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Wednesday, 01/31/07

Davidson County sheriff signs agreement to enforce immigration laws

By BILL THEOBALD
Tennessean Washington Bureau


WASHINGTON — Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall signed an agreement with federal immigration officials today that allows his deputies to check the immigration status of people in the county jail and begin deportation proceedings for those in the country illegally.

The signing occurred at a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Julie Myers that was hosted by Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and Reps. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Brentwood.

The agreement would make Nashville one of fewer than a dozen communities in the country where local law enforcement officials are given the authority to carry out federal immigration laws, Alexander said.

"Illegal immigrants who break the law will find they have done it in the wrong county," Alexander said after the meeting.

Alexander said the agreement also provides for training of sheriff's deputies by federal immigration officials, access to the Homeland Security databases, and reimbursement from the department if illegal immigrants are held in the county jail during deportation proceedings.

Sheriff's officials announced earlier this month they had been approved to participate in the program but the agreement formalizes that arrangement.

Some advocates said at the time that giving sheriff's deputies federal law enforcement power would make immigrants in Nashville afraid of law enforcement.

The new jail program has yet to get official approval from the Metro Council or city officials, but informally all have given the sheriff a heads up, said Rick Gentry, director of community outreach for the Davidson County Sheriff's Department.

"He's spoken to several council members and the mayor and they've all pretty much given him an informal nod," Gentry said today.

All that's left to be done, he said, is for the sheriff to sign a memorandum of understanding with the city's director of finance, director of insurance and an official with the Department of Law. Then the Metro Council must pass a resolution in favor of the program.