http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/ ... sponse.txt

Immigration Agency Responds To Rogers

By Lori Harrison-Stone
The Morning News
ROGERS -- The feds apparently want more information from Rogers before the city is allowed to train and equip its police officers for immigration enforcement.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded last week to Rogers' request to participate in the program, questioning how the program will assist the city in complying with a 2003 racial profiling lawsuit settlement.

A Jan. 5 letter from Erik Meder, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, to the Department of Homeland Security raised the issue of a possible conflict between the settlement and the city's participation in the 287(g) program.

Meder is away from his Atlanta office until March 12 and was unavailable for comment on Thursday.

In his letter to Homeland Security, Meder wrote he believes the city's participation would be prohibited under the settlement agreement. The agreement doesn't allow Rogers police officers to "request specific documents for the sole purpose of determining someone's civil immigration status" and they can't initiate police action based solely on someone's perceived or actual immigration status, Meder wrote.

Mayor Steve Womack believes the 287(g) training and certification of Rogers officers will help the city comply with the settlement. Womack, who requested the city be allowed to participate in the program in November, responded in writing Thursday to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement letter.

He noted the settlement requires Rogers officers to abide by state and federal laws with respect to everyone, regardless of their perceived lineage or ethnicity.

"Such training can only improve our ability to deal with the issues they face with the fast-growing immigrant population in our city," Womack wrote in his response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He also noted the lawsuit settlement doesn't include any admission of wrongdoing by the city, and he believes if the case had gone to trial, the city would have been cleared of the allegations. It was settled because of litigation costs, Womack said.

Jesus R. Ramos, Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit chief, wrote the Feb. 20 letter requesting more information on the profiling lawsuit settlement and the city's request to participate in the 287(g) program.

"The 287(g) program is a national initiative, which provides critical tools to combat criminal activity in the United States," Ramos wrote.

Mike Gilhooly, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Washington, called the program "a force multiplier" for the federal agency.

"What it is not --the folks involved are not acting as ICE officers," Gilhooly said.

The program focuses on criminal activity of illegal immigrants, allowing local officers to deal with illegal immigrants they discover during criminal investigations and regular police business, he explained. The officers aren't trained to investigate and seek out illegal immigrants, Gilhooly said. The program allows them to immediately deal with immigration issues when they come up, rather than waiting for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to handle the situation.

AT A GLANCE

Immigration and 287(g)

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 added Section 287(g) to the Immigration and Nationality Act. It authorizes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions after training. The local officers function under the supervision of sworn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

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