TREATING VICTIMIZED IMMIGRANTS AS CRIMINALS

DALLAS -- Isolated by language, clueless about the American criminal
justice system and reluctant to go to the police because they fear being
deported, undocumented immigrants have become preferred prey for
scoundrels, bullies and con artists.

Just look at what happened here in Dallas, where perhaps dozens of Mexican
immigrants have been arrested and prosecuted -- and some of them deported
- -- in the mysterious case of the fake drugs. Authorities claim that they
didn't know the drugs were phony when they were busy doling out justice.
But what they should have known is that illegal immigrants are convenient
crime victims.

The warning came nearly 10 years ago when Sheriff Sherman Block of Los
Angeles County warned California voters that approving Proposition 187,
which sought to deny government services to illegal immigrants, would
hamper law enforcement by pushing immigrants into the shadows where they
could be preyed upon at will.

The light in Dallas began to shine last September, when lab tests ordered
by the district attorney's office found that about half of the powdery
substance seized in dozens of drug busts last year was not cocaine, as the
cops contended, but gypsum, an ingredient in plasterboard.

That sort of thing would be good to know before arresting people, let alone
prosecuting them. Making matters worse was the fact that prosecutors
managed to convict, or obtain guilty pleas from, people who were in
possession of nothing illegal. To date, nearly 60 cases that were still
pending have been tossed out, and prosecutors are now trying to overturn
about a dozen convictions.

Meanwhile, Dallas police don't know whom to trust. The fake drugs were
seized with the help of the department's highest-paid and most productive
informant who has, in two years, pocketed more than $200,000 for providing
police with leads. A popular theory among some of the attorneys for those
convicted is that the informant -- who was usually paid a percentage of the
estimated street value of drugs seized -- may have snookered police to
boost his take-home pay. Others suggest that there may have been a drug
switch, where real cocaine was replaced with the fake stuff.

Now the FBI is involved. One thing it might want to find out is whether the
civil rights of undocumented immigrants were violated. In the first two
dozen cases called into question, all 18 defendants were identified as
having Hispanic surnames and, except for two, lacking prior records. A
number were illegals who, after entering guilty pleas rather than risk jail
time, were swiftly deported.

The details of how immigrants got involved in all this are still sketchy.
But at least one of those who was convicted, and who may now have that
conviction overturned, claims he was waiting for work on the street when he
was approached by someone who claimed he had a job for him. The man was
told to pick up a van and drive it to a house to do some repairs. The next
thing he knew, he says, police were descending on the van and bags of white
powder were being hauled out of the back.

It will take some time to sort out all of the stories. But at least the
district attorney's office seems more interested now in getting at the
truth, rather than just getting convictions. Once convinced the defendants
were guilty of drug dealing, it now sees them as potential witnesses.
Prosecutors have asked the INS to suspend deportations until immigrants can
be interviewed.

If there is a moral to all this, it is that changing demographics require
changed thinking. Police agencies need to reach out to immigrants and teach
them what the law says, what their rights are, and that not everyone in
uniform is a Border Patrol officer. Doing that just might help convince
newcomers that in the United States, the guilty are punished and the
innocent need have no fear.