Federal 287(g) program: Long arm of the law
Published 01.06.09By Matt Tomsicenlarge For many Latinos in North Carolina, the difference between crime victim and criminal is the flick of a deputy's pen.

Nobody knows that better than Jorge and Jose Segura-Rios.

The two immigrant brothers from Mexico awoke at 2:50 a.m. on Sept. 16, when a group of burglars demanding cash broke into their Knightdale house and beat the brothers with handguns and an assault rifle.

The burglars escaped out the back as Wake County Sheriff's deputies responded to a panicked 911 call from the house.

The deputies interviewed the victims and left.

Days later, Jorge and Jose were arrested. Jose was charged with common-law uttering after investigators determined he gave them false identification. Jorge, who provided his real name, was taken into custody because of his immigration status. He was quickly deported.

The brothers went from being victims of a crime to being the accused.

"Jorge is not guilty of any offense whatsoever," said Robert E. Nunley, the attorney representing Jose. "But the Wake County Sheriff's (Office) tricked them. He had no criminal history. He did nothing wrong. He is a true victim of a heinous crime, and it got him deported."

The brothers were trapped by the federal 287(g) program, which is intended to let local law enforcement officials begin deportation proceedings for undocumented immigrants guilty of felonies, DWIs and other serious crimes.

Instead, some N.C. counties are using the program to deport Latino immigrants who have been arrested for minor offenses and who do not have proper documentation. Law enforcement officers have identified 15,438 immigrants for deportation since the program first came to North Carolina in 2006, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Nationwide, $54 million was spent on the program during the last fiscal year. In North Carolina, the General Assembly appropriated $750,000 for what legislators dubbed the Illegal Immigration Project. Alamance, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Gaston, Henderson, Mecklenburg and Wake county sheriff's offices and the Durham Police Department participate in 287(g).

"It's intended to be used for those who are already booked into jail and those who pose the greatest threats to our community," said Paul Cox, spokesman for U.S. Rep. David Price, who is the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security and represents the state's 4th Congressional district.

In North Carolina, Senate Bill 229 reinforces the notion of prioritization. It states, "When any person charged with a felony or an impaired driving offense is confined for any period in a county jail ... the administrator or other person in charge of the facility shall attempt to determine if the prisoner is a legal resident of the United States."

But increasingly, the program has strayed from its focus on DWIs and felonies, as more and more Latinos are arrested and deported for committing lesser offenses or no offenses at all.

Duke graduate student Dan Kight studied 287(g) in Mecklenburg, Gaston and Alamance counties. His 2008 study found two major trends. In Mecklenburg and Gaston counties, misdemeanors consistently were the charges that led to the arrest of those processed through the federal program. In Mecklenburg County alone, police charged 90 percent of inmates processed through 287(g) with misdemeanors; in Alamance, 82 percent. Traffic offenses, not including DWI, make up the largest percentage of initial charges in all three counties.

County sheriff's departments' data secured for this article confirm Kight's findings. From Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2008, Alamance, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Mecklenburg and Wake counties processed a total of 3,266 immigrants through 287(g). More than half of those processed were arrested in Mecklenburg.

For those same counties, traffic offenses, not including DWI, brought more 287(g) inmates to jail than any other offense, accounting for 28 percent of the total charges.

More recent data from Mecklenburg County was available from the months after Kight's report. Since the program's start there in April 2006, the sheriff's office has processed 5,390 inmates. Traffic offenses, not including DWI, accounted for 30 percent of the total charges, the most of any charge.

Wake Sheriff Donnie Harrison said the numbers are skewed toward traffic offenses because often illegal immigrants do not have the documents to ensure an officer that they will show up for their court date. After stopping someone, the officer uses his discretion whether or not to arrest the individual.

"It's frustrating for me to sit here and listen to the people say, 'You're racial profiling' or 'Why do you take them to jail for no driver's license?' Well, we're not really taking them to jail for no driver's license; it's just a fact that we don't know who that person is or if that person is coming to court," Harrison said.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Chipp Bailey, who continued the 287(g) program that began under his predecessor, Jim Pendergraph, has said the program has helped the office.

The program gives sheriff's offices across the state access to a federal database, which cuts back on the number of criminals who are charged under different names in different counties and opens communication between different law enforcement agencies.

At a forum at Central Piedmont Community College in September, Bailey noted the first person the sheriff's office checked through the 287(g) rogram was wanted in two states for charges that included murder. "The simple fact is, if an immigrant -- legal or illegal or a citizen, for that matter -- does not want to come into contact with us at the Mecklenburg County jail, don't break the law. It's really that simple ... This is what I stress to everybody: The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office does not go out looking for undocumented immigrants," Bailey said.

Advocacy groups argue that 287(g) alienates the Latino community. "It really creates this climate of fear, even among those who are not undocumented," said Mark Dorosin, senior attorney for the UNC Center for Civil Rights. "There is always the threat of deportation."

Immigrants are afraid their documentation status will be questioned when they go to the police to report crimes, causing a chilling effect on the Latino community. Many Latinos who are questioned through 287(g) about their immigration status are found to be in the country legally. Advocacy groups worry that people with Hispanic last names will be hauled to jail just to have their documentation checked.

The fear of contacting police leaves Hispanic citizens vulnerable to criminals targeting them, and advocacy groups fear that many more Latinos have been targeted and are afraid to come forward.

But little can be done at the state level, other than cutting state funding for the program, a goal state Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird is trying to accomplish. Kinnaird is co-chairwoman of the Appropriations on Justice and Public Safety Committee. "We've given them so much money to do nothing but damage," she said. "Just hurting people, it's terrible. I just feel as though the state of North Carolina and sheriffs have no business getting involved in federal issues."

Kinnaird has little hope of accomplishing her goal.

Matt Tomsic is a senior in the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Additional reporting from CL archives.
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