NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - Hundreds of people turned out to protest a sheriff’s plan to access Immigration and Naturalization Service databases, saying it will lead to racial profiling.
Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter has asked the federal government to enter into a pilot program with his office which would give authorities access to the names of illegal immigrants.
Hunter has said he wants the data for anti-terrorism efforts, noting that at least one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta, was stopped for a traffic infraction but wasn’t detained because the officer had no way of knowing Atta’s visa had expired.
But those who rallied Tuesday said local authorities would instead single out people by race and chase after illegal immigrants.
“We’re protesting the sheriff and we’re telling him to let us work and not to be thrown out of the country because if it wasn’t for us, Americans wouldn’t eat the tomatoes that we pick,” said Patricia Alvarado, 32, originally from Honduras.
Hunter, using an interpreter for the mostly Spanish-speaking crowd, told the demonstrators through a megaphone that they had been misinformed.
“The perception is that we’re out there targeting the Hispanic community to get the illegals out but we’re not interested in Hispanics - we’re interested in Middle Easterners,” Hunter said after the protest. “We’re not going to be knocking on doors looking for people who are illegal.”
The sheriff’s plan, which was backed by the county commissioners last week, calls for allowing law enforcement officers access to INS databases and giving them the authority to arrest illegal immigrants. It would take the approval of President Bush, Gov. Jeb Bush and the head of INS before the proposal could take effect.
Karen Kraushaar, an INS spokeswoman in Washington, said the names of 314,000 people the agency has ordered to be deported are being put into the National Crime Information Center for use by local authorities.