PACKET EDITORIAL, Nov. 2
By: Packet Editorial
Like most Americans, we have little sympathy for people who enter this country illegally.
We understand their motivation, to be sure. For more than two centuries, immigrants have come from the four corners of the earth to seek a better life in this land of opportunity. But when they arrive without approval, and remain here for many years in direct violation of the law, it is hard to summon up a great deal of sympathy for them when immigration officials come knocking at the door.
The same goes for employers who, either knowingly or unknowingly, hire undocumented aliens. We understand their motivation, too, embodied in the familiar refrain that minimum-wage jobs in every field from short-order cook to gas station attendant to lawn-service worker would go unfilled were these hard-working settlers from abroad not in our midst. But when they are here illegally, and the immigration authorities find them and deport them, we won’t shed crocodile tears for the employers who may have to dig down a little deeper to hire replacements who possess real Social Security cards.
The families of undocumented aliens, however, are a different matter entirely. Because of complicated immigration laws, some members of immigrant families may be here legally while others are not. Children born here are citizens, even if their parents aren’t. It is these innocent lives that can be shattered when a pre-dawn raid, like the one Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials carried out in Princeton a couple of weeks ago, swoops down on a quiet neighborhood, drags suspected illegal aliens from their beds and rips families apart.
Our hearts go out to the children in Princeton’s John-Witherspoon neighborhood who looked on helplessly as eight of their fathers and brothers were rounded up on Oct. 13 to be deported to Mexico or Guatemala. We can only imagine how frightening it was for them to be awakened by armed men, shouting "policia, policia," seizing and restraining their parents, then dragging many of them off to jail. And we can only wonder whether even the most basic level of trust may ever be restored between the youngsters who experienced these traumatic events and any agencies or representatives of law enforcement.
To his credit, Princeton Borough Police Chief Charles Davall wonders the same thing. His department has worked very hard over the years to develop a trusting relationship with the immigrant community, most of it Latino, in the John-Witherspoon neighborhood. He recognizes that the mere presence of four borough officers at the Oct. 13 raid, where they provided backup for the ICE agents, may have undone in a few moments all the good faith it took so many years to build. He knows that youngsters, with shouts of "policia, policia" ringing in their ears, are not inclined to draw a distinction between overzealous federal immigration agents and more sensitive borough police officers.
In the wake of the Oct. 13 raid, the Princeton Borough Council is considering an ordinance that would limit how and when the borough police department would participate in such raids in the future. We applaud this initiative, but caution the council not to overreact to the ICE agents’ machismo by tying the hands of borough cops. There may very well be circumstances where a local police presence is necessary to ensure public safety.
There may also be circumstances, especially as the ICE and other agencies of the Department of Homeland Security wage their authoritarian and often misdirected war on terror, where it is desirable for local police officers to keep a watchful eye on the behavior of federal agents.
We’re confident the council will craft an ordinance that permits Chief Davall and his officers to do both.