With arrests, police lose Hispanics’ trust

Wednesday, May 16, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Hours after a pipe bomb killed Willebaldo Dorante Antonio in the Luxor's parking garage in the early morning hours of May 7, Metro Police officers were knocking at the door of the immigrant's east Las Vegas house.

Soon after, federal agents also showed up. Although they had been called in to help investigate who killed the 24-year-old hot dog vendor, they ended up detaining three people in the country illegally who had nothing to do with the crime.

With that move - one in which humanitarianism seemingly was trumped by rigid adherence to the law - years of work by Metro to convince Hispanics they should not fear going to police when they are victims of crimes may have been reduced to nothing, local and national experts say.

The idea that a person could face deportation as the result of being the family or friend of someone who has been killed is difficult to fathom, they say.

"When law enforcement cooperates with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), it does create a chilling effect," said Neville Cramer, who served with the federal agency for 26 1/2 years.

Or, as Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Law Foundation put it: "How can you expect people to have productive relationships with law enforcement if they're afraid of being deported?"

Two of those detained were family members of Dorante's girlfriend, believed to have been at the center of a love triangle gone bad when a former boyfriend allegedly used a bomb to express his jealous rage over Dorante dating her.

The third detainee was a friend who had just come to the house after hearing about the tragedy. In the course of the investigation, federal officials also detained the girlfriend, who is scheduled for deportation.

The authorities' actions in the first hours after the death of Dorante, who was also in this country illegally, seemed so unusual to the Las Vegas Mexican Consulate that Consul Mariano Lemus Gas wrote Metro last Thursday to ask whether a new policy had been launched. He has yet to receive a reply.

The situation places Metro in the same predicament facing police departments across the nation as the population of illegal immigrants grows.

Some departments have chosen to take training from the Homeland Security Department, an attempt to get up to speed on complex federal laws. Others, such as Metro, have said they turn a blind eye to the issue of illegal residency when it comes to dealing with victims of crime.

Lemus Gas said he had not seen a previous case like this, in which police contacted federal authorities , who then detained people living in the same house as the victim.

Johannes Jacome, consul in the protection department of the consulate, said he interviewed the three people detained as well as others in the case. He said they told him the federal agents decided not to deport other adults living in Dorante's house to keep from separating them from children who were also in the house.

The consulate worked with an immigration lawyer to determine whether any humanitarian or other relief was available to those detained. The answer was no.

Martin Wright, spokesman for Metro, said: "We're not looking to deport people. Our job is to investigate crimes." However, he added: "If there's an investigation where we have to contact other agencies, that's part of police work."

Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for ICE, said one of the three people detained had an outstanding violation of a probation order in a first-degree sexual assault case.

As for the federal agency's role in the case, Haley said she could not comment in detail because the investigation remains open. But she noted: "We have laws in this country and our agents and officers are sworn to uphold those laws."

Wendy Balazik of the International Association of Police Chiefs said her organization, with 20,000 members, encourages local police departments to make their own decisions about dealing with federal immigration laws.

"We do have concerns over the chilling effect if local law enforcement enforces federal immigration law ... (because) victims of crime may be hesitant to call police," Balazik said. Her group is preparing a new policy on the issue.

After more than a week of nonstop Spanish-language news coverage of the case, some highlighting the potential deportations, the Las Vegas Valley may soon face a new era of police-Hispanic community relations.

Hernando Amaya, associate editor of El Tiempo, is one of the local Spanish-language reporters who has followed the crime and has seen how the victim's family and friends have gone from making initial comments on the tragedy to refusing comment because of fears of deportation.

Family members did not return calls from the Sun for this story.

"They're scared and suspicious," Amaya said.

As for the community at large, he said: "All of Metro's efforts over the years are now in the trash ... They're going to have to start from zero again."

Johnson said criminals should be treated differently from victims when it comes to immigration status.

"If you're going to the victim's house to interview somebody for the purpose of finding a bad guy, then what does their immigration status have to do with it?" Johnson said. He acknowledged, though, that police departments nationwide "have a very difficult minefield to navigate."

The situation will get worse, he said, because of the large number of illegal immigrants. That problem, he added, is "exhibit A" in the need for a change in immigration law, currently being debated in Congress.

In the meantime, local Hispanics, many with at least one undocumented family member - and police - are left with a sobering question, one posed rhetorically by Lemus Gas :

"If you were a member of the community, would you report a crime? Would you do something that may hurt your child or your brother?"