Thread: Herndon, VA: Document outlines costs of training program

03/06/2007
Document outlines costs of training program
By: Gregg MacDonald

A draft of the Herndon Police Department's proposed memorandum of agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was made public last Thursday.
If approved by the Herndon Town Council next week, the agreement will enable selected Herndon police officers to undergo a five-week training program that will eventually empower them to perform certain functions of a federal immigration law enforcement officer.

Council Action

The memorandum of agreement with ICE will be considered for adoption and implementation following a public hearing March 13 at 7 p.m. in council chambers. The document can be viewed in its entirety at www.herndon-va.gov .



ICE agreement revealed
According to town attorney Richard Kaufman, the agreement focuses on officers who are detailed to special operations such as anti-gang and anti-drug units and would authorize specially trained police officers assigned to "operations," a broader category, to also undergo the training.

Kaufman said Monday that the broader category simply means that "any operational officer" of the Herndon Police Department can be considered.

The agreement authorizes up to seven "nominated trained and certified HPD personnel" to undergo the training, which will enable them to interrogate and process "criminal illegal aliens" for immigration violations; to arrest without a warrant anyone unlawfully entering or re-entering the United States after deportation; and charging illegal aliens for detention, transportation and "removal."

Training for the Herndon officers will include immigration law, civil rights law, "measures to counter possible racial profiling," and "cross-cultural issues," according to the draft agreement.

The training could be utilized for felonies and any misdemeanor listed as a Group A offense, as well as driving under the influence of alcohol or drug offenses. However, police functions conducted under the agreement must be performed "under the direct supervision of ICE," the document stated.

According to a Feb. 14 e-mail from Herndon Police Chief Toussaint Summers to Kaufman, obtained by The Times through a Freedom of Information Act request, training and materials will be provided free of charge by ICE but the town will have to pay the participating officers' salaries for the five-week training session.

Summers estimated that the average cost to train one officer at an average hourly wage of $29.50 would be approximately $5,900. For a sergeant at an average hourly wage of $41.78, that cost rises to $8,356.

"If we send six officers ($35,400) and one sergeant ($8,356), the total cost would be $43,766," Summers wrote in the e-mail, adding, "This figure does not take into account the cost of benefits."

The cost of processing illegal aliens, however, will not likely be reimbursed by ICE, according to Kaufman.

"ICE estimates that it will take approximately 3-5 hours for an officer to process a criminal alien," Summers wrote in the same e-mail. "The cost to process each illegal alien would range from a low of $88.50 (3 hours @ officer salary) to a high of $208.90 (5 hours @ sergeant salary)."

http://link.toolbot.com/timescommunity.com/67932

Council Mulls Immigration Enforcement Agreement

Council members negotiate expansion of training-eligible officers to include regular operations.
By Scott J. Krischke
March 7, 2007


The Town Council has been presented with a draft agreement with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement to provide some federal immigration enforcement training and authority to officers of the Herndon Police Department. If the agreement is approved by council later this month, the town will be the first in the nation to enter into an agreement with the federal agency.

The draft agreement, negotiated over the course of the last two to three weeks with ICE representatives by Herndon town attorney Richard Kaufman and Herndon Police Chief Toussaint Summers, outlines which officers can undergo the training and when they would be able to enforce federal immigration laws. If approved, ICE will provide training for as many as seven police officers in an initial class, with those officers gaining the authority to initiate deportation proceedings for individuals associated with certain criminal activity who are found to be in the country illegally.

The Herndon Police Department is already setting up provisions for selected officers who will attend the full-time five-week class. Under the draft agreement it will be provided in Northern Virginia, with the Herndon Police picking up the salaries and transportation of its officers while ICE pays for instructors and training materials.

Before these officers can be trained, the agreement will be discussed at a March 14 public hearing, where the mayor and town council members will vote on whether or not to proceed or hold off on the decision until a following council public hearing.

LOCAL OFFICERS eligible for the training can come from any of five Herndon Police Department units, including the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Squad, the Criminal Investigation Section, the Anti-Gang Unit, the Drug Enforcement Unit and the Operations Unit, according to the draft agreement. The inclusion of the operations unit, which consists of the "on the ground" police officers assigned to general patrols and crime prevention was a last minute expansion of the training-eligible units that was included at the request of some town council members, according to council member Bill Tirrell.

The authority to initiate deportation proceedings is activated when an ICE-trained Herndon police officer is involved in investigations of illegal narcotics trafficking, organized criminal activities and gang activities, as well as high-risk violent felons, according to the draft agreement. Basic HPD operations officers can initiate deportation proceedings for people found to be illegally present in the country during the investigation of more serious "group A" offenses like larceny, credit card fraud, sexual assault and prostitution, as well as the "group B" crime of driving under the influence.

If approved, ICE-trained officers will be supervised by and supported by local ICE representatives, the agreement read. Anyone convicted of a crime who is found in the course of investigations to be illegally present in the United States will be removed following the outset of his or her legally-mandated detention. All costs for pre-deportation detention and physical removal of illegal immigrants will be covered or reimbursed by ICE, it continued.

THIS AUTHORITY WILL not pertain to individuals apprehended for operating a vehicle without a license, drunk in public or violation of the local anti-solicitation ordinance, among other crimes, however if a person known to be an illegal immigrant is found to be repeatedly apprehended for similar crimes, ICE-trained officers can meet with ICE supervisors to discuss possible deportation, according to Kaufman.

"This agreement is not going to make it possible to just deport people on minor traffic or ordinance violations," he said. "But we're always monitoring people who are suspected of being in the country illegally … ICE will just have to make the decision at that point."

Repeat offenders might be good reason for speaking with Virginia-based ICE supervisors about possible initiation of deportation, Kaufman added.

"Let's say somebody had 15 no operator's license violations and five to six DUI's and had accumulated any number of minor offenses and that person were an illegal alien," he said. "That would be cause for the Town of Herndon to talk with ICE to see what we could do about possible removal proceedings."

FOR HERNDON MAYOR Steve DeBenedittis, who was elected last spring partially for a stance of getting tough on illegal immigration, the training agreement is a step in the right direction for Herndon.

"I think it just gives our officers all the more tools to make our community as safe as possible," DeBenedittis said. "I think we've made good progress and I look forward to hearing what the community says," in upcoming public hearings about the draft agreement.

While Tirrell said that he would have liked to have seen even more expansion of the authority to include other crimes, what was decided upon was acceptable given the amount of resources available and the intentions of ICE. No operator's license, a traffic misdemeanor given to people operating a vehicle without proper license, has been commonly cited as a crime associated with illegal immigrants, who do not have the ability to be legally issued a license in the United States.

"I think that we're getting as much as we can reasonably get in this agreement," Tirrell said. "If we can get the [no operator's license violations] included, then the next thing you know someone's going to want public urination added to that, and it will go on … and the reality is that ICE isn't prepared to commit those kinds of resources."

DeBenedittis said that he would have liked to have seen some crimes included, but that he is optimistic that the state will get tougher on enforcement of the no operator's license in the near future.

The agreement is likely to face a highly favorable council. Herndon Town Council member Harlon Reece, who had initially voted against requesting the training because he said he hadn't heard enough input from town residents, said that he is "inclined to support" the new draft agreement, contingent on resident comments. Reece added that he was satisfied with the types of crimes that would activate the authority in the agreement.

"If we were going to utilize this agreement to just start rounding up people for minor things, it would be less productive … because we will be using a large amount of local resources to do this," Reece said. "I know there were some people who wanted that, but we have to deal with the reality of what we have available here."

Tirrell added that it will take time to determine how successful this program might be, if it is approved by the council.

"Success will be determined after the officers have been trained and we start getting some feedback," he said. "Success can only be measured by how well we achieve our objective and that's getting the bad guys off the street."

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/art ... 66&cat=104

Herndon approves ICE agreement
By: Gregg MacDonald
03/20/2007
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On Tuesday, March 13, the Herndon Town Council voted to make Herndon the first incorporated town in America to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to train and empower local officers to enforce federal immigration law.


The vote was passed unanimously (6-0, with Bill Tirrell absent) in favor of a resolution approving a memorandum of agreement that initially allows up to seven Herndon police officers to be trained by ICE.


Some cities and counties across the nation have already partnered with ICE to receive 287(g) federal immigration law training, but Herndon is widely regarded to be the first small town in America to do so.

The agreement authorizes up to seven "nominated, trained and certified" town police officers to undergo the training, which will enable them to interrogate and process "criminal illegal aliens" for immigration violations; to arrest without a warrant anyone unlawfully entering or re-entering the United States after deportation; and charging illegal aliens for detention, transportation and "removal."

Training for the Herndon officers will include immigration law, civil rights law, "measures to counter possible racial profiling," and "cross-cultural issues," according to the agreement.

The training can be utilized for felonies and any misdemeanor listed as a Group A offense. Group A offenses vary widely, from shoplifting to embezzlement to murder, prompting former councilman Richard Downer to exclaim during the public hearing, "This is not what was sold to our citizens in the mayor's December letter and it is way too broad as a starting point for an agreement which could be started on a limited, worst-of-the-worst basis."

Herndon Mayor Steve DeBenedittis wrote in his December letter in the "At Home in Herndon" newsletter that the immigration enforcement agreement would target only "the worst of the worst."

During discussion on the agreement, Councilman Charlie Waddell said, "I'd like to see a broader set of offenses, but this is a good start," adding that "this 287(g) does not target people who are not lawbreakers."

According to the agreement, driving under the influence of alcohol or drug offenses can also fall under federal enforcement authority. However, police functions conducted under the agreement must be performed "under the direct supervision of ICE," the document states.

In all, 11 people spoke at the hearing in favor of the resolution, and nine spoke against it, including those who feared that the empowerment will allow random immigration sweeps.

On Feb. 5, ICE authorities, with the help of the Herndon Police Department, arrested 11 suspected illegal aliens in Herndon. Although those arrested were not the initial targets of the raid, authorities said the individuals were all suspected of being in violation of immigration law and were "collaterally" arrested just the same.

"We certainly won't be doing random sweeps, but I think that, having a formal relationship with ICE, we will be there to support them when they need us, the way that recent activity took place," DeBenedittis told The Times after that event.
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab5 ... 11691&rfi=

I sent the Mayor a fan letter, and got a nice response in return!

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Good news for Herndon. Thanks, mayor. Glad they got rid of what's-his-name who was behind the illegal alien hiring center.

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Herndon to send officers to federal immigration enforcement program

HERNDON, Va. The town of Herndon plans to send several officers to a federal program that trains police officers to enforce U-S immigration laws.

The northern Virginia town could become the first locality in the Washington area to start such training. The town already has been accepted into the federal program, and the Town Council voted unanimously last month in favor of sending at least seven officers into the partnership with the U-S Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Under the program, state and local law enforcement agencies will work with U-S Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and detain immigration offenders.

The program is not designed to train local officers in workplace raids or street roundups of illegal aliens. Instead, it will target criminal aliens that law enforcement officials come into contact with during the course of their normal work.

http://www.wric.com/global/story.asp?s=6340715

And we are just so happy this day has finally arrived. There are enough illegal aliens who drive around town drunk, without a valid license to keep the police busy. Because Herndon has a day labor center so street soliciting is an arrestable offense (just won the first court challenge a few weeks ago). When they are arrested, they can be finger printed and a background check run on them. Its' a start.

The advocates are digging in their heels and the ACLU vultures are already circling. But this is a good first step in the right direction.

If it prevents just one more person from being struck down and killed by a drunk illegal alien, the training will have been worth the time and money.