http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=451850

Bucher pushes for faster deportation
Offenders at jail level missed, he says
By DAVID DOEGE
ddoege@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 2, 2006
Waukesha - Illegal immigrant Nicolas Arias is on his way back to Mexico, and Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher is taking the credit.

Arias, who was facing six criminal counts accusing him of using his cell phone to take pictures under women's skirts, was about to bail out of jail recently, according to Bucher, even though he'd been charged with crimes that could get him deported, so the prosecutor stepped in.

"Once he posted the bail, what would have happened? He would have walked away," Bucher said. "A person like that should not be released to the street."

People such as Arias, according to Bucher, are in a blind spot that makes them invisible to immigration officials who primarily keep tabs on illegal immigrants who wind up in prison. Because of that, Bucher says, he intervened, contacted immigration authorities and set the stage for Arias' deportation - something Arias decided not to contest.

Bucher, who is running for state attorney general and making the criminal illegal immigrant issue a campaign theme, says the blind spot that kept Arias from the scrutiny of immigration officials is responsible for hundreds of illegal immigrants winding up in the state prison system with multiple convictions. Many of those immigrants should have been deported, Bucher contends, but they weren't because immigration agents focus primarily on imprisoned immigrants for deportation.

Bucher says it's time for state investigators to eliminate the blind spot by working with the federal government to identify illegal immigrants outside the prison system who are in custody for crimes that could eventually get them deported.

"Right now, they are not being identified at all," Bucher said.

But an immigration official in Milwaukee insists that his agents are already working with various state and local law enforcement personnel to keep tabs on arrested immigrants not yet in prison.

"We frequently receive calls from a variety of sources," said Brian Falvey, resident agent in charge of investigation for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Milwaukee. "I don't really think there is a blind spot.

"If we are notified that a foreign-born who may be removable is in custody, we look into it and determine if a response is necessary. We frequently create and respond to those kinds of leads."

Bucher's remarks on the topic came as he released the results of his analysis of a state Department of Corrections list of 1,100 inmates in Wisconsin prisons whom state officials believe to be illegal immigrants. Such lists are submitted annually by corrections officials to the federal government to obtain partial reimbursement for the cost of detaining illegal immigrants.

In comparing those listed with state court records, Bucher said, he determined that 598 on the list had criminal records before being arrested for the offense that landed them in prison

"A vast majority of them would have been deportable at the local jail level," Bucher said. "You have to wonder why they weren't deported in the first place."

He could not give a precise figure on how many should have been deported, however, without reanalyzing the data, he said.

John Dipko, a state Department of Corrections spokesman, noted that the agency's lists are preliminary and should not be viewed as the final word on who was subject to deportation.

"It's not our job to identify illegal aliens," he said.

Falvey, the federal immigration agent, also warned against drawing conclusions from the list and said he could not comment on it without having seen it. He noted that the Bucher campaign recently released data contending that 77 illegal immigrants were improperly paroled from the state prison system, an assertion Falvey characterized as misleading.

"The implication was that they were lost in the shuffle when in fact we had contact with every one of them," Falvey said. "Twenty-eight of the 77 were U.S. citizens, and 31 were identified by us as aliens who were eventually deported."

The others were either non-deportable, still awaiting deportation, allowed to remain in the country by a federal judge or come from countries that will not allow their return, Falvey said.

If he is elected attorney general, Bucher says, he would use a 1996 law to get training for state Justice Department investigators so they could assist federal customs agents in tracking down illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Under the provision, the state investigators would get five weeks of federal training, then be empowered to conduct investigations into immigration violations and detain suspects for the federal government.

"We're not talking about illegal aliens; we're talking about illegal aliens who commit serious crimes," Bucher said. "This would fill a gap.

"I'm not criticizing ICE. They do the best they can with the resources they have."

Bucher said he would encourage state corrections officials to have prison personnel undergo the same training and would advocate it for local law enforcement agencies that are interested.

"I wouldn't force this on any local agency," said Bucher, who has applied for the federal training on behalf of Waukesha County for some members of its Sheriff's Department and any county law enforcement agencies interested in participating.

State Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said she supports deportation of illegal immigrants who commit felonies but opposes Bucher's idea.

"Pulling state and local law enforcement off Wisconsin's streets from its fight against violent crime, drugs and gangs to do the work of the federal government would be a waste of scarce resources and undermine public safety," Lautenschlager said. "The only real answer to the challenge of illegal immigration is for Congress to step up and pass comprehensive reform, not to burden Wisconsin police officers with immigration duties that have been ignored for decades by the federal government."

Republican candidate J.B. Van Hollen also criticized Bucher's plan.

"This is a major problem, but Paul doesn't understand the magnitude," said Van Hollen, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. "Promising to the taxpayers of Wisconsin that the (state) Department of Justice is going to take over a role that rightly belongs to the federal government is not credible.

"The federal government doesn't have the resources it needs for the problem. This is something the state cannot possibly uphold."

Another candidate, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, did not return a call to her office seeking comment on the topic.

Meanwhile, the attorney for Arias, Ness Flores, said he believes Bucher is "fanning the flames" of concern about illegal immigrants in this country.

"I'm sure there is some validity to the idea that something better could be done, but the reality is that the whole country is getting riled up about this right now and you have to wonder when the things that are being said or done are an over-reaction," Flores said.

He added that Arias' family has concerns about his welfare because he was moved so swiftly from the Waukesha County Jail to Chicago for eventual deportation that relatives didn't have an opportunity to get identification materials to him.

"They're worried about where he could wind up when he's deported without anything to say who he is," Flores said. "Right now, all I know is that he is somewhere between (Waukesha) and Mexico."