Thread: Cops plan ID checks of jailed immigrants

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Cops plan ID checks of jailed immigrants
Tapping federal database could flag illegals, aid in deportation

Tuesday, 09/05/06
By CHRISTIAN BOTTORFF
Staff Writer

Thousands of illegal immigrants who are arrested in Davidson County for other crimes would be deported each year, under a proposal being pushed by local law enforcement officials.

By installing a federal immigration computer system in the Metro Jail and placing an immigration officer in the lockup full time, local authorities would be able to quickly identify criminal suspects who are in the country illegally and keep them from being released.

The proposal is contained in an Aug. 15 letter from Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and comes on the heels of several high-profile crimes in which illegal immigrants are accused.

Several of the illegal immigrants had been arrested repeatedly — and not deported — before committing more serious crimes.

Hall is scheduled to hold a news conference today along with Metro police Chief Ronal Serpas and District Attorney General Torry Johnson to announce the initiative. Local officials are awaiting approval from federal immigration authorities and are trying to enlist the help of Tennessee's congressional delegation.

"It's not acceptable to continue to find the federal government at fault while we continue to put people, in my opinion, at risk," Hall said. "Our reputation is somewhat scarred because the public doesn't care. The public only wants the problem solved if you've got a person violating the law, and is in your country illegally, and you should have known that."

The initiative comes as the number of foreign-born people booked into Metro Jail each year continues to soar. The 4,173 foreign-born prisoners who moved through the Nashville lockup during the past fiscal year are nearly double the number booked five years ago, county figures show.

Nashville's program would mirror a similar effort in Charlotte, N.C., where the local jail has begun identifying illegal immigrants and transporting them to federal authorities for deportation proceedings after the prisoner has completed his time on the state charges.

Under the plan, 10 Davidson County deputies would be trained to use a federal database and interview foreign-born inmates to help determine their immigration status.

If the person arrested can't produce documentation to show he is a U.S. citizen, or can't appropriately answer where he was born and where he went to high school, he will be checked against the federal database.

Anyone at that point with an immigration hold, or with past immigration or criminal violations, would be turned over to federal authorities for deportation proceedings.

The Charlotte Observer newspaper reported that in the five months since the program started there, the jail in Charlotte had identified between 50 and 119 illegal immigrants each month.

Nashville officials estimate the program could result in 2,960 illegal immigrants being turned over to federal officials each year.

The move follows pressure locally on officials to ratchet up enforcement against illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

In one case, Gustavo Reyes Garcia had been jailed at least 14 times before he was accused in June of crashing into a car while driving drunk, killing a Mt. Juliet couple.

In another case, Ivan Moreno is accused of killing his 74-year-old neighbor in her Bellevue home last month by strangling her and smashing her head with a statue from her garden. At the time of the killing, Moreno had an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in court on a charge of driving on a suspended license.

A report by the Davidson County grand jury this year found that poor communication between local law enforcement and federal authorities was allowing illegal immigrants to commit crime after crime without being deported.

"Our concern is that there does not appear to be a clear plan of action to communicate their illegal status to the proper federal authorities," the grand jurors wrote in the report of their April-June term. "This is exemplified by the fact that in several cases, these individuals are repeat offenders."

Sheriff Hall said federal authorities place immigration holds only on local prisoners who are accused of aggravated felonies. As a result, illegal immigrants can be arrested repeatedly for crimes such as driving under the influence without coming to the attention of federal officials.

That would change under the new proposal, he said.

Advocates of tougher immigration policies applauded the efforts to expel more illegal immigrants.

"Right now, we're basically tying the hands of local law enforcement because they don't have access to those databases," said Theresa Harmon, co-founder of Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Policies. "Some of these people could have been taken off the streets months or years ago. Some of these people might be alive now had ICE been willing to share this information earlier."

But others, such as Jerry Gonzalez, a Nashville attorney who often represents bilingual Hispanic clients in civil rights cases, worries that too much attention is being paid to the small number of illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

Even if Nashville is approved, Gonzalez said, he doubts the federal government would devote meaningful resources toward picking up the additional immigrants and deporting them.

"You think ICE doesn't know where thousands of illegal immigrants live, where they work?" Gonzalez said. "They don't feel any particular pressure now to go round them up.

"It's the same thing, just a different smell."

"You think ICE doesn't know where thousands of illegal immigrants live, where they work?" Gonzalez said. "They don't feel any particular pressure now to go round them up.

And we know why. No pressure or interest from all the way to the top.

Should be a no-brainer whether to check on immigration status of inmates, duh!

This is way over due! In Dade County the jails woud definitely not be filled to capacity. Many illegals do commit crimes and the majority of them are small scale stuff such as shoplifting, driving without a valid driver's license and insurance and various misdemeanors. It would be great to have checks on theses people. The last illegal immigrant, I heard that was deported by direct action by a Miami Dade Police Officer was a shoplifter at Walmart. The juvenile was caught and mouthed off too much to the police officer who was arresting him. The officer was irate and decided to check on his immigration status and learned that him and his family were all illegals and he informed ICE. They were all picked up and deported. Hopefully they have not returned back from Guatamala.
As for ICE knowing where illegals work, yes they do know but they cannot catch every individual due to limited man power. From what I have heard from them is that they focus more on large job sites where they will catch say 15 or more and not just one person here or there. In the last week in Florida they have been busy and continously catching and deporting them. Just this past week another 79 were caught and are being deported. Unless people call on the ones they know, they focus on the bigger picture as these are often better paying jobs and they want to show them and others where they came from that it will not be tolerated. In Dade ciounty the illegals are running scared and many have gone underground. There was no labor rally here as ICE has made there presence known with lots of deportation and media coverage about the numbers they caught. I just wish that some of them would be so afraid that they would pack up and go back home just like a frightened dog with its tail between its legs.