As part of our series , we hear from Lake County Sheriff Daniel Dunlap. A Painesville councilman said he believed a change in the Sheriff鈥檚 practice of reporting some arrests to immigration authorities is what prompted .
But the Sheriff says he didn鈥檛 really change anything:
SHERIFF DANIEL DUNLAP: 鈥淎ll that we have done is notify ICE officials when appropriate about people who have violated the law, and generally have been arrested. This idea that the police are going into local communities heavy-handedly searching for illegals is a bunch of baloney. Last 12 months we鈥檝e reported about four people to immigration. We haven鈥檛 gone and found them, they have come and found us. They crash their cars into innocent people, had no driver鈥檚 license, no insurance. My first really serious brush with an illegal immigrant is here a couple years ago.鈥�
GANZER: 鈥淲hat do you think, then, about this reaction that you鈥檙e seeing? If that鈥檚 the case, that the deputies are not looking for anybody who鈥檚 here undocumented, or illegally, that there is this perception within the community that they think anybody in a uniform is going to get them?鈥�
DUNLAP: 鈥淧eople like to play hero, and they鈥檙e going to trump up and do all kinds of things鈥攎aybe that鈥檚 a bad word. But they鈥檙e going to puff up in front of the city council and say how evil it is, and how they鈥檙e going to protect people. Our job as policemen is to protect people. On the other hand we鈥檙e going to do our job when we have to. We鈥檙e going to report people who are violent offenders, who are here illegally. And the one man that we had that we did call ICE about who crashed into a car on North Ridge Road in Perry, had been deported seven times. Seven. Painesville鈥檚 not full of bad Latinos or any other. But we have a nuclear power plant nearby. It does not make me a federal agent, or my men and women federal agents, when they cooperate with Homeland Security, and I try to identify people who might be a threat to the nuclear power plant.鈥�
GANZER: 鈥淚 think what I鈥檝e heard from a lot of people, that they say the climate around Painesville has degraded; that even if there are not crack-downs or raids like Painesville saw in 2007, for example, there鈥檚 a feeling of more pressure, more targeting. How does that make your job more difficult, as a law enforcement officer?鈥�
DUNLAP: 鈥淚f people deal with the real facts of things鈥擨鈥檝e got calls that 鈥榶our deputies did this, or your deputies did that鈥� and I say let鈥檚 look into it, honestly. I鈥檝e met with the HOLA people and others, and most times it鈥檚 resolved by them knowing all the facts. I try not to assume one side of the story, and I listen to people. And that guy that called all revved up about the whole thing and what the police are doing the other day, I said slow down, I鈥檒l listen to you.鈥�
GANZER: 鈥淭he President has said some strong things鈥攜ou鈥檙e not the President, and I鈥檓 not putting his words in your mouth鈥攂ut it does seem to have caused strong reactions from both sides of the political spectrum. How do you see that affecting Lake County, and affecting your work and your deputies鈥� work, if at all?鈥�
DUNLAP: 鈥淢y basic beliefs are, the country will be in bad shape if everybody only obeys the law that they agree with. And the sheriff should not be the guy who gets to pick and choose which federal rules, laws, regulations he or she obeys.鈥�
GANZER: 鈥淪o is it fair to say your primary concern is the criminal violation, secondary concern would be legal status?鈥�
DUNLAP: 鈥淵ou couldn鈥檛 have said it better.鈥�
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