Immigration law rules by fear

by KIM SALINAS

Coloradoan.com

I received an urgent message recently from my clients. Her ex-husband had beaten her up again and she was traumatized.

Sandra is an immigrant survivor of domestic violence. I have been working with her for several months to help her and her children escape her abuser and obtain legal immigration status. When I retuned her call, she was nearly hysterical. The source of her trauma was not her ex-husband, however, but the law enforcement agency that is supposed to protect her. The sheriff's deputy responding to Sandra's call for help had threatened her with arrest for being in the country without immigration papers.

Sandra's ex-husband, who is legally in this country, apparently was not arrested. Sandra, however, was asked for identification as photos were being taken of her bruises. When she showed her Mexican driver's license, she was told that she could be arrested, taken to jail and deported. The deputy first threatened to arrest her on the spot. Then the deputy told Sandra to "find a safe place to keep your children" because "if I ever see you driving, I will arrest you".

Had this been an isolated incident, I could perhaps attribute it to the egregious actions of one renegade officer. Unfortunately, it is not. Sandra is not the first victim of a crime to experience harassment about immigration status when reporting a crime. She is not the first person to be threatened with arrest for carrying a Mexican driver's license. And if she were to be arrested for driving with a Mexican driver's license, she would not be alone in the Larimer County Detention Center.

Currently, our jail is full of people who were stopped and arrested for minor traffic violations or for lack of a Colorado driver's license, and are being held due to their immigration status. They include people who were not even driving at the time, like Javier, whose parked car was hit by another driver and who is now being held in Larimer County awaiting deportation.

The same day that Sandra was threatened with arrest, the Coloradoan reported that the jail is overcrowded, the district attorney is overloaded and the courts are backed up. The District Attorney's Office states a need for additional funding and is facing cutbacks. The sheriff is requesting that Larimer County voters increase our taxes to build a bigger and better jail. One has to wonder why we are locking women such as Sandra up and then placing her children with Social Services. Perhaps we would have more jail space if we saved it for real criminals. Surely, we would have a healthier community if we did not take children from their mothers.

Current immigration laws do not allow people to come legally into the country to work or to be with family members. Current laws do not allow people who are here without immigration documentation to legalize their status, no matter how long they have lived here and even if their U.S. citizen spouse, child or employer wants to help them do it. Until we fix our broken immigration laws, we will have people in our community who are undocumented.

If those people are afraid to report crimes, seek medical attention or access services the health and safety of the entire community is jeopardized.

One thing is certain. Sandra will not contact law enforcement the next time she is the victim of a crime or a witness to a crime. The deputy's actions undermined our criminal justice system. Victims and witnesses at liberty to report crimes will make us far safer than bigger jails to lock up victims.

Kim Salinas, of Fort Collins, is an immigration attorney. She is a Community member of the Coloradoan editorial board.