Bummer: Cracking Down On Illegals Creates A “Chilling Effect”

So, I wonder: when Los Federales initiate creackdowns on other crimes, say, child pornography, why is it that no one bats an eye or complains that this creates a chilling effect where child pornographers won’t report crimes?

New Immigration Crackdowns Creating ‘Chilling Effect’ On Crime Reporting

Jason Cisneroz, a community service officer in Houston, is troubled. His job in the nation’s fourth largest city is to forge good relations between the police and Hispanic immigrants, a population typically wary of blue uniforms.

“A couple of days ago there was a witness to a burglary of a motor vehicle,” he said. “She saw the suspects run to a certain place and with items they stole from a car, but she was afraid to come to police, she was in fear they would ask for her papers.”

So, he knows that she is most likely unlawfully present in the United States, and he did nothing? Huh.

Police officials have been warning about the unintended consequences of Trump’s immigration dragnet. They caution it will further isolate immigrants who are in the country illegally and are victims of crimes like sexual assault. In Houston and in other U.S. cities, police and immigrant advocates say: it’s already happening.

Unauthorized immigrants living in Texas have a double whammy. Under President Trump, federal agents have stepped up the arrests of immigrants, even those without a criminal record. And a brand new state law further tightens up immigration enforcement in Texas.

What I’d like to see is a study that shows the number of illegal aliens who actually report crimes to law enforcement. Almost every time I read a story like this, I make a quick search, and, so far, I haven’t seen anything that has data on the subject. Till this

“People are afraid to talk to the police, and how does that help us as police do our job?” Robles asked.

Their boss, Chief Art Acevedo, citing Houston Police Department data, says Hispanics reporting sexual assault have dropped nearly 43 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to last year. And the number of Hispanic-reported robberies and aggravated assaults are each down 12 percent.

There are two problems: one is that these are just Hispanics, no mention of immigration status. Second, these are just reports, there is no acknowledgement of whether crime has actually dropped or whether the crimes actually took place and weren’t reported.

A new survey of hundreds of victim’s advocates and legal service providers in 48 states finds that immigrants are afraid to call police, afraid to press charges and afraid to testify at trial because ICE is making arrests at courthouses.

Moreover, this trend is not new. A study published in 2013 by the University of Illinois at Chicago asked Hispanics in major cities their perceptions of police. At the time, the Obama administration was pushing a program to get local officers to work with federal immigration agents. Around 45 percent of Latinos surveyed said they were unlikely to report a crime to police, fearing deportation.

Again, the surveys are about Hispanics as a whole, not just illegals. But, here’s an interesting tidbit from, that last link

70 percent of undocumented immigrants reported they are less likely to contact law enforcement authorities if they were victims of a crime.

So, really, those who are unlawfully present were mostly unwilling to report crimes in the first place, even under Obama, so, this whole “OMG, Trump’s causing a chilling effect” is ludicrous. People who live outside the law tend not to want to have dealings with law enforcement in the first place, and, can you guess what the best solution is? They leave. Go home. Go back to your country of origin.

The funniest part is that all this “fear” seems to be occuring in Democratic Party run cities, many of whom are considered sanctuary jurisdictions. Oh, and that NPR didn’t really read the links they provided, and probably do not expect the Leftists who frequent NPR to peruse the material, either.