Carrollton, Farmers Branch accepted for immigration enforcement program

04:08 PM CDT on Friday, April 25, 2008
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
jmosier@dallasnews.com

Carrollton and Farmers Branch are among the first Texas law enforcement agencies accepted into a program to give local officers federal immigration enforcement training, according to a press release Friday from U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant.

Harris County, where Houston is located, has also been accepted into the 287(g) program this week, according to the Coppell Republican’s office. Officers and deputies from the three agencies will receive training allowing them to investigate whether a person is in the country illegally and give them to access to federal immigration databases.

By early March, more than 600 officers from 41 agencies in 17 states were certified through the 287(g) program. Until now, there were none in Texas.

The addition of Farmers Branch to the program formalized last month's announcement that a detective from the city would receive federal immigration training and work part time on a regional task force. The Police Department had asked that a jailer be trained through the program, but Chief Sid Fuller said last month that that was unlikely to happen.

Enrollment in the program has increased dramatically in the past year as illegal immigration has become a high-profile political topic. Farmers Branch has been in the forefront of that fight locally with efforts to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.
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