OHP says traffic stops not a result of racial profiling

Tuesday, February 22nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ENID, Okla. (AP) -- Despite another arrest of illegal immigrants in the area, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol official denied that troopers in northwestern sections of the state were deliberately stopping Mexican motorists. "These are all traffic stops," Lt. Roland Hula, commander of the OHP's Troop J.

In the past two weeks, 65 illegal immigrants from Mexico have been caught by law officers in Garfield and Woods counties. His department has captured 38 illegal immigrants in the past two weeks. Troopers in Garfield and Woods counties arrested another 27 during two traffic stops. One driver was stopped for speeding. The other was pulled over because a passenger was not wearing a seatbelt.

Drivers are probably unfamiliar with traffic laws and their weighted-down vehicles may be difficult to handle -- problems that may catch troopers' attention, Hula said. The passengers crammed into the vehicles are at risk in an accident. "Particularly with that many of them in a vehicle," Hula said.

Most of the Mexicans arrested were men looking for work. They arrived in Arizona and were traveling east in hopes of finding jobs in the eastern and southeastern United States, officials said. All the drivers and passengers who could be seen from outside the vehicles were Mexican. Three of the vehicles involved were vans, and the fourth was a pickup with a camper shell.

In each case, the workers were detained until Immigration and Naturalization Service agents could take them into custody for deportation. Earlier this month, Senate Bill 1444, aimed at stopping racial profiling, was filed in the state Legislature. It would require law enforcement agencies to adopt a policy that prohibits stopping, detaining or searching a person solely because of race, color, ethnicity, age, gender or sexual orientation. It would require law enforcement agencies to keep track of the number of people stopped for traffic violations and certain details of each stop.

Last year, an Army sergeant filed a federal lawsuit claiming he and his son endured a two-hour search because the patrol illegally targets minorities for drug checks. State Public Safety Commissioner Bob Ricks denied the allegation.

Ten illegal immigrants were found Sunday evening after a state trooper stopped a pickup with a camper shell in Enid. The driver was stopped on U.S. 412 in front of Enid's police station because a trooper noticed one of the three passengers in the cab was not wearing a seat belt.

Trooper Kevin Bradshaw found seven more people lying in the bed of the pickup when he looked through a window of the camper shell. The 10, all men between the ages of 20 and 25, were from central Mexico. The pickup had Arizona plates.

Last Thursday, 17 illegal immigrants were found in a van that a state trooper stopped for speeding on U.S. 64 about 13 miles west of Alva. The van had Florida plates, Hula said. Two days before, Lahoma police said they received at tip about a possible drunken driver and arrested 20 illegal immigrants crammed into a van, also on U.S. 412.

In that case, two men were in the front and the other 18 were in the back of the vehicle. Rear seats were removed to make room for passengers. Lahoma police also found 18 illegal immigrants Feb. 5 when an officer stopped to help a van that had broken down on U.S. 412.