Thread: NC Immigrant program gets results, but there are gaps

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... 372851.htm

Posted on Sun, Aug. 27, 2006

A qualified success
Immigrant program gets results, but there are gaps
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ
fordonez@charlotteobserver.com

Few seats are available these days on a fortified bus that stops at the Mecklenburg County jail. The passengers: illegal immigrants headed to Atlanta for deportation proceedings.

In the five months since Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph's deputies began enforcing immigration laws, federal agents have added two more stops per month. The bus now arrives weekly.

The trips are in response to a total of 345 immigrants put into deportation proceedings since April. An additional 85 are awaiting state charges and also face deportation, deputies said.

Without the program, at least 200 illegal immigrants would have been released because their crimes were mostly misdemeanors and not automatic deportable offenses.

The program, one of seven nationwide, has been recognized for demonstrating how local law enforcement and federal agents can work together.

But Latino advocates and Pendergraph say it also highlights how gaps in federal enforcement have affected cities with growing immigrant communities.

Latino advocates support the program's intent but worry it unfairly paints a picture that all undocumented immigrants arrive in the country with the intent to commit crimes.

Angeles Ortega-Moore, executive director of the Latin American Coalition, said it focuses immigration problems on undocumented immigrants and not on the federal government and employers who, she said, placed a "welcome mat" on the border for workers.

Pendergraph also had strong words for the federal government.

"The Congress of the United States has let us down by the lack of action on the illegal immigration issue for decades, leaving those of us responsible for local law enforcement to deal with not only the fallout of the criminal element, but the ire of the public for their perception of inaction of a federal issue," he told a congressional panel meeting Friday in Gastonia.

Pendergraph's program

Pendergraph said his jail population of illegal immigrants has grown from 2 percent to over 15 percent in the last three years.Immigration checks have been run on approximately 1,008 foreign-born inmates since the program began, according to the sheriff's office.

According to sheriff's statistics, the jail is identifying approximately between 50 and 119 illegal immigrants each month. Approximately two of five immigrants booked are in the country illegally.

Sgt. Quinn Stancill said deputies have yet to interview more than a handful of the existing foreign-born inmates from the general population. The sheriff estimates an additional 350 illegal immigrants are being housed in the jail.

The majority of the crimes were misdemeanors and not automatic deportable offenses. Most were traffic violations (50), driving while impaired (37) and drug-related (26) charges. Now anyone in the jail identified as an illegal immigrant is placed into removal proceedings.

Revolving door

Pendergraph said the program is also revealing a greater problem. Many illegal immigrants removed from the country come right back.

One illegal immigrant was caught recently in Mecklenburg County just three days after being removed from the country, Pendergraph said.

Last week, Rafael Duarte-Vega was arrested on a violation of the open-container ordinance. During the fingerprinting process, Vega was identified as an illegal immigrant who has been deported five times since 1982, the sheriff said. The Mexican national has convictions in California for burglary, robbery and heroin and cocaine distribution.

Adrian Sanchez Morales was arrested last month on four charges, including felony possession of PCP. Deputies found that he had been removed from the country 22 times after being charged in Arizona with human smuggling.

"We're swimming upstream," the sheriff said. "We're working hard to identify people and get them out of the country, but there is nothing being done to stop them from coming back."

Many captured illegal immigrants have realized they can avoid being permanently banned from the country by volunteering to leave the country at their own expense. The option is offered to undocumented immigrants to avoid a formal order of removal, ease case management for U.S. Immigration Court and save taxpayer money.

The National Sheriff's Association is seeking to eliminate voluntary departure as an option. Pendergraph said it perpetuates the illegal immigration problem because border crossings essentially go unpunished. He said three quarters of illegal immigrants brought to the jails have volunteered to leave the county but have returned.

Latino leaders say they, too, want illegal immigrants committing crimes out of the country. But they also worry the program creates an unfair perception of the undocumented community as criminals.

Advocates also point to a study by the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute of imprisoned immigrants that shows American-born men are four times as likely as foreign-born men to be incarcerated. The incarceration rate of U.S.-born was 3.51 percent compared with the foreign-born (0.86 percent) population, according to the study.

"People are saying illegals come here and kill Americans," said Ortega-Moore, of the Latin American Coalition. "They call it an invasion. All this grandstanding doesn't do anything but cause more chaos to a messed-up system."

Stricter threshold

Charlotte officials said hundreds of illegal immigrants have likely been released from the jail in the past because their crimes were not aggravated felonies and therefore not automatic deportable offenses.

"The difference is that we're identifying illegal aliens that are committing crimes in Mecklenburg County, and those individuals are being placed in removal proceedings to be deported. And before, that wasn't happening at all unless it was a high-profile case," Sgt. Stancill said.

In April, sheriff's deputies identified five illegal immigrants in a two-week period who had a combined 79 criminal convictions yet continued to be released into the general population.

Alfredo Perez-Perez, 32, had 13 criminal convictions; Luis Gustavo Costa-Silva, 30, had five; Pedro Martinez, 53, had 14; Jaime Silverio-Zarate, 38, had 30; and Eliza Gonzalez-Parra, 26, was criminally convicted 17 times.

"Had this program been in place before, they would have been placed in removal proceedings way earlier," said Jeffrey Jordan, assistant special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Charlotte. "These kind of violations, the jail would never ask alienage. These were not aggravated felonies. They were nuisance crimes."

Pendergraph said so many illegal immigrant criminals have been identified through the program, it is causing problems with jail space. But he says that something must be done about a rising problem.

"I just want people to know that we're trying to do something when most counties are doing nothing," he said.

Gaston County Sheriff Alan Cloninger announced Friday that his office will soon join seven agencies nationwide participating in the federal program giving local officers immigration enforcement authority.

Immigration officials say they're considering a dozen other formal requests. Officials would not specify which communities were working on but said they include communities in New England, Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, California and Alabama.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley announced he will increase the number of state troopers empowered by the federal government to arrest illegal aliens from 44 to 70 by the end of the year.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department began a program eight months ago similar to the one run in Mecklenburg County. The department has interviewed more than 4,879 foreign-born inmates and placed immigration detainers on 2,808 immigrants.

Since beginning its program in December, the Arizona Department of Corrections has placed 304 removal orders and 212 illegal immigrants have been deported.


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Franco Ordoñez: 704-358-6180

Latino advocates support the program's intent but worry it unfairly paints a picture that all undocumented immigrants arrive in the country with the intent to commit crimes. The majority of the crimes were misdemeanors and not automatic deportable offenses....
Charlotte officials said hundreds of illegal immigrants have likely been released from the jail in the past because their crimes were not aggravated felonies and therefore not automatic deportable offenses.

I don't get it. If you are in the country illegally I thought you had broken federal immigration law and would (or should) be deported. Also DWI may not be a felony, but with the large numbers of accidents and deaths caused by repeat offender illegals shouldn't that count as a deportable offense?

Latino leaders say they, too, want illegal immigrants committing crimes out of the country. But they also worry the program creates an unfair perception of the undocumented community as criminals.

Here is another thing that I don't understand. If you are in the country illegally YOU HAVE BROKEN THE LAW and YOU ARE A CRIMINAL! It still amazes me the number of people that are still trying the old "But they are only hard working people trying to make a better life for themselves." Why aren't they back in Mexico changing the government and make a better life for themselves there instead of trying to change ours? Recently I saw a news report from France and illegals there were making the same outrageous statements as they are making here.