Immigration hot line flooded by phone calls
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The number of calls to a national immigration and customs hot line, including tips to turn in illegal immigrants, has skyrocketed in the past six months, according to officials of the Department of Homeland Security.
Assistant Secretary Michael J. Garcia lauded the record growth of the hot line operated by his agency. ''Alert citizens, using the . . . tip line, are making significant contributions to homeland security," Garcia said in a statement last week.
But the growing popularity of the government hot line, 866-347-2423, has immigrants and their advocates worried about racial stereotyping and targeting of immigrant communities. It comes in the wake of a controversial gathering of civilians who call themselves ''Minutemen," intent on patrolling the US-Mexico border in Arizona to hunt down illegal immigrants. President Bush has called them vigilantes.
''It promotes hysteria," said Bill Ong Hing, professor of law and Asian-American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, of the hot line. ''It's not a healthy society when you encourage this kind of vigilante mentality."
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement hot line started as a pilot program in 2003 in Arizona, to allow the public to report incidents of sexual exploitation and child abuse. Called Operation Predator then, the hot line has since grown to include tips about a broad range of crimes involving US immigration and customs laws.
In fiscal year 2004, from October 2003 through September 2004, there were 27,671 calls to the hot line. In the past six months, the new fiscal year, there were 41,500 calls.
The hot line will receive tips about alien smuggling, drug smuggling, identity theft, a corporation hiring undocumented immigrants, and immigrants who have been deported and have returned to the United States, said spokesman Michael W. Gilhooly.
At the Law Enforcement Support Center in Williston, Vt., 260 employees take reports from citizens across the United States on a variety of crimes. The center operates every day, around the clock.
One such tip in October led to the arrest in San Francisco of a New Zealand man accused of child abuse, incest, and sexual abuse, Gilhooly said. The man had an expired visa, and he faces deportation. Gilhooly declined to give details about the case, saying it is under investigation.
In another case last year, in Milwaukee, agents rescued an immigrant who had been working as a couple's domestic servant. The couple was charged with human trafficking.
Callers to the hot line do not have to give their names, but their report is recorded. The agent taking the call collects as much detail as possible, and the report is checked against immigration and crime data banks, according to Scott Blackman, unit chief of the Vermont center.
Agents then forward the information to local Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices. In some cases where urgent action is required, ICE will contact local law enforcement agencies.
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for ICE in Laguna Niguel, Calif., said the hot line is not primarily intended for reporting minor immigration violations or illegal immigrants.
''We'll take those calls and follow up, but our priority is to identify individuals who pose a threat to national security or public safety," she said.
Kice attributed the growth of calls to community outreach and increased publicity. The hot line is publicized on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement website and in talks to community groups. She could not give a breakdown of the tips geographically or by type of crime.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that lobbies for immigration controls and enforcement, said the government ''has done a terrible job" of allowing the public to report undocumented immigrants. The surge in calls to the hot line suggests that there is public demand, he said.
