Are some police targeting immigrants? A closer look at one jaywalking stop

Three people crossed a street in Southgate around 1 a.m. in June and were stopped by Officer Alexander Zielinski for jaywalking on their way back. The two Spanish-speaking men provided identification; the woman, who did not, was let go with a citation while the men were surrounded by officers for roughly half an hour until Customs and Border Protection arrived to arrest them.

Body camera footage shows officers muting their devices for most of the stop, apparently in violation of department policy allowing mutes only for tactical discussion. Experts in pretextual policing called the stop a textbook example, noting jaywalking has long served as a pretext for officers to investigate immigration status rather than traffic safety.

Southgate had reportedly made no calls to Border Patrol in the five years before this year, then made at least two more beyond the jaywalking stop, including one where an officer directly asked a driver about immigration status. The police chief and city officials did not respond to requests for comment, and it remains unknown what became of the two men in custody.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.