Irving's Illegal Immigrant Crackdown Sparks Debate (TX)

[struggle4progress]

Sep 25, 2007 3:54 pm US/Central

Jack Fink
Reporting

(CBS 11 News) IRVING A heated debate has broken out in Irving over the city's crackdown on illegal immigrants.

The Irving Police Department's newest policy has agents from United States Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) checking on the legal status of every single prisoner in the city's jail. This is not done in most other cities ...

The new policy has angered some North Texas Hispanic leaders, who confronted Irving city leaders and asked that the practice be stopped. City leaders have refused and said that they are simply carrying out a federal law that has been on the books for years.

"The illegality of it is that, in the case of traffic offenses, they're stopping Hispanics," said Carlos Quintinilla of Hispanic group Accion America. "They are stopping Hispanics because they don't have identification and they're on-site arresting them and taking them into custody." ...

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_268165757.html