WASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) — Many Latinos in the United States are now more reluctant to report crimes because police are more likely to check their immigration status, a study found.
Latinos in the country unlawfully are even less likely to contact police if they are victims of crimes, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Fear of deportation is “really widespread” within the Latino community nationwide, said Nik Theodore, the author of the study and an associate professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Some 44 percent of Latinos surveyed said they were less likely to report they have been victims of crime because they were concerned police would ask about their immigration status or that of their friends and family.
Among illegal immigrants, the feeling was even stronger: 77 percent.
Deportations under the Obama administration have increased 40 percent since 2007, to 409,849 people in fiscal year 2012.
“Trust has been undermined and that potentially has lasting implications,” Theodore said.
Commenting on the study, Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., said it “highlights how local law enforcement’s greater role in immigration enforcement has created mistrust between the Latino community and local police, making all of our communities less safe from crime.”
The study, based on telephone interviews with 2,004 Latinos in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and Phoenix, was conducted Nov. 17 to Dec. 10. It was sponsored by PolicyLink of Oakland, a think tank, and conducted by Washington polling firm Lake Research Partners.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
What are you haters complaining about?
This just gives you the ability to abuse them without having to worry about the police and that’s what you want for crying out loud. I’ve heard you.
@seriously-you have got to be kidding me. These people are here illegally and you want to defend them when they are breaking our laws? Why don’t you go to Mexico illegally and break their laws. They will throw you so far back in jail you will have to be fed with a slingshot. You damn liberals are all the same.
Since when did expressing dislike for those who break our laws and partake of our welfare network become an excuse for calling anyone “hater”?
Your lack of a backbone tells me you are an “appeaser” who will do anything to feel good about yourself but at the expense of everyone else.
Ya, every Mexican is on welfare…
What a pant load of BS! We keep their social security and they don’t get tax refunds and illegals are not allowed welfare but you wouldn’t know that because you didn’t read the Welfare bill passed on 1996.
You’re just a white trash racist. It’s you that we need to rid the country of.
Rotten bunch of bottom-feeding mexicans. Come here illegally and then want the same rights as law abiding citizens. They deserve what they get.
This is a pretty sorry excuse to give thousands of Illegals a pass to drain our economy.
Go back home where you can report crime without fear of being deported.
If they were not here ILLEGALLY they would have nothing to worry about.