287g Immigration enforcement programs extended in Georgia

Posted: 2:02 p.m. Monday, Jan. 7, 2013

Immigration enforcement programs extended in Georgia

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Law enforcement officials in Cobb, Gwinnett, Hall and Whitfield counties will continue to help enforce federal immigration laws through a controversial program in their local jails at least for six more months.

The Obama administration confirmed Monday that it had extended agreements allowing officials in those four counties to continue participating in the federal 287(g) program until June 30. Thirty-five more such programs are operating in other states.

The 287(g) program —- named after the federal law that authorizes it —- gives police the power to question people about their legal status, serve arrest warrants, and detain and transport criminals for immigration violations.

Last month, the government announced it was scrapping the “task force” part of the program in which police – including Georgia state police — helped with street-level immigration enforcement. The Georgia Department of Public Safety’s 287(g) program ended last month.

The government partly tied the decision to the national rollout of a different enforcement program called Secure Communities. ICE said Secure Communities, which relies on fingerprint checks, and other enforcement programs are “a more efficient use of resources for focusing on priority cases.”

Since fiscal year 2006, 16,287 people have been deported or allowed to voluntarily leave the country in connection with Georgia’s 287(g) programs, federal records show.

Civil and immigrant rights groups have been calling on the Obama administration to shut down all of the 287(g) programs nationwide. They say they distract police from more important crime-fighting duties and promote racial profiling. Supporters say the programs help reduce the burden illegal immigrants place on public schools and other taxpayer-funded resources.

Immigration enforcement programs extended in Georgia | www.ajc.com

ICE Removes Immigration Program from Herndon

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has discontinued 287(g) task force agreements, which allowed local officers to question, detain suspected criminals based on legal status.

• ByLeslie Perales Loges
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• January 7, 2013

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After five years, the Town of Herndon’s participation in the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program — which allowed local officers to help with street-level immigration enforcement — has been discontinued.

The program allowed local law enforcement to question those suspected of crimes about their legal status and detain or arrest those here illegally, potentially leading to their deportation.

The Town of Herndon is one of 57 municipalities in 21 states who entered into agreements with ICE under the law. ICE worked with local law enforcement to train officers in the programs.

ICE told Herndon it would not renew the town’s Memorandum of Agreement authorizing the town’s participation after Dec. 31, according to a statement on the Town of Herndon’s website.

It also ended agreements with the 16 other jurisdictions who had "task force" agreements under the law — five of them in Virginia.

Forty jurisdictions who are authorized for jail enforcement under the law, including the Prince William-Manassas Regional Jail and the Shenandoah County Sheriff's Office, will continue its programs, at least for now.

According to an ICE press release from Dec. 21, this restricts the use of detainers against individuals arrested for minor misdemeanor offenses such as traffic offenses and other petty crimes.

New federal guidelines, released concurrently with the announcement its 287(g) program was ending, say local police should instead focus on, among other things, felons, repeat criminals, repeat immigration law offenders, or public safety threats — such as known gang members or suspected terrorists.

During fiscal year 2012, ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations removed 409,849 individuals from the country. About 55 percent of them were convicted of felonies or misdemeanors.

From January to November 2012, the Herndon Police Department issued 39 detainers through the 287(g) program.

By comparison, in Prince William County — one of the municipalities in which ICE will allow the program to continue through June 30 — has averaged about 1,100 detainers a year through a jail-based 287(g) agreement; about 5,500 people have been detained through the program there since 2007, officials told the Washington Post.

Herndon's 287(g) agreement is for street enforcement, as are the others being ended nationwide.

[Do you think ending the agreement impact the town? Speak Out on this issue by clicking here.]

USA Today reported earlier this year that eliminating the program alltogether could save the Department of Homeland Security about $17 million.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell asked ICE to authorize state troopers under a street-level 287(g) program in 2010, but his request was denied.

“Although the formal 287(g) program has been discontinued, we have over the course of the program developed strong relationships with ICE officials and we will continue to work closely with them to enhance public safety throughout our community,” Col. Maggie A. DeBoard, Herndon’s Chief of Police, said in the town’s statement.

The Secure Communities Program, which is used at the Fairfax County jail, remains in effect. Secure Communities helps identify criminal illegal immigrants as they’re arrested and booked by running their fingerprints against a national database when they’re taken into custody.

The Fairfax County jail houses those arrested by the Town of Herndon.

“While the FY 2012 removals indicate that we continue to make progress in focusing resources on criminal and priority aliens, with more convicted criminals being removed from the country than ever before, we are constantly looking for ways to ensure that we are doing everything we can to utilize our resources in a way that maximizes public safety,” ICE Director John Morton wrote in a release.

http://herndon.patch.com/articles/ice-removes-287-g-immigration-program-from-herndon-discontinues-task-force