The Gainesville Police Department released a statement Tuesday morning saying it will work to revise its policy for dealing with non-citizens.
Chief Tony Jones requested the code relating to “foreign Nationals” be rewritten to avoid confusion when dealing with them, according to a GPD Facebook post. The new code will clarify that GPD officers don’t report immigration status to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
GPD made the announcement two days after a Guatemalan national called 911 and said her boyfriend, Benjamin Perez-Bravo, 22, who is also a Guatemalan national, kicked her, trapped her in their bedroom and kept her from calling police.
The girlfriend told police he hit her with a gun and there was a hostage in the apartment, according to Alligator archives. After investigating, police police were not able to find a gun in the apartment, Tobias said.
In an arrest report, GPD said it would investigate the immigration status of the Guatemalan nationals involved in the Sunday arrest and forward information to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The current code states that officers who encounter non-citizens will write about the contact in a narrative section of a report, while a “Records Manager, or designee, is responsible for forwarding the proper information or documents to the appropriate agency, as required by federal regulations.”
GPD spokesperson Officer Ben Tobias said he was not sure what the new code will state.
“We have to take looks at it from all areas of the department,” Tobias said. “It’s not something we can sit down and write in an afternoon.”
According to the statement, there is no federal regulations requiring local law enforcement to report the immigration status of non-citizens. The current language was included so GPD would remain in compliance with any future regulations were created.
“At the end of the day, it’s not our policy to work as immigration agents or report to (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and we’re trying to make that as clear as possible,” Tobias said.
In the past five years the policy has been in place, GPD has no record of any reports to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the statement.
Police found Perez-Bravo half a mile from the apartment, and he was arrested on felony charges of hindering communication with law enforcement and false imprisonment. He was also charged with a misdemeanor of simple domestic battery.
Tobias said whether a foreign national’s arrest is reported to federal authorities is out of GPD’s control. He said it is handled by the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office at the Alachua County Jail.
About two hours before GPD’s statement, Mayor Lauren Poe wrote in a Facebook post that he was under the impression that GPD did not get involved with determining the immigration status of Gainesville’s residents.
“This is not who we are,” Poe wrote.
Contact Robert Lewis at rlewis@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @Lewis__Robert.
