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Perry refers Linebacker questions to U.S Attorney

Sheriff denies allegations of misuse

BY ELIZABETH PIERSON
The Brownsville Herald
Posted June 2, 2006

AUSTIN –- The question of whether a state grant is being used illegally by a border sheriff to catch immigrants has spread from El Paso to Austin, and some say the question could soon be raised in the Rio Grande Valley.
Gov. Rick Perry’s office said this week it is up to the U.S. Attorney to analyze any possible evidence regarding the use of Operation Linebacker money, said Perry spokesman Kathy Walt.

Perry’s office was responding to a letter written in May by state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, chairman of the Texas Senate Hispanic Caucus, asking Perry to detail appropriate uses of the money.

As part of Operation Linebacker, Perry last year designated $10 million to help local law enforcement deter and fight crime along the border by increasing patrols. He said local law enforcement was not expected to perform Border Patrol duties.

Hinojosa said his office has since received complaints that the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office was using the money to set up checkpoints with the purpose of finding and apprehending undocumented immigrants who had not committed other crimes.

The department denies the allegations.

Perry answered Hinojosa on May 25 in a letter that read in part: “I am referring your letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas to review any possible civil rights violations. If you have additional evidence and information, please forward directly to that office for consideration.”

Hinojosa said he was pleased with the response because he thought it showed the governor favors further inspection of the situation.

The governor was not calling for an investigation in the letter because he does not have any evidence to show that a problem exists, Walt said.

“It would be the governor’s concern if law enforcement agencies were engaged in inappropriate activity,” Walt said. “Other than Sen. Hinojosa complaining about it, we have no evidence to show that is happening.”

Hinojosa read the response differently. He thought the very act of passing Hinojosa’s letter on to the U.S. Attorney showed the governor wanted further scrutiny of the funds, even if the governor did not call it an “investigation,” Hinojosa said.

“I don’t think he agrees with the response of his press person,” Hinojosa said. “Why if you don’t want the U.S. Attorney’s Office to see it, why do you send them a copy?”

El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said the allegations are false. The department has conducted traffic checkpoints long before the Operation Linebacker funds were offered, said Rick Glancey, director of public affairs. The checkpoints are not set up to catch illegal immigrants, he said.

When residents complain of cars speeding in an area, for example, the department sets up targeted checkpoints to deter that behavior and ticket those responsible, he said.

“There has been no Operation Linebacker money used by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office to conduct what has been a routine operation that is continuously done in law enforcement, and those are traffic checkpoints,” he said.

The allegations came out of “thin air” after El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego announced he would support the Republican opponent of state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, in the November election, Glancey said.

“(Shapleigh) got his friend Chuy Hinojosa to make some calls on the Senate Caucus,” Glancey said. “Sen. Hinojosa used the Texas Hispanic Caucus letterhead to send the letter out making accusations based on hearsay.”

Hinojosa said that as chairman he is within his rights to speak for the Caucus members, with whom he is in regular contact. Shapleigh said the allegations are based on information he has received from immigrants, priests and civil rights groups familiar with the stops.

“Absolutely not,” Shapleigh said when asked whether he asked Hinojosa to write the letter because the sheriff endorsement his opponent. “I asked him because the law is being violated in El Paso, Texas, and the precedent being set here could easily go to McAllen, Brownsville, Arizona and New Mexico.”

Residents in El Paso this week presented a petition with 2,000 signatures to the commissioner’s court calling for Samaniego to resign. Another person has filed a lawsuit against the department, Shapleigh said.

Cameron, Hidalgo and Starr county sheriffs are among those who have received Operation Linebacker grant money from the state.

KFOXTV.com

June 2, 2006 — Six members of Congress spent time on El Paso’s border a critical visit, they say, pending immigration reform.

Arriving in white vans for a brief stop to talk to Border Patrol the Congressmen viewed the border up close. Some had never been here.

“I think seeing the border for the first time, really gives you the sense of the enormity of the situation,” said U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor R-VA.

“People far from the border don’t realize the huge traffic, the legitimate traffic that goes back and forth and how it is hard to separate the illegitimate traffic out,” said U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood, R-PA.

El Paso Sheriff Leo Sameniego helped escort the group. And despite criticism surrounding Operation Linebacker and the driver’s license checkpoints, where residents said deputies are allegedly asking for proof of citizenship, most who visited today agreed with the sheriff’s involvement.

“When we met with the sheriff’s, they said these were traffic violations, these were routine traffic violations and that when they do pull them over, they find drugs in the car, they find illegals in the car,” said U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul R-TX.

“And what we found out today was the need for resources for the local sheriff’s department and how they are running their Operation Linebacker, and they are so successfully backstopping the Border Patrol,” Sherwood said

And that is why the Sheriff plans to continue the traffic stops and Operation Linebacker, despite criticism.

“I would argue that some of the problems the sheriff is having here locally has to do with local politics,” said U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-TX.

June 5, 2006

PRESS RELEASE

PASO DEL NORTE CIVIL RIGHTS CENTER BRINGS FIRST LAWSUIT, SUES
EL PASO COUNTY OVER SHERIFF SAMANIEGOS OPERATION LINEBACKER

The Paso del Norte Civil Rights Center, which held its inaugural reception just last Tuesday, has filed its first lawsuit. The Center has taken over a pro se federal complaint, filed by El Paso resident Carl Starr on May 26, against Sheriff Leo Samaniegos Operation Linebacker program.

The amended complaint, filed today in U.S. District Court in El Paso, adds El Paso County as a defendant because Operation Linebacker is a program of the county sheriff and thus of the county.

The suit alleges that Carl Starr, of Hispanic origin, was on a public county bus en route to El Paso from Tornillo, on March 21, 2006, when an El Paso deputy sheriff began following the bus, and pulled it over. This occurred about four miles west of Fabens on highway Texas 20.

The deputy sheriff then came up to the bus drivers window and asked the driver for identification. The deputy told the driver he had touched or crossed the white line. Mr. Starr did not notice the bus cross any white line.

The deputy then asked the driver to open the bus door. He boarded the bus, and without legal cause or justification, asked Plaintiff and other passengers for identification. The deputy removed five or six passengers, of Hispanic origin, who had no identification. During this time, Mr. Starr asked the deputy if he was with Operation Linebacker, and the deputy said yes.

Ultimately, the deputy wrote the bus driver a warning ticket, and kept the men behind whom he had taken from the bus. This incident and detention lasted about thirty (30) minutes.

The suit says the deputy conducted his unlawful activities pursuant to Operation Linebacker, and the deputy engaged in illegal racial and ethnic profiling, and also sought to implement federal immigration laws without legal authority to do so. The suit also alleges that any number of unlawful searches, seizures, and detentions are conducted as part of the Countys Operation Linebacker.

Operation Linebacker has drawn severe criticism for its operation, and last week 3000 El Paso residents filed a petition, asking Sheriff Samaniego to resign because county residents have been asked for their Social Security cards and immigration papers by sheriff’s deputies during regular traffic stops, traffic checkpoints or while traveling by bus in the past few months. They said they have even been driven to immigration offices in sheriff’s patrol cars.

The suit asks for reasonable damages and that the federal judge halt Operation Linebacker.

Carl Starr is represented by two attorneys for the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Center, Ed Hernández of El Paso and Jim Harrington of Austin, also director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which supports the Paso del Norte Center.

MALDEF CALLS ON TEXAS GOVERNOR TO AVOID FURTHER CIVIL RIGHTS ABUSES AND RECONSIDER RISKY BORDER PLAN

SAN ANTONIO , TX – Today, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the nation’s leading Latino legal organization, called on Texas Governor Rick Perry to reconsider implementing a risky border watch program that is unproductive at best and could promote racial profiling. The plan places surveillance cameras on private homes and ranches along the Texas-Mexico border and allows anyone with Internet access anywhere in the world to claim they have seen undocumented aliens.

“The Perry plan is equal parts George Orwell and Orson Welles. It’s not responsible or constructive,” stated John Trasviña, MALDEF Interim President and General Counsel.

Nina Perales , MALDEF Southwest Regional Counsel, stated, “Local law enforcement and private citizens are not authorized, trained, or equipped to enforce federal immigration laws. Improper enforcement by unqualified private individuals will lead to more problems for federal law enforcement that will have to respond to false alarms, frivolous allegations, and racial profiling.”

According to the Governor’s plan, the surveillance cameras will have night-vision capabilities, and the video feed will be available 24 hours a day to state, local and federal law enforcement agencies. People who believe they have seen criminal activity will be able to call a toll-free number and be routed to a law enforcement agency. However, the program does not protect against fraudulent reporting and would allow persons anywhere in the world to “report” illegal border crossings on their home computers. Governor Perry’s plan thus opens the door for wasted tax-payer dollars as police officers would be forced to chase the fabrications of intolerant individuals.

MALDEF is aware of increased reports of civil rights violations along the border by local law enforcement and is concerned the Governor’s plans will result in further civil rights and privacy violations, as well as incite fear and tensions along the Texas border community.

“Rather than untrained enforcement by state, local and private individuals, MALDEF supports a bi-partisan and realistic approach to comprehensive immigration reform that will result in safer communities, proper enforcement of immigration laws, and a long term solution to our broken immigration system,” stated Luis Figueroa, MALDEF legislative staff attorney.

Founded in 1968, MALDEF, the nation’s leading Latino legal organization, promotes and protects the rights of Latinos through advocacy, litigation, community education and outreach, leadership development, and higher education scholarships. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: http://www.maldef.org

Press Release received via email.