Thread: Immigrant issue gets Mecklenburg push

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ ... 552859.htm

Posted on Tue, Sep. 19, 2006

Immigrant issue gets Mecklenburg push
2 GOP commissioners seeking action on measures that would hit those here illegally
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ
fordonez@charlotteobserver.com

In a move sure to enliven the fall campaign season, Mecklenburg County commissioners tonight will revive a hot-button debate on proposals to crack down on illegal immigrants and companies that hire them.

At least two of the board's three Republican members said Monday they will ask the commission to take up two proposals tabled last fall. One would deny some county services to illegal immigrants; the other would deny county contracts to employers found to hire undocumented workers.

With seven weeks until Election Day, the move signals that Republicans aim to spotlight an issue that inspires passions on all sides. Republicans hope to take back the county board from Democrats, who hold a 6-3 majority.

Republican Commissioner Bill James, who put the issue on tonight's commission agenda, said voters need to know where elected officials stand.

"The public expects government, I don't care if it's federal, state, or local, to crack down and punish illegal immigrants, not to coddle them," James said.

Democrats on the commission have resisted the proposals. Chairman Parks Helms, a Democrat, said the county must be careful not to exceed its authority on a federal issue.

"We need to be measured in our response and be careful that we understand the consequences of any policy decision that we make," he said. "At a local level we can simply make life harder and more difficult for the immigrants, but in many instances it will also make it more difficult for citizens of this county."

The proposals were part of a resolution defeated in December by the board's six Democrats. They wanted to allow time for the Mayor's Immigration Study Commission, organized that month, to review the issue.

James says that task force has had plenty of time now, and he wants it to report to commissioners tonight on how they propose to stem Mecklenburg's influx of illegal immigrants.

Mecklenburg County has one of the nation's fastest growing Hispanic populations, driven largely by illegal immigration. At least 120,000 people of Hispanic origin live in Mecklenburg, and by some estimates, as many as 60 percent of them are here illegally.

Task force chairman Alan Gordon said the group's deadline is not until December, and he expects its work to be finished by then. He will present more than 25 preliminary recommendations to county commissioners tonight.

The recommendations include supporting expansion of legal visas and increasing jail space for immigrant detainees.

"This is an interim report," he said. "We're about nine months into the one year that we were given to gather. And we're all volunteers. We're all doing it with no pay and no researchers."

James and fellow Republican Jim Puckett say December is too late. Puckett said if the issue is not resolved now it may continue to linger if a new crop of elected commissioners decide to table it again.

Helms, too, noted the political implications of bringing up the issue now. "Commissioner James is very careful to bring up controversial issues before the election," he said. "People do need to know where we stand."

When commissioners announced last year they were considering denying nonemergency county services to illegal immigrants, Latino advocates showed up at the commission's meeting room to speak. Some held signs reading "Shame."

James also said Monday he would ask fellow commissioners to consider limiting wire transfers of money from the county. Each week, immigrant workers from Mexico and other countries wire thousands of dollars home to family members.

James said his proposal is aimed at improving living conditions for immigrants and their communities. Because they send so much of their income home, he said, many live with multiple roommates in poor conditions.

Some opponents of the immigration proposals argue they would encourage discrimination against Latinos.

Immigration Ideas From Mayor's Panel

The Mayor's Immigration Study Commission has begun discussing possible policy recommendations. Among the topics:

Work force: Urge federal government to identify a path to earned citizenship to ensure an ample work force.

Language: English should be "primary language" in Mecklenburg; safety manuals should be printed in multiple languages.

Housing: Support ongoing studies by local governments on crowding in single-family homes.

Public contracts: Public contracts such as the NASCAR Hall of Fame should require contractors to validate immigration status of project employees down to the subcontractors.

Crime victims: Police should determine immigration status of crime suspects, but status of victims need not be identified.

Immigration court: Support request for a federal immigration court in Charlotte.

Prosecution: Support full prosecution of illegal immigrants who commit state and federal crimes -- and if they're convicted, don't deport them until they serve their time.

Driving while impaired: Consider first-time DWIs as a deportable offense.

Didn't some dudes from Mecklenburg area write a letter to
King G III in the early 1770s declaring independence? Did they
wait around for somebody else to do something? What do the
feds expect local govs to do? Wait until the place is trashed?

http://www.wcnc.com

Illegal immigrant benefits under fire

05:53 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 19, 2006

By JOHN ROMERO / 6NEWS
E-mail John: JRomero@WCNC.com

The Mecklenburg County Commission will tackle a controversial plan for a hot button issue during Tuesday night’s meeting.

Two republican members of the board want to cut county services, such as health care, to illegal immigrants.

This plan actually came up last December and was voted down by the commission. But now it's back and backed by republicans who admit they're trying to make a political statement a month and a half before the November elections.

“In a billion dollar budget, 70,000 illegal aliens, you know the numbers run into the millions,” said County Commissioner Jim Puckett. “We're not providing county services to people who are not residents of Mecklenburg County.”

That's the principle and then there's the politics for Puckett, who wants voters to know who's for and who's against a plan telling the county manager to study ways to cut illegal aliens off from county services.

Angeles Ortega from the Latin American coalition said solving immigration will be tougher than just turning people away from clinics.

“Some people in the political scene have made this the issue of the election,” Ortega said.

The county commission first voted to let the mayor’s commission on immigration sort the questions out, but they're not due to report back until December -- after the election.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/9889268/detail.html

County Commissioners Get Update On Immigration Task Force

POSTED: 11:12 pm EDT September 19, 2006

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Mecklenburg County Commissioners got a progress report from the mayor's immigration task force Tuesday night.

The group has been working for the past nine months, looking into the effect immigrants have on our community. The four key areas they're studying are health care, education, public safety and economic development.

The task force isn't expected to make its official recommendations until December.

Possible recommendations include requiring county contractors to prove their workers are here legally, and implementing stricter policing policies.
Copyright 2006 by WSOCTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... 652418.htm

Posted on Sun, Oct. 01, 2006

OBSERVER EXCLUSIVE
Immigration debate hits court

DWI treatment program used to skirt deportation, probation chief told
GARY L. WRIGHT AND MELISSA MANWARE
gwright@charlotteobserver.commmanware@charlotteobserver.com

Mecklenburg's DWI treatment court is accepting illegal immigrants and some of them may be avoiding deportation because of it.

Robert Guy, who heads North Carolina's probation program, said probation officers have overheard Mecklenburg's DWI treatment court officials talk about sending suspected illegal immigrants to treatment centers, so they don't go to jail and have their immigration status checked.

"These people need to be in jail and deported," Guy said. "I'm not going to tolerate this.

"I'm hellbent that these people need to be deported. If they're illegal, they need to be punished and deported."

The DWI treatment court is an intense, 12-month voluntary program for people convicted of drunken driving at least twice. It requires substance abuse treatment, drug testing and frequent meetings with a judge, probation officer and case coordinator.

Todd Nuccio, Mecklenburg's trial court administrator, and Janeanne Tourtellott, the drug treatment court administrator, said DWI treatment court officials are not shielding illegal immigrants from deportation.

"There have been no discussions or concerted plan to shield illegal immigrants from incarceration and deportation," Nuccio said.

Tourtellott said the six-year-old DWI treatment court has about 80 participants and a 55 percent graduation rate.

She said about 40 percent of the participants are Latino. She doesn't know how many are illegal immigrants.

Nuccio and Tourtellott said a small number of illegal immigrants could be avoiding deportation through the program, but court administrators aren't helping them do it. They said the program accepts every eligible offender, regardless of legal status.

Nuccio says the DWI court focuses on treating repeat offenders. They don't even inquire about citizenship.

"Whether they are legal or not, the reason we put them in DWI court is because it reduces recidivism, costs less and improves public safety," he said.

"We don't inquire about their citizenship status. We don't ask about ethnicity. We don't ask about gender. We don't ask about race. If the judge sentences them to the program, we service them."

In a memo last week, Guy, director of the N.C. Department of Correction's division of community corrections, directed his probation officers in Charlotte to report any illegal immigrants to federal immigration officials.

"The Division of Community Corrections does not support or condone illegal immigrants under our supervision...," Guy wrote. "It is our responsibility to report illegal immigrants to the proper federal authorities if we have knowledge or reasonable suspicion of their illegal status."

Sheriff's program

Last spring, Mecklenburg Sheriff Jim Pendergraph unveiled a new enforcement system in which deputies check the residency status of every foreign-born person brought to the county jail on criminal charges. Since then, DWI offenders eligible for treatment court must do any required jail time first. Nuccio said court administrators don't want to spend time and money on a person only to later have them deported.Illegal immigrants arrested for DWI before the sheriff began his immigration enforcement program can avoid the status check. But the loophole will close soon because everyone arrested in Mecklenburg County and born outside the United States now faces a check of their legal status.

Pendergraph is outraged that illegal immigrants may be avoiding deportation.

"We've got court officials trying to circumvent a system that took a lot of effort and resources to identify people who are in this country illegally and committing crimes and have them removed," Pendergraph said.

"All these defendants have been convicted of DWI -- some multiple times. We shouldn't have any hesitancy identifying illegal immigrants driving on our roads drunk and getting them out of our country."

Guy said he gave Mecklenburg's sheriff the names of five Hispanic men who were convicted of DWI and are in Mecklenburg's DWI treatment court.

Two of the men, Guy said, have been sent to a drug treatment facility in Sampson County. He said the other three are on a waiting list to be admitted to the out-of-county treatment facility.

The sheriff says all five men are illegal immigrants and were arrested before his enforcement program began. Two of the Hispanic men have been convicted of DWI three times, according to court records.

Tourtellott could not immediately say whether the treatment court sent the men to the treatment facility. She said the court team -- a judge, prosecutor, probation officer, case coordinator and treatment providers -- does send some participants for inpatient treatment if they violate the program's rules and that the Sampson County center, called Harvest House, is where native Spanish speakers would be sent. She said it is the only bilingual and bicultural treatment facility in North Carolina.

`Zero tolerance' ordered

Defendants who go through the DWI court program are required to pay the cost of their treatment, though they may qualify for financial assistance. Exact figures weren't available Friday.

Guy said he intends to contact federal immigration officials and inform them what's happening in Charlotte's DWI treatment court. He also has written a memo to probation officers across the state to let them know there will be "zero tolerance" when it comes to illegal immigrants.

"If probation officers find out someone is illegal, they're going to report them to immigration authorities so they can take appropriate action," Guy said.

Jeff Jordan, who heads U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in North Carolina, said Friday he plans to meet with state probation officials to work out a system to efficiently report illegal immigrants across the state.

Pendergraph thinks it's a waste of resources to help illegal immigrants get treatment.

"It's no secret that there are limited resources to deal with alcohol and drug abuse," the sheriff said. "Why would we spend a dime on an illegal immigrant who has been convicted of DWI?

"Why wouldn't we use the limited resources we have for U.S. citizens who need the treatment?"

Nuccio said treatment courts are a sentencing option for judges whether the defendants are illegal or not -- and its job is not to ferret out illegal immigrants and send them home.

"We're running a drug treatment court program," he said. "We're providing services to people who have been sentenced to the program. We're doing what we're supposed to be doing." Observer Exclusive

What is Treatment Court?

Mecklenburg's DWI treatment court, established in 2000, has won national recognition. It requires repeat DWI offenders to undergo treatment and drug testing. In 2004, the National Drug Court Institute selected Mecklenburg's DWI treatment court as a model to host training for jurisdictions across the country planning to set up similar courts.


Gary L. Wright

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/n ... 701211.htm

Posted on Sat, Oct. 07, 2006

Probe of DWI court sought
Commissioner calls for investigation of `haven' for illegal immigrants
MELISSA MANWARE
mmanware@charlotteobserver.com

County Commissioner Dan Bishop has asked Mecklenburg County leaders to investigate whether county employees working with the DWI Treatment Court have helped illegal immigrants avoid deportation.

Bishop, a Republican from District 5, asked for a report from the county manager, sheriff, and Department of Community Corrections at the commissioners' Oct. 17 meeting.

The head of the state's probation program told the Observer that his officers had overheard court officials talk about sending illegal immigrants arrested for driving while intoxicated to treatment centers so they didn't go to jail and have their immigration status checked.

"Allegations have been made that there is kind of a safe haven," Bishop said. "I want to make sure we understand thoroughly everything that is happening."

Last spring, Mecklenburg Sheriff Jim Pendergraph unveiled a new enforcement system in which deputies check the residency status of every foreign-born person brought to the jail on criminal charges.

The DWI treatment court, partially funded by the county, is a 12-month voluntary program for people convicted of drunken driving at least twice. People in the program can be sent to treatment centers or to jail. If they were arrested before the residency checks began, they can avoid deportation by going to treatment center instead of going back to the jail.

Last year, the Democratic majority defeated a Republican plan to deny illegal immigrants services run or funded by the county, such as mental health or homeless shelters.

Bishop said news that the treatment court, which gets some county funding, could aid illegal immigrants raised the issue again.

"I think a cogent, calm examination of this issue is appropriate," he said.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff Writer Carrie Levine contributed

Mecklenburg County, NC Focus Camapign

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... 507#224507

Originally Posted by Dixie

Mecklenburg County, NC Focus Camapign

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... 507#224507

DIX
do we need a push on this one?

Commissioner calls for investigation of `haven' for illegal immigrants


Added to home page

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2nd,

I would say push it because their next meeting is Oct. 17 meeting.
I don't know at this time if it is on the agenda but we can still be preemptive.

Dixie