More News

Latino leaders and county police agencies have embarked on an effort to broaden their dialogue, refocus on cooperation and turn the tide on years of police mistrust that have built up over the role — real and perceived — that officers play in enforcing federal immigration law.

The push comes as Montgomery County Police updated its immigration policy for the first time in a decade, which prohibits officers from taking part in federal investigations that are based solely on immigration law, but directing officers to enforce "confirmed warrants" that they find in the course of their investigations.

Police's handling of illegal immigration was at the center of a forum in Gaithersburg on Monday that brought dozens of Latino community leaders together with top officials from 10 local law enforcement agencies.

The forum drew the chiefs of the Montgomery County Police Department, the cities of Gaithersburg, Rockville and Takoma Park, the chief of the Chevy Chase Village police force, Montgomery County State's Attorney John J. McCarthy, the director of the county corrections department, chief of the county's park police, chief deputy of the county sheriff's office and a public defender.

Largely at issue Monday at Asbury Methodist Village — home of Camino de Vida, a Latino congregation — was the enforcement of civil immigration warrants, which County Executive Isiah Leggett and Police Chief J. Thomas Manger decided to write into the police policy update. After more than a year of review, the rewritten policy went into effect last month.

A de facto policy for nearly five years, the enforcement of those immigration warrants — which are civil, not criminal, arrest orders, similar to a bench warrant — has sparked fear and anger in the immigrant community, frustrating Latino leaders over what message to convey about trusting police, explained the event's moderator Pilar Torres, executive director of the Silver Spring-based nonprofit Centro Familia.

Latino leaders and police said the forum was a chance to bring new faces to the table — and to mark an effort to redefine the tenor of what has been an emotionally charged atmosphere.

"The voices have been very strident, very aggressive," she said in an interview. "There's a place for that, but that needs to shut down at some point. Same issues, different voices. It's our responsibility to take it to the next level and actually get things done, not just sound the warning, sound the alarm."

In turn, the chiefs called on the Latino leaders to do their part to reach out into their communities and encourage crime victims and witnesses to cooperate with police.

"We need you to work with us. And everyone wouldn't be here if we didn't care," said Takoma Park Police Chief Ronald Ricucci. "I've seen the change; each department is doing all kinds of things, the diversity training, we're hiring people that can speak Spanish," he said. "… Believe me, the last thing we're worried about when we're investigation homicides, robberies, rapes and burglaries is the immigration status of our victim."

In 2003, the Department of Justice began putting the warrants — also called "detainers" — into a national crime database. Local police began finding the detainers when they ran routine background checks. In each of the last three years, county officers have turned over scores of illegal immigrants to federal authorities.

The resulting blow to immigrant trust has led to problems of immigrants not reporting crimes despite the police department's assurances that witnesses and victims will not have their immigration status checked.

The other police agencies mirror the county police, except for Takoma Park, which more than 20 years ago declared that it would have no involvement with immigration enforcement.

Manger held his ground on enforcing the detainers, saying that officers are "obligated" to do so.

But state Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez countered that having the authority is a far cry from being required by law, and pointed out that many police departments across the country do not enforce the detainers.

"It is an administrative warrant, and the police have never had the obligation to enforce administrative warrants," said Gutierrez (D-Dist. 18) of Chevy Chase. "…When it becomes a second nature — as all of you have proudly said, ‘We're obligated to do this' — that is disingenuous. … You need to be up front in telling that to this community."

Despite the tension over the detainers, Latino leaders left the forum with renewed purpose.

"There is good will on both parts of the table," the Rev. David Rocha, pastor at Camino de Vida and a co-organizer of the forum, said in an interview. "We know now that we have the right and we have the confidence that we can work together."