Berry campaign’s mailer distorts policy, APD says

Detail of Richard Berry campaign mailer about crime

Albuquerque mayoral candidate Richard “R.J.” Berry is distorting the Albuquerque Police Department’s policy on immigration, officials say, and that could weaken the trust the department has worked to gain among the city’s immigrant community.

Without that trust, victims or witnesses may be less likely to report crimes and cooperate with police investigations.

At issue is a recent piece of campaign mail sent out by the Berry campaign, linking crime in the city with a 2007 change in APD policy on immigration status.

The card features a map with a large arrow pointing from below the New Mexico border, north toward Albuquerque, next to the words “CRIME UP.” To the right of the map is language that accuses Chavez of creating a “sanctuary city” that “attracts criminals,” presumably from Mexico.

APD allows officers to question a person’s immigration status only if it is pertinent to a criminal investigation. The department does not report that information to federal authorities. Instead, federal immigration authorities check immigration status automatically when people are booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center.

But Berry is distorting APD’s policy, department spokesperson John Walsh says.

“People are mixing this up terribly,” he said. “Nothing has changed about how we’re doing law investigation. Officers have the leeway to inquire into immigration status during criminal investigations. [Our policy] ensures that all victims and witnesses feel they can report a crime without fear of being deported.”

Deportation is a very real fear for the immigrant community that is being dragged into Berry’s public safety agenda, says one local faith leader.

“The flyer implies that Albuquerque is a sanctuary city, which it isn’t,” Reverend Daniel Erdman, outreach coordinator of the New Mexico Conference of Churches, says. NMCC works on a variety of issues, including youth development and  immigration reform.

“I’m not even sure what that means, but Albuquerque isn’t that. People are deported from here every day,” Erdman says.

“If he means [his flyer] to be about public safety, he shouldn’t drag the entire immigrant community into it or make the false claim that immigrants who commit crimes aren’t prosecuted,” he continued. “They are prosecuted. And immigrants are as concerned as anyone else about safety.”

Adrian Pedroza, executive director of the Albuquerque Partnership, a community group that works with at-risk youth, said the flyer’s language tying crime to immigrants could stoke increased antipathy toward immigrants.

“It’s unfortunate that any political candidate would use such tactics. …People who read it and who don’t have regular contact with immigrants could come away with hateful feelings toward the immigrant community,” he said.

Asking about immigration status is tricky

Front of Richard Berry campaign mailer

“How does an officer make a judgment about when to ask for immigration status?” Walsh asks rhetorically.  “When the person only speaks Spanish? Due to the color of their skin? No, that would be immoral and illegal. It has to only be on the pretext of a criminal investigation.”

APD officers doing criminal investigations inquire about immigration status all the time, Walsh says.

For example, he explains, in the case of a rape or kidnapping, an officer might ask about immigration status in order to know where the accused person might flee if he goes on the run. Or if there’s a suspicion of drug trafficking, an officer could ask about immigration status to help determine where drugs might be coming from.

But immigration status shouldn’t be asked of witnesses or victims who report crimes, or in routine points of contact, like traffic stops, he says.

“It is very, very important that a professional department handle itself properly.”

The intent of the policy is to ensure complete criminal investigations, while preventing profiling and ensuring that crimes get reported by victims and witnesses.

“You have young ladies and children falling victims to child abuse and rape who we don’t want to be afraid to call police because their immigration status might be questioned,” he explains.

Berry wants a policy similar to Bernalillo County’s

Asked if Berry thinks the rise in property crimes in Albuquerque can be linked to the immigrant population, as his mailer implied to some, Berry campaign spokeswoman Dana Feldman said only that the mailer is about Berry’s overall public safety agenda, which has highlighted both property crime and the APD immigration policy.

Berry says on the stump that APD doesn’t allow its officers the leeway they need to find out if a person is legitimately in the United States, and, if not, to report them to federal immigration authorities.

“When police officers run across a situation where they think public safety is well served by inquiring, they should have the authority to do so,” Berry told the Independent earlier this summer.

If he’s elected mayor, he says he’ll ensure APD has a policy similar to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s department.

That policy doesn’t allow officers to stop and question a person “solely” on the grounds that they might be “deportable immigrants,” but once an arrest is determined to be necessary, officers are instructed to inform a supervisor who will notify federal authorities.