Thread: TX-Program checks immigration status of inmates at El Paso j

Program checks immigration status of inmates at El Paso jail

By Darren Meritz
El Paso Times
Posted: Tuesday, 08/11/2009

EL PASO -- Everyone booked into the El Paso County Jail, no matter what complexion, accent or ethnicity, is being checked for immigration status in a new local-federal initiative.

John Morton, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Monday these types of immigration checks eventually will be done at every jail in America.

Morton, in town for the sixth annual Border Security Conference, said the cooperative venture between El Paso's jail and federal authorities was launched to identify undocumented immigrants who are accused of serious crimes.

The program, called Secure Communities, is designed to prevent drug dealers, killers, rapists, robbers and kidnappers from re-entering the U.S. after completing prison terms. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are federal agencies working with sheriffs who run county jails.

El Paso is one of about 65 counties participating in the Secure Communities initiative. Federal officials plan to take the program national by 2012.

"I think we can all agree that there are people we don't want to welcome into the United States," Morton said. "I don't think there's much serious debate that if you're a serious criminal offender, and you've committed serious crimes in El Paso or the surrounding counties, you're going to go home."

Morton said the initiative also makes sure the law is applied evenly, reducing the specter of racial or immigrant profiling.

The collaboration with local law enforcement uses a suspect's fingerprints to check against immigration records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.

If somebody's prints match those of a person in the Homeland Security system, ICE agents will be notified.

The El Paso Sheriff's Office uses none of its own resources for the initiative, and no ICE agents work out of local law enforcement offices, Sheriff Richard Wiles said.

More important, the responsibilities of sheriff's deputies are not blurred because they remain prohibited from pursuing immigration cases, he said.

"I've always made a distinction between immigration enforcement and law enforcement, and this clearly is a law enforcement function," Wiles said. "This is about criminal aliens. This is not about undocumented immigrants in our community whose responsibility belongs to the federal government."

The Secure Communities program comes as about 120,000 undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes are deported annually.

Congress allocated $1.4 billion for ICE criminal enforcement in 2009. Lawmakers wanted to provide more money to agencies to deport undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes.

Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritz@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_13034709

Unfortunately, unless they are incarcerated in their home countries, they will likely be back here in 15 mins.