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Criminals increasingly see newly arrived Hispanic immigrants as targets for easy money, a top FBI agent said Saturday at a conference on issues facing the Hispanic community.
Steven F. Burroughs, a supervisory special agent and the agency’s civil coordinator in Arkansas, said the “rash of assaults and home invasions” against Hispanics stem from criminals realizing that Hispanics are, to use the street term, “walking ATMs,” meaning they tend to keep large sums of money on their person or in their homes because they distrust banks and other financial institutions.
“It’s becoming more and more widespread knowledge among the criminal element,” he said.
Many Hispanics are fearful of reporting the crimes to authorities either because they are in the United States illegally or they distrust law enforcement agencies based on their experiences in the countries where they were born and raised, Burroughs said.
Burroughs spoke at the 2009 state convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens, held Friday and Saturday in Little Rock.
In answer to a question about “black on brown” crime, Burroughs said he doubted the crimes stemmed from racial animosity but rather targets of opportunity.
Burroughs spoke to about 50 conference attendees at the J.A. Gilbreath Conference Center at Baptist Health Medical Center. The conference also covered topics such as domestic violence, disparity in health care, the status of Hispanic students in Arkansas and challenges toward changes in immigration policies.
Such issues underscore the lack of leadership in the Hispanic community, said Michel Leidermann, the league’s communications director. “We’re trying to push for representation. We don’t have any representation in the [Arkansas] Legislature or other agencies.
“That needs to be changed. The community is growing so we need to be represented accordingly. Other people are fighting our [political] fights. We want to fight our fights if possible.”
Burroughs said it will always be difficult for some Hispanics to work with law enforcement because of fears about their immigration status. The FBI has too many other responsibilities to focus on immigration violations, but Burroughs said his agency cannot guarantee a crime victim won’t be deported if he is here illegally because agents are sworn to uphold the law.
But a three-year-old ad hoc committee of law enforcement officers and members of the different groups involved in civil rights has helped the FBI to develop leads
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