Additional News Stories Of Immigrants Afraid Of Police

Additional stories about immigrants afraid to report crimes to the police, which is of course not good for public safety.

• Maria Sacchetti, Troubling Link In Domestic Violence Cases, Boston Globe, Sept. 12, 2008. One domestic violence victim suffered abuse for two years and was too afraid to call police. In Massachusetts, immigrants are around 14% of the population, but 26% of the domestic violence deaths from 1997 to 2006. Immigration authorities encourage reporting crimes, but immigrants are afraid.
• Emerson Clarridge, Man Pleads For Help In Finding Son's Attackers, Newsday, April 27, 2008: a detective believes that the investigation is hampered by fear among immigrants that police will turn witnesses over for deportation.
• Dan Morse, Police Worry Immigrants' Help In Cases Will Dry Up, Washington Post, April 15, 2008: although police cracked one murder case with the help of an undocumented immigrant witness, police worry that immigrants might not help solve crimes if they fear police will turn them over for deportation.
  

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As previously reported on this blog, in New Jersey, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Justice seek to deport a New Jersey immigrant who called 911 to report a crime to the local police, who then turned the informant over to be deported. Immigrants' fear that reporting crimes could lead to deportation should be addressed -- at the very least, by ensuring that people who call the police to report crimes are not turned over for deportation and that if they are, department heads will agree to drop those deportation cases (unlike what ICE in New Jersey and the Justice Department is doing in one New Jersey immigrant's case).