Early in 2009, Ken Schmitt of US Legal Solutions joined advocates and community leaders (“St. Ann Group”) to initiate a dialogue with members of the City of St. Ann municipal government and police department regarding the treatment of immigrants in that area. The City of St. Ann is located in North St. Louis County, in the 63074 zip code. In recent years, as the population of immigrants in the United States, as well as in St. Louis, has increased, certain areas of the Greater St. Louis Region have seen a noticeable increase in foreign born populations residing in those areas. St. Ann is one of these “hot spots” for new immigrant residents. While there are countless positive effects of this changing demographic, the negative impacts on immigrants residing in or passing through the municipality are astounding.

The need for this dialogue was brought to a head when the City of  St. Ann introduced two proposed ordinances for consideration, both of which were extremely hostile to the peaceful residence of immigrants living in the city limits.  While the various advocacy groups and community leaders worked hard to vocalize generalized complaints related to perceived bias of the city’s police and housing code enforcement, US Legal Solutions was able to provide real, concrete examples of discriminatory practices perpetrated against the immigrant community and, specifically, as to various clients of US Legal Solutions through the years.  These examples mostly pertained to the treatment at traffic stops, arrests and excessive bonds set for those arrested. These examples proved instrumental in moving the city officials towards a meaningful discussion.

           The St. Ann Group met with St. Ann officials and discussed several issues of concern. At US Legal Solutions, we received many phone calls from family members who explain that their loved one was pulled over for a routine traffic violation (ie:  no license, no insurance and/or failure to signal a turn) and arrested and assigned a bond of between $1000 and $1500. When either this office or a family member contactedt he jail to inquire about charges and bond, the response for people of Hispanic origin was that they were being held on an “immigration detainer”, meaning that St. Ann officials called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to inform them that they have a suspected undocumented immigrant in custody and, in most circumstances, permitted ICE to question (in person or by telephone) the immigrant without informing the immigrant to whom they were talking or that they had the right not to speak to the ICE official at all. Often times, this results in ICE issuing and administrative order to the police department to hold the immigrant of ICE after the city charges were disposed.  Often times, information confirming the existence or non-existence of such a Detainer Order was concealed from the attorney representing the immigrant even though the Order was the very authority to hold the immigrant.  Despite federal regulations that establish a 48-hour limit on a Detainer hold for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, St. Ann had, at times, held detainees over 48-hours and sometimes without actually having, in hand, the physical document authorizing the hold.  Generally, these immigrants were also held without any visitation rights with family members, and in some cases, with attorneys and clergy.

The “St. Ann Group” initiated conversation on the following general issues:

• Hold Policy for Undocumented Persons
• Bonds
• Jail Visitation: for attorneys, clergy, and family members
• Law Enforcement Training
• Grievance Procedures
• Racial Profiling, Generally

The Group continues to engage St. Ann in dialogue regarding these concerns, and while St. Ann has made some efforts to improve their treatment of immigrants, the Group continues insisting that all these matters be addressed.

           US Legal Solutions continues to be an active member of the St. Ann Group and would like to specifically thank John Ammann with the St. Louis University School of Law Legal Clinic, Mari Kenyon with Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry, the Hispanic Ministry and Pastors of Holy Trinity Catholic Parish,the Anti-Defamation League of Missouri, ACLU of Eastern Missouri, Missouri Immigrant and Refugee Advocates (“MIRA”), Metropolitan Congregations United(“MCU”) and others for all their support and work in pushing these issues forward. We will continue advocating for immigrant rights throughout St. Louis, and especially in St. Ann.