Bristol County Sheriff's Office announces new ICE 287(g) partnership

Bristol County Sheriff's Office announces new ICE partnership

Monday
Posted at 9:27 AM Updated at 9:29 AM
By Herald News Staff

DARTMOUTH — A new partnership means Bristol County Sheriff’s Office personnel now have delegated authority to apprehend, detain and assist with deportation of criminal illegal immigrants locally.

The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office was recently accepted into Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, under which personnel will receive training and authorization to perform immigration law enforcement functions such as identifying, processing and detaining immigration offenders in Bristol County, according to a release from the sheriff's office.

The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office is the third organization in New England to enter into the program.

“The Bristol County Sheriff’s Office will continue to fully cooperate with ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies to protect the citizens of this great county,” Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson said in the release. “More communication and cooperation between law enforcement organizations can only benefit our citizens and help keep them safe.

"Our obligation first and foremost is to collaborate with all law enforcement at every level to maximize our resources to protect the safety of our citizens and legal residents,” Hodgson said.

“Partnerships, such as the one with Bristol County, provide immediate and direct positive contributions to community and officer safety,” said Boston ERO Field Office Director Chris Cronen, of ICE, said in the release.

The sheriff's office applied for the partnership months before the election and recent news on cities and towns pledging to defy national immigration policy.

Before entering the 287(g) partnership, ICE officers from Boston were the only officials authorized to perform immigration interviews.

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/20161...ce-partnership

This is confusing because the 287(g) partnership plan was replaced by the Obama administration with Secure communities. Then, after a lot of illegal alien supporter complaints, they replaced the Secure Communities program with the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP). Secure Communities watered down the original 287(g) program and then "PEP" came out, which was another even more watered down program to replace Secure Communities. So my question is, how did Bristol County get into a program that was supposedly suspended?

Personally, I'd like to see whoever is appointed as Secretary of Homeland Security go back to offering the 287(g) program everywhere. I know the Obama administration kicked a lot of law enforcement agencies throughout the country off the 287(g) program years ago.

Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g) Immigration and Nationality Act

Fact Sheet

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security, is responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws as part of its homeland security mission. ICE works closely with federal, state and local law enforcement partners in this mission. The 287(g) program, one of ICE's top partnership initiatives, allows a state or local law enforcement entity to enter into a partnership with ICE, under a joint Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), in order to receive delegated authority for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions.

287(g) Revisions: Updated Facts

In 2009, ICE revised the 287(g) delegated authority program, strengthening public safety and ensuring consistency in immigration enforcement across the country by prioritizing the arrest and detention of criminal aliens. (read more)

History of 287(g)

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 added Section 287(g), performance of immigration officer functions by state officers and employees, to the Immigration and Nationality Act. This authorizes the Director of ICE to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, permitting designated officers to perform immigration law enforcement functions, provided that the local law enforcement officers receive appropriate training and function under the supervision of ICE officers.

Memorandum of Agreement

The MOA defines the scope and limitations of the delegation of authority. It also establishes the supervisory structure for the designated immigration officers working under the cross-designation and prescribes the agreed upon complaint process governing officer conduct during the life of the MOA.

Under the statute, ICE will supervise all cross-designated officers when they exercise their immigration authorities. The agreement must be signed by the Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, and the governor, a senior political entity or the head of the local agency before trained local designated immigration officers are authorized to enforce immigration law.

Officer Selection Requirements

Participating officers in the 287(g) program must meet the following requirements:

• U.S. citizenship
• Current background investigation completed
• Minimum one year of experience in current position
• No disciplinary actions pending

Training Requirements

ICE provides a four-week basic training program and a one-week refresher training program (completed every two years) conducted by certified instructors at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) ICE Academy (ICEA) in Charleston, SC.

287(g) Results and Participating Entities

Currently, ICE has 287(g) agreements with 32 law enforcement agencies in 16 states. From January 2006 through September 30, 2015, the 287(g) program is credited with identifying more than 402,079 potentially removable aliens - mostly at local jails. ICE has trained and certified more than 1,675 state and local officers to enforce immigration law.

STATE	LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY	SUPPORT TYPE	DATES SIGNED	MOA
ALABAMA	Etowah County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-08	link
ARIZONA	Arizona Department of Corrections	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-08	link
ARIZONA	City of Mesa Police Department	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-23	link
ARIZONA	Pinal County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-13	link
ARIZONA	Yavapai County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-08	link
ARKANSAS	Benton County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-13	link
ARKANSAS	Washington County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-23	link
CALIFORNIA	Orange County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-23	link
FLORIDA	Collier County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-13	link
FLORIDA	Jacksonville Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-30	link
GEORGIA	Cobb County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-30	link
GEORGIA	Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-30	link
GEORGIA	Hall County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-23	link
GEORGIA	Whitfield County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-08	link
MARYLAND	Frederick County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2013-06-28	link
MASSACHUSETTS	Massachusetts Department of Corrections	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-23	link
NEVADA	Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-28	link
NEW JERSEY	Hudson County Department of Corrections	Jail Enforcement	2013-06-28	link
NEW JERSEY	Monmouth County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-08	link
NORTH CAROLINA	Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-28	link
NORTH CAROLINA	Gaston County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-30	link
NORTH CAROLINA	Henderson County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2013-06-28	link
NORTH CAROLINA	Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2013-12-30	link
NORTH CAROLINA	Wake County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-08	link
OHIO	Butler County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-09-30	link
OKLAHOMA	Tulsa County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-23	link
SOUTH CAROLINA	Charleston County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-23	link
SOUTH CAROLINA	Lexington County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2013-07-30	link
SOUTH CAROLINA	York County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-28	link
TEXAS	Carrollton Police Department	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-13	link
TEXAS	Harris County Sheriff's Office	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-28	link
VIRGINIA	Prince William-Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center	Jail Enforcement	2016-06-23	link

https://www.ice.gov/factsheets/287g

CA. Sheriffs’ 287g agreements still in force

• Harford sheriff to begin 287g screening for illegal aliens coming through his jail
• 
  10-26-2016
• TX. HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF TO RENEW I.C.E. 287g PROGRAM (Houston)
  
  06-24-2016

As One Immigration Enforcement Program Fades Away, Another Rises

• By TED HESSON

Dec. 27, 2012

http://a.abcnews.com/images/ABC_Univ...1227_wmain.jpg

The Washington Post/Contributor

Folks march to a Homeland Security Advisory Council Task Force on Secure Communities Meeting on August 24, 2011, in Arlington, Va.more +A federal program that allows certain local law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents will be scaled back at the end of this year, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The 287(g) immigration enforcement program authorizes local police to question individuals about immigration status and make related arrests. In the past, local jurisdictions interested in participating would enter into one of two types of agreements with ICE. There were task force agreements, which focused on street-level enforcement, and jail agreements. The street-level agreements expire on December 31 and will not be renewed by ICE.

The agency said in a December 21 statement that "other enforcement programs, including Secure Communities, are a more efficient use of resources for focusing on priority cases."
Immigrant rights advocates have opposed the 287(g) program since its inception in 1996, claiming that it encourages racial profiling and erodes trust between community members and police. Mary Giovagnoli, the director of the Immigration Policy Center, said she was "cautiously optimistic" about the end of the street-level enforcement agreements.

"Most everyone who monitors this believes that it's a start but it's not enough," she said.
Even as 287(g) is dialed back, the federal government has aggressively expanded another enforcement program since 2008, making this a kind of trade off. The program, called Secure Communities, requires local police to cross-check the fingerprints of all arrestees against a federal database. Local police and jails are asked to hold suspected immigration violators for federal authorities.

The core complaints about 287(g) -- racial profiling and erosion of public trust -- have also been levied against Secure Communities, and the reach of the latter program is much broader.
Secure Communities is already implemented in 97 percent of jurisdictions across the country, while 287(g) is active in only 57 law enforcement agencies in 21 states, and will shrink to 40 agencies after the street-level agreements expire in 2013.

A major difference between the two is that Secure Communities does not authorize local police to inquire about immigration status or make an arrest on that basis. But once a person is arrested, regardless of the crime, that person's fingerprints are run against a federal immigration database.
That gives local police a kind of de facto power to enforce immigration laws, if only through the arrests they make.

"So they'll just arrest the person on whatever pretext they can find to get them into the jail," said Cecillia Wang, the director of the Immigrants' Rights Project for the American Civil Liberties Union. "And then the person has their immigration status checked."

Along with announcing the end of the street-level 287(g) agreements last week, ICE also spelled out specific guidelines for when local law enforcement should hold an individual for federal authorities.
The memo says that "relatively minor misdemeanors" should not result in a person being detained by local police for federal immigration authorities, and that enforcement should be focused on those with criminal convictions and repeat immigration offenders.

The Obama administration has repeatedly said that it prioritizes immigration enforcement, but some advocacy groups say that isn't the case.

A review of deportation statistics by the Immigration Policy Center showed that for the 2011 fiscal year, 55 percent of deportations were either of low-level criminal offenders (minor crimes resulting in sentences of less than one year), immigration violators or those with no criminal convictions.

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/...ry?id=18077757

It's time for All Americans to get a back-bone and tell the truth! We don't care what level of criminal activity you have, obviously the more criminal activity the more threats you pose to our country which makes you a higher priority, but even for those who have no record of other crimes or misdemeanors, you're number one crime was entering the US in violation of US immigration law, our borders, and our sovereignty.

Period.

Everyone has to go, the good, the bad and the ugly. Doesn't matter. If you're here in violation of US immigration law, no matter what your home town sob story is whether true or fabricated, WE DON'T CARE!!

Now pack up and get out of here.

From the article.

"In the past, local jurisdictions interested in participating would enter into one of two types of agreements with ICE. There were task force agreements, which focused on street-level enforcement, and jail agreements. The street-level agreements expire on December 31 and will not be renewed by ICE."


The 287g JAIL Program is still going.
JD2

http://www.alipac.us/f12/tx-jackson-...ration-340847/

Trump may empower local police with 287(g) to round up illegal aliens