Latino man sues police in Pacific

On a visit here from Mexico a year ago, schoolteacher Miguel Gustavo Torres was driving his uncle's car through the town of Pacific when he was rear-ended by one car and forced into another.

Torres, 25, who taught school in the Mexican state of Michoacán, had entered the U.S. legally on a visitor's visa and was using his Mexican driver's license, which is allowed by state law.

But Pacific police at the scene arrested Torres anyway for operating a car without a valid driver's license. They jailed him and alerted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. ICE officers, who routinely check jail logs for deportable inmates, never contacted Torres.

He made bail that night and the license case against him was subsequently dismissed.

Torres has filed a lawsuit against Pacific, its police chief and the arresting officers, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights and of demonstrating a "custom, pattern and policy of unreasonably detaining people" to determine their immigration status.

City and police-department officials declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

Over the last year, local immigrant-rights advocates have been closely monitoring police activities in the town, located just outside Auburn, saying about two dozen people have found themselves in deportation proceedings after encounters with police.

They say local police have created a level of fear and intimidation among Latinos, who represent about 6 percent of the town's 6,000 or so residents.

"That fear has been behind some of the hesitation in getting people to come forward," said one of the activists, Dianne Aid, of St. Matthew Episcopal Church in Auburn.

Advocates have kept a constant vigil at Pacific City Council meetings. They've held protests and rallies on city streets, debated openly with officials and called on the City Council to establish a written policy regarding enforcement of immigration law.

Pacific's police chief, John Calkins, has defended the actions of his department, saying he has a duty to enforce the law — whether it's local, state or federal.

In fact, the tension grew so bad that the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service intervened earlier this year and is working to bring the two sides together.

Torres' arrest last August came during the height of the tensions. According to the accident report, the driver of the car that forced Torres' vehicle into another car told police he was responsible for the accident.

In the lawsuit, Torres pointed out that police arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of not having a valid driver's license, knowing full well the law allowed him to use his Mexican driver's license in Washington.

According to the state Department of Licensing, foreign visitors can drive here if they are at least 16 and have a valid driver's license from their home country.

"He had a Mexican passport, a visa issued by the U.S. government," his attorney, Joseph Diaz, said. "He hadn't overstayed the visa. He was allowed to be in the country and had no intention of staying."

Diaz said lawsuits like these put communities like Pacific on notice: "We want them to know that there are people watching."

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com