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Peoria traffic checkpoint stirs inquiry, ire By D.S. Woodfill and Daniel González The Arizona Republic-12 News , Breaking News Team Tue Feb 12, 2013 7:10 AM A traffic checkpoint two weeks ago in Peoria at which 11 people were detained by federal immigration agents has led the city’s police chief to order an internal inquiry and continues to draw criticism from Latino leaders. The checkpoint, police said, was intended as a commercial-vehicle safety inspection. But it ensnared private motorists, too, and drew cries of racial profiling from immigration-rights activists. Immigration officials said 10 of 11 immigrants detained were released. Of those, five will have to go before an immigration judge. One already had a pending court hearing. And one is still being detained and will be deported because the person had re-entered the country after previously being deported. The operation, which jammed traffic on Grand Avenue near Peoria Avenue, triggered finger-pointing between police and state transportation officials over who was in charge. Peoria eventually acknowledged after further review of the incident that, unbeknownst to department leadership, an officer helping to plan the operation requested officials check private vehicle registrations. The checkpoint came about four months after section 2B of SB 1070 took effect, which requires police to look into a person’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion he or she is in the country illegally. “It was a de facto immigration checkpoint,” said Lydia Guzman, executive director of the Hispanic activist group Respeto. ICE officials said the agency does not conduct immigration checkpoints and were on scene at the request of the Arizona Department of Transportation. A team of two agents and a van was on hand to help check the immigration status of motorists suspected of being in the country illegally. Peoria Police Chief Roy Minter said officials are conducting an inquiry into the operation to find out why police stopped and checked the vehicle registrations of private motorists. “That operations plan did not state anything about a vehicle registration compliance checkpoint,” Minter said. Minter said he learned about the private-vehicle checks when he got a late-night call from the city manager who asked why traffic was backed up. Minter then sent his deputy chief to the scene. That official shut down the registration checks. Guzman said she’s taking the chief’s word at face value but still believes it was an immigration checkpoint. “When they check every single vehicle and there’s an ICE agent at that stop, that’s what it is,” she said. Since the checkpoint, Minter has met with immigrant-rights activists, including Guzman. Police officials have since started to give back the 17 impounded vehicles to their owners as a “gesture of good will” by waiving all department-imposed fees. Drivers had to have licenses and registered owners had to be present when picking up the vehicles. However, police spokeswoman Amanda Jacinto said, “We can’t undo citations.” ICE said it has assisted ADOT at commercial-vehicle safety inspections for years, but it’s not clear if past checkpoints included private motorists. Lino Garcia Paulino said he was one of the people detained at the Jan. 29 checkpoint. Paulino, who was with his pregnant wife, was in jail for a week before a friend paid his $3,000 bail. Paulino plans to fight any charge. His wife was let go after she told agents she was in the process of applying for residency. Paulino is still trying to get his car back from police and has missed work selling corn. “I need my car to get around,” he said. “My wife is pregnant and I need to have a car for anything that may come up. She doesn’t have a car and doesn’t know how to drive.” Alessandra Soler, executive director of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said ICE’s presence at such checkpoints is “contrary to their stated priorities of focusing on the most serious threats to public safety,” such as people with outstanding warrants and deportation orders. Soler said if 11 people were detained, many more were likely questioned about their immigration status. “I’m sure that people of color were disproportionately questioned,” she said. “What if I forgot my driver’s license? I would have been sent over to ICE and would have been detained.” Republic reporter Eddi Trevizo contributed to this article. |