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    Senior Member zeezil's Avatar
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    Hall sheriff: Deport illegal immigrants

    Hall sheriff: Deport illegal immigrants
    Cronic seeks federal partnership with ICE to help enforce laws
    By STEPHEN GURR
    The Times
    GAINESVILLE
    http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/st ... 4257.shtml
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    What is 287(g)?

    Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996 is a local-federal partnership between law enforcement agencies and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the program, ICE provides state and local law enforcement with the training and authorization to identify, process and detain immigration offenders encountered during regular daily law enforcement activity.

    Source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement


    Hall County Sheriff Steve Cronic won't tiptoe around the hot-button topic of illegal immigration. Cronic, whose jail has an average of 225 foreign nationals booked in each month, says he's tired of inaction by federal officials when it comes to deporting accused lawbreakers who are in the country illegally. Now he wants his deputies to start the deportation process themselves.

    "This isn't about immigration," Cronic said of a proposed local-federal partnership which would give his office new enforcement powers. "It's about illegal immigration. Our focus would continue to be on identifying, prosecuting and deporting illegal aliens who are in our country illegally and committing crimes."

    Already in place in Cobb County, Charlotte, Phoenix and Los Angeles, section 287(g) of the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act essentially deputizes local law officers in immigration enforcement. It would give six Hall County jail booking officers and two field investigators the power to run immigration checks, red-flag those arrested while in the country illegally, and initiate deportation proceedings. Immigration enforcement officials would have 72 hours to transfer illegal immigrants to a federal detention center and begin scheduling immigration court hearings.

    Only a select list of law enforcement agencies have an official memorandum of understanding with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allows deputies to use the provisions of 287(g). The Hall County Sheriff's Office is one of 67 law enforcement agencies from across the nation on a waiting list of applicants. Cronic has been waiting since February.

    "It's been a little frustrating for us, because this has dragged on a lot longer than we anticipated," Cronic said.

    Federal officials have cited a budget shortfall for the training and computer equipment required for the program, and have said Hall County might get word on its application by October, when the new fiscal year begins.

    "I hope we're at the front of the line," Cronic said. "We've argued that they should look at the areas that have the highest concentrations (of illegal immigrants) and give us first priority."

    Cronic says federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents put deportation holds on fewer than half of the illegal immigrants his deputies arrest. Most inmates who are red-flagged have underlying felony charges.

    Should Hall County get the agreement approved, Cronic vows to start deportation proceedings for any illegal immigrant for any violation, from DUI to driving without a license. They would not be given an opportunity to post bond. The only exceptions would be criminal cases involving victims in which a lengthy prison sentence would be warranted, Cronic said.

    "On those cases where someone is illegal, it would be drafted up and referred (for deportation)," Cronic said.

    In Hall County, where 20 percent of the 500-bed jail population is foreign, deporting every illegal immigrant arrested could have widespread implications.

    Gainesville immigration lawyer David Kennedy calls Cronic's proposal to use the powers of 287(g) "a terrible idea."

    "I think the sheriff thinks what he's doing is best for the county, but I respectfully disagree," Kennedy said.

    Kennedy said if Hall County deputies start moving to deport illegal immigrants, then "witnesses or victims who may be undocumented would be far less trusting to speak with the police."

    Such a chilling effect in the immigrant community could spark an increase in vigilantism, Kennedy suggests.

    "When people feel they can no longer call the police, they will take matters into their own hands," he said.

    Cronic dismisses the argument that immigrants would stop cooperating with authorities if they feared deportation.

    "That's not really realistic," Cronic said. "None of these provisions involve checking the immigration status of victims or witnesses. This will just give us the tools to combat more effectively those crimes we see that are associated with persons who are here in violation of our immigration laws."

    Cronic has a supporter in U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Gainesville, who has met with the undersecretary for Homeland Security, pushing for ICE to give the sheriff the new enforcement powers.

    "We know that we have a very large undocumented immigrant population in Hall County, and unfortunately much of that population finds itself involved with law enforcement," Deal said. "We feel like this is an extra arm of law enforcement that is needed in a community like ours, where there are so many illegal immigrants."

    Deal is critical of how ICE has selectively deported lawbreakers.

    "I do not think they are nearly as aggressive as they need to be, and that's one of the great advantages of having the sheriff's office have this authority," Deal said.

    Kennedy said using federal resources to deport mostly Hispanic laborers is wasteful in the post-9/11 era.

    "We have bigger fish to fry," Kennedy said. "Wasting national security resources by targeting dishwashers and yard men is bordering on treason."

    Kennedy also thinks law enforcement may be focusing more on immigrant communities than other neighborhoods.

    "While they may have more arrests, I don't believe there's actually more crimes there," Kennedy said. He pointed to what he called "silly arrests," such a recent incident in which 16 Hispanics were taken to jail for a drunken and raucous birthday party.

    Cronic said such incidents "might not seem like the most serious thing in the world, but if you're living around it and trying to enjoy the peace and quiet of your own home, it's pretty serious."

    Terry Norris, executive vice president of the Georgia Sheriffs' Association, said interest in 287(g) has not been high among the state's 159 sheriff's offices, many of which have staffs too small to effectively implement the program.

    "I don't think there are that many folks trying to saddle up with the program," he said. "I am hearing more and more about concerns and issues surrounding the immigrant population."

    Norris said with growth in the immigrant population comes a corresponding increase in law enforcement interaction, "and from there we have the whole federal process that must be navigated. And sometimes the federal government cannot accommodate the needs of a population in terms of enforcing federal laws."

    Cronic believes he will finally get an agreement with ICE, though he doesn't know when. He has one senior staff member phone federal officials once a week to remind them.

    "We're like the squeaky wheel," Cronic said. "We keep pushing. I don't want them to forget about us."

    Kennedy said he, too, believes the program will go forward.

    "I think it's coming, but I'm hopeful I'm wrong about that," Kennedy said.

    Cronic said critics of the program should remember "we're a nation of laws, and we've got a responsibility to those laws."

    "In the absence of the federal government doing what it should be doing, when those illegal aliens continue to commit illegal acts, it becomes a big issue for us," he said.

    Contact: sgurr@gainesvilletimes.com, (770) 718-3428
    Originally published Sunday, September 2, 2007




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    Great news!

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