Unfortunately, so many people are misguided, misinformed, frustrated by
and sometimes just plain sick and tired of hearing about illegal immigration
that the entire issue has become something of an abstraction. In the process,
the misunderstanding that the terms "illegal immigrant" and
"criminal" are synonymous has become fact -- even in some surprising
quarters.

    
In the weeks after Obama's speech, immigrant advocacy organizations have
succeeded in focusing attention on Secure Communities, the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that works with local law enforcement
agencies to identify illegal immigrants based on fingerprints checked against
Department of Justice, FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records.

    
They've even scored a few small victories in their quest to end the
program as it operates today. Their beef is that the program doesn't live up to
its stated goal of catching the violent offenders who pose the most risk to
public safety and instead sweeps up noncriminal illegal immigrants.

    
In the last few weeks several states, including, Illinois, Obama's home
state, have declared they would no longer participate in the program because it
hampers local law enforcement's ability to effectively police communities. And
while the conscientious defectors' club is growing, DHS is starting to push
back. It just informed Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick -- who had declined to
cooperate -- that he has no choice but to participate, further aggravating the
debate over whether states should be involved in immigration law enforcement.

    
The whole thing is perplexing to people who don't understand that being
an illegal immigrant in and of itself is not a crime. The most pervasive
comments made in news stories about Secure Communities go a little like this:
"Illegal immigrants are what they're called -- they're considered
criminals by mere definition. Illegals who broke a bunch of laws to enter and
live here should be subjected to immediate arrest and deportation -- that's
fair for everyone."

    
That's not accurate, but a lot of people have that same misunderstanding
- even law enforcement professionals.

    
During a teleconference last month on the troubles that Secure
Communities is bringing to local law enforcement agencies, a few sheriffs on
the call commiserated about their misunderstanding of immigration violations.

    
"I was always told it was a felony federal violation of law and was
always under the impression that turning over any illegal immigrants (to ICE)
was mandated by federal law -- and so did my employees," said Sheriff Ed
Prieto of Yolo County, Calif. "But after we met with the Mexican consulate
in Sacramento we learned it's not. Then I started looking into how many of our
people are being deported before trial and I became very uncomfortable
contacting ICE for nonviolent offenders."

    
Kane County, Ill., Sheriff Patrick Perez said that "90 percent of
law enforcement officers believe (just being an illegal immigrant) is a crime,
but I learned after talking to an immigration judge that it is just a civil
offense." He reiterated the same thought every law enforcement official
I've spoken to over the years has clearly expressed about treatment of illegal
immigrants: Police all happily cooperate with the feds when it comes to
criminal, and especially violent, offenders. "But we cannot hold civil
offenders in jail," Perez said.

    
Sara Dill, a member of the American Bar Association's Commission on
Immigration and a member of the ABA's Criminal Justice Council, explained it to
me this way: "States are seeking to criminalize what is only a civil
violation in federal law." Dill said that failing to get a permit for home
construction is one example of a civil, not criminal, violation. "Putting
illegal immigrants in a criminal context confuses merely being present in the
United States without authorization with crimes such as falsely claiming
citizenship or identity theft, which are crimes under federal law."

    
Everyone knows that of the universe of illegal immigrants, some have
committed nonviolent and violent crimes -- and everyone believes these should
be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

    
But believers of following "the letter of the law" cannot
continue equating all illegal immigrants living in this country with criminals,
who have plenty of civil rights of their own. That's not the American way.

    
© 2011, Washington Post Writers Group