Latinos in Criminal Justice

Latinos have a large presence in America, and have for a long time. This large Latino presence is due to the freedoms that are afforded by the United States government since the founding of our nation. Latinos may come to The United States for many reasons, one reason that Latinos may have the desire to come to the states is due to the corruption and violence in Latin America and their home countries. Countries in Latin America may not be safe for people to start families, and allow people to accumulate wealth.

These goals are achievable in the United States because of our government and Criminal Justice System. Latinos seeking better lives are able to find many jobs in The States, in many different occupations. In Criminal Justice there are many job opportunities in any field. Latinos are the fastest growing population in America, and Due to this there is always Latinos looking for jobs. Jobs in Law Enforcement are great occupations for Latinos. Although many Latinos may face discrimination in The United States, as well as being forced to deal with many other diversities, due to subjection to low income jobs after immigration. Latinos are the fastest growing population of people growing in the United states currently, and have been since 2010. According to research(Hugo-Lopez,2018),about 61 percent of Latinos in the country are 35 or younger.

This means that there is an incredible amount of young Latinos people looking for education and work in the United States. Second generation Latinos in The United States are very Prominent in colleges, and Graduating at increasing rates. This is due the amount of determination to make a difference from Latino youths. Currently, the amount of Latinos in the criminal Justice System is not overwhelming, andthere are several issues including the involvement of latinos in Law Enforcement in The United States, and their operations. The main Parts of Law Enforcement that these issues can be seen arein agencies Like ICE, FBI, And the NYPD. Although there are many issues within these agencies, there are also efforts made by these agencies in order to add more diversity and incorporate different cultures into there forces. Latinos are able to provide many benefits to every part of the United States criminal justice system. One of the biggest advantages that Latinos may have in our Justice System is the ability to speak two languages. Being bilingual in America is a huge advantage, not only for communication between officers. Communication between officers is very important, but the most important part of law enforcement jobs is the officers ability to communicate with civilians.Almost 18 percent of the United States are Latino.

This is important to keep in mind when hiringofficers for each agency in the country, especially for agencies in places like the New York Police Department, where over half the population is spanish speaking. Another benefit that latinos are able to provide for law enforcement is hard work. Many people in The United States have become lazy, and unwilling to do hard work in order to make money. For latinos this is different, due to many latinos coming from humble upcomings, with immigrant parents, there is a determination that is present for people of this Latino descent all over The United States. Thesebenefits are present in all of the agencies in the United States justice system involving Latinos, but there also many differences in the problems that may stop Latinos from being able to be part of these jobs in different ways in different jobs.In all of these agencies latinos are protected under the Article 23, of the United Declaration Of Human Rights. The United Declaration Of Human Rights is a document stating basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to. There are exactly 30 articles under this document in which go into full detail about each basic human right afforded to everyone upon birth. All countries must abide by these laws or they are prosecuted and corrected for disobeying these laws. Article 23 protects the rights of workers, and also the way that they are treated in the workplace. This article directly relates to Latinos and any minorities in all organizations.

One organization where abuse of the rights granted in this document was challenged is in the FBI. Mistreatment against Latino and Hispanic agents was brought to attention in the court case Perez V.S. FBI(Perez v. FBI,1989). This case happened in Texas on 1989. In this case Mat Perez, a special agent in the FBI, banded with over 300 other Latino FBI employee’s to fight the discrimination within the Bureau. The Plaintiff claimed that the FBI did not allow Latino employees the same benefits as White agents. Perez and the agents supporting his claims also claimed that the FBI did not equally hire the Latino and Hispanic officers in the agency. Evidence to support this claim can still be seen in the FBI(Figure 1). After Trial it was concluded that Perez and his fellow agents claims were not supported by their claims. The case was ended on the notion that there was insufficient evidence against theFBI, supporting the claim of discrimination against the agency. This outcome was supported by the programs and need for Latino and Hispanic forces. For example, programs like DARP are still used in order to find and hire minority agents for the FBI. DARP stands for Diversity Agent Recruiting Program, this program is used to add diversity and allow for more bilingual officers tobe part of the FBI. Programs like DARP are very beneficial for agencies like the FBI due to the amount of communication that can be added for the force.

Another huge factor that helped the FBI defend themselves in this case is there huge need for bilingual agents to lead groups, this is evident by the Accelerated Promotion System. This system is used by the FBI in order to allow officers who are bilingual a greater chance of promotion, due to their advantage in communications. These two programs alone are enough evidence to show that the FBI gave equal chances to all agents in the Bureau for promotion, and equal work.One of the Agencies where Latinos are very prominent is in the New York Police Department. Over half of the NYPD is made up of Latino’s and minorities. Although there is is alarge concentration of Minorities in the NYPD, these officers are not spread out evenly among the tiers of the police force(Figure 1). There is also a specific case involving two bilingual officers who were in trouble for speaking spanish of the job.(Fermino, J.,2018). These two officers in particular were reprimanded for speaking spanish to each other during a shift. This officer has also spoken out on the close watch that the prosteiged officers in the force, keep on minority officers. Although there are many problems present involving Minorities in the NYPD, there are also many positive things present in the agency. Within the NYPD Latinos in the force are in high demand due to the large amount of spanish speaking people in New York City. New York City is over 51 percent spanish speaking. This high amount of spanish speaking people in the city make a large demand for spanish speaking officers. This also makes a higher demand for bilingual officers. Since spanish speaking officers are needed in the force this also opens up many new chances for spanish speaking officers in the NYPD.

One of the most important parts of out Criminal Justice System is having effective communication. Officers who are bilingual allow this to happen, and make communication much more efficient in the police force.Finally, the last agency in our Criminal Justice System involving a large amount of Latino officers is ICE. The United States Immigration and Customs enforcement agency, known as ICE enforces, Homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws. ICE does many things to ensure homeland security(ICE,2016 ). The various operations performed by ICE include investigations and removal operations. ICE has many connections with both the FBI and NYPD in order to maintain a proper amount of intelligence and keeping each agency up to date with each other. The biggest and most impacting part of the job for ICE is dealing with illegal immigrants in the United States, and their extraction. In this process ICE locates immigrants, who are wanted in their former countries and return them to their countries of origin.Many people do not support the work of ICE. This is mostly due to the belief that deportation is not the correct way to deal with these people, especially when peoples home countries are not safe. Although it may not seem right to put people back in places that are not safe, ICE is only concerned with protecting the nation from terrorism and illegal persons enteringthe country. ICE removed a total of 240,255 aliens in 2016, a two percent increase over 2015, but a 24 percent decrease from 2014(What,n.d.).

If people are unsafe in their home countries they should be able to come to the United States for asylum, but sneaking into the country illegally will only cause problems for them in the long run. People moving into the country are obligated to go through the correct process to become a citizen and not have to worry about removal by organizations like ICE. Although not all of the immigrants that ICE deals with are not of Hispanic or Latino descent, in many cases their are Latinos involved in extractions and removal operations. Due to the large amounts of spanish speaking people that this agency may be dealing with spanish speaking officers are very important. Within ICE about 21.5 percent of all employees are Latino. Many Latinos are looked down upon for being a part of this agency due to the nature of the job. Even though Latinos may not be comfortable with this work they are in very high demand. This high demand for bilingual people in the ICE agency is very beneficial for Latinos willing to do this sort of work, because of the huge amount of job opportunities available looking for bilingualagents. Although this line of work may seem very incorrect for some people to be a part of, and also captures a lot of negative attention, it is necessary for the security of our country in many cases. In conclusion Latinos are in very high demand in several parts of Law Enforcement in the United States. This is due to the benefits of having bilingual officers on duty, due to the high concentration of spanish speaking citizens in the country, as well as the high concentration of young Latinos that are present and willing to work in these Law Enforcement agencies. In Agencies like the FBI, ICE and the NYPD there are many benefits to having officers that are bilingual. This opens up many opportunities for Latinos, and has given them many advantages when looking for jobs in Law Enforcement. Although there are many problems that are prominent in these types of jobs, they are becoming increasingly populated by Latinos in the country who continue to help serve and protect our nation.

References:

ICE Immigration Removals. (2016). Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://www.ice.gov/removal-statistics/2016

Fermino, J. (2018, April 10). NYPD officer reprimanded for briefly speaking Spanish under little-known department rule - NY Daily News.

Retrieved December 13, 2018, from Abbondola, https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-officer-reprimanded-speaking-spanish-article-1.1380559

Recruiting Figure 1)Hugo-Lopez, M. (2018, September 13). Key facts about young Latinos. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/13/key-facts-about-young-latinos/

Lopez-Moya, E. (2017, August 25). The Latino face of ICE. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from http://aldianews.com/articles/politics/latino-face-ice/49619

Norris, J. J. (2018, March 5). Racial and Other Sociodemographic Disparities in Terrorism Sting Operations. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2332649218756136

Perez v. FBI (February 7, 1989), U.s. Justia 707. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/707/891/1574356/

Pinkerton, J., & Houston Chronicle. (2011, July 21). Hispanics hold 52 percent of Border Patrol jobs. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://www.chron.com/news/article/Hispanics-hold-52-percent-of-Border-Patrol-jobs-1528577.php

What is Immigration and Customs Enforcement? (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://www.federallawenforcement.org/ice/what-is-ice/

What We Do:Removal. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://www.ice.gov/removal

What is Business Necessity? (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://www.criteriacorp.com/resources/glossary_business_necessity.php

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