A Matter of Trust and Public Safety
By Albert B. Kelly
As an elected official at the municipal level of government,
I find that there is far less room to think about issues in a purely political
way, which is to say that at the local level it’s more about practicality than
politics. A prime example of the practical taking precedence over the political
involves undocumented immigrants. This came to mind recently when a resident asked
about our use of the U Visa locally while sharing a piece on U Visas from the
nonprofit “Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting”.
If you’re not familiar with it, the U Visa was enacted by
Congress a couple of decades ago with the idea that undocumented immigrants who
are victims of crime might be far more willing to report the crime and help law
enforcement with the investigation without fear of being deported. A U Visa,
when granted, provides temporary status specifically to undocumented victims of
violent crimes (i.e. assault, rape, domestic violence, kidnapping etc.).
According to the Reveal report, police or some other law
enforcement agency investigating the crime have to complete a 5-page
certification form as part of an application process that ultimately goes to
the federal level where officials there decide if an applicant qualifies. The
report points out that far from being a “free pass” at the local level, the
5-page certification form is really just a small part of a larger process that
can be burdensome at best.
The Reveal piece emphasized the fact that whether or not a
crime victim will even have the chance to apply for a U Visa is largely
dependent on where they live. Some police departments around the country simply
don’t involve themselves in any way with U Visas while others make it
incredibly hard for crime victims by creating additional criteria such as
whether or not a given crime was solved. It’s basically a crapshoot- what the
report characterizes as “capricious”- which isn’t surprising when you consider
the politics of the issue.
But if the point is to get as much help as possible from
victims of crime who happen to be undocumented in order that we might get
violent offenders off the streets, then let the politics take a back seat to
public safety. For perspective, it helps to remember that the number of U Visas
granted nationwide per year is capped at 10,000 and that having been certified
by a law enforcement agency, an applicant joins a decade-long waiting list with
upwards of quarter million other applications seeking approval.
As for certifications of U Visas here in Bridgeton over the
past 36 months, it comes to 124; forty-three in 2017, fifty-one in 2018, and
thirty so far in 2019. Like all such measures, it is a tool in the form of an
incentive to victims of crime who are undocumented to encourage them to be part
of the solution. And if it can help bring a criminal to justice and protect
others then it is a tool that should be used without apology.
This point was emphasized by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in
a recent visit to the area to discuss his 2018 “Immigrant Trust Directive”
which seeks to find a practical balance between the politics of immigration and
the need to deal with what is happening on the ground in real time in of terms
crime, policing, and public safety.
The same can be said about the issue of providing drivers licenses
to undocumented immigrants. There’s the politics surrounding the issue, yet the
voices I routinely hear are those of frustrated residents who’ve been involved
in some type of car accident with an undocumented, unlicensed and uninsured
driver so that it ends up being the law-abiding resident who takes the hit in
the form of higher premiums.
For me it is a matter of public safety so I would rather
have people driving who have been through the process of being tested and
trained as part of getting a license. Along with public safety is the issue of
insurance with the idea of accountability; if a certain number of these
individuals are going to drive regardless, it’s better to have them become part
of a legitimate framework than not. Depending on how it’s implemented, a
category for these drivers with appropriate fees could possibly result in better
premiums statewide. Yet, separating the politics from the practical is no small
thing.