the internal revenue code in terms of complexity. I hereby call on public elected officials, law enforcement authorities, members of the media, civic and religious leaders, and the community in general to begin a productive dialogue that will bring real solutions to the table and will stop the abuses and attacks against the community of undocumented immigrants. — Ricardo Skerrett is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. E-mail him at www.ricardoskerretimmigration.com. The cases of immigration fraud are increasing at an alarming rate.

Ricardo Skerrett

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