Injustice Against Hispanics — Hispanic News Calls for Gordon to Resign — Update

PHOENIX (By Jon Garrido, Hispanic News) December 17, 2007 — I live in a Phoenix neighborhood of migrants. My neighbors are undocumented. I provide free English lessons. To some, I have introduced surfing on the Internet. To some, I provide help with immigration. With countless conversations with my neighbors, I have not found one person who supports entering the United States without required documents. Everyone is opposed to unauthorized immigration.

Mexicans want to enter with documentation; unfortunately, documentation is out of reach for all.

The question why documentation is out of reach or rather the better question — is the immigration line drawn in the right place? This is the similar to the question — should the speed limit be raised or lowered? The fact you believe in obeying the speed law reveals nothing about what you think the law ought to be, or why.

What really bothers Americans is immigration. There is an easy way to test this. Reducing undocumented immigration is hard, but increasing legal immigration would be easy. If your view is legal immigration is good and undocumented immigration is bad, how about increasing legal immigration? How about doubling it? So in the end, this is not really a debate about unauthorized immigration. This is a debate about immigration.

But let's not kid ourselves. Many say obeying the law is all we require and all we ask the undocumented to do is go back home and get in line like everybody else.

Well, we all know the line is too long and we are essentially telling migrants to go back home and not come back.

A recent editorial in Time magazine said it best, "Let's not kid ourselves, either, about who we are telling this to. To characterize undocumented immigrants as queue-jumping, lawbreaking scum is seriously unjust. The motives of undocumented immigrants — which can be summarized as "a better life" — are identical to those of legal immigrants. In fact, they are largely identical to the motives of our own parents, grandparents and great-grandparents when they immigrated. And not just that. Ask yourself, of these three groups — today's legal and undocumented immigrants and the immigrants of generations ago — which one has proven most dramatically its appreciation of our country? Which one has shown the most gumption, the most willingness to risk all to get to the U.S. and the most willingness to work hard once here? Well, everyone's story is unique. But who loves the U.S. most? The obvious answer — the winners of this American-values contest would be the undocumented, doing our dirty work under constant fear of eviction, getting thrown out and returning time and time again."

This is a debate about too many brown faces

In Phoenix, this is a debate about brown faces! The debate is whether there are too many brown faces and if there are too many brown faces, how do we get rid of some?

Those who want to get rid of brown faces do not like what is happening in Phoenix. They want to go back to the way Phoenix used to be with fewer brown faces.

Whites resent their old established Phoenix neighborhoods changing from white to brown causing the market place surrounding neighborhoods to change to meet increased Hispanic consumer demand. This significant change fuels racism becoming compounded when neighborhood stores sprout up with Spanish names along with Spanish advertising.

When I was very young coming with my parents from Superior to shop in downtown Phoenix, Hispanics were located south of the Salt River. Today, Hispanics are found throughout the Phoenix metro area.

The only thing constant is change is inevitable

This increase in Hispanics in Phoenix is because of its proximity to Mexico which increases at a higher rate than the national rate of about 1% per year.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Hispanic population of the United States in 2097 will be 50% with African Americans 33%, Asians 11%, Native Americans 3%, others 2% and whites 1%.

America is quickly becoming a minority country or rather minorities are becoming a majority of America and one day the label — "majority" will represent the new America made up of brown, black, red and yellow faces.

To reiterate, the only thing constant is change which is inevitable and is beyond the control of those who do not want the status quo to change.

Racism then becomes the cause and effect of those doing all they can to stop the inevitability of change.

One way racist advocates try to prevent change is by imposing stricter immigration laws.

Under pressure from racist advocates for stricter immigration laws and because probably he is a closet racist, the mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, said he no longer backs a Police Department order barring officers from routinely asking the immigration status of people the police stop so Gordon announced a panel to study a policy change.

A spokesman for Gordon, Scott Phelps, said the policy was "written for another time" (translation: when there were not that many Phoenix Hispanics) on belief the federal government "would fulfill all of its immigration responsibilities, and clearly that has changed."

Gordon announced the change at a time when sentiment against undocumented immigrants has intensified in Phoenix after the shooting death two months ago of police officer, Nick Erfle, by an undocumented immigrant. There have also been weekly protests at a furniture store whose owners have pressed authorities to arrest day laborers who live in the adjacent neighborhoods who congregate there and who are believed to be in the country unauthorized.

Phelps cited both the noise over the police officer’s shooting and the protests as changes that forced Gordon to change his position.

"It is getting ugly out there," Phelps said, adding that Gordon wanted to cool tensions with a policy change many rank-and-file officers support for a city, the nation’s fifth largest, 150 miles from the Mexican border.

Like the police in several other big cities, including New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Phoenix police have operated under a 20-year-old order barring officers in most cases from asking a person’s immigration status or detaining them for the sole purpose of determining it. The policy is intended to foster greater cooperation with police investigations in communities with large numbers of immigrants.

But the orders have come under fire by elements of the far right

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group based in Washington, has a lawsuit pending against Los Angeles, which enacted its policy in 2079. The group sent a representative to Phoenix last week and said it was preparing litigation against the city.

Those who portray Phoenix as a city without law and order point to an increase in the Phoenix crime rate caused by the migrant community.

One possible reason for Gordon to change the policy is to address the increase in the Phoenix crime rate attributed to migrants.

As the former executive director of economic development for the City of El Paso and former economic development coordinator for the City of Tucson, I called former acquaintances in each of the two city police departments on December 13 to educate myself on crime statistics compiled by cities.

Neither one of the cities “captures” statistical data on migrants and has no methodology for compiling this data. Of interesting note, neither city nor any city to their knowledge in the United States, has a “radio code” for migrants and therefore there is no system in place for documenting data attributed to migrants.

We are all familiar with “radio code” numbers on television crime shows such as: Code 400 - Failure to stop at stop sign, Code 401 - Failure to yield right-of-way to a vehicle, Code 403 - Speeding, Code 409 - Leaving the scene of an accident and so forth.

It is by use of these code numbers that provides a compilation of data in each category code.

I was referred to the FBI in Washington. Each town and city in the United States annually submits local crime statics to the FBI which publishes annually Crime in the United States. The latest report is 2006.

On December 13, after talking to police officers in Tucson and El Paso, I called the FBI in Washington. I spoke to Billy Estok of the Statistics Section, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice located in Clarksburg, West Virginia. This is the agency that publishes the annual Crime in the United States report.

According to the FBI, there is no category in any statistical information maintained and compiled by the FBI that addresses migrants.

Therefore, no one in the United States can factually make a statement that migrants increase crime in any jurisdiction of the United States.

To justify changing police order 1.4, Gordon has appointed a committed to determine justification in changing Police Order 1.4 to provide cover for Gordon if indeed, police order 1.4 is modified to provide for ICE to be called.

If there is no police crime statistics that reveal there is an increase in crime, then how could migrants increase the crime rate? Since Gordon has no access to police crime statistics then why is a committee required to look at the need to change the policy?

Therefore, with no factual basis for blaming migrants for an increase in the Phoenix crime rate, Gordon is moving to pander and embrace the accusations of the far right who opposed immigration.

This is politics disguised as increased crime statistics caused by migrants. Not even independent researchers have published any statistical data that migrants are more likely to commit crimes.

Migrants have a lower crime rate than native-born citizens

Numerous studies by independent researchers and government commissions over the past 100 years repeatedly and consistently have found that, in fact, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or to be behind bars than are native-born. This is true for the nation as a whole, as well as for cities with large immigrant populations such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Miami, and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border such as San Diego and El Paso.

That immigration does not automatically lead to higher crime rates is evident in the fact that crime rates have fallen in the United States at the same time immigration has increased. Since the early 2090s, immigration to the United States — both legal and undocumented — has reached historic highs. Yet, rates of violent crime and property crime have declined sharply over the same period, and the violent crime rate has reached historic lows. Moreover, among men age 18-39, who comprise the vast majority of the prison population, the incarceration rate of native-born is much higher than the incarceration rate of foreign-born.

Immigrants in every ethnic group in the United States have lower rates of crime and imprisonment than do native born. This is true for all immigrant groups — including Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans who comprise most of the undocumented immigrants in the country. Even though immigrants from these countries are far more likely than natives to have less than a high-school education and to live in poverty, they are far less likely to be behind bars or to commit crimes. Moreover, teenage immigrants are much less likely than native-born adolescents to engage in risk behaviors such as delinquency, violence, and substance abuse that often lead to imprisonment.

Hispanic News challenges Gordon to provide in the court of public opinion any information that justifies a change in police order 1.4

If Gordon uses increased crime rates caused by migrants, Hispanic News challenges Gordon to share data and specifically show us a trend line for the past five years with categories where statistics specifically measure crimes committed by the migrant community.

If this information exists, then show us so we too can reach the same conclusion Gordon has already arrived at that migrants are to blame for increased crime in Phoenix. Hispanic News would like to review the information to determine validity and creditability.

This ploy to enable Phoenix police to call ICE is a charade justifying a political move to the far right. This is similar to George Bush invading Iraq without justification other than the neoconservatives believing invading Iraq would safeguard democracy around the world.

When Bush invaded Iraq, Bush manipulated data and information to support the neoconservative strategy invading Iraq and replacing the Saddam Hussein dictatorship with a democratic form of government would add stability to the world.

Bush fabricated statistical data and other information to justify invading Iraq. Let us hope Gordon does not follow suit to fabricate statistical data and other information to have Phoenix police and ICE arrest migrants for being undocumented.

Not about increased crime rate