Posted: Wednesday, 18 July 2007 10:51AM

Waukegan Police Apply For Criminal Immigrant Deportation Training

Bernie Tafoya Reporting

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (WBBM) -The Waukegan Police Department has sent in its application to the federal government to request that its officers be trained to start deportation paperwork for criminal immigrants who run afoul of the law in Waukegan.

WBBM's Bernie Tafoya has the story.

Waukegan Police Chief William Biang tells Newsradio 780 he signed the application last night and sent it out.

He says he'd like to see two of his officers trained in the so-called 287(g) program.

Chief Biang says his department intends to use the program for illegal and legal immigrants who are "serious criminal offenders".

He says Waukegan police have no intention "to bother people at job sites" or their homes.

Meanwhile, a police agency that has had the program for nearly four years says the fears of immigrant rights groups have not materialized. Haran Lowe of the Alabama Department of Public Safety says 56 of the department's troopers are trained to handle immigration cases. He says that since the department became involved in the federal program in the fall of 2003, there have been NO complaints that troopers discriminated or profiled immigrants in any way.

Michael Guilhooly, spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says 21 law enforcement agencies have been trained under the 287(g) program, none in Illinois.

Only two of the police agencies are municipalities and both of those are much smaller towns than Waukegan. They include Herndon, Virginia and Hudson City, New Hampshire.

The rest are state police departments, county sheriff’s offices and state corrections departments.

Guilhooly says that, as of a few months ago, there had been 10,000 criminal immigrants processed by state and local police officers trained by federal immigration officials.

Chief Biang says several police chiefs from around the Chicago area have expressed to him their interest in the program but they want to see how things work in Waukegan before they initiate anything.

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