Romney's policing plan draws fire

Governor Mitt Romney's plan to seek an agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would deputize state troopers to arrest undocumented immigrants set off intense opposition yesterday.

The critics included Mayor Thomas M. Menino, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the cochairman of Romney's own Advisory Council on Immigrants and Refugees, and a Boston police officer.

"We're not in a police state," Menino said. "I think state troopers can [make] better use of their time than going out and rounding up immigrants. Our city, our state, our country is built on immigrants, and to do a thing like the governor is considering, it doesn't make much sense to me."

One in four Boston residents was born in another country. The mayor said that many of them fled oppressive regimes and that it has taken a long time and a great deal of community policing to persuade them that it is safe to cooperate with police officers here and to assist in investigations.

"What they're doing is putting the fear back into these individuals, who came to our country because of oppression," Menino said.

"It sends the wrong message to the whole immigrant community."

Other opponents said that Romney's plan would waste resources, harm relations with all immigrants, and undermine public safety.

In a statement, Kennedy said he had "serious reservations" about Romney's initiative.

"The only real answer to the challenge of illegal immigration is for Congress to step up and pass comprehensive reform, not burden our police officers with immigration duties that should be shouldered by federal immigration officials," the senator said.

Immigrant and civil rights advocates plan to protest the proposal at the State House today.

Westy Egmont, cochairman of Romney's Advisory Committee on Immigrants and Refugees, is also opposed to the idea.

Egmont, who said he was speaking for himself and not for the committee, said he did not want to see the burden of immigration enforcement shifted to the state level.

Romney "is looking to take a meaningful stand on a problem that has gained a lot of social attention," Egmont said. But he added that he hoped the governor would not add to the burdens of local public safety of.cers.

"They are loath to take on the burden of immigration enforcement in addition to the burdens they already have, because it changes their relationships to the community and makes their job harder in densely populated neighborhoods," Egmont said.

A spokeswoman for the State Police declined comment on the proposal yesterday.

But on a personal blog, Boston police Sergeant Detective John Daley, a supervisor of the city's regional intelligencegathering effort, said at empowering state troopers to check on immigration status will interfere with efforts to prevent terrorism.

"If the State Police actually start checking the immigration status of people they encounter, as proposed by the governor, they will lose the ability to work effectively with local police departments on joint investigations or initiatives," Daley wrote. "Forget counterterrorism investigations. No one will in the communities will talk to them. I'm sure the State Police know this, and I doubt that they want to become national campaign workers at the expense of their own local effectiveness."

Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll declined to comment on the blog, saying that it reflects Daley's personal opinions and not the official position of the department.

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom dismissed the criticisms.

"America is a great country because of its immigrants, and we want to do more to encourage people to come here legally," he said. "But we are also a nation of laws, and in the case of immigration, our laws are being broken every day."

Suzanne Smalley of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Yvonne Abraham can be reached at abraham@globe.com.