Thread: FL: System eases identifying illegals

Sunday, July 27, 2008
System eases identifying illegals
By ROBERT NAPPER

MANATEE --A new partnership between the Manatee County Sheriff's Office and federal immigration officials is going to mean a lot more jail time for illegal immigrants arrested in Manatee County.

In four weeks, several corrections officers with the sheriff's office are expected to return from an intensive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement training program with a working knowledge of and access to federal homeland security databases.

The program, called 287(g), is a nationwide effort by ICE to improve local law enforcement agencies' ability to enforce immigration law.

Currently, law enforcement officers on the street do not have access to a person's immigration status.

When the training is completed, every person booked into the Manatee County jail will go through an immigration screening that could mean a lot more jail time than in the past for an inmate found to be in the country illegally.

Currently, when someone is arrested, immigration detainers often do not come quick enough to prevent an illegal immigrant from bonding out of jail and getting back on the street, according to sheriff's Maj. Connie Shingledecker.

In recent years, Manatee jail officials have presented ICE with a list of inmates who are potentially illegal immigrants. ICE then investigated the immigration status of those on the list. Through the system, ICE currently has immigration detainers on 27 inmates at the Manatee County jail.

But the process is slow and many illegal immigrants have slipped away, Shingledecker said.

"We might arrest someone on a minor driving charge, and they don't tell us the truth about who they are. By the time ICE begins investigating, the person has already bonded out of jail," Shingledecker said.

Local charges first

That will change as corrections officers will not have to wait for ICE to ask for a detainer. Instead, the sheriff's office will have federal authority to initiate a hold using homeland security databases.

ICE must be notified of the holds within 24 hours, after which an ICE supervisor must sign off on the detainer

It will mean more inmates will stay in jail longer as inmates with immigration holds will not be able to bond out. They also will not be removed from the jail by ICE until their local criminal charge is finished.

"Before we take someone into custody, their local charge must go through the local court system," said ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas.

Once the charge has made it through the court system, ICE can take custody and transport the inmate to a federal detention center.

Removal proceedings then begin with a hearing before a judge, who can issue a final order of removal from the United States, according to Navas.

Those being removed are then taken to their home countries' consulates, where they are issued travel documents after their identities are confirmed.

The partnerships between ICE and local law enforcement agencies have been controversial across the nation as activists have questioned whether civil rights are being violated.

Shingledecker said the sheriff's office steered away from more controversial partnerships allowed under the law, such as task forces on the street trained by ICE to make immigration arrests.

Instead, she said, the training will be an effort to better screen people who already been arrested for breaking the law in Manatee.

"These are people that have been arrested for committing a crime and are already in jail," Shingledecker said.

http://www.bradenton.com/local/story/764535.html

The Sheriff of one SW FL county did not have the 287g program yet he worked a deal with ICE so that when a suspected IA was arrested he would call ICE and ICE would interview the suspect over the phone,then ICE would tell the jailer if a removal retainer was being issued.

This could be used across the country in towns 287g has yet to become available or unaffordable for small town budgets.

BOY SOME POLICE STATION KNOWS THE LAWS OF THE LAND

DO NOT AID AND ABET ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS.

I'm so happy for this . This is my next question for Rep.Cliff Stearns in his next town-hall in Marion county . 287g . Can ya feel the love ?