Sheriff Cummings Supports Federal Immigration Bill To Allow Illegal Immigrants To Be Held

September 3, 2015

BARNSTABLE – Immigration policy affects Cape Cod just as it affects towns and cities all across the country. Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings is supporting a proposed federal immigration bill that he believes will improve the safety of Cape Codders.

“The concern to me is the public safety of the community,” Cummings said.

The federal immigration enforcement bill was introduced by Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.

Cummings held a press conference at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility in Bourne earlier this summer where he announced his support for the bill. He was joined by members of his office and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald who is also supporting the bill.

To illustrate his concerns, Cummings gave the example of a prisoner currently in the Barnstable County Correctional Facility who was arrested in the Lower Cape.

When the inmate came to the facility a couple of months ago, correctional facility staff notified Immigrations Customs Enforcement, known by its acronym, ICE.

“That’s when we found out he had overstayed his visa and we asked them if they would consider filing a federal immigration detainer on him,” Cummings said, “so that if someone came up with that bail we could then turn him over to ICE and we wouldn’t release him back into the community .”

Cummings said the man, Nikolay Simeonov, overstayed his visa some years ago and has been in this country ever since.

“Since then, he has gotten himself arrested on several occasions. This most recent one for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and child pornography,” Cummings said.

Orleans District Court set the bail to hold Simeonov on $10,000 cash, so if someone comes to the jail and posts $10,000 cash bail on behalf of the prisoner, the jail must release the man. Cummings said, ICE has given the jail no mechanism to hold the prisoner if he is bailed out.

“Turns out right now, the best they can do for us is call us when he’s going to get bailed out and we’ll see what we can do then,” Cummings said.

Cummings said he is not sure how long it would take ICE to travel to the facility. But whether it is one hour or four hours, Cummings said he is under an obligation to release the prisoner.

“Here’s an individual who’s in the country illegal in the first place and now he’s not only here illegal but he committed a crime. In my way of thinking and what Senator Sessions bill does, you’re here illegally and you commit a crime, you’re gone. You go back to where you came from,” Cummings said.

Cummings said, the current police of ICE is that people need to be convicted of a crime in order to be held, but the sheriff disagrees.

“The way I look at it, if you’re here and you commit a crime and you’re here illegal to begin with, there shouldn’t be any question, you should just be sent back to wherever you came from,” Cummings said.

Cummings said in the past, the so-called Secure Communities Act was in place and ICE would issue a detainer fairly quickly, Cummings said. That no longer happens, Cummings said, so, he believes immigration customs enforcement policy has changed.

“Certain crimes they’ve identified they want to have an illegal immigrant convicted of those crimes before they issue any type of paperwork on them and to me that doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said.

Cummings said, the bill introduced by Senator Sessions would resolve that issue and other issues that will help local law enforcement having to do with people who are in the country illegally, like the current prisoner, Simeonov.

“He’s been with us for two months now, so I don’t understand in the past two months they haven’t been able to come up with the necessary probable cause to hold this fellow on a detainer,” Cummings said.

Cummings pointed to a recent incident in San Francisco where an immigrant who was in the county illegally and arrested multiple times killed a woman. The local sheriff was the last law enforcement authority to release the man.

“So the sheriff down there ends of taking the hit for this, when it fact it’s a failed immigration policy that has resulted in that incident,” Cummings said.

Cummings said Sheriff McDonald of the Plymouth Correctional Facility has a contract with ICE to hold federal detainees.

A few months ago, McDonald had 350 ICE detainees at the Plymouth Correctional Facility. Now he has 50, according to Cummings.

“It just shows how they’ve relaxed their policy so there are more criminal illegal aliens in our communities right now. Those are the ones I’m concerned with. I’m concerned with the individuals that have committed crimes. They are here illegally to begin with and they’ve committed crimes while they’re here. To me it makes no sense to allow these people to stay in our communities,” Cummings said.

http://www.capecod.com/newscenter/sh...ts-to-be-held/