Enjoy a few paragraphs from Ruben Navarrette’s San Diego Union column and after reading it, check out a recent FOX News interview with Ann Coulter. After you’ve got both sides, please let us know your side of the debate.
If you think it’s embarrassing for an African-American to have to identify himself to the police while in his own house, imagine how humiliating it is for U.S.-born Hispanics to have to prove their citizenship in their own country.
With racial profiling in the news lately, it’s worth noting that America’s largest minority has to endure the practice, too — with a twist. According to several studies, not only do Hispanics get pulled over by police and have their cars searched at a higher rate than whites, but they also sometimes suffer the indignity of having to prove that they have the legal right to even be in the United States.
Things get really insulting when the question is asked in the Southwest. In Arizona, some Hispanic families have lived there for eight generations; in New Mexico, some Hispanics trace their roots back 500 years.
A recent report from the Police Foundation, a nonprofit organization that spent a year meeting with police officials and community representatives from around the country, concluded that law enforcement works best when everyone stays within their jurisdiction. According to the report, when local police carry out immigration enforcement, it often undermines — rather than preserves — public safety.
Once trust is eroded and word gets out that a community of immigrants won’t talk to police — not even when they’ve been victimized — all manner of predators will seek them out. Crime will go up, as will the number of victims.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, said recently that her department would revamp the controversial 287(g) program, which allows state and local police agencies to make immigration arrests. Napolitano wants to require the agencies to clear plans for immigration sweeps with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and coordinate with ICE agents before releasing information about such sweeps to the news media. She also wants to prevent agencies from arresting people whose only infraction is being in the country illegally.
Check our Ruben’s complete article.
Of course, a post about racial profiling wouldn’t be complete without Ann Coutler’s opinion. Below is a recent interview on the Bill O’Reily show where she discusses racial profiling.
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