Immigration enforcement by police opposed

BEATTY CLARIFIES STANCE IN LETTER

By Steve Lannen

SLANNEN@HERALD-LEADER.COM

A letter by Lexington Police Chief Anthany Beatty to members of a mayoral immigration commission forcefully reiterates his department's policy regarding undocumented immigrants.

In a two-page letter sent last Friday to commission members, Beatty lays out the department's longstanding policy of not arresting undocumented immigrants unless they are suspected of breaking a law other than being in the United States without authorization. He also denied recent reports that his department is interested in seeking training to enforce immigration law.

Last night, however, Fayette Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson raised the possibility Fayette sheriff's deputies could receive federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement training. A group of trained deputies could research the immigration status of people already in jail, he said.

"That's a perfect place" for it, Larson said, reasoning that inmates would already be under arrest for suspicion of other crimes. There would be less chance for confusion or racial profiling than if police on the streets enforced the immigration laws, he said. Sheriff's departments in Charlotte, N.C., Los Angeles and suburban Atlanta are among those participating in the program, known as 287(g) for the section where the provision is found in the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act.

Fayette Sheriff Kathy Witt could not be reached to comment on Larson's proposal last night.

Larson made the comments as he left an immigration commission meeting last night at City Hall. He is a member of the commission, which has spent the summer researching the immigration issue in Lexington. A report for Mayor Jim Newberry, originally due this Saturday, is now expected at the end of September.

Briefly discussed at the meeting was Beatty's letter, which was born out of some of the fervent discussion and lobbying that has surrounded the committee's work. The mayor and Urban County Council members have also heard plenty on the subject on talk radio and through e-mail.

A small group of people, including a commission member and some founding members of Kentuckians for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, or KFIRE, met last month with some high-ranking police officials to discuss the possibility of federal immigration law training.

They came away from the meeting saying the police were very receptive to the idea of 287(g) training and said as much in e-mails and at a public forum on immigration. The chief did not attend the meeting.

That prompted representatives of the Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Lexington Hispanic Association to question the characterization of that meeting and police policy. Lexington police in the past have taken the approach that immigration policy is a federal issue, and they enforce local or state laws.

In his letter, Beatty calls that description of the meeting involving his police commanders "erroneous." He adds that police have worked to create trust with the immigrant community.

Beatty writes, "We will not check the citizenship status of individuals unless it is a part of a criminal investigation. No one besides me has the authority to speak on behalf of or set the policy for the Division of Police, and certainly no person outside of our agency can pretend to speak for our intentions."

One of the people at last month's meeting, David Duncan, said last night he recalled police officials saying, "If you guys can get that from the council, we can use it."

But Maj. Mike Bosse remembered the 40-minute meeting differently. He said he told the visitors if they could go through the proper channels to get a law or policy changed, then police would enforce the law.

"We did not take a position, and we explained to them that the chief would decide our position as a police department," he said.