Pondering Policy 413

I have vivid memories of feeling lost while visiting Pennsylvania and Cleveland relatives who spoke nothing but Slovak. If we are honest with ourselves, we would acknowledge that most of us with European ancestry have predecessors who were not able to learn English.

If they were fortunate, they settled in parishes and neighborhoods where people spoke their native language. They came seeking work during the 1900s, and spent their lives having little success at English proficiency.

Today, how many of us have tried to acquire skill at a second language and succeeded? I haven’t. It’s really hard, timeconsuming work for most of us, despite our good intentions. So it is a cruel irony that Painesville Police Department chose Cinco de Mayo, of all days, to announce their new Police Policy 413. The American Civil Liberties Union, in a May 25 letter to the Painesville Police Department, states the policy suggests Painesville police “may detain individuals based on a perceived lack of English proficiency.”

This seems similar to some of the discrimination many of our predecessors faced — only they were not living in constant fear of detention and deportation. It was far easier for them to enter the country and to try to assimilate!

In stark contrast, achieving legal residency is a near impossibility for our immigrants from Mexico whose cheap labor we exploit when convenient for employers and for Americans who have been conditioned to expect low-cost food, goods and services.

In “Strangers No Longer,” the U.S. Catholic Bishops remind us that faith calls us to see the face of Jesus in everyone and to extend welcome and hospitality, especially to those most vulnerable.

I’m glad that my ancestors were welcomed by people of faith back then, and I owe it to others to be able to try to find their way in the world without unreasonable and uncharitable obstacles.

Our immigration laws are broken, and our elected officials should resolve to fix them instead of making them even more heartless than they already are. Patricia Denny Concord Township

Editor’s note: In a May 26 News-Herald story, Painesville Police Chief Anthony Powalie said Police Policy 413 “is a postarrest procedure, not a pre-arrest racial profiling.”

The policy, he argued, does not allow for his department to “hunt down illegal immigrants.”

In addition, Powalie said Painesville police are not using English proficiency “as the sole reason for reasonable suspicion.”

“In fact, the policy states ‘While a lack of English proficiency may be considered, it should not be the sole factor in establishing reasonable suspicion,’” he said. “This is a clear guideline to our officers that lack of English skills does not create reasonable suspicion.”