Police Voice Concerns Over a Directive
On Immigrants

August 24, 2007

By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID W. CHEN

NEWARK, Aug. 23 — One local police chief called it a publicity stunt. In a sheriff’s office, the directive was passed out at roll call, by officials anxious to quickly comply. And another chief — one of many who spoke on the condition he not be named for fear of ruffling the feathers of the state’s top law enforcement officer — said it seemed like a recipe for racial profiling.

A day after New Jersey’s attorney general, Anne Milgram, ordered local law enforcement agencies to start inquiring about the immigration status of the people they arrest, local officials and advocates for immigrants across the state began grappling with how the edict would change the already complicated relationship between the authorities and immigrants on the streets they patrol. In Englewood, where the police estimate that up to a fifth of the population of 26,000 are illegal immigrants, the authorities have long asked about immigration status, so “this doesn’t change things at all,” according to Arthur O’Keefe, the deputy police chief. But in Freehold, where a lawsuit recently ended attempts by borough officials to fine day laborers, a new police chief, on the job for only seven weeks, said he was still trying to divine what Ms. Milgram’s instructions actually meant. “I’m not sure how we’re going to go about enacting it on the local level,” said the chief, Mitchell E. Roth, adding that his 34 full-time officers do not routinely ask about immigration status. “We have special-interest groups. We have to be very diplomatic.” Ms. Milgram’s order was motivated by the arrest of an illegal immigrant who was out on bail, his status unknown to the authorities, in a brutal triple homicide here this month. It brings immigration authorities more forcefully into local law enforcement matters.

Durham Woods assault suspects arrested

BY CHRIS GAETANO

Staff Writer

EDISON - Investigations into a series of assaults in the Durham Woods apartment complex, on Reading Road, have yielded two arrests in connection with the incidents.

The attacks, which reportedly started in June, involved residents of Asian Indian heritage and had sparked concerns that the community was being singled out. During the Oct. 17 press conference announcing the arrests, Edison Mayor Jun Choi said that no evidence was found to support this idea. He also said that there has been no evidence that the attacks were gang-related.

Cops will ask: Are you legal?
On Immigrants

After Newark killings, AG orders police to check suspects' immigration status

August 23, 2007

By RICK HEPP and BRIAN DONOHUE


Star-Ledger Staff

Police in New Jersey are now under orders to ask suspects they arrest for serious crimes or drunken driving this question: Are you here legally?

Setting a statewide policy where none existed, Attorney General Anne Milgram yesterday made immigration checks a routine part of police procedure, requiring state and local officers to notify federal authorities when they have reason to believe a suspect is in the country illegally.

At the same time, the attorney general prohibited officers from inquiring about the immigration status of crime victims, witnesses or persons reporting a crime, so that unauthorized immigrants can come forward without fear of deportation.