Thread: AR: Washington Co. sheriff asks for expansion of 287g

Washington Co. sheriff asks for expansion to immigration program
Sunday, January 6, 2008 2:45 PM CST

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The Washington County Sheriff's Office is seeking county funding for additional positions to work on its immigration enforcement team.

Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder says he will ask the county to pay for at least two more full-time positions, at the county personnel committee's next meeting Feb. 5.

Officials announced Oct. 1 that 19 trained officers from the Rogers and Springdale police departments and the Benton and Washington county sheriff's offices would work on the Northwest Arkansas Immigration Criminal Apprehension Task Force with federal immigration agents. The agreement allows the officers to check the immigration status of the people they arrest and begin deportation proceedings against those in the country illegally.

Helder said that in October and November, there were about 60 to 80 additional arrests related to immigration laws.

"Based on the numbers, the program is obviously having an impact," he said.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office now has two full-time detention officers working in the program. The sheriff's office also has two investigators who split time between the immigration program and the criminal investigation department. Helder said he wants those positions to be full-time.

"They need to be able to focus on that alone," he said.

The Washington County Quorum Court last year set aside about $140,000 for expected growth in the immigration enforcement program.

Information from: Northwest Arkansas Times, http://www.nwanews.com/times/
http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/20 ... 0jpog0.txt

Hi Z. I changed the state abbreviation in the thread title from 'AK' to 'AR'
(The Alaskans here might be upset or confused )

Originally Posted by PhredE

Hi Z. I changed the state abbreviation in the thread title from 'AK' to 'AR'
(The Alaskans here might be upset or confused )

MY bad, good catch & correction

Remember the old Dragnet series, with Officer Friday(Monday, heck I dunno ?)...

"Just doing my job <sir/madam>, just doing my job".

There should be state level immigration police in every state with enough illegal aliens to give economics of scale.

My city and county have both applied for 287g. The mayor said it might be two years before we hear. Are they accepting any cities application lately?! I keep scanning the news to see what they are doing about 287g in the budget but the news hasn't been that good...