Hispanic activist upset by unwarranted police search

Launce Rake and Keith Paul

Friday, Nov. 12, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.

A Henderson Police Department search of a home has a prominent member of the Las Vegas Valley's Hispanic community crying "foul."

Magdalena Martinez, an academic counselor at Community College of Southern Nevada and the wife of Jose Melendrez, an aide to Sen. Harry Reid, said two police officers entered the home of her mother without permission or a warrant on Nov. 7 in a search for undocumented aliens.

Martinez's mother, Alicia Martinez, lives across the street from her daughter. She is a U.S. citizen, Magdalena Martinez said. Her mother doesn't speak English and is afraid to speak to the media about the search, she said.

Vicki Taylor, a spokeswoman for the city of Henderson, confirmed that police entered the home, but said a roommate at the home gave police permission to enter. She said police found no evidence of undocumented immigrants or other wrongdoing in a nine-minute inspection of the house.

She said police responded to an anonymous call that said there were a large number of "illegal aliens, running from the law" living in the home on Margarita Avenue.

Police must investigate such calls, Taylor said. The question of their immigration status wasn't what prompted the investigation, but the statements "running from the law" and "a large group of people."

But even if the caller simply had said there were illegal aliens in the house, the police would have responded, Taylor said. The Henderson police have the same kind of relationship with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service that they have with other federal law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, she added.

"We don't have the discretion to determine if this is in someone else's jurisdiction," she said. "If we get a call, we roll."

Henderson Police Lt. Jim White said the department has begun an internal affairs investigation of the incident.

Taylor said repeated unfounded calls could result in police charging the caller with harassment.

The INS does work with local police departments when undocumented immigrants are found in the area, said Steve Usiak, a supervisory special agent with the Las Vegas INS office.

But when asked if Henderson or any other local police department has the authority to go into homes or work sites looking for undocumented immigrants, Usiak said responded, "I would have to say no."

"We're the authority as far as this is concerned," he said. He said if police get a tip about undocumented immigrants, the call or tip should be forwarded to the INS.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union regional chapter, said his organization "far too frequently" hears of police searching homes, work sites and individuals under the auspices of seeking undocumented immigrants.

He said police cannot legally go into a house without a warrant or permission seeking undocumented immigrants, especially based on an anonymous phone tip.

Martinez has requested an investigation and said she is looking into the possibility of civil rights violations.

In a letter to Henderson Mayor James B. Gibson, Martinez questioned the police department's "partnership" with the INS.

"I have no idea why they would target this house," Martinez said. "This is nothing more than discrimination based on ethnicity and based on language.

"My goal is to understand what the role of the police is, so I can educate others, such as my mother, of their rights."