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Mexicans fear NYPD scrutiny

By Annie Correal | Special to amNewYork

June 12, 2007

When the NYPD began random bag searches in the subway following the July 2005 terror bombing of London's Metro, recent Mexican arrivals in New York shied away from taking trains.

Many lived in "constant fear" that they would be stopped in the subway and asked for their papers, said Ambrosio Sosa, 40, who came to the city from Mexico 20 years ago. He described seeing new immigrants run out of the train stations when they saw a checkpoint.

That fear still exists almost two years later.

Celso, a 27-year-old deli worker from southern Mexico who did not want to give his full name because of his immigration status, said he had heard stories of people being deported without even being able to retrieve their belongings. Standing on 116th Street in East Harlem with a group of workers, also from southern Mexico, he said he would not go to a station with a checkpoint. The others agreed.

Some in the growing Mexican community feel they are targeted because of their dark complexion.

"It's like a magnet," says Omar Guzman, 29, who lives in Astoria. "Police see the darker skin and they come over." Guzman, who came to New York from Mexico City seven years ago, has never been stopped but says it's because he is pale and "blends in."

The police department maintains these fears are not grounded in reality and it denies Mexicans are targeted.

"Absolutely not," said Capt. Patrick Kerins of the NYPD's transit bureau. "It's random and not focused on any one group. We don't stick our noses in it. We have nothing to do with immigration officers."

Edward Juarez, president of the International Immigrants Foundation, said it was important for the Mexican community to know this.

"The Constitution guarantees everyone in America the right to freedom and mobility," Juarez said. "They should not be afraid of the authorities."

"If people are running out of stations, or avoiding checkpoints, we have to prevent this from happening," he said.