PHOENIX (By Casey Newton and Michael Kiefer, Arizona Republic) May 25, 2008 — Phoenix police may now contact Immigrations and Customs Enforcement when they suspect a person to be in the country illegally, a shift in policy that is expected to increase the number of illegal immigrants deported from the state.

Chief Jack Harris announced new changes on Thursday to Operations Order 1.4, the police policy on immigration that previously prevented officers in most cases from asking about a person's citizenship status.

The policy has been a lightning rod for criticism from residents who want to see Phoenix do more to combat illegal immigration and helped foment the current recall effort against Mayor Phil Gordon.

Under the new policy, everyone arrested in Phoenix will be questioned about his or her citizenship. If an officer makes contact with someone who did not commit a crime but is still believed to be in the country illegally, the officer can give ICE that person's contact information over the phone or via a one-page form.

"It provides Phoenix officers with additional tools to aid them in the performance of their job and will further enhance criminal investigative efforts attributed to illegal immigration in this city," Harris said.

The new policy drew praise from the police union that had bitterly opposed the draft of the changes unveiled in February.

Mark Spencer, president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said the revised policy removed unneeded barriers between police and ICE.

"We see it as a major improvement," he said. "If we wanted 100 percent change, we probably got about 75 or 80 percent."

The policy also won the impassioned support of Julie Erfle, the widow of a Phoenix police officer whose death at the hands of an illegal immigrant last September helped to spark the furor over 1.4 that led to the policy being revised.

At the same time, the policy change drew concern from members of the Hispanic community, who worried that victims of crimes and witnesses would lose trust in the police.

Immigrant advocates were less impressed with the revisions.

"We have the same objection that we had before," said Phoenix attorney Antonio Bustamante. "When a mother goes out and happens to be pulled over, she's going to be referred to ICE. Or a father coming home from work is not going to return to his family that night. . . . It creates human suffering for the people involved. It's a vicious, inhumane attitude to brothers and sisters of the same human race."

Salvador Reza of the immigrant advocacy group Tonatierra said that the policy would still have a "chilling effect on the community."

"It's halfway good and halfway bad," Reza said. "Halfway good because now they're going to go after the criminals. It's halfway bad because any person, depending on the discretion of the officer, can be interrogated with permission from the supervisor. One thing is the policy you make here, and the other is what happens on the street. And on the street, I've seen officers who are just waiting for anybody to get stopped on just any thing."

An evolving policy

Whether an officer contacts ICE will depend largely on whether the officer believes the person to be involved in criminal activity beyond entering the country illegally, said Cmdr. Glen Gardner of Phoenix police.

The policy that went into effect Thursday differs in several respects from the draft policy unveiled in February, following the deliberations of a four-man panel appointed by the mayor to assist the chief in revising 1.4.

The Phoenix police union had blasted the initial draft as too similar to the old policy. They asked for the discretion to call ICE whenever they had reasonable suspicion they were in the country illegally.

On Thursday, they got that discretion, provided they first all a supervisor to ask permission. The point of involving the supervisor is to monitor the number of referrals police make to ICE and to protect the department against false charges of racial bias, police said.

Despite their move toward a more aggressive approach in questioning people about their immigration status, they still took criticism on Thursday from Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

"We're pleased that city and the Phoenix Police Department seem to be moving closer to the policy of the Sheriff and the County Attorney," said Barnett Lotstein, spokesman for Thomas. "Every few months there seems to be some movement bringing them closer to what the sheriff and the county attorney have been doing for a long time. But there's still a number of significant holes in the procedure."

He said holes in the policy include police not questioning people about their status during routine traffic stops and not arresting people who are smuggled across the border as co-conspirators with their coyotes.

Arpaio praised the department for giving officers more discretion but questioned the need to have them consult with a supervisor before contacting ICE.

"I give my deputies a lot of latitude to make their own decisions, and they don't have to call anybody," Arpaiod said. "I've always said they've got a gun and badge and they're going to make their own decisions about who they arrest without having to call any supervisors."

A changing landscape

The tougher Phoenix immigration policy comes at a time when local law enforcement agencies around the country are increasingly cooperating with federal authorities to enforce immigration laws.

Some agencies are calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement more frequently when officers on the street encounter someone they suspect is in the country illegally. Others are entering into formal agreements that allowed ICE-trained officers to question, arrest and detain suspected illegal immigrants.

"This is a troubling development," said Jonathan Thessin, a Boston lawyer. He co-authored a report released this week that condemns the use of local police to enforce federal immigration laws as "bad public policy."

Most major U.S. cities, including Phoenix, adopted policies years ago against routine enforcement of immigration laws. But those policies have come under attack in recent months from immigration-enforcement groups who say they provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

Phoenix is the first city to roll back its immigration policy, giving officers more leeway to contact federal immigration authorities, Thessin said.

Having local police help arrest illegal immigrants may seem pragmatic, but it can divert officers and resources away from fighting crime, Thessin said. The policy can also encourage racial profiling and make immigrants afraid to report crimes or cooperate with police in solving crimes, he said.

"The result is you are going to see a chilling effect in the community," Thessin said.

Gordon, who is the subject of a recall effort from residents who do not believe he has done enough to stop illegal immigration, supports changes to the policy. But he acknowledged that the new policy would involve trade-offs.

"It doesn't come without a price," Gordon said. "The more we're involved in this fight, the less we're able to fight against and prevent other crimes.

"But the chief said this is necessary to give his officers more tools, and I concur with that."

In Arizona, local police are increasingly partnering with ICE.

Since Oct. 1, local police have called ICE for assistance 1,067 times, up 40 percent from the same period during previous year, said ICE spokesman Vincent Picard.

Calls for assistance to ICE have resulted in the arrest of 5,303 illegal immigrants so far this fiscal year, up 17 percent from the year before.

Picard would not provide a breakdown of the calls to ICE by police agency. But he said that Phoenix is among the agencies that calls ICE the most frequently.

The Phoenix Police Department is also one of six{check} police agencies in Arizona that have signed agreements with ICE to have ICE-trained officers enforce immigration laws. The others are the Maricopa, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai sheriff's offices, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Nationwide, 47 agencies have signed agreements with ICE to enforce immigration laws, Picard said.