Federal Immigration Program Could Come to Ada County Sheriff's Office
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Story Created: Dec 17, 2007 at 5:58 PM MST

By Nicole Navarro

Enforcing immigration law is usually a job for the Feds. However, deputies at the Ada County Jail may soon play a larger role.

Through a federal program, deputies at the Ada County Jail would be trained on how to identify people suspected of being illegal immigrants during the booking process. Those suspects could then be detained and turned over to federal immigration officials. The Sheriff's Office says it would streamline the process already in place.

The program requires four weeks of training. But the Idaho Community Action Network believes that's not enough to fully understand immigration laws.

"It's sad news for Idaho. I think it's sad news for our country. Nationally, these programs have proven to actually divide the community instead of uniting the community," says Leo Morales with ICAN.

The group worries the program could lead to racial profiling and cause some to lose trust in the Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Raney disagrees.

"We are here to uphold the law, and so if we can more effectively target criminal aliens and also uphold the law at the same time, those are the sorts of things that are going to keep our community safe," Sheriff Raney says.

It's not a done deal, but Sheriff Raney says the program could start in 2008.


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