Illegal Immigration: Americans Fighting Back - North Carolina Deputies will crack down on illegals!

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A federally funded program will train 10 sheriff's deputies in Mecklenburg County, giving them more power to identify, detain and remove illegal immigrants who go through the jail system.

Topics: Local enforcement, police, illegal aliens, crimes, laws, arrests, crackdown, immigration, Americans, North Carolina

2/6/2006
By: Adam Shub and Annette Newell, News 14 Carolina

After the four-week course, the deputies will be certified immigration officers.

"We, as local officials, can sit around and wring our hands and say, 'I wish someone would do something,'" Sheriff Jim Pendergraph said at a news conference Monday. "We're going to do something, and we're going to try and do our part."

The training comes from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. It is the first such program to be implemented by a sheriff's office that is east of the Mississippi River.

"We hope it's going to stop (illegal immigration) from making a mockery of our criminal justice system," said U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., who also attended Monday's news conference.

After a four-week course, 10 sheriff's deputies will be certified immigration officers. Later this year, the deputies will be able to refer to a federal database of illegal immigrants.

"My office will have direct access to fingerprints, photographs and all demographic information regarding immigrants," Pendergraph said. "We will also have certain enforcement powers regarding the detaining of illegal immigrants and their quick removal from our community."

The database will also allow the sheriff's office to spot repeat offenders and anyone who skipped out on an immigration detention hearing.

"This will ensure -- at least if they're processed through Mecklenburg County Jail -- that they will not be released into the community once they've served their time," said Jeff Jordan of the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Some raised concerns that the program might unfairly target Hispanics, who make up the largest percentage of illegal immigrants.

Pendergraph said there will not be any unfair treatment.

"If you're not listed as having a birthplace in the United States, then you're going to run through the system," he said. "I don't care where you're from."

Myrick has been an outspoken supporter of stiffer immigration laws, and she said this program is a step in the right direction.

"I hope every county in North Carolina will see what (Pendergraph) is doing here and will take the initiative to do the same," she said. "This is good use of your federal tax dollars."

The program will cost $650,000 a year, but Myrick and Pendergraph said it isn't a cure-all. The state has an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants, and only a small percentage of them commit crimes.

That said, Pendergraph does expect significant improvement.

"I don't think the average citizen realizes how much it costs the citizens of Mecklenburg County in criminal justice time, jail space," the sheriff said.

The deputies' training begins in March.

Schools, hospitals expect little to change

Ken Gjertsen, a member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board, doesn't expect the program to offer much relief to a school system that is seeing more and more students take part in English as a Second Language.

"You would think that people who came here to commit crimes didn't bring their children to put them into school," he said. "So is that going to have an impact on our costs or who we're teaching? Probably not."

Gjertsen said the number of students in the ESL program is rising exponentially.

"Some portion of that is very likely related to illegal immigration," he said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools cannot ask families if they are illegal immigrants, though.

Novant Health, which owns Presbyterian Hospital facilities, estimates that it spent more than $90 million on indigent and charity care in 2004.

"Someone's going to have to step in, with all the people we have coming into this country, the language barriers," said Dr. Bernard Gesing, who works in an emergency room.

But the company won't turn people away -- even those who cannot pay for their care.

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