Tulsa deputies say they're not picking on anyone
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 3:12 AM
By Todd Jones
The Columbus Dispatch
TULSA, Okla. -- To see what happens when a state passes its own immigration law, look no further than Pod J5 of the Tulsa County jail.
Inside, you'll find an ever-busy way station, all 94 beds usually full of detainees awaiting deportation. Nearly all are Latinos.
"We house them in a separate pod, all by themselves, because of the language barrier, unless they're from rival gangs and might cause a problem," said Sgt. Shannon Clark of the Tulsa County sheriff's department.
How those detainees ended up in the two-story, medium-security immigration pod is a controversial subject, rife with claims and denials of racial profiling.
Oklahoma's attorney general gave no guidelines to police and sheriff's departments about how to enforce the new law, which requires them to check the immigration status of anyone arrested for a felony or drunken driving.
As Ohio lawmakers consider a bill modeled on Oklahoma's new crackdown -- considered the nation's toughest -- they already can see the fallout here.
"Only the federal government can enforce immigration laws," said Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett. "There's a misperception in our own community about new discretion our police received in our city. It's been difficult to communicate directly to our citizens."
That's been especially true in Tulsa County, where the sheriff's department has taken the lead on enforcement by partnering with federal immigration officials.
From September 2007 through June, nearly 1,400 people were booked into the Tulsa County jail as detainees to be deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of that group, 1,081 were deported or put into federal immigration proceedings.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/09/10/OK_4.ART_ART_09-10-08_A7_GJB828F.html?sid=101
