Thread: NV-Sheriff defends alliance with immigration officials

Dec. 12, 2009


Sheriff defends alliance with immigration officials

By LYNNETTE CURTIS

Sheriff says 4,400 violators identified this year

Sheriff Doug Gillespie on Friday found himself cast in a now familiar role: defender of a controversial partnership between the Metropolitan Police Department and federal officials that allows local corrections officers to begin deportation proceedings against immigration violators.

Gillespie faced tough questions and spoke passionately about the year-old partnership at a morning meeting of Hispanics in Politics that drew about 30 people to the Doña Maria Tamales restaurant downtown.



"Is this a perfect process? No," Gillespie said of the agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "But nor are our borders. I don't control the borders. I do have some influence over how we do law enforcement in this valley."

The department is one of dozens of law enforcement agencies nationwide that has a "287 (g)" agreement with ICE. The partnership's name comes from the corresponding section of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.

The pact, which was the first of its kind in Nevada, allows 12 specially trained officers at the Clark County Detention Center to identify immigration violators and start deportation proceedings against them.

The sheriff has repeatedly insisted the partnership is meant to target violent criminals.

But civil rights leaders and others have blasted the agreement, saying it targets Hispanics and could lead to racial profiling and make people afraid to report crimes.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada also has expressed concerns about the cost of the program. Gillespie on Friday said the department spends $1.3 million a year to staff it.

Maggie McLetchie, an ACLU attorney, called the program an "unfunded federal mandate" that has local law enforcement "taking on the burden of federal law enforcement and doing it for free."

"This is done on the shoulders of local taxpayers," she said.

The Mesquite Police Department this year considered signing a 287 (g) agreement with ICE but decided against it because of the expense.

Longtime local immigration attorney Vicenta Montoya questioned why Las Vegas police began "to do the work of immigration" when federal officials already were coming to the detention center to check for inmates who were in the country illegally.

"That was already happening," she said.

Gillespie said ICE officials showed up at the detention center inconsistently.

"It was not done every day," he said. "They would pick and choose when they did it."

He defended the department's adoption of the program and its cost.

"I want to know who it is that is being booked into our jail," he said. "We could not get access to these (ICE) databases unless we participated in the program."

The department has identified more than 4,400 inmates this year as being illegally in the United States, Gillespie said. About 73,000 people overall were booked into the detention center.

It's unknown how many local inmates who were referred to ICE were eventually deported. ICE has said it doesn't track removals that way. Those referred to the agency by local law enforcement become part of ICE's larger caseload. Those cases can drag on for months or even years.

McLetchie and others said the partnership has a chilling effect on the immigrant community, and makes victims afraid to report crimes against them.

This is especially true for victims of domestic violence, they said. Women might be afraid to report the crime because the perpetrator could be deported. That perpetrator is often the family's main breadwinner.

"The mission of the police department is to serve and protect the community -- not to serve, protect and deport," said Rebeca Ferreira, executive director of Safe Faith United, an organization that helps victims of domestic violence.

But Gillespie said getting such victims to step forward has long been a challenge "not only as a community, but as a nation ... whether you're Hispanic, Asian, Caucasian or African-American."

That challenge preceded 287 (g) partnerships, he said.

The department is committed to fostering good relationships with the Hispanic community, and will continue spreading word that the partnership is meant to target violent criminals -- not other undocumented persons, Gillespie said.

"I'm here to protect and serve you, whether you're in this country illegally or not," he said.

Still, the sheriff again acknowledged that the partnership isn't perfect.

"I realize that it creates tension," he said. "The way is to work through those things, through interaction, through conversations."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com


http://www.lvrj.com/news/sheriff-defend ... 19637.html

Maggie McLetchie, an ACLU attorney, called the program an "unfunded federal mandate" that has local law enforcement "taking on the burden of federal law enforcement and doing it for free."

"This is done on the shoulders of local taxpayers," she said.

Got a problem with it? Since "taxpayers" are footing the bill let them decide! Not you , not some liberal judge or even more liberal politician... let the people decide.

Maggie McLetchie, an ACLU attorney, called the program an "unfunded federal mandate" that has local law enforcement "taking on the burden of federal law enforcement and doing it for free."

"This is done on the shoulders of local taxpayers," she said.

What about the unfunded mandates to educate their children and provide emergency medical care? The cost of the 287(g) program would be greatly offset by the savings to these other mandates.