Illegal immigrants shouldn?t hestitate to come forward if they are victims of a crime, several state?s attorneys in the Baltimore metropolitan area said Wednesday.
“We never ask a victim?s immigration status,” said David Daggett, deputy state?s attorney for Carroll County. “Our focus is to go after the bad guys, the ones who committed the crime.”
With illegal immigration a hot topic nationwide, undocumented immigrants sometimes feel they can?t go to the authorities if they are robbed or assaulted, because they fear being deported, said Joseph Cassilly, Harford County?s State?s Attorney.
“Part of the problem is bad guys target illegal immigrants, figuring they won?t go the police. The bad guys figure, ?Who are they going to tell?? Some of these people aren?t too trusting of law enforcement to begin with,” Cassilly said.
“But if they?re truly victims, truly people who have done nothing wrong, those kind of folks, I don?t want to see them become victims again in the future.”
Frank Weathersbee and Sandra O?Connor, state?s attorneys for Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, respectively, said they do not instruct their prosecutors to check to see if victims are legal residents.
“We do not prosecute based on documentation,” Weathersbee said. “It would be a rare case if we determined a victim is undocumented that we would report them. We do, however, report defendants who commit serious crimes.”
Reporting undocumented workers who are victims of crimes to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can actually hurt a prosecutor?s case, Cassilly said.
“I?m not going to send them off to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], because I don?t want them to be snatched up and put in a federal detention center somewhere,” he said. “Then I?ve lost them as a witness.”
Howard County police and prosecutors in recent years have focused their efforts on criminals who prey on Hispanic immigrants, and have encouraged undocumented workers to come forward if they are victims of a crime.
In August 2004, the Police Department staged undercover operations designed to combat criminals who rob immigrants on the assumption that the victims will not go to police because of their dubious immigration status.
In 2005, a Howard County judge gave a 10-year prison sentence to a man caught assaulting an undercover officer during one of those operations designed to protect Hispanic immigrants.
Even with the efforts to protect illegal immigrants from crime, at least one state?s attorney said he would not promise blanket immunity to all undocumented people.
In a situation where a victim also is causing crimes in the community, Harford?s Cassilly said he would report that victim to the federal government.
“If they are a victim who is also a member of a violent drug gang, you better believe I?m going to turn them over,” Cassilly said.
