There’s a lot of misinformation and fear in immigrant communities that may make victims of crimes unwilling to reach out to local authorities for help.
In Albemarle County, just over 10 percent of its population was born outside the United States, slightly less than the national average. Many people who call the region home come from different immigrant communities: Latino, Hispanic, Ukrainian, Afghan and Venezuelan, to name a few.
Some are here on visas or have been granted temporary asylum; others are in the U.S. illegally and in some cases, have been here months, years or even decades. The large majority of those people, here legally or not, have never committed a crime in the U.S. or the country they came from.
Many have families, are business owners, have children and are engaged in their communities.
Fear in immigrant communities is justified
A recent PR stunt put immigrants on a plane that landed them in an El Salvador mega-prison without any due process.
Published images showed those who were rounded up were shackled, stripped down to boxer shorts and had their heads shaved.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem arrived shortly after the immigrants were sent there for a photo op in front of one of the overcrowded prison cells.
Immigrants, most who have never committed any crime, received the warning loud and clear. The message: they could be next.
In its haste to get the immigrants out of the U.S., the administration admits it made a mistake and sent a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to the El Salvador jail in what it calls an “administrative error.” Garcia has been in the U.S. since 2011 and is a protected legal resident who left El Salvador to flee gang violence, not participate in it as the government alleges. While the government has owned up to its mistake, the U.S. has argued that Garcia cannot and should not be returned and reunited with his family in the U.S.
It’s no wonder then that local immigrants are living in fear worried that if they have the wrong tattoo, or oppose the administration, participate in a rally or protest, are suspected of being in a gang, or just another “oopsie,” they could soon suffer a similar fate.
Criminal or not, all illegal immigrants at risk for deportation
President Donald Trump, in an executive order executed on his first day in office, targeted enforcement actions especially against those who threaten the safety or security of the American people as a means to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs and transnational criminal organizations.
Noem has said the department won’t rest until all illegal aliens are removed from the U.S.
In February, Noem launched a campaign encouraging illegal immigrants to leave the country now or warned they could “face deportation without the inability to return.” The PR campaign argues that if immigrants self-deport now, they may have the opportunity in the future to return to the U.S. legally.
Local authorities fear losing trust of immigrants
It’s no surprise that immigrants, legal or not, are afraid – some choosing to stay away from work, school and even activities they once enjoyed like karate or dance.
They are also less trusting of law enforcement in general, even local authorities, including officers from the Albemarle County Police Department.
“I was at an event two weeks ago, and there’s legitimate concerns amongst people that came here on some sort of visa that helped military veterans from Afghanistan, that helped the military out, and don’t know where they’re at,” Albemarle County Police Chief Sean Reeves told AFP.
Reeves said there is a larger concern that while they are not enforcement officials, or affiliated with customs enforcement, or ICE, that the immigrant community may not recognize the difference.
“We are not the state police. We are not federal ICE agencies that do immigration enforcement, and we don’t have that power, ability to do immigration enforcement,” Reeves said. “Immigrants in our community, I’m told, most don’t understand that.”
His department is doing what it can to maintain relationships with immigrant communities and eliminate the fear that could cause law-abiding residents to refrain from reporting crimes where they are victims.
“It’s very real that people might be reluctant to call 911,” Reeves said. “There’s so much misinformation.”
There are constant rumors about the presence of ICE in the county, and the result is that they “are understandably on edge.”
Broader community safety is also a concern for the department because illegal immigrants stopped for minor traffic infractions might be afraid of deportation, and might choose to run or make other bad decisions that result in a much more serious felony charge for eluding police or worse.
Reeves said Albemarle County has relationships with federal partners, but as a local jurisdiction, he doesn’t have the staff to pursue immigration enforcement or provide officers to assist ICE.
“They [police officers] have enough on their plate to work on,” he said, “as opposed to doing roundups.”
“The best way that we know how to navigate some of that is continue having authentic and transparent conversations with these community groups, and let them know that we are local law enforcement, not ICE.”
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Crystal Graham
