IMMIGRATION: San Bernardino County sheriff renews 287g agreement

September 25, 2013 by David Olson


San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon. Kurt Miller/The Press-Enterprise

San Bernardino County has renewed an agreement with the federal government for a program aimed at identifying jail inmates who are in the country illegally.
County supervisors Tuesday approved the new agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with no debate.

San Bernardino County is one of about three dozen departments nationwide that participate in ICE’s 287g program, under which ICE trains sheriff’s deputies and other employees on how to determine whether inmates may be in the country illegally. ICE agents then make further queries.

Inmates found to be living in the country illegally are held for possible deportation after they leave jail.

A number of immigrant-rights and Latino organizations oppose 287g, saying it singles out Latinos for questioning and leads the deportation of minor offenders and people arrested but not convicted of crimes.

In Riverside County, Sheriff Stanley Sniff has yet to decide whether to renew his department’s 287g agreement with ICE, Jessica Gore, a legislative assistant for Gore, told me in an email. Meanwhile, the sheriff’s department remains in negotiations with ICE over a possible new agreement, she said.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Lolita Harper, who serves as a liaison with the Hispanic community, said 287g works in tandem with Secure Communities, under which fingerprints of all jail inmates are checked with a federal immigration database. But many jail inmates’ fingerprints are not in the federal database. 287g also helps identify U.S. citizens and legal residents who Secure Communities may mistakenly flag as potential undocumented immigrants, Harper said.

“We feel it’s incredibly important to have a human element there,” she said.
Andy Ramirez, a Chino resident and president of the Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council, an anti-illegal-immigration group, called 287g “another tool” to help put people in the country illegally on the path toward deportation.

“287g gives law enforcement an identifier as to who they’re apprehending,” he said.

Nine San Bernardino County sheriff’s department employees have been trained by ICE to conduct the immigration interviews with inmates. Only a fraction of the roughly 70,000 people who go through the jail system each month are queried, Harper said.

From Jan. 1, 2013 through mid-July, more than 1,100 inmates received immigration detainers, Harper said. Fifty-one percent had been booked on felonies and 49 percent on misdemeanors, she said. Some of the misdemeanors were originally felony bookings, she said.

Thomas Weiler, an organizer with Inland Congregations United for Change, a faith-based social-justice group, said the sheriff’s office shouldn’t be putting people accused of minor offenses at risk of deportation.

He said the collaboration of the sheriff’s department with federal immigration authorities undermines the immigrant community’s trust in law enforcement.

“We believe 287g really deteriorates law enforcement in the community,” Weiler said. “It prevents law enforcement from doing their jobs and prevents people from reporting crimes.”

He also criticized the supervisors for not debating the measure, saying it reflects a lack of transparency.

“A controversial policy like this necessitates dialogue with the community,” he said.

Board Chair Janice Rutherford did not return phone calls for comment.
Harper said the department works closely with immigrant communities and does not ask victims or witnesses about their immigration status.

San Bernardino County’s previous 287g agreement with ICE expired June 30 while negotiations over the wording continued.

The new agreement will go into effect once McMahon and ICE sign it, ICE said in a statement. It runs through June 30, 2016.

Riverside County’s 287g agreement expired July 22.

In both counties, sheriff’s department employees stopped immigration-related interviews with inmates once the agreements with ICE lapsed.

http://blog.pe.com/multicultural-empire/2013/09/25/immigration-san-bernardino-county-sheriff-renews-287g-agreement/