Sheriff Fears Texas Gov. Perry's Anti-Illegal Immigration Push - Fox News Latino: "Sheriff Richard Wiles (of El Paso County) says, “We’ve worked years and years to build up ... trust...If the people who live in our community are afraid to talk to us, they won’t report crimes when they’re victims or witnesses.”
Now, Wiles is concerned that his department will lose that trust. Wiles, one of many Texas sheriffs who have voiced opposition in recent weeks to the push in the their state to have local authorities enforce immigration laws, says it shouldn’t be the job of local police to do what he says is the job of federal agents.
Besides, he added, the beefed up number of Border Patrol agents in recent years had made a dramatic difference in rate of border crimes, and criminals crossing in from Mexico to wreak havoc in El Paso County.
Wiles says if his officers, and other local law enforcement authorities, are required to play a large role in cracking down on illegal immigrants, it would mean local and state officers possibly making judgment calls on complex immigration issues that they are ill-prepared to handle." Jan. 13, 2011
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
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