Every Saturday morning I pick up a copy of the free, weekly Spanish language newspaper Washington Hispanic to keep up with what is going on and to try to maintain my Spanish ability. Anyways, the title of this diary (translates as "Court issues historic ruling") is from the top headline in this week's issue, and the full article can be found here:
Tribunal aprueba histórico fallo a favor de indocumentada
Dictamen declara ilegal su detención en Frederick. Determina que la policía no puede arrestar a una persona basándose solamente en una supuesta violación a la ley de inmigración.
This story began five years ago when a Roxana Orellana Santos originally of El Salvador was arrested by Frederick County (Maryland) sheriff deputies when she was eating lunch in front of her place of work. She ended up spending almost 7 weeks in prison without being charged for any criminal act and was kept apart from her then 2 year old son. Eventually, suit was filed on her behalf with the support of pro-immigration organizations such as Casa de Maryland, as well as lawyers sympathetic to her plight. The argument was that Ms. Santos' arrest amounted to racial profiling, was abusive, and that her immigration status was a civil (not criminal) issue.
It should also be noted that the sheriff of this county Chuck Jenkins in Maryland is extremely anti-immigrant, and there are many similar stories there about how people have been stopped/arrested in order to get them deported. In fact Jenkins is the only sheriff in all of Maryland that actually agreed to cooperate with a creepy federal program to detain immigrants and turn them (and their data) over to federal authorities, even when no crime had been committed.
The case has had its ups and downs, including being dismissed by a lower court last year. However, last week a federal appeals court in Virginia ruled that the sheriff's department suspicions about Ms. Santos' immigration status are NOT probable cause that she might be involved in criminal activities and not grounds to arrest her. This is great news on the progressive front, and the ruling applies to those states covered by the Court of Appeals for the 4th District (MD, VA, NC, and SC). Supposedly this case is destined for the Supreme Court.
An article on this ruling also appears in the Washington Post:
Maryland court says arrest of illegal immigrant violated her constitutional rights
That article is okay, but the title they use offends me. Oh, and some of the comments there are downright scary. I had been hoping that when the Washington Post established their paywall that the bigots who troll the message boards there would go away.
Overall, I think this will have an immediate and positive impact on a huge portion of the Washington area's population. One thing this does underscore for me is the importance of being informed by a diversity of news sources. This story was literally lost in the noise of the big outlets like the Washington Post. Plus, at least in the case of the print edition of Washington Hispanic readers receive a more personal connection by hearing Ms. Santos speak in her own words and a seeing photo of her and her family.