Arizona police officer sues over immigration law

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http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/29/arizona.immigration.lawsuit/index.html

(CNN) -- A police officer in Tucson, Arizona, asks that local law enforcement be exempt from enforcing the state's new immigration law in a lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday.

Officer Martin H. Escobar claims in the suit that the law will "seriously impede law enforcement investigations and facilitate the successful commission of crimes."

He also says there are no "race-neutral criteria or basis to suspect or identify who is lawfully in the United States," including a person's proximity to the Mexican border, linguistic characteristics and capabilities, skin color, clothing worn or the type of vehicle driven.

The law, signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on April 23, allows police to ask anyone for proof of legal U.S. residency. Brewer and others who support the law have said it does not involve racial profiling or any other illegal acts.

"Racial profiling is illegal," Brewer said after signing the bill. "It is illegal in America, and it's certainly illegal in Arizona."

Read the complaint (PDF)

But Escobar's suit says the law "is the product of racial bias aimed specifically at Hispanics" and places every Hispanic within the state at risk of losing his or her constitutional rights.

Brewer, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, the city of Tucson and Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall are named in the suit.

Escobar asks that local law enforcement be exempt "from engaging any immigration stops, questioning, detention, citing or any law enforcement activity reserved to the federal government."

Escobar, 45, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Mexico and immigrated with his parents when he was 5 years old, attorney Richard M. Martinez said.

Tucson Police Department spokesman Sgt. Fabian Pacheco declined to comment on the case because city policies prevent employees from discussing pending litigation. But he said Escobar has worked for the department since 1995 and patrols Tucson's south side.

Martinez said his client has spent years working to break down barriers between the Police Department and the predominantly Hispanic community.

"All this law does is put the barrier back up. ... It takes away trust and the rapport and relationships," he said Thursday.

Spokespeople for Brewer and Goddard did not return requests for comment.
 
what i don't get is...in southern cali between san diego and orange county and inland, on I-5 and I-15 there are border patrol checkpoints, have been there for decades. used to stop everyone, and this is all inside the US. not a peep about that.

how did those guys do their job? you would stop, they would look at you and your passengers and either wave you on or ask you to pull over....all federal btw.
 
what i don't get is...in southern cali between san diego and orange county and inland, on I-5 and I-15 there are border patrol checkpoints, have been there for decades. used to stop everyone, and this is all inside the US. not a peep about that.

how did those guys do their job? you would stop, they would look at you and your passengers and either wave you on or ask you to pull over....all federal btw.
We have them all over NM too. I have cross examined numerous BP agents in drug cases. See they claim people are acting suspicious so they pull them into secondary. Here are some of the Suspicious things that BP agents have reported as the cause of their reasonable suspicion:

Looked at me too much
Didn't make eye contact enough
Talked too much
Didn't talk enough
held the steering wheel to tight
talking to the person next to them
stopped to quickly
didn't slow down fast enough
drove to slowly to the check point

This is the reason I don't like Arizona's law, because I KNOW for a fact that AZ Police are going to come up with the same bullshit reasons for probable cause and reasonable suspicion that the Border Patrol does and it will amount to profiling with a pretext to stop. The BP out in the desert on ATV's do good work, they catch people in the act of smuggling and coming across illegally. The ones at the check station profile and ask questions of hispanics that white people NEVER get asked, like whose car is this. I have driven through the check points here in las cruces for the last 29 years of my life and have never been asked whose car I was driving. My friend Horlando, got asked that question 2 times a month for over a year when he drove to albuquerque to see his wife and kids by BP agents who saw him regularly.
 
We have them all over NM too. I have cross examined numerous BP agents in drug cases. See they claim people are acting suspicious so they pull them into secondary. Here are some of the Suspicious things that BP agents have reported as the cause of their reasonable suspicion:

Looked at me too much
Didn't make eye contact enough
Talked too much
Didn't talk enough
held the steering wheel to tight
talking to the person next to them
stopped to quickly
didn't slow down fast enough
drove to slowly to the check point

This is the reason I don't like Arizona's law, because I KNOW for a fact that AZ Police are going to come up with the same bullshit reasons for probable cause and reasonable suspicion that the Border Patrol does and it will amount to profiling with a pretext to stop. The BP out in the desert on ATV's do good work, they catch people in the act of smuggling and coming across illegally. The ones at the check station profile and ask questions of hispanics that white people NEVER get asked, like whose car is this. I have driven through the check points here in las cruces for the last 29 years of my life and have never been asked whose car I was driving. My friend Horlando, got asked that question 2 times a month for over a year when he drove to albuquerque to see his wife and kids by BP agents who saw him regularly.
Hmm... When we drove across we were asked that consistently. We were always driving a rental (didn't want our own car stolen), but every time I crossed we were asked whose car it was. On the way back in, sometimes they would ask for Identification, other times they'd just wave us through. We watched cars in front of us with latinos and hispanics in them get waived through too. We consistently spoke wondering what criteria they used because it seemed so very random.
 
I've been through the checkpoints here many times. The border patrol are trained to spot them and they do one hellofa good job.

what i don't get is...in southern cali between san diego and orange county and inland, on I-5 and I-15 there are border patrol checkpoints, have been there for decades. used to stop everyone, and this is all inside the US. not a peep about that.

how did those guys do their job? you would stop, they would look at you and your passengers and either wave you on or ask you to pull over....all federal btw.
 
We have them all over NM too. I have cross examined numerous BP agents in drug cases. See they claim people are acting suspicious so they pull them into secondary. Here are some of the Suspicious things that BP agents have reported as the cause of their reasonable suspicion:

Looked at me too much
Didn't make eye contact enough
Talked too much
Didn't talk enough
held the steering wheel to tight
talking to the person next to them
stopped to quickly
didn't slow down fast enough
drove to slowly to the check point

This is the reason I don't like Arizona's law, because I KNOW for a fact that AZ Police are going to come up with the same bullshit reasons for probable cause and reasonable suspicion that the Border Patrol does and it will amount to profiling with a pretext to stop. The BP out in the desert on ATV's do good work, they catch people in the act of smuggling and coming across illegally. The ones at the check station profile and ask questions of hispanics that white people NEVER get asked, like whose car is this. I have driven through the check points here in las cruces for the last 29 years of my life and have never been asked whose car I was driving. My friend Horlando, got asked that question 2 times a month for over a year when he drove to albuquerque to see his wife and kids by BP agents who saw him regularly.

OH-MY-GAWD, it's rampant.
Lock your doors and bar your windows.
We're all doomed.

OH-WAIT, would you happend to have some percentages that show a possible comparison between the Officers you're complaining about and all the other Officers??
 
Hmm... When we drove across we were asked that consistently. We were always driving a rental (didn't want our own car stolen), but every time I crossed we were asked whose car it was. On the way back in, sometimes they would ask for Identification, other times they'd just wave us through. We watched cars in front of us with latinos and hispanics in them get waived through too. We consistently spoke wondering what criteria they used because it seemed so very random.

We have DUI check points, all the time, and I've also seen Hispanics stopped and then just waved on.

This is nothing more then fear mongering, in an effort to demonize a law that certain people don't like; because they just FEEL it's wrong.
 
I am sure the border patrol has their problems, but do their best. The border patrol are specially trained and have no other conflicting duties. They have one goal, protect the border. They are a razor blade against the problem and the best tool for the job.

It is absurd to assume the local/state police are as well trained on this specific issue. They have many other duties which this requirement interferes with. Their primary duty should be protection of their community, not enforcing immigration laws.

Whatever problems the border patrol have you can bet will multiplied by the local/state leo's. Just the thought of Arpaio with this law should be a major cause for concern.
 
border patrol checkpoints.....pfffft.

what i'd like to know is where in the constitution does it say that there is a no constitution zone within 25 miles of the border?
 
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