Thread: Revamped deportation program up for renewal

July 24, 2009

Revamped deportation program up for renewal

Metro may opt out if it dislikes changes

By Janell Ross
THE TENNESSEAN

A federal program to identify and deport illegal immigrants is drawing increased criticism ahead of the Metro Council's decision on whether to renew the city's participation in it.

Because the Department of Homeland Security is requiring several changes in the program's execution, Metro and 65 other participating cities nationwide can decide whether they want to comply or get out. The council is likely to vote in the next 90 days.

In the meantime, supporters and detractors of the program, called 287g, are complaining about some of the new rules.

A change that sets most inmates free while they await their deportation hearings has Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall, the program's chief advocate in Metro, planning a September trip to Washington.

He thinks more of the people that officers catch would show up if hearings were held in Nashville instead of Memphis, home of the closest immigration court, and wants to lobby Tennessee's federal lawmakers.

And the American Civil Liberties Union weighed in Thursday with concerns that, under the new guidelines, most information and documents related to 287g can't be released without Department of Homeland Security approval.

Since Metro joined the 287g program two years ago, the Davidson County Sheriff's Office has identified 5,300 illegal immigrants. About 75 percent were brought to the jail on traffic offenses ranging from driving without a license to DUI.

A March U.S. Government Accountability Office report described the 287g program — which empowers local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration law — as one that had operated with little oversight or consistency and instead deported mostly illegal immigrants who committed only minor offenses. The report said pursuing minor offenders wastes valuable resources and clogs federal detention centers.

The Department of Homeland Security's changes are in response to that report, said Matt Chandler, a Washington-based Department of Homeland Security spokesman.

For example, under the new agreement, only those charged with DUIs or major drug offenses and violent crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery and kidnapping, will be held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention until their immigration court dates.

Beginning in June, the sheriff began releasing immigrants brought to the Davidson County jail for minor offenses after they served standard one-to-three-day sentences on those charges. They are now issued court dates and asked to appear at an immigration court in Memphis.

"I think it's important to point out that these people, every foreign-born inmate that comes to the jail, is going to be screened," Hall said. "Now, the only difference is that everyone isn't going to be handed over to ICE. I suppose it's just like we would want our prison system to be used. The more serious offenders are for sure in beds."

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a group that advocates for strict immigration law enforcement, sees the Department of Homeland Security's changes as an Obama administration-orchestrated end run around existing immigration law.

"If you are in the country illegally and detected, you are subject to deportation," Gheen said.

"What he is ordering the local police to do now is not congruent with current law, which we consider to be an impeachable offense."

Information restricted

Under the terms of a new proposed agreement, jurisdictions participating in the program also must seek Department of Homeland Security approval to release most information and related documents. This week, Metro's legal department could not release the proposed new guidelines without federal approval.

Federal inspectors described the Davidson County 287g program as ideal during a recent visit, Hall said, so he isn't a fan of plans to make information about it more difficult to access.

"There is nothing to hide," Hall said.

"Why in the world can't you release the facts, the basic details?"

The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the program's new lack of transparency. Immigrant and civil liberties advocates have long criticized 287g because it doesn't differentiate between violent and nonviolent illegal immigrants and leads legal and illegal immigrants to fear interacting with the police. "The changes here are essentially cosmetic," ACLU-TN Executive Director Hedy Weinberg said in a statement.

"They don't address the inherent problems with the program. The 287g program undermines public safety by exacerbating fear in immigrant communities, which are, for a number of reasons, already distrustful of law enforcement, stands in the way of due process and encourages racial and ethnic profiling."

Committee divided

The Metro Council can vote to accept the changes or opt to leave the program. After the city's legal department completes its review, it will go to the council's Public Safety Committee.

Metro Councilman Sam Coleman, a member of the committee and an attorney, said he isn't pleased with the way 287g identifies and penalizes illegal immigrants but offers no means by which they can become legal residents.

Coleman said he is discouraged at how frequently people deported under 287g return to Nashville and thinks the federal government is in denial about those numbers.

Coleman also doesn't like the idea of federal control of 287g program records or allowing alleged illegal immigrants to decide if they will show up at their court dates in Memphis. Unless the rules on public records change and a path to citizenship is included, Coleman said he is inclined to vote against renewal.

Metro Councilman Michael Craddock, a Realtor and a member of the council's Public Safety Committee, said he has supported the 287g program and believes it has been effective.

He is not pleased about releasing alleged illegal immigrants from jail after they have served time on state charges and doesn't like the federal government's take-it-or-leave-it stance when it comes to program changes.

Still, Craddock said, it's better to have some sort of local immigration enforcement program in place. He is inclined to vote to continue the program.

"That's just like the federal government, to take a program that works and change it so that it doesn't work any more," he said. "But they go by the Golden Rule. They've got the gold, and they set the rules."

http://tinyurl.com/no3flf



Jeremiah 29:11

Deportation is the only way to correct the abusive situation of illegal aliens crossing into or overstaying in The United States

Hi GeorgiaPeach...I shortened your url so it would fit the page

SOSAD

Thank you SoSad. I was hoping that someone would be kind to do that. I know that no one likes to go back and forth to read.

Psalm 91

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeach

Thank you SoSad. I was hoping that someone would be kind to do that. I know that no one likes to go back and forth to read.

Psalm 91

Your welcome!! great article but it did make me mad and raise my blood pressure