Critics say immigration query unfair

WOODBURY, N.J. — A green-card holder from Guatemala said he was asked about his immigration status last month when he went to pick up his nephew from the West Deptford, N.J., police station.

An illegal immigrant from Mexico was arrested March 5 when the car in which he was a passenger was pulled over for rolling through a stop sign in South Harrison Township, N.J.

And a man was deported in February after providing his Guatemalan identification to a police officer who had pulled over the car in which the man was riding for a routine infraction.

Seven months after the state attorney general, Anne Milgram, ordered local police departments in New Jersey to question people they arrest for certain crimes about their immigration status and to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities, the rate of such referrals has nearly doubled.

Immigrants and their advocates say that some people have been unfairly swept up in the dragnet because of overzealous enforcement or confusion over how Milgram's directive was supposed to be implemented.

"This is imposing an incredible human cost on these immigrants," said Maria Juega, a trustee of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "They fear contact with authority. Any remote or direct link with the government is now a risk for an immigrant."

The directive was announced last August amid outrage after a triple murder in which one of the suspects was an illegal immigrant who was out on parole for another crime. It urged officers to inquire about citizenship and nationality when booking people for felonies or drunken driving.

Officially called Law Enforcement Directive 2007-3, Milgram's order tells the police to ask about immigration status when arresting someone for what are known as indictable offenses, and then to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement if it is suspected that the person is here illegally. The directive forbids officers from asking the immigration status of witnesses or victims of crime, or of persons "requesting or receiving police assistance."

Police Chief Warren Mabey of South Harrison, N.J., was one of several police officials who said local departments had not received any real instructions after the directive was issued — officers were asked to simply initial a book that said they had read the directive — and that more training was needed.

Milgram acknowledged that better training was needed and said she would issue new instructions requiring it. "I'm far from saying the directive is perfect," she said.