Thread: Jacksonville sheriff responds to ACLU's criticism of local immigration enforcement

Jacksonville sheriff responds to ACLU's criticism of local immigration enforcement duties

Posted: December 28, 2012 - 5:34pm
By Charles Broward

If you are arrested in Jacksonville, you will be asked these two questions regarding your citizenship: Where were you born and of what country are you a citizen.

But the American Civil Liberties Union says that’s too much.

The organization is trying to end immigration enforcement among local law enforcement, saying it causes racial profiling and fear and mistrust of police among immigrants. The organization won a victory Dec. 21 when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security decided to end its programs with local agencies that use task-force tactics in the field to seek out aliens for deportation. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is one of two Florida agencies that have immigration enforcement agreements with the federal government.

But Sheriff John Rutherford said the ACLU is “absolutely wrong” about how the program is run here. He said his officers are not out in the field policing immigrants specifically. Immigrants here, along with all others arrested, are only asked those two questions about citizenship, he said, and only after they have been brought into jail and charged with a crime. If found to be an alien, a check of their status in the United States is then performed.

“I think we have a responsibility to our community to do that,” he said.

In letters the ALCU recently sent to five Florida members of Congress urging them to pressure Homeland Security to end the programs, the group said local officers receive minimal training to perform the immigration function and do so with virtually no oversight or accountability. That, it said, has led to countless complaints of profiling and deteriorations between immigrant groups and law enforcement agencies.

“The most tangible effect of the program has been generating fear and a marked mistrust of police among both documented and undocumented individuals in the Latino community,” the letters said.

The letters mentioned a study by the Migration Policy Institute, which showed that most aliens processed for deportation in 2010 by the 57 local agencies that participate in 21 states throughout the country were for misdemeanors, traffic violations and minor immigration offenses. The group said the other Florida agency that participates, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, has processed 4,316 deportations, one of the highest rates nationwide.

Rutherford agreed that if run improperly, the programs, particularly the proactive, task-forced based, could have a potential for injustice. But he said the ACLU’s numbers are national and don’t paint an accurate picture in Jacksonville.

Statistics he provided show that since 2009, 8,346 immigrants have been arrested in Duval with 1,514 being processed for removal. Of that number, 965 were for misdemeanors and 549 for felonies. The charges applied include 327 for criminal traffic violations, 299 for DUI, 145 for drugs, 100 for domestic battery, 72 for sex crimes and 66 for assault or battery. Eight were arrested for murder.

While many were charged with misdemeanors, the sheriff said a lot are repeat offenders, some who already committed violent crimes and have even been deported and re-entered the country. Since 2009, 228 of the inmates processed in Jacksonville had been deported.

ACLU Florida lawyer Shalini Agarwal said the ACLU does not have specific examples of injustices against immigrants in Jacksonville. But she said the group still feels federal officers should enforce immigrant regulations rather than local agencies, whether an alien has committed an infraction or been a victim of crime.

Rutherford said immigrants who have been victims or witnesses of crime in Jacksonville, however, are not asked deportation questions at all because he said he “doesn’t want to know.”

“If you have been arrested for a violent crime or a crime that poses a threat to this community, like DUI, then we’re going to process you, we’re going to get you out of here,” Rutherford said. “But if you’re just a victim or a witness of a crime, we just want that information.”

The sheriff said he has received a letter from the ACLU regarding the issue but does not plan to respond.

“I think they are agenda-driven, and I’m public-safety-driven,” he said. “And I don’t think we’re going to get to the same place.”

Inquiries from the Times-Union to four of the five Congress members the letters were sent to — Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson and Reps. Corrine Brown and Connie Mack IV — drew no responses.

Rep. Ander Crenshaw’s office released a statement. “Jacksonville has been made safer through the removal of violent, illegal aliens from its streets, and Congressman Crenshaw fully supports the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in continuing the program,” the statement read. “Since 2008, the jail-based program has provided the JSO with valuable support by law enforcement personnel who are professionally trained. As with any alleged charge of abuse, the JSO has systems in place to fully address them.”

In a statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the immigration enforcement arm of Homeland Security, the agency said more than half of the 216,000 deportations in 2011 involved convicted criminals. It added that its guidelines allow discretion to ensure that victims and witnesses of crime are protected.

The federal government pays the Sheriff’s Office only for the time it houses an immigrant while under detainment, amounting to just a “few hundred thousand dollars a year,” Rutherford said. Once an alien’s criminal detainment is complete, those being processed for deportation are sent to the Baker County jail where they are housed long term.

The agreements were to have expired Sept. 30, though they were extended for 90 days. The federal government has till Tuesday to decide if it wants to renew the remaining jail-based programs.
Charles Broward: (904) 359-4162

Jacksonville sheriff responds to ACLU's criticism of local immigration enforcement duties | jacksonville.com

I say that every city & state should have right to ask
no amnesty or dream act