Thread: TN-Officers should reject move toward secrecy

Officers should reject move toward secrecy
Today's Topic: Deportation rules under fire
September 16, 2009

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When it comes to immigration law, the Obama administration may be well-meaning, but it risks becoming guilty of the same mistakes that plagued the system under his predecessor.

Davidson County will experience this firsthand, as its sheriff is rightly concerned over Immigration and Customs Enforcement's move to close detainee records.

The Bush administration-created 287(g) program was launched 3½ years ago as a way for local law enforcement agencies to help identify illegal immigrants and hand over their cases to federal authorities. Davidson Sheriff Daron Hall was one of the first local authorities to sign up for the program. He says fewer crimes committed in Nashville are attributable to illegal immigrants than before the program took effect. He also says his department has identified more than 5,300 illegal immigrants who have been processed for deportation.

Still, many people have taken exception to the 287(g) program here and in other states, and for good reason. The vast majority of people detained under the program have not turned out to be the dangerous criminals the program was supposedly intended to identify. Also, advocates say the program encourages racial profiling, a charge that law enforcement officials have denied.

There has been criticism from the federal level, too. The Government Accountability Office in January found widespread differences in how 287(g) is implemented by local agencies and a lack of oversight, The Associated Press reported.

Unfortunately, President Barack Obama's Homeland Security Department (which supervises Immigration and Customs Enforcement), in trying to solve the procedural problems, has made the program worse.

Local agencies are being asked to sign an agreement that would keep information about suspects, even their names, a secret. Hall told the AP the provision "flies in the face of what I think is good policy'' and may stop participating in the program.

It's an understatement that this policy is bad. When the government can hold anyone secretly, it smacks of the policies by which South American dictators suppressed political dissent in the 1960s and '70s. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of political prisoners simply "disappeared.''

It seems clear this was not Homeland Security's intent. Other changes the department has made in immigration policies are designed to keep detainees safer and improve their appeals process. But in a clumsy attempt to keep 287(g) afloat — presumably to appease critics who say the president is soft on illegal immigration — the department has made a bad situation far worse.

The new rules essentially move access to detainee information to federal control. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say that most of the information on detainees still would be available under Freedom of Information Act requests, but it can take months, and sometimes a court order, to fulfill FOIA requests.

The Davidson County Sheriff's Department should end its participation in 287(g); the program does more harm than good. And other local law enforcement agencies nationwide should follow suit, letting the federal government know that they cannot be a part of secret arrests, whatever the reason.
http://tinyurl.com/rcl2xh

..quitting the 287g is what the Obamma,, DHS ,,,& the rest of the enablers want.
Sheriffs need to sue the Feds for forcing them to make "secret" arrests.

287g is a wonderful program, it is the federal corrupt gov't that is not so wonderful

So seriously. Why do they have to commit a heinous or any other crime against the public or the town/city to be deemed deportable? After they do commit a crime would you not say that IS TOO LATE?


They are still breaking the laws of the land and continue to do so in many cases after they reach this country.

Not any different then trying to spot trouble in someones actions BEFORE they commit murders(such as in our colleges or other schools) Signs that tell them there is trouble. Because after these acts are committed it is already TOO LATE!!

The vast majority of people detained under the program have not turned out to be the dangerous criminals the program was supposedly intended to identify

When it comes to immigration law, the Obama administration may be well-meaning, but it risks becoming guilty of the same mistakes that plagued the system under his predecessor.

WRONG!!!
Neither was well meaning! Both were POS and had their own reasons for all the corruption and lies surrounding the Presidency's reasoning for lack of enforcement. BOTH idiots were going for the Latino vote and could give a CRAP about America Sovereignty!
It doesn't matter to either if illegals break America's spine or if hundreds of Muslim terrorists cross over to kill us after taking over our country!
POTUS or POS both equal the same thing!