Thread: Cook Co., IL - Preckwinkle ices ICE proposal

Rejects call for working group to resolve issues


Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle remains opposed to the county detaining suspected illegal immigrants after they've posted bail. (Nancy Stone, Tribune photo / November 1, 2011)

By Hal Dardick, Chicago Tribune reporter

9:00 p.m. CDT, April 10, 2012

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has thrown cold water on a proposal by a high-level federal official to end a months-long dispute over immigration enforcement at the county jail.

In a letter sent Monday to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton, Preckwinkle labels as "premature" Morton's invitation to set up a "working group" to resolve differences over the county's refusal to hold suspected illegal immigrants after they post bail.

Preckwinkle goes on to say she is willing to meet with Morton to discuss the issue, even as she expresses "strong reservations" about holding people for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, without a warrant after a judge has ordered them to be released.

The County Board president was responding to an earlier Morton letter in which he proposed covering the costs of both putting ICE agents inside the jail and holding people on immigration detainers until his agency can take custody.

Those steps would open up the county to legal action and violate people's rights, Preckwinkle wrote. Although in the past she expressed concerns about costs, Preckwinkle said Tuesday that she now is more concerned with the legal issues.

"The more I've gotten into it, the more offensive and unjust it seems to me to make distinctions between people based on their documentation," she told the Tribune. "Equal justice before the law is more important to me than the budgetary considerations."

Preckwinkle's letter is just the latest volley in a dispute that surfaced earlier this year after a Mexican illegal immigrant living in Chicago failed to show up in court to face a charge that his drunken driving resulted in a death.

Saul Chavez's release from the county lockup came about two months after the County Board voted in September to stop honoring requests from ICE to detain suspects until the agency checked their immigration status.

Critics of the ordinance contend that Chavez could not have avoided prosecution if the county had honored a detainer ICE placed on him, but Preckwinkle said it's up to criminal court judges to set proper bail to ensure people don't skip out. She ordered a study on how bail is set by county judges.

But Commissioner Timothy Schneider, R-Streamwood, said he was disappointed Preckwinkle declined Morton's invitation. Schneider said he will now push for passage of an ordinance to require jail officials to hold for ICE people who are on a federal terrorist database or have been charged with felonies involving violence or drugs.

"It seems to be what people want," Schneider said. "This isn't about immigration. That's for the federal government to deal with."

ICE officials, meanwhile, said they would continue to try to find a resolution.

ICE's proposal "would have enhanced public safety in Cook County at little to no cost to the county," ICE spokesman Brian Hale wrote in an email. "Regardless of the disappointing response, ICE remains committed to exploring a solution that promotes public safety."

Preckwinkle rejects call for working group to resolve issues - chicagotribune.com

Board President Preckwinkle Refuses to Deport Illegal Immigrants from Cook County Jail

Updated: Tuesday, 10 Apr 2012, 9:59 PM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 10 Apr 2012, 9:00 PM CDT

By Political Editor Mike Flannery, FOX Chicago News

Chicago - Board President Toni Preckwinkle rejected the latest attempt by the Obama Administration Monday, to resume deporting illegal immigrants who've been locked up at Cook County Jail.

Despite repeated requests from Washington, the County Board President told FOX Chicago News that she would not help enforce any laws aimed at illegal immigrants.

Each month, about 100 illegal immigrants are arrested for crimes sufficiently serious to put them in Cook County Jail.

The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration agents have pleaded with the county to resume doing what it used to do before releasing undocumented aliens.

But in this letter obtained by Fox Chicago News, Preckwinkle told the feds the county will not help them deport illegal immigrants, because that would mean granting them fewer rights than American citizens.

“The way in which we treat the undocumented is the sort of last test in this country of our commitment to equality and justice for all,” Preckwinkle said.

That's not how Brian McCann frames the issue. His brother was killed by a drunk driver who was an illegal immigrant with previous felony convictions.

Soon after the arrest of his alleged killer, the County Board voted to stop cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement - or ICE.

So, when he posted a $25,000 cash bond, he want free, even though ICE had requested he be turned over to them. He's still a fugitive.

McCann was disappointed by Preckwinkle's latest letter to the national director of ICE.

“I'm unhappy. What I want is Ms. Preckwinkle and Cook County sheriff and all the other members of the criminal justice system to comply with ICE,” McCann said. “I do not want illegal convicted felons to remain in this country. They need to be deported. And the way to do that is to cooperate with ICE.”

Preckwinkle suggested Tuesday that since the felon in the McCann case was a flight risk, he should not have been released on bond at all. She insisted it's ultimately a civil rights issue.

“Over time, we've expanded the rights and leveled the playing field across a variety of issues, gender, race sexual orientation,” Preckwinkle said. “The last frontier is how we treat the undocumented in this country.”

At the conclusion of her letter to the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Preckwinkle offers to meet with John Morton.

But she makes it plain that the county is not going to help him enforce federal immigration laws.

Board President Toni Preckwinkle Refuses to Deport Illegal Immigrants from Cook County Jail

ADDED SECOND ARTICLE TO ALIPAC HOMEPAGE News with amended title ..

http://www.alipac.us/content/cook-co...-proposal-362/

"But in this letter obtained by Fox Chicago News, Preckwinkle told the feds the county will not help them deport illegal immigrants, because that would mean granting them fewer rights than American citizens."

What?? Will not help deport them because it gives them fewer rights than American citizens? They are illegal. They do not belong here. They should be deported!

“Over time, we've expanded the rights and leveled the playing field across a variety of issues, gender, race sexual orientation,” Preckwinkle said. “The last frontier is how we treat the undocumented in this country.”

We should treat them as the criminal invaders that they are.