Amnesty Activist: Immigration Law Enforcement Is ‘Destructive to Social Fabric’

The open borders lobby is now blasting mere cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials to deport criminal illegal immigrants.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Senior Legal Manager Nick Katz with the pro-immigration organization CASA de Maryland said agreements between local police forces and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to more efficiently detain criminal illegal immigrants are “extremely destructive to social fabric of the community”:

“The fear in the community is real, and the increased enforcement environment is real,” said Nick Katz, senior manager of legal services at the immigration advocacy organization CASA de Maryland. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in immigration raids. We’ve seen an increase in what we consider to be questionable tactics and essentially unconstitutional tactics on the part of ICE, engaging in racial profiling. And I think that type of activity will disseminate out into the community and make people afraid to engage with law enforcement generally.”

Katz said programs such as “287(g),” a section in the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the Department of Homeland Security to deputize local law enforcement agencies to carry out immigration laws, are “extremely destructive to social fabric of the community.” He said such agreements drive a wedge between police and their Hispanic communities.

The Washington Post piece’s premise was that foreign born resident in California and New Jersey are calling the police less because of the immigration agreements between localities and federal officials.

Buried at the end of the Post’s story were comments from local police officials in Alabama and North Carolina who said the agreements made no difference in whether or not immigrants call:

Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin told CBS affiliate WIAT earlier this year that his deputies in northeast Alabama “don’t go out on the street and look and pick you up because of the color of your skin or your nationality.” Sheriff Irwin Carmichael of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office in Charlotte said his deputies do not get involved in immigration matters until someone is arrested, charged and taken to jail, according to the Charlotte Observer.

And despite the recent shift some police chiefs say they have seen in their Hispanic communities, Jackson County Sheriff A. J. “Andy” Louderback, whose department participates in 287(g), said he has “not noticed any wavering” in the relationship with his community, which is southwest of Houston. More than 31 percent of Jackson County is Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. census.

Back in January, open borders activists were enraged that the previous era of lax immigration enforcement and sanctuary city policies faded quickly, as local police adopted agreements to help ICE in their deportation efforts.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.