http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=474377

Sheriff, chief seek to assist immigrant crime effort
By DAVID DOEGE
ddoege@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 20, 2006
Waukesha - The leaders of Waukesha County's two top law enforcement agencies Wednesday joined District Attorney Paul Bucher in requesting that county law officers become designated to assist federal customs agents in tracking down illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

The announcement by Sheriff Dan Trawicki and Police Chief Les Sharrock should enhance the county's ability to win federal approval for the designation, according to Bucher.

"This is a big deal," Bucher said in leading an afternoon news conference on the topic. "This is not something that anyone else in the state has requested."

If the county gets the nod to formally assist the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, six correctional officers and three patrol officers from the Sheriff's Department as well as three Police Department patrol officers would undergo four to six weeks of federally sponsored training to assist federal agents in the illegal immigrant effort.

"To me, this is about a partnership with the federal government," Trawicki said. "We work very closely with the federal government now in other task forces."

Sharrock said that while his department, like most law enforcement agencies, is faced with manpower limitations, assisting customs investigators would be worth the effort.

"Where we can play a role in this I think it's important that we do so," Sharrock said.

Bucher, who is running for state attorney general and making the criminal illegal immigrant issue a campaign theme, applied to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this year to have Waukesha County designated as an ICE partner, and if he is elected, he has pledged to get training for state Justice Department investigators so they could assist federal customs agents in tracking down illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

Earlier this month, Bucher contacted customs officials after learning that a man charged with attacking two women and raping one of them in Frame Park in separate incidents last month is an illegal immigrant who is believed to have been deported in the past. Fernando Juarez Decion, 30, is in the county jail awaiting trial in the attacks, and federal authorities have placed a detainer on him to bar his release from custody if he is able to post the $150,000 bail that has been set in his case.

Last month, Bucher contacted immigration authorities about another Waukesha crime suspect, Nicolas T. Arias.

In that case, Arias, 25, agreed to waive deportation proceedings and was returned to Mexico in lieu of being prosecuted for six criminal counts that accused him of using his cell phone to take photographs under women's dresses in Waukesha County.

Bucher agreed to waive Arias' prosecution on the charges to speed his deportation, but his office intends to have the case reinstated if Arias returns to the United States.

Bucher said at the news conference Wednesday that he hopes to learn within 30 to 60 days whether the county's application for the customs assistance designation will be approved.

"I've been told that we're getting favorable consideration," he said.

In addition to undergoing training that would enable them to initiate investigations of crime suspects who might be illegal immigrants, the officers devoted to the effort would gain access to a federal database concerning illegal immigrants, Bucher said.

"Knowing how to use that information would be great," he said.

Bucher said that he and an investigator from his office would undergo the federal training if the county's application is approved.