UPDATE: I seem to have used a certain term in this post, a term that I have always understood as referring to immigration status, but which i am now informed is racially/ethnically insensitive. I apologize. I won't change the word on my site, though, because I do not go back and hide my mistakes or bury evidence of my own errors.

"Do not bother the wetbacks"

Those are the orders given to the police here in Houston after a meeting between police officials and pro-border-jumper groups here in Houston. It seems that a couple of police officers responding to a trespassing call had photographed a group of day laborers in order to document their presence in the event they again trespassed on the property. This upset the men, who are in the country illegally, and let to complaints by community groups.

The Houston Police Department has instructed officers not to photograph illegal immigrants seeking day jobs, after an incident last month prompted an outcry from an immigrant rights group. ADVERTISEMENT

Houston police Capt. Juan Trevino made the pledge to 400 people who attended a meeting Tuesday night organized by The Metropolitan Organization, an interfaith grass-roots political action group.

Trevino said that "an isolated handful of officers" took immigrants' photographs after a business owner on North Shepherd recently complained that they "were walking on private property."

Addressing the TMO gathering in Spanish and English, Trevino said that the Houston police department will work with the organization to encourage immigrant workers to seek work at the east side day labor center.

"We have initiated a policy where, at this time, we are instructing all officers that they cannot photograph any of the day laborers that are currently out in the field," Trevino said.

So let's get this straight. City policy already states that police cannot inquire about immigration status, and cannot report border-jumpers to the INS. Now they cannot even engage in reasonable steps to document their property crimes, and must direct them to a day labor center where they can illegally obtain work.

Am I the only one who sees the absurdity in this? I thought the police were supposed to support and uphold the law, not facilitate breaking it.