Thread: IL: Lake Co. sheriff steps into immigration issue

Lake Co. sheriff steps into immigration issue
Department applies to help with deportations
By Tony Gordon | Daily Herald StaffContact writer
Published: 12/4/2007 12:17 AM

The Lake County sheriff's department has applied to certify some of its officers to do deportation paperwork processing under a federal program that ignited a storm of controversy this summer in Waukegan.

Sheriff Mark Curran said Monday he wants the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agency to qualify six corrections officers to begin paperwork for deporting illegal immigrants, but he stressed that officers would process only those charged with committing "serious crimes."

When Waukegan police announced this year they would seek similar certification for officers, immigrant rights groups protested the action as setting the stage for mass roundups of all those who are in this country illegally.

The Waukegan City Council eventually voted to move forward with the application, but only after hundreds of people demonstrated outside the council chambers.

Curran and his director of homeland security, Wayne Hunter, said Monday they wanted to avoid similar protests by explaining how the process worked.

And while Curran said he hoped people would understand his motives for the application, he said there would be no public debate on the move.

"This is not a matter that is open for discussion," Curran said. "We believe it was the right to decision to make and we made it."

But some activists contend Curran's office should hold public hearings on the measure. Among them is Lilia Paredes, vice president of the Chicago metropolitan chapter of Labor Council of Latin American Advancement. She said her group intends to discuss the sheriff's office's proposal and decide where another Lake County protest is necessary.

"You're there to serve the people," Paredes said. "These (illegal immigrants) are people."

Curran and Hunter said the deportation process would be started only for people charged with violent offenses, sex crimes and the most serious of drug offenses.

The criminal court process would play out for everyone targeted under the plan and the sentences of those convicted would be served before deportation took place.

"Pure and simple, this is an effort to get violent criminals, child molesters and drug dealers out of a country they have no right to be in," Curran said. "No one who is not charged with a serious offense will be affected."

No new police powers or federal authority would be bestowed on the officers trained in the program, Curran said, nor would they process paperwork for anyone simply for being in the country illegally.

Curran said jail officials currently notify ICE of the arrest of anyone who is in the country illegally for even the most minor offenses and have done so for years.

Training corrections officers to do ICE paperwork for deportation proceedings will only speed a cumbersome process, said Hunter, who worked with federal officials for 11 years as a Waukegan police officer assigned to a narcotics task force.

"The deportation process is very paperwork-intensive and our officers will simply be getting the ball rolling," he said. "It is all about a collaborative effort between us and the feds to make the streets safer."

Hunter said Curran asked him to research the issue as soon as he was appointed to the security position in May.

"We have looked at this from every conceivable angle and were very methodical about it," he said. "This is not something we wanted to knee-jerk into and I do not believe we are."

Still, the Rev. Gary Graf, pastor of Waukegan's Holy Family Catholic Church, said the sheriff's office's decision will make his flock more fearful. Holy Family reports that illegal immigrants make up about 70 percent of the parish's 4,000 families.

"As a church, we'll just continue to do as we always do: Encourage people to lead good, decent lives," Graf said Monday.

Federal permission for the deportation powers doesn't come quickly. Lake County authorities said it could be a year or longer before ICE reviews the sheriff's office's application.

It was about one year ago when Carpentersville officials requested training for what's formally known as the 287(g) program. At that time, village trustees asked the federal government to pay for supplementary materials like computer software and systems needed to access federal immigration databases.

Carpentersville police in July received initial approval for some officers to undergo federal immigration enforcement training. The department is now awaiting the availability of federal funding.

ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said no Illinois police agency has received federal authorization to participate in 287(g).
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