More illegal immigrants in Cape being detained at ICE's request

Before recent changes in the relationship between federal immigration authorities and community police departments, Fatima Tanoreo-Orocio might have been let go. Instead, the 21-year-old native of Mexico spent three nights in the Cape Girardeau County Jail while officials investigated her status as an undocumented immigrant.

Tanoreo-Orocio was detained in connection with the arrests made June 26 at Casa Mexicana on after she admitted to an immigration official she entered the United States illegally.

Cape Girardeau police chief Carl Kinnison said that in the past people like Tanoreo-Orocio, who hasn't been charged with any other crime, were often permitted to remain in the United States. He said federal authorities rarely ordered local police to detain illegal immigrants who had not committed other offenses.

"But they seem to be responding much more, and that's the way it seems like it always should have been," Kinnison said.

In an e-mail to the Southeast Missourian, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said, "ICE has seen increased success in our immigration enforcement efforts by bolstering our relationships with other law enforcement agencies."

Change in state law

There have also been changes at the state level. A Missouri law that went into effect Jan. 1 requires local law enforcement authorities to cooperate with ICE to prevent any area from becoming a safe haven for illegal immigrants.

Police officer Freddie Hill, who wrote the probable-cause statements for the warrants issued in the Casa Mexicana investigation, said frustration over repeat offenders who were illegal immigrants led him to cultivate a relationship with ICE beginning about a year ago. Until then, illegal immigrants were often processed through the municipal court system and eventually released, he said.

"The more that I did this, the more contacts that I made in the immigration office, the more I learned about how the process works and then the more successful we were with getting these cases turned over to immigration to kind of get the bad apples out of the community," Hill said.

Hill has close ties with the Hispanic community. He speaks Spanish fluently, and his wife, who is from Mexico, is in the process of becoming a citizen. Although Hill said he frequently helps members of the Hispanic community who do not speak English and need police assistance, he has reported several threats against him recently. Hill said people mistake his actions as a police officer for a personal vendetta.

"They think that it's me personally targeting the Hispanic community," Hill said

Hill, a station commander, does much of his work behind a desk.

"I get called away from my duties to go and interpret and assist other officers," he said. "I simply do what the department asks me to do, and by being a bilingual officer I'm involved in every single one of these cases."

Hill said the police do not arrest individuals solely because they are residing in the country unlawfully.

"We've got enough to worry about without having to worry about trying to enforce immigration laws," he said.

Hill said investigations only occur when a person comes to the attention of authorities for some other offense. If questions on immigration status arise, ICE is contacted. He said there are frequently no records available for people who have come to the United States without authorization.

"They're like a ghost coming into the community because you don't know anything about this person and there's no way of finding anything about them," Hill said.

He estimated that the Cape Girardeau Police Department has turned over between 110 and 120 cases to ICE in the past year.

For Tanoreo-Orocio, the increase in collaboration between ICE and local police may result in her deportation after she goes before an immigration judge in St. Louis.

"I still don't know what's going to happen to me," she said in Spanish.

Tanoreo-Orocio's husband, Catarino Ramirez-Melgar, also worked at Casa Mexicana. She said he has been living in the United States for nine years and once asked a lawyer about filing for legal status. He was told he could not at the time. Ramirez-Melgar was arrested on forgery charges; police allege he was using a fake Social Security number. If convicted, he will serve the state sentence for forgery and then be turned over to immigration authorities.

It is likely that the couple and their 14-month-old son will be separated by international borders. If they are both deported, Tanoreo-Orocio will be sent to Mexico and her husband to his native Honduras.

While Tanoreo-Orocio and her husband were both in jail, pastor Rigoberto Lopez of Iglesia de la Misericordia in Cape Girardeau, helped take care of their son. Lopez, a naturalized U.S. citizen, said he thinks local law enforcement officials should use discretion in referring illegal immigrants to ICE. He said they should allow those with clean records to remain in the country.

"These people go to church. They don't drink. They don't smoke. They are becoming a part of society. They are paying their rent, their bills. Everything. They are not living off of the government," he said in Spanish.

Assistant chief Roger Fields said, "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to be scared of. You know what I mean? And we're not actively hunting people down to send them back."

Kinnison did say that, ethically, officers should not turn a blind eye if they come across illegal immigrants.

But Lopez said he thinks immigration enforcement in the Cape Girardeau area is different from enforcement in other areas.

"It's not like here where they go chasing after people," he said in Spanish. "I don't understand why it's like this here."

Jackson Police Department chief James Humphreys said his officers follow a policy similar to Cape Girardeau's.

Staff writer Bridget DiCosmo contributed to this report.

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<form method="post" action="http://www.semissourian.com/scripts/poll/vote.php">Should local police turn suspected illegal immigrants over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement if no other crime has been committed?&nbsp;Yes, local police should enforce federal immigration laws &nbsp;Police should use discretion when referring people to ICE &nbsp;No, local police have enough to worry about &nbsp;Other opinion