ICE to examine Ark state police for immigration arrest power


Associated Press - November 9, 2007 6:24 PM ET

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A federal immigration official says that whether Arkansas State Police are allowed to make immigration arrests will depend on whether jails have enough space to hold prisoners and how troopers decide whom to arrest.

Katrina Berger, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assistant special agent in charge at ICE's New Orleans bureau, oversees the agency's efforts in Arkansas. She said today that officials will travel to Arkansas in the coming months to examine the state's request to join the program. However, Berger said many politicians and police agencies overestimate the power of the immigration arrest program, now being used by several police agencies in northwest Arkansas.

She said some state and local agencies say they just want to round up all the illegal immigrants and send them away. But Berger said that approach wouldn't work because jails would quickly fill up and those arrested would have to be given a court date and turned loose.

In Arkansas, home to an estimated 141,000 Hispanics, studies have concluded that about half of the state's immigrant population lives illegally in the U.S. As more immigrants fill jobs at construction sites, poultry plants and other workplaces, political pressure has mounted for greater immigration-law enforcement.

http://www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=7338940