RALEIGH - The director of a statewide Hispanic advocacy group said he applauds the police’s arrest yesterday of a man charged with targeting Hispanics in a wave of robberies near downtown.

But Tony Asion, director of El Pueblo, said he's also certain the suspect “is only one of many who are committing these types of crimes.”

In e-mail to The News & Observer, Asion said there are more victims who have not come forward because they are afraid of being deported.

That’s especially true, Asion said, in what he sees as a growing climate of anti-immigration bolstered by the 287g program. The program, recently approved in Wake County, partners North Carolina sheriffs with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allows sheriffs deputies to check the immigration status of criminal suspects and to hold suspects here illegally for deportation proceedings.

“The negative attitude towards Latinos coupled with programs such as the 287g program only fuels this type of behavior,” Asion said about the robbery spree that police say resulted in one homicide and two more victims who were shot.

“We also hope that law enforcement realizes that this type of behavior is being condoned by their actions such as promoting a program that was designed to deport serious criminal aliens and yet has managed to deport mostly traffic violators," he wrote.

Police arrested Antoine Jerrod Watkins, who was already in jail waiting to be tried for murder. Police charged him yesterday with taking hundreds of dollars in cash and valuables and shooting two people during a robbery and burglary spree in the downtown area.

Watkins, 26, of Wendell has been in the Wake County jail since April in connection with the Feb. 22 shooting death of Carlos Humberto Martinez during a home invasion robbery at a duplex apartment at 1207-A E. Jones St.

Police charged Watkins on Wednesday afternoon with 17 counts of armed robbery, seven counts of first-degree burglary, four counts of second-degree kidnapping, two counts of attempted armed robbery and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, according to arrest warrants filed at the Wake County Magistrates' Office.

Police think the robberies began in late December and continued until the middle of March. The robberies, burglaries and assaults occurred in working-class neighborhoods on the southern edge of downtown -- South, Holmes, Lenoir and Quarry streets.

Watkins had been under investigation since March when police obtained a search warrant for his residence to look for clues that would link him to robberies targeting Hispanics near downtown over the past several months.

Police have accused Watkins of using a firearm to take more than $4,000 in cash and property from the victims, who all had Hispanic surnames, court records show.

Watkins was being held without bail on murder, habitual felon and felony drug charges. Bail on the additional charges was set at $2 million.

“We are certainly glad to see Mr. Watkins being arrested and hope that it shows to others who are abusing Latinos that this is something they won't be able to get away with,” Asion said.