Local police stepping up arrests of illegal immigrants

Damien Cave, the Miami Bureau Chief for the "New York Times," has been tracking these local crackdowns: "What I found is that around the country there’s a lot of pressure put on local sheriffs to do something about illegal immigration. And this is sometimes in communities that have large increases over the past few years, but not necessarily serious problems associated with illegal immigration.

"In John Davy’s area, for example, there weren’t guys on corners. The sheriff couldn’t show me an increase in crime or anything associated with that. This was, according to many people in the community, an effort to do something based on an increase in complaints in an election year."

As to why there has been an increase in complaints, Cave says: "The economy is down, and so people often look to illegal immigrants as someone who is taking a job — whether they have evidence of that or not. At the same time, as this has become a national debate, some of the cultural and legal issues have become more prominent … a lot of people I’ve heard complain about the language issue … they really feel that these people who come and if don’t speak English, somehow they’re of lesser value or less willing to assimilate to American culture.

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