Outreach key for Hispanics, LR group says
Police seek better relations to ease tensions, fight crime
At a recent meeting of city leaders, local pastors and church representatives, a question about President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration platform brought Little Rock Police Chief Kenton Buckner to the front of the room.
A participant at the meeting of Working Together in the Community, a group created to engage the Hispanic community, wanted to know what role local police would play in immigration enforcement under Trump, who campaigned on stricter immigration policies.
Buckner gave what he called an honest answer: It’s unclear what police are going to be required to do in the future, even though Little Rock police do not currently enforce federal immigration laws.
“But I can tell you this, regardless of what happens over the next four years, we will never step away from treating everyone with dignity and respect. We will never step away from doing things through a compassionate way,” Buckner said.
Faced with persistent crime against Hispanics, particularly illegal aliens, the Little Rock Police Department has been working for over a year and a half to strengthen its relationship with the Hispanic community.
“I challenge you to find another city … that is doing more to reach out to Hispanics today. I challenge you to find that,” Buckner said.
A major part of the city’s outreach has been done by Working Together in the Community. The group was formed in March 2015 after concerns from Buckner that crimes in the Hispanic community were going unreported to police, said City Director Joan Adcock.
The group has organized classes in Spanish on traffic laws, animal services, building permits and business permits to help immigrants become familiar with city ordinances and state codes, Adcock said. It also has twice hosted representatives from the Guatemalan consulate, which helped Guatemalans apply for identification cards and passports from their home country.
Its most noteworthy initiative is a municipal identification card program that is set to start next year.
The ID program would allow all Little Rock residents to receive an identification card, and is expected to help immigrants, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, the homeless and people with mental or physical disabilities. The card would not grant citizen status, Adcock said, but it would provide access to things like banking services and nonprofit services.
The presidential election has triggered some concerns that the inroads police have made with the Hispanic community could be damaged by hard-line immigration policies.
During the campaign, Trump said he planned to deport an estimated 11 million people living in the country without legal status. Just after the election, he dropped that to 2 million or 3 million who he said are dangerous or have criminal records. His administration, he said, will make a determination regarding the rest once the border is secured.
“It could cause members of the Hispanic community to have mistrust of government in general,” Buckner said of the concerns over Trump’s immigration stance.
“The community is definitely anxious and fearful,” said Mireya Reith, the founding executive director of Arkansas United Community Coalition, a nonprofit organization focused on empow-
ering immigrants. The group held a series of forums across the state after the election to address immigrants’ concerns.
It was not just Trump’s comments that raised concerns, she said, but also an increase in the number of hate crimes and reports of bullying that followed the election.
Jorge Vazquez, a pastor at a Baptist church in Little Rock, said the rhetoric has his parishioners concerned about the future, even though they are hard-working people.
And at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in southwest Little Rock, the Rev. Mark Wood said that although many of his parishioners feel a sense of goodwill at the local level, Trump’s promises on immigration have stoked fears among illegal aliens.
“They tend to live with a certain amount of fear and anxiety as it is, and this just adds to it,” Wood said.
Across the country, mayors from several major American cities, including Chicago, Seattle and Minneapolis, vowed to not work with federal immigration agents to deport illegal aliens. Los Angeles Police Chief Charles Beck said after the election that his department would not enforce federal immigration laws.
Major U.S. cities and counties are beefing up legal services for migrants to help them fight deportation and avoid fraudulent lawyers in the wake of Trump’s election, according to The Associated Press.
Tapping local government funds to represent migrants in federal proceedings provides an early example of the type of pushback the incoming Republican president will receive in Democratic strongholds.
Chicago has approved a $1.3 million legal fund. Los Angeles city and county officials and private organizations are working on a $10 million plan, according to a mayor’s spokesman.
In Little Rock, Buckner said the Police Department sees immigration as a federal issue, unless a migrant has committed a violent crime or a felony.
As of now, illegal aliens work through the court system like any other resident in cases with misdemeanor charges or minor traffic violations, he said.
“From my standpoint, leading our police agency, we have no interest in rounding up people and deporting individuals,” Buckner said, while also acknowledging that he is unsure whether future legislation would require the department to change its policy.
Already at the state level, a bill has been filed in the state Senate that would make cities that enact “sanctuary policies” ineligible for state funds. The bill was introduced earlier this month by Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch.
The proposed legislation would punish cities that grant illegal aliens the right to “lawful presence or status” within a city. Under the proposal, state funds could also be restricted from cities that stop police officers from asking about a person’s citizenship or immigration status.
Arkansas has no sanctuary cities, but Stubblefield said the bill is a preventive measure to make sure they do not become a reality.
Sanctuary cities don’t just violate federal immigration laws, Stubblefield said, but they also create an environment where crime can occur by hindering attempts to deport the illegal aliens who are criminals.
Stubblefield said most immigrants who became legal citizens say that illegal aliens need to go through the process like everyone else.
“They have to follow the law, and they have to do it right,” Stubblefield said.
If the Arkansas legislation is passed, Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore said, he is confident the municipal ID program would not conflict with it. He said sanctuary cities often deal with law enforcement issues, while the ID program is simply a way to help people access necessary services.
The city has budgeted $180,000 toward the ID program.
Moore said the motivation behind the program was to make Little Rock feel like a welcoming, inclusive city.
“We also want it to be easy to be a Little Rock resident, and I think that’s really the vision around why we’re out here,” Moore said at the meeting at the Southwest Community Center.
Given Trump’s hard-line immigration positions, Reith said she has concerns that the immigrant community will be hesitant to work with law enforcement agencies at the local level.
The hesitation might not be directed at local law enforcement, but it could signal the repercussions of the broader environment of fear created during the presidential campaign, she said.
In response, she said, Arkansas United Community Coalition will be working with local police chiefs and county sheriffs across the state to keep the lines of communication open and encourage engagement with the Hispanic community.
Another member of the group, Gloria Bastidas, said while there is a lot of fear and uncertainty among illegal aliens in light of the election, she does not think their relationship with the city will weaken if officials continue their outreach efforts.
Looking forward to 2017, Adcock said the group is working on plans to host consulate representatives from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and that it will continue to engage the Hispanic community.
Buckner said the Police Department would be more than happy to attend events with the Hispanic community to communicate the department’s responsibilities under the law.
“This is all about partnership,” he said.