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  1. #1
    Senior Member curiouspat's Avatar
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    Enforcers: Alabama one of two states empowered in federal im

    http://www.enewscourier.com/homepage/lo ... cturestory

    Enforcers: Alabama one of two states empowered in federal immigration law

    By Kelly Kazek
    Managing Editor

    Everything seemed to be in order. The man, who was from Korea, showed a resident alien card when applying for a driver license in the Huntsville office.

    But a State Trooper, trained to spot fraudulent documents, discovered the card was registered to a woman. He checked a database of immigrants and found the man had previous convictions for armed robbery and drug possession.

    “He was a deportable felon,” said Martha Earnhardt, spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Public Safety.

    The Korean man is one of about 160 illegal immigrants arrested by Alabama State Troopers since the governor entered an agreement with Immigration and Custom Enforcement in 2003. Troopers also caught a sex offender who was in the country illegally, as well as people charged with drug smuggling and rape.

    “They know how to spot illegal documents and have access to a federal immigrant database where they can check someone’s illegal or legal status,” Earnhardt said.

    Trained troopers do not, however, have the authority to stop immigrants based on a suspicion that they are in the country illegally.

    “Alabama is strictly reactive,” she said. “Troopers don’t initiate or take part in workplace raids of illegal immigrants.”

    Instead, troopers may stop illegal immigrants only with probable cause and in the course of their regular duties.

    “It may be a speeding stop, a DUI arrest, a traffic crash, a motorist’s request for assistance or when an individual applies for an Alabama driver license,” Earnhardt said.

    Even then, if the trooper does not find evidence that illegal immigrants committed a felony, or had been previously arrested with a felony, they are not arrested, said Trooper spokesman Curtis Somerville.

    “We can’t arrest them for simply being illegal,” Somerville said.

    Under a federal law passed in 1996, referred to as section 287g of the Immigration and Nationality Act, Gov. Bob Riley requested troopers be granted the authority to enforce federal immigration laws.

    Alabama and Florida are the only two states that have entered into an agreement with ICE to establish such a program for training troopers on patrol.

    “Alabama has the most developed program,” said David Ford, spokesman for Riley. “The reason Alabama has this program in the first place is that we have the third highest percentage of illegal immigrants that is not a border state,” he said.



    Putting states in forefront

    Twenty-one Alabama Troopers completed the five-week training course in 2003; 23 more graduated in 2005.

    In April, Riley authorized a third class.

    Earnhardt said she hopes the third class will have 25 troopers, bringing the total of those trained by ICE to 69, or about 10 percent of the total trooper population in the state.

    Riley said in a statement that he authorized the third class because giving states some power to arrest illegals makes the country safer.

    “Alabama is at the forefront of a growing movement by states to confront illegal immigration,” Riley said. “We’re doing more to fight illegal immigration than any other state in the country. Before we reached this agreement, our state troopers could not arrest illegal aliens. Now when they get this training, they’re able to arrest illegal aliens, and that strengthens our nation’s homeland security.”

    A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would make living in this country illegally a felony, which would allow troopers to arrest and potentially deport any illegal immigrants stopped for traffic violations or those applying for driver licenses. If passed, the bill also would allow deportation of any illegal immigrant convicted of driving under the influence, which is not a felony in Alabama until the fifth DUI conviction.

    Earnhardt stressed that people are not targeted based on nationality.

    “It assuredly is not profiling,” she said. “Alabama has a policy, and all troopers are trained in this policy, that forbids bias-based enforcement. We have an aggressive reporting component of this program and we want to hear if there are any allegations of abuse of this authority or profiling. We want to be able to investigate.”

    Since the program began three years ago, no allegations of profiling have been filed, she said.



    Establishing the program

    Before a state can establish a program to enforce federal immigration laws, the state must enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with ICE, once called Immigration and Naturalization Service, which falls under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security.

    Once the agreement is signed, the state agrees that its law enforcement officers will undergo training provided and funded by ICE. The state pays the troopers’ salaries and any travel expense.

    When trained, the troopers are also supervised by ICE agents. Any arrests of illegal immigrants made by these troopers must, by law, be reported to ICE. The law does not require uncertified troopers to report such arrests to the federal government.

    State Troopers who patrol Limestone County are based in the Morgan County office in Decatur, where two ICE-trained officers are stationed. Two troopers based in Madison County also have received ICE training.

    Earnhardt said any trooper could apply for a training class. Those applications are reviewed, then a class is chosen, she said. Training is conducted near Anniston, at the Center for Domestic Preparedness at the site of the former Fort McClellan.

    ICE officials conduct background checks on applicants.

    Alabama sought the authority to train troopers for two reasons, Earnhardt said.

    “We’ve always had an aggressive anti-fraud program with regard to driver licenses and identity theft,” she said. “In some respects, this is an outgrowth of those programs. But the bigger reason is that state troopers were coming into contact with these situations they didn’t have the training, expertise or knowledge to respond to.”

    When the program began, one federal immigration agent was assigned for the entire state, which led to delays as troopers tried to get information.

    “This has served as a force multiplier,” Earnhardt said. “It’s been a very positive program. It has provided state troopers with an additional tool and given them the resources to make them better at their jobs as state troopers.”

    Governments in other states have entered into Memorandums of Understanding with ICE for their corrections departments, including San Bernidino, Los Angeles and Riverside in California, Mecklenburg in North Carolina and the State of Arizona, said Mike Gilhooly, public information officer with the law enforcement service center at ICE.

    Training for corrections officers is similar but slightly shorter — three and a half weeks — than for officers on patrol.

    “When booking foreign-born criminals into their jails, if they determine an individual is illegally in the United States, they begin the deportation process,” Gilhooly said. “The criminals may stay in their jail system for however long they’ve been sentenced, but the beginning of the deportation process starts when they are booked into the facility.”

    Officers are trained in immigration law, civil rights, intercultural training and anti-racial profiling.

    Gilhooly said troopers decide where to house detainees.

    “If we need to take the individual into custody, we will do so,” he said. “We do use county jails all over the nation to house detainees.”
    TIME'S UP!
    **********
    Why should <u>only</u> AMERICAN CITIZENS and LEGAL immigrants, have to obey the law?!

  2. #2
    Senior Member loservillelabor's Avatar
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    Sent to my state representative. Hope we can get on board in KY.
    Unemployment is not working. Deport illegal alien workers now! Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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