El Grupo issues travel advisory for Escondido
El Grupo, a coalition of community-based organizations in North County, has issued a travel advisory recommending that people who exhibit a “so-called ‘Latino appearance’ should educate themselves about their rights before venturing into the City of Escondido.”
The advisory noted that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are riding with Escondido police on patrol, which “runs counter to the widely accepted police practice of maintaining distinct separation between local law enforcement and immigration authorities.”
“Escondido city officials inexplicably continue to indulge their anti-immigrant obsession by giving the appearance of a campaign of fear aimed at ridding Escondido of its undocumented residents,” the advisory stated.
Read coverage in North County Times.
See coverage by NBC 7/39 and read the full text of the advisory after the jump.
Read a related story in North County Times about checkpoints being resumed.
View more news videos at: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/video.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2010
Contact Person: Victor Manuel Torres, spokesperson (760)480-2520
elgruposandiego@yahoo.com/ www.elgruposandiego.com
URGENT – TRAVEL ADVISORY ISSUED FOR ESCONDIDO
El Grupo issues the following advisory to those who may find it necessary to travel in or through the City of Escondido: The Escondido Police Department (EPD) has summarily instituted a practice whereby EPD officers may be accompanied in their cars by federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Citizens, residents and visitors should read and understand the information in the pamphlet from the ACLU titled “What to do if you’re questioned by the Police, FBI, Customs Agents or Immigration Officers” which is available at www.aclusandiego.org in English or in Spanish. Particularly those exhibiting so-called “Latino appearance”[1] who wish to avoid unreasonable detentions and interrogation by federal immigration agents should educate themselves about their rights before venturing into the City of Escondido.
Escondido city officials inexplicably continue to indulge their anti-immigrant obsession by giving the appearance of a campaign of fear aimed at ridding Escondido of its undocumented residents. Having federal ICE agents ride along with EPD patrol officers responding to calls for service runs counter to the widely accepted police practice of maintaining distinct separation between local law enforcement and immigration authorities. It also defies logic and common sense.
Local law enforcement agencies across the nation realize that trust and confidence from community residents, documented and undocumented alike, enhances their overall effectiveness in crime fighting and protection of the public. The Major Cities Chiefs Association, comprised of the 63 largest police agencies in the U.S. and Canada, recognizes the danger in undermining the public trust, by all residents and visitors, not just Latinos, by following practices that portray local officers as enforcing immigration laws.
Yet Escondido’s Police Department, with the approval of the city manager (and silence from most of the City Council), and despite years of public denials that the EPD does not work with ICE, has agreed to do just that. EPD is the only local law enforcement agency in San Diego County to engage in such a misguided and counter-productive practice. El Grupo is deeply concerned that this haphazard foray into enforcing immigration law will eventually lead to multi-jurisdictional patrol cars making traffic stops, issuing traffic citations, and subjecting the vehicle’s occupants to unreasonable immigration status checks.
But El Grupo’s concerns only start there. ICE agents reportedly accompany EPD officers while searching for alleged adult and juvenile probation violators, thereby gaining entry into private residences by misusing court-ordered Fourth Amendment waivers. While officers conduct searches of the residence, ICE agents check the immigration status of the occupants, most being U. S. citizens or legal residents. This has a profound chilling effect on the trust and confidence the Latino community has toward its police department. In the case of juvenile offenders, the mistrust engendered toward law enforcement by these abuses defeat the already-difficult goal of rehabilitating them.
It appears that the EPD continues its preoccupation with temporary impoundments of cars seized from unlicensed drivers (via checkpoints) and enriching the towing companies, rather than searching for missing children or appropriately monitoring registered sex offenders who prey on them. EPD continues to refuse to disclose the number of man-hours expended searching for Amber Dubois last year so the expenditure can be compared to the man-hours expended at checkpoints during that same time period. And all at a time when the rate of violent crime in Escondido continues to rise despite declining in most other cities.
The continual attempts by the Department to deflect the blame for its poor public support within the Latino community toward the community’s leadership, sadly, does nothing to build the community’s trust or confidence. Instead, the logic and effectiveness of practices known to be divisive to the entire Escondido community and toxic to the Latino community’s respect for its police department should be examined.
El Grupo is not privy to the inner workings of the EPD; it is unclear how the practice of the embracing of federal ICE agents as ride-alongs will be develop. El Grupo will continue to closely monitor situation and report changes should they occur.
El Grupo is a coalition of community-based organizations in North County whose mission is to promote and advocate for the political, economic, educational, and social equality of disenfranchised people in North San Diego County.
[1] “Latino appearance” is a complete fallacy, as it relies on racist stereotypes of what a person from Latin America looks like; witness the diversity of appearance of players and fans at the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament.