Assist and Tell

It happens all the time, says Judith Bernstein-Baker, executive director for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

"One of the cases we handled last year involved a woman who was badly beaten by her husband," she recalls. "Her status as a U.S. resident was dependent on him sponsoring her, and she obviously wasn’t calling the police because she was afraid of being deported."

Illegal immigrants living in Philadelphia frequently hesitate to call on the police for help because they fear it will lead to being carted out of the country. But a recent Philadelphia Police Department policy assures that officers will not share knowledge about law abiding undocumented immigrants with federal authorities.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney issued a memorandum May 17 directing police officers to "preserve the confidentiality of all information" regarding illegal immigrants who do not break the law.

"We found that, for fear of retribution, illegal immigrants were not seeking the department’s help when they were attacked or robbed or even when they fell down the steps," says Francis Healy, special advisor to the commissioner. "We want to assure them that they will not be dragged out of the country for contacting us."

Timoney recently met with members of Philadelphia’s Asian community, where he was told that some people are petrified of police, Healy says. And while cops are not currently going around reporting law-abiding illegal immigrants to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Healy says the commissioner wanted to be "proactive."

Bernstein-Baker says anxiety runs highest among the city’s "newest arrivals," those hailing from China and Indonesia.

"The fear is two-fold," she says. "First, they fear law enforcement authorities because of police corruption in those countries. Secondly, their immigration status is not settled and they fear involving any government authority. Until this memo came out, their concern was not unfounded."

The order will not impede the INS’s ability to gather information on illegal immigrants suspected of breaking the law, Healy adds. "If anything else illegal is going on, the police will still follow normal crime reporting guidelines."

INS spokesperson Amy Otten stresses that the agency’s primary concern is "criminal aliens."

"Of course, we always appreciate cooperation from other law enforcement authorities, but we don’t think this will affect our ability to investigate," she says.

It is "fairly common" for local police officers across the country to contact INS with tips on suspected undocumented immigrants, Otten notes. "They call us and ask us to check on someone’s status, for instance, if they pull over a car and the driver doesn’t speak any English, or if 25 people are packed in the backseat…But the driver would have to be breaking the law in the first place, like running a red light."

Timoney’s memorandum is lifted almost verbatim from one issued earlier by the New York City Police Department.

In a number of past speeches, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has commented that "everyone should understand the practicality of wanting undocumented immigrants to feel comfortable reporting criminals to the police." Since "muggers don't ask for a Green Card," he said, the federal government should not mandate city policies that effectively reduce the number of undocumented immigrants reporting crimes.

—Gwen Shaffer