Fed program identifies, pays for, but does not deport criminal aliens
Originally published May 20, 2008


By Meg Bernhardt
News-Post Staff



The federal government partially reimburses Frederick County for jailing undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes in the county.
Until this year, however, federal officials have not taken steps to deport those people after their release.

In fiscal 2008, the county was paid $41,805 for housing undocumented immigrants who were convicted of at least one felony or two misdemeanors for violations of state or local law.

The county commissioners recently approved a grant application for the next fiscal year. They are submitting the names of 140 inmates who could be undocumented immigrants.

With grant money from the U.S. Department of Justice State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the Frederick County Adult Detention Center purchased kitchen equipment, inmate uniforms and a van for its community labor program.

Frederick County started a partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency in February when Sheriff Chuck Jenkins entered an agreement, known as a 287(g), with ICE.

As part of the agreement, 26 sheriff's deputies and corrections officers were trained and deputized by ICE to enforce federal immigration laws.

Under the new set-up, corrections officers check the immigration status of inmates entering the jail and notify ICE if they are undocumented.

After they have served their term in the county jail, the inmates will be transferred to ICE custody.

In the past, the immigration status of inmates was not checked by county officers because they were not trained or authorized to do so by ICE. To apply for the program, county officials hired a private company to compile records.

Michael Moore, vice president of Justice Benefits Inc., said the company searches all county jail records for foreign-born inmates who meet the criteria of the grant.

"We go in and pull out all the eligible inmates," he said. "We don't make the final determination of who is legal and illegal."

As they sort through files, company employees check whether inmates have convictions in other jurisdictions that will make them eligible -- for instance, if they are serving time in Frederick County for a misdemeanor, they might also have a felony conviction in California.

The completed list is sent back to the county which submits it with the grant application to the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

That bureau sends the list to ICE, and ICE verifies immigration status of names on the list for payment purposes, according to bureau staff. The bureau makes the payments.

ICE spokesman Brandon Montgomery said he was not familiar with the SCAAP program.

ICE does have a criminal alien program to remove undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of crimes from the country, he said.

The 287(g) program is the best way to make sure criminals are turned over to ICE for removal proceedings, he said, but if ICE knows about criminal aliens then it will deport them even without a 287(g) agreement.

Lt. Col. Steve Rau said ICE did not deport criminal aliens in previous years the county received SCAAP funds, however.

Montgomery did not return messages left Friday evening and Monday morning to clarify or explain why ICE did not take action based on information provided through the program.

SCAAP was started in 1994 by an act of Congress. Each year, the BJA determines how much to give each jurisdiction based on the size of the Congressional appropriation. In fiscal 2007, BJA paid roughly 42 percent of incarceration costs.

Although the county has started checking the immigration status of people it arrests, there will still be undocumented immigrants in the jails. Immigrants convicted of a crime will be required to serve their terms before they are turned over to ICE as part of the 287(g) program.

Frederick County charges carry maximum sentences of 18 months, Rau said, though inmates may be jailed longer while awaiting trial or if a judge sentences them to more than one consecutive term.

Rau and Lt. Keith Welty, fiscal services commander at the detention center, said they will continue to apply for SCAAP money.

They have not considered whether they will be able to complete the grant application themselves since they are now checking immigration status as inmates are admitted.

Extra staff might be required for the grant application work, so they said it might not be worthwhile to stop using Justice Benefits.

"It's still a learning process right now," Welty said.

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