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Gaston County wants to license officers
August 26,2006
MICHAEL BARRETT
FREEDOM NEWS SERVICE
Gaston County Sheriff Alan Cloninger told a congressional subcommittee Friday that he wants to eliminate a middleman in immigration law enforcement.

His tool would be the 287(G) program, which allows local law officers to be federally deputized in enforcing immigration law. It would speed up the identification of illegal immigrants entering the Gaston County Jail, Cloninger said.

Members of the area Hispanic community worry it is a first step toward a more aggressive agenda. Many fear that otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants will soon be sought like convicted criminals.

But officials here don’t have the immediate interest or the resources to take such an approach, Cloninger said.

“We need the ability to check immigration status ourselves, without having to go through the federal level,” Cloninger said Thursday, prior to Friday’s event. “If they’re coming through our jail and they’ve committed a crime, we should do anything we can to remove them from the country to protect our citizens.”

Cloninger and several other officials testified during a hearing at U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick’s office in Gastonia. Conducted by a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, the event signified the government’s heightened focus on immigration law.

Subcommittee chairman, U.S. Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., was joined by Myrick, a Charlotte Republican representing the 9th District, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Cherryville Republican representing the 10th District, and U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th District.

Local law enforcement agencies are able to check the criminal status of suspects. But details on immigration history are only available by consulting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Cloninger said.

The division’s Law Enforcement Support Center in Vermont handles the requests. Its databases contain millions of files, fingerprints and photographs of people who have entered the county illegally, said Mike Gilhooly, an ICE spokesman at the center.

The routine is necessary for most agencies across the country. But Mecklenburg County Sheriff James Pendergraph, whose department implemented 287(G) in May, said it is “virtually a worthless waste of time.”

“You might get an answer back (from ICE) in a couple of hours, maybe tomorrow,” he said at the hearing. “By that time, the person has sometimes already made bail and left.”

That’s why Pendergraph applied for 287(G) this year, bringing in new equipment to allow ICE database access from Charlotte. Twelve deputies at the Mecklenburg County Jail went through four weeks of training to become certified, said Julia Rush, spokeswoman for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Department.

Cloninger, who applied for the program in February, said 10 of his Gaston jail deputies would be trained and have to pass a required test.

Checking the immigration status of someone who’s been arrested for a crime isn’t a problem, said Angeles Ortega-Moore, executive director of the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte.

But she is concerned about where such a program will eventually lead.

“I wouldn’t want to be in a community where law-abiding people are afraid to call police for fear of having their legal status checked,” she said prior to the hearing. “Where do you draw the line?”

Jose Torres, a Gastonia resident of Venezuelan descent who owns Liberty Tax Service, said Hispanics shouldn’t be the sole targets of the new program.

“I think it’s a good idea,” he said on Thursday. “But if they’re checking background information, they should check on everybody (at the jail).”

Cloninger said his intention is to model Gaston’s program after Mecklenburg’s, where its influence stays within the jail.

“We’re not going out to businesses, knocking on doors,” he said during the hearing.

Of the 610 foreign nationals processed in the Gaston jail in 2005, 433 were from Mexico, Cloninger said. There are about 505 inmates there currently, with a capacity for 526, he said.

Gaston County’s need for the 287(G) program has only increased with its success in Mecklenburg County, he said.

“As that system becomes more influential, people seeking to stay here illegally are going to move into adjacent counties,” Cloninger said prior to the hearing. “If we’re not prepared for that influx, we’re increasing our problems.”

You can reach Michael Barrett at (704) 869-1826.