Multistate effort under way to document abuse of immigrants

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer | Tuesday, November 15, 2005 8:44 PM PST ∞

A local human rights organization is helping to spearhead a multistate effort to document what it says is a growing number of abuses of Latino residents by local and federal law enforcement agencies.

The group launching the effort, American Friends Service Committee, is also helping to organize a human rights committee in Vista after San Diego County Sheriff's Department deputies fatally shot three Latino men in that city this summer.

Starting Dec. 10, which has been dubbed International Human Rights Day, the San Diego office of the nonprofit group American Friends Service Committee and human rights groups in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas will kick off a campaign to sign up volunteers in communities across the southwestern United States, the office director, Christian Ramirez, said Tuesday.

American Friends is a worldwide nonprofit organization founded by Quakers in 1917 that works to promote social justice and peace. In San Diego County, the group has fought for the rights of immigrants.

Volunteers will be assigned to go into communities and document the stories of residents who say they have been abused by law enforcement officers or believe they have suffered discrimination at the hands of other governmental agencies, Ramirez said.

The groups also want to gauge what effect the intense debate over illegal immigration is having within Latino communities and to encourage people to get involved in changing governmental policies, Ramirez said.

Ramirez and other advocates said they hope their efforts will contribute to reducing the mounting tension in immigrant communities and, in the process, help prevent further acts of violence.

"We want to get a real sense of what is happening and then present (the results) to local elected officials," he said.

Earlier this year, an alliance was formed of human rights groups that are active in southwestern states, Ramirez said. The trigger for the alliance, he added, was what many of those organizations see as a rising tide of hostility toward not only illegal immigrants but U.S. Latinos as well.

That hostility in turn is leading some elected officials to push anti-immigrant agendas, Ramirez said, citing the Escondido City Council's recent endorsement of the creation of a state-run border police force.

In October, the council ignited a storm of controversy when it voted 3-2 to back the California Border Police Act. The proposed legislation would create a state-run agency that would patrol the U.S. border with Mexico and take responsibility for apprehending suspected illegal immigrants in California communities.

Helping the alliance of human rights groups will be the Escondido Human Rights Committee, an organization that American Friends helped form with local Latino residents in 2004. The Escondido group was formed in the wake of one month of U.S. Border Patrol sweeps of Inland cities ---- sweeps that ended after a firestorm of protest by human rights advocates who accused the Border Patrol of racial profiling.

The formation of the Vista group was sparked by the fatal shootings of three Latino men by sheriff's deputies in late July and early August.

Deputies said the men were threatening them. Some residents said they believed that race played a role in the shootings, allegations that were denied by police and Vista officials.

Sergio Garcia Vasquez, 32, was killed July 28 after he attacked deputies with a dumbbell and charged them, according to reports.

The next night, Jorge Ramirez, 26, was being chased by deputies as a suspect in an armed robbery when he reached into his clothing and was shot by deputies who said they thought Ramirez may have had a gun. He was armed with a knife.

On Aug. 1, deputies shot Jesus Eduardo Manzo, 23, during another pursuit as he reached toward his hip for what turned out to be a multipurpose tool.

The goal of documenting possible acts of abuse by law enforcement agencies is a "noble" one, said Sheriff's Department spokesman Capt. Glenn Revell.

"I don't know of any law enforcement agency that would be opposed to ... evaluating what they have to share," he said. "We can all learn."

He added, however, that sometimes it can be difficult to assess whether true bias has occurred or whether there is a communication problem between deputies and those who don't speak English fluently.

While the Sheriff's Department at the time of the shootings had no Spanish-fluent deputies patrolling a city where 39 percent of the population is Latino, Revell said the department is now studying possible incentives for Spanish-speaking deputies to transfer to the Vista station.

Outraged by the shootings, some members of Vista's Latino community began contacting American Friends and asking what they could do to stop the violence. Those queries in turn led to the call to form the local human rights committee, he added.

But "what is happening in Vista and Escondido is not isolated," Ramirez said. "We are seeing the same sort of tensions in other border communities."

Vista resident Bill de la Fuente said Tuesday that if people want change, they must get involved in their community.

"It has two benefits: It really holds government accountable, and it also serves as an educational process," he said of the power of civic involvement. "Sometimes it takes these hard issues to get people involved ---- tragedies like this do rally people."

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.