I thought about writing about how frustrating law enforcement officials were being when it came to Hispanic and Latino people a long time ago. I thought about covering this topic when Sen. Kamala Harris made the claim in February that Latinos are less likely to report crimes to law enforcement officials out of fear of potentially accused of undocumented immigration and being subjected to detainment and even deportation. I thought about writing about this even as far back as President Trump’s announcement that he’d be running for president. The final straw that made me decide to talk about this was the treatment of an estadounidense citizen named Garland Creedle who was born in Honduras by Miami-Dade county law enforcement officials.

Law Enforcement And Immigration Officials Repeatedly Target Garland Creedle:

Garland Creedle is a citizen of the United States of America. He was born in Honduras but his father was a citizen of the United States by the time Garland was born. Garland is a citizen in the exact same way that Sen. Ted Cruz is. That didn’t stop ICE from trying to deport Garland in 2015 when he had first arrived in the United States from Honduras. An immigration judge informed ICE officials that Garland was a citizen of this country and thus couldn’t be deported.

Earlier this year Garland was arrested on an alleged domestic violence charge. When the charge was dropped and Garland was never prosecuted that should have been the end of this, especially since Garland was able to post bond (which means that he got someone to agree to give him the necessary amount to be out of jail and have temporary freedom until his court date, a date which never happened since he wasn’t charged with a crime). Instead he was detained until his status was determined (apparently due to a bio-metric scan erroneously reporting that he was a removable alien and not a citizen), which many argue violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. So what happened here was doubly ridiculous: a natural-born citizen was targeted twice because he was Hispanic, and ICE officials had to be told by a judge that he was a citizen, and then ICE officials had to inform law enforcement officials that he was a citizen. This all leads to one central and powerful point: the imperfections of immigration and law enforcement officials become more apparent when the officials behave more aggressively.

Some Much Needed Overall Context:

Law enforcement officials in Miami-Dade county weren’t always this aggressive when it came to people they assumed were undocumented immigrants or another type of removable alien. That changed earlier this year when President Trump threatened to attempt to cut off federal funding for cities that fit some definition of being “sanctuary cities”. After this threat Miami-Dade county has been detaining people who may or may not be removable aliens for immigration officials, even after the Trump administration clarified that only violators of federal law might be targeted to lose funding. This drew immediate and hostile reactions from the immigrant community in Miami-Dade county. The ACLU of Florida issued a warning in March to local law enforcement officials to resist attempts by the federal government and even the state government to trick law enforcement officials into believing they were immigration officials or could act as such and thus become part of a “deportation force”. They were also part of a response as early as February to this that included not only the Florida ACLU but also 47 other groups and experts.

The Imperfections Of Law Enforcement And Immigration Officials:

I’ve written about what I’ve dubbed “citizenship vision” in the past. This refers to the abilities of immigration and law enforcement officials to determine someone’s immigration status at a glance. They have none. Neither group does. This is why ICE officials tried to deport Garland in 2015. It’s why a Puerto-Rican was accused of being an undocumented immigrant in 2010. It’s what motivates the fear that drives some Latin American and Hispanic people to not report crimes even if they are documented or even citizens.

Hispanic and Latin American people seem to be gradually becoming more and more worried about law enforcement officials. This is not a good thing for our community nor is it a good thing for law enforcement and immigration officials. If we don’t report crimes then law enforcement won’t be able to provide us with the protection we deserve, including from the rare undocumented people who commit crimes and it’ll be harder for immigration officials to figure out which aliens, documented or not, need to be removed from the country. Unfortunately for the officials this concerns our trust and our respect has to be earned, it is not automatically given and all over the country immigration and law enforcement officials are giving us reasons to not trust them.

If immigration officials want to do their job as easily and as efficiently as possible they need to stop law enforcement officials from engaging in this aggressive behavior which deters people in our community from reporting crimes. It matters that people in my community (our community for many of my readers) are becoming more and more fearful around officials from the institutions of this country. I don’t want this. Many people in the Hispanic and Latin American communities don’t want this. But with the way things are now we cannot honestly tell our peers that their fears are overblown. I want to do that but I can’t. I value honesty and credibility and I wouldn’t be being honest if I told my family and community members not to be worried about this.

I want people in my community to feel that we can trust the officials we interact with, and to feel that when we interact with them we know we’ll be heading home shortly afterwards. Sadly when a natural born citizen of this country is detained and accused of being a removable alien because of a computer error even after reportedly informing officials of his status as a citizen and is kept until his status is confirmed, and even after having posted bond it matters.

The trust of the Hispanic and Latin American communities throughout this country can be earned but in order to earn it it’s clear that law enforcement and immigration officials will need to look inside themselves and learn to respect us so that we can trust them and in doing so expect them to actually safeguard our homes and neighborhoods.