County considers trespassing law

The proposal calls for deportation of illegal aliens stopped for other offenses.
HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) -- Officials in Butler County -- where the Hispanic population has grown by 500 percent since 1990 -- said they hope to enact a state trespassing law for illegal immigrants.
State Rep. Courtney Combs, a Fairfield Republican, is working up a proposal that would charge illegal immigrants with state trespassing when they are arrested or pulled for traffic violations. It would call for immediate deportation, authority currently reserved for federal judges.
Combs, County Commissioner Mike Fox and Sheriff Rick Jones contend federal resources are stretched too thin to adequately police the region's ballooning immigrant population.
"We have to start dealing with it ourselves," Jones said.
But the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency responds to reported illegal immigration and has the resources to deal with the cases, said Greg Palmore, an agency spokesman.
Fox said the trespassing proposal and other new policies aimed at illegal aliens make up for "stupid political correctness" that has kept the federal government from addressing immigration issues.
"My theory is that if you're too stupid to learn how to say, 'I want a beer,' in English, you're too stupid to drink to begin with," Fox said, alluding to a Mason bar with a sign that reads, "For Service, Speak English."
Misgivings
The proposal could open the door to racial profiling, said Gary Daniels, litigation coordinator for the Ohio American Civil Liberties Union, adding that policies prohibiting profiling are often ineffective.
A similar law was passed in New Hampshire, but in August a judge ruled that police could not use it against immigrants.
Daniels said he worries the Butler County proposal and a policy that requires a declaration of citizenship from inmates will further marginalize the county's Hispanic residents.
"For very good reason, police agencies throughout the country have worked very hard to make positive inroads into their local immigrant communities," Daniels said. "This proposal could create a culture of mistrust and fear that would impede police investigations which rely on obtaining information from those communities."
The county's Hispanic population has grown faster than other counties in the region. It jumped more than 43 percent to nearly 7,000 people between 2000 and 2004.
Officials' justification
Fox said the measures aren't meant to target Hispanics, although he acknowledged that 90 percent of the country's illegal immigrants are from Mexico.
"This isn't about stopping immigration or preventing people from coming here to live the American dream," he said. "This isn't an attack on any particular ethnic group. This is about national security and the federal government's failure to act."
Starting Monday, the county will tack a falsification charge against inmates in the county jail who lie about their citizen status. Jones will then charge the federal government $70 per day to house inmates unless they are taken into federal custody for deportation proceedings.
"They may not pay it, in which case, we will load the illegal aliens on a bus and drop them at [immigration officials'] doorstep," Jones said.
Jones did not elaborate on what that would entail, but he did mention a plan to forgo misdemeanor charges against illegal immigrants who voluntarily leave the country on one-way flights that the county would pay for. Jones said the flights would be cheaper than housing an inmate for a week.