The state we're in
Submitted by kmr on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 2:40pm. enforcement immigration
Via the Citizen, this week's Letter from the Editor:

I was in the Triad the other day visiting with some fellow media types including blogger Jon Lowder, who related an incident he’d happened upon while returning from a recent visit to Pittsboro.

Lowder encountered a traffic stop on N.C. 87 just inside the Alamance County line. After watching the sheriff deputies and highway patrol checking licenses and looking over the cars, Lowder said it was apparent that the law was interested in vehicles with Hispanic occupants and not much interested in anyone else.

Alamance, as many of you know, is one of a handful of counties in North Carolina that receives federal funds for participating in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, which allows them to identify and deport those in the country illegally.

Roughly $750,000 went out to North Carolina sheriffs last year. This year, the amount’s been upped to $1 million even though agencies weren’t able to spend all of the previous allocation.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but shortly after passage, Sen. Elizabeth Dole appeared in a campaign commercial with some of those sheriffs.

This week, Rep. David Price said he supported expanding the program, but took flack from anti-immigrant activists because he’s said the program should focus on those in jail and not those gainfully employed. Too soft, they said, pushing for more workplace raids.

While on paper the 287(g) program is intended to apprehend those committing crimes within the community, the techniques used and the results are dubious. It is proving to be a popular program because the people identified and deported are already in jail. But the question not being asked is ‘how did they get there?’

Since implementing the program, Alamance, which has both a swelling Latino population and a long history of anti-immigrant sentiment, has arrested, jailed and deported more than 400 individuals. Most of the offenses that result in the arrest and deportation of those individuals are for “traffic violations.â€