Shifts in federal immigration enforcement tactics have increased distrust of law enforcement in the local Latino community, Tim Freilich, legal director at the Legal Aid Justice Center, said Thursday.
While the Bush administration was marked by large-scale, high-publicity immigration raids and the training of front-line local officers to enforce immigration laws, the Obama administration has been marked instead by relatively low-key implementation of programs that audit suspected employers of illegal immigrants and run prisoners' fingerprints through immigration databases.
The current administration's measures, while not necessarily as flashy, are catching people, Freilich said in a presentation put on by Creciendo Juntos, a network of community groups that provides resources for the Latino community and those who work with them.
“There’s been serious and, from the point of view of immigrant communities in Virginia, devastatingly effective enforcement,” he said.
He emphasized that many illegal immigrants are part of “mixed” families that include both illegal immigrants and native-born citizens, often children or spouses.
The fingerprinting program is of particular concern for immigrants because people arrested for relatively minor offenses can end up getting deported, he said.
“Locally, this is causing a tremendous amount of anxiety,” he said.
On the state level, Freilich mentioned a number of bills that had been proposed in Richmond with the potential to impact immigrants.
Human trafficking protections were strengthened, but many other bills died in committee in the Senate, he said. Each house of the assembly created a special subcommittee to deal with legislation pertaining to immigrants this year, he said. The House of Delegates' committee sent a great number of bills on their way, but they almost universally died in the Senate subcommittee, including one that would have required public universities to ban the enrollment of illegal immigrants.
Charlottesville resident Michelle Oliva said she found the presentation informative.
She described herself as very interested in immigration issues and said she appreciated the context in which Freilich put the issue.
“I’m really concerned what the effect of these polices is on youngsters,” said Ed Delarosa, a retired educator who works with local youths.
He described students asking, “Why should I do it? Why should I take algebra? I’m not going to go to college.”
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