http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... 366612.htm

Posted on Sat, Aug. 26, 2006

Gaston to check inmates' status
Sheriff's office is 8th agency to join program
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ
fordonez@charlotteobserver.com

GASTONIA - Faced with a growing jail population of illegal immigrants, Gaston County Sheriff Alan Cloninger announced Friday that his department will join a federal program that allows local law enforcement officers to screen for illegal immigrants and place them in deportation proceedings.

The Gaston County Sheriff's Office will become the eighth law enforcement agency in the country to join the program.

Cloninger made the announcement at a congressional hearing in Gastonia on how local authorities can combat illegal immigration.

Details on the local program are still being worked out, but Cloninger said six deputies will be trained as certified federal immigration officers.

And, in 60 to 90 days, he said, the Gaston County Jail with begin using a federal database to check the immigration status of every foreign-born person arrested.

Those identified as illegal immigrants will be reported to immigration officials, and deportation proceedings would be started.

"We're going to push them out of Gaston County," Cloninger told the panel of U.S. representatives that included Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., of Banner Elk, Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., of Cherryville, Sue Myrick, R-N.C., of Charlotte and Mark Souder, R-Ind.

The members of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources applauded the implementation of the program, citing it as an example of how federal and local law enforcement can successfully work together to address a growing illegal immigration problem.

"In practical terms, (the federal program) gives local law enforcement a vital tool in combating a criminal class that grows with the illegal immigration population," said Souder, who chairs the subcommittee. "Many criminal illegal aliens who -- given circumstances -- might otherwise have to be released can be held and processed for deportation."

The Gaston program will be modeled after the existing program at the Mecklenburg County jail run by Sheriff Jim Pendergraph. Cloninger said the success of the program in Mecklenburg, which began in April, is driving illegal immigrants who commit crimes out of Mecklenburg and into the surrounding counties.

Cloninger would not estimate what percentage of the 505 inmates in the Gaston County Jail are illegal immigrants. He said 610 inmates booked into the jail in 2005 are from other countries.

"I have a very strong suspicion that many of the foreign-born inmates are illegal," he said.


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Franco Ordoñez: 704-358-6180