Officer discusses illegal immigration

In light of the new Arizona immigration law, our Fact Finder Team looked into the issue of illegal immigration in the Heartland.

By Matt Buhrman
Monday, May 03, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.




FAIRFIELD, IOWA -- The Arizona immigration law, which includes stricter enforcement policies, has highlighted the issue of illegal immigration and has created a nationwide controversy and debate.

Captain Tony Hammes of the Fairfield Police Department told Fact Finder how effectively illegal immigration is handled in the Heartland.

"Not very well. It's very hard to get the federal government or INS to come and deport those here illegally because there are so many and there are so few [agents], and so few tax dollars to do it with," Captain Hammes said. "So we quite often have illegal immigrants here that we come across and we just kick loose because there is nothing to be done with them."

Hammes discussed about some problems with illegal immigration.

"The ones that are here are getting illegal documents. They are using fake names, fake birthdates, fake social security numbers, so they're committing a crime right there. But it's not until they get caught doing that, can we do something about that and enforce those laws. But there are thousands of [illegal immigrants] here and thousands breaking the law doing that," Captain Hammes said.

He also discussed complications that arise if an illegal immigrant is prosecuted for a crime in the Heartland.

"If they are prosecuted for a crime and found guilty/pled guilty, whatever, they will be deported at that time. But short of a violation taking place, [federal agents] don't very often get involved," Captain Hammes said.

He reiterated that it is difficult to get the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), or the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) involved at a local level due to the large number of illegal immigrants and the smaller number of federal agents and funding.



http://www.heartlandconnection.com/news ... ?id=452060