Column: Time for enforceable, humane immigration policies

It was Postville that convinced Polk County Sheriff Bill McCarthy that it's time for immigration reform.

So much so, the lawman's voice started shaking this week as he talked about that May 2008 Agriprocessors raid and its aftershocks:

The raid “disrupted families at the core level and terrorized children,” he said.

“There were about 400 arrests made, and that's all well and good. But for a period of time, nobody knew where these people were taken,” he said. “That's not how we do things in law enforcement.”

The experience didn't just make McCarthy change his mind about immigration, it changed his heart. “We don't operate that way in this country,” he said.

So he has joined police leaders and associations from across the country in calling for common-sense immigration reform.

I listened in on a Law Enforcement Engagement initiative conference call on Thursday because our out-of-whack immigration policies are disrupting families and communities, as we've seen here in the dramatic workplace raids of recent years.

But more than that, our dysfunctional immigration system is making it hard every day for police and deputies to do their jobs, as the officers described this week.

“Most people think this is a federal issue, but it's not – it's a local issue,” Sacramento, Calif. Police Chief Rick Braziel said.

Witnesses flee crime scenes because they're afraid of deportation, crime victims won't report, so some enterprising criminals specialize in preying on undocumented people.

Those systemic public safety problems don't get a lot of press, even though police deal with them every day. The rest of us act like immigration is some kind of philosophical question.

Too many leave humanity off the table, preferring to talk about “illegal immigrants” in the abstract, instead of real people in our communities. That's wrong.

“This is serious business, and the action we take must reflect our values,” McCarthy said.

We aren't safer when immigration law is so complicated that only attorneys understand it.

We aren't safer when policies are so skewed and enforcement so - to use McCarthy's word - schizophrenic that millions of people just ignore them.

Immigration as usual is more than complicated. It's broken. It's making us less safe in ways national and local.

It's time for new policies that are humane and enforceable.

Jennifer Hemmingsen's column appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Contact the writer at (319) 339-3154 or jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com