Thread: PA:Franklin County: Status checks not part of routine for po

Illegal immigrants in Franklin County: Status checks not part of routine for police
By TERRY TALBERT Staff writer


FRANKLIN COUNTY -- While no one knows the number of illegal immigrants in Chambersburg and surrounding areas, they are indeed present.

Law enforcement will tell you that.

"There are a fair amount here," said new Chambersburg Police Chief David Arnold, in a recent interview.

Whether or not they are causing problems in their adopted communities, illegal aliens must constantly look over their shoulders.

They are wanted people -- wanted by the U.S.government.

ICE is an apt acronym for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Fear of being detained and/or deported by the agency sends chills down the spines of illegal immigrants.

That is one reason many police agencies around the country -- Chambersburg Police Department and Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg, are two of them -- do not specifically target illegal immigrants for arrest.

Officers say they want all residents, including illegals, to report crimes to police without fear of being questioned about their residency status and potentially deported.

Arnold said since coming here he has tried to allay fears of borough illegals.

"My message when I was at the Hispanic businessmen's association was that, 'If you are the victim of a crime, we will take care of you as a victim. We will not ask your immigration status. That's not our No. 1 edict.'

"I plan to go to more meetings and that's going to be my message, because that's the right thing to do. Our No. 1 priority is
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the safety of the people and property of the entire borough, and its visitors.

"These people are no less human because of their immigration status. We are not the INS -- Immigration and Naturalization Service -- or Customs."

Arnold said if in the course of an investigation, illegal immigration was an issue pertinent to the case, officers would contact federal authorities.

Lt. Wade Lauer, station commander for Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg, said, "We don't specifically target individuals" just because they may be in the country illegally.

Lauer said if troopers check someone's identification as part of their job, and find they are in the country illegally, they will at that point contact ICE.

He said that could be during a criminal investigation or a routine traffic stop.

"If through investigation we find a person is not in the country legally, we contact immigration and ask if they want us to detain them," Lauer said. "Decisions relating to immigration and whether a person will be detained for lack of citizenship are determined by them."

Asked about how often troopers run into illegal immigrants during the course of their duties, Lauer said, "I don't want to get into numbers, but it does happen."

A member of the Franklin County Drug Task Force who prefers to remain anonymous said he recalled no arrests of illegal immigrants over the past two years by his team.

"If we have, it would have been several years ago," he said.

Those who have illegally come to Franklin County want to keep a low profile, and ICE is a big reason why.

Mark Medvesky, public affairs officer for ICE's regional Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Philadelphia, said the agency doesn't keep county-by-county figures on arrests of illegal aliens, but the job of agents is to find and deport them.

The Philadelphia regional office covers Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia.

Asked how ICE feels about local law enforcement agencies' approach to illegal immigrants, Medvesky said he had no opinion.

"We are not an oversight agency. We just provide police with tools," he said.

Those tools are phone numbers that connect officers with ICE agents.

"We have duty officers on call, and a law enforcement support center in Vermont where agents have access to immigration records," Medvesky said.

He talked about two scenarios in which ICE might become involved here.

"If law enforcement makes a stop and has probable cause to question someone's citizenship, they can call ICE and talk to an agent, or the agent can even interview the suspected illegal immigrant on the phone," he said.

If the person is arrested on an unrelated charge and held in Franklin County, an agent from ICE's Criminal Alien Program within a day or two comes here to interview them in jail and process them for removal, according to Medvesky.

"What happens next is up to the county prosecutor and law enforcement," he said.

If county authorities want a suspect tried on local charges, ICE places a detainer against that person and picks them up after their sentence is served.

If local authorities opt not to prosecute, the suspect is taken directly into custody by ICE agents.

Suspected illegal immigrants are tried in special immigration courts.

While crimes committed by illegal immigrants are not a huge problem in Franklin County, illegals by the nature of their status attract criminals -- people who provide them with false identification in return for cash, preying on their vulnerability to make a quick buck.

For example, in October, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett and state police announced they had brought charges in Chester County against three people who for a hefty fee provided illegal aliens with false identification, driver's licenses and insurance cards that allowed them to drive in the state.

ICE itself has Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces in cities nationwide that target the infrastructure that supports the business of illegal immigration.

According to an agency fact sheet, in fiscal year 2007 ICE conducted 1,309 document and benefit fraud investigations that led to 1,178 convictions.

Medvesky said he did not know if any of those cases occurred in Franklin County.

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Terry Talbert can be reached at 262-4747 or ttalbert@publicopinionnews.com.

ICE detainees

Franklin County Jail each year counts among its inmates a number of suspected illegal immigrants. In 2007, a total of 70 were held behind bars at one time or another. As of Oct. 28 a total of 49 had been held there at times so far this year.

Warden John Wetzel said, "The vast majority of people we get are picked up on local charges and have an ICE detainer against them."

On Oct. 28, the jail was holding 10 local and two federal inmates who had ICE detainers, according to Deputy Warden Carol Burns.

That means that once they complete their sentences for crimes committed in Franklin County, they are picked up by ICE, she said.

Following are names of alleged illegal immigrants who were at the jail on that date alone, and the reason for their incarceration.

- Sabina Rodgriguez: identity theft and criminal conspiracy

- Elix Hererra: DUI and motor vehicle violations

- Alfonso Maldonaco Morales: endangering children, simple assault and forgery

- Jairo Herrera: robbery, criminal conspiracy

- Alfredo Aguilar: simple assault

- Carlos Taba-Ruiz: delivery, drug paraphernalia

- Fernando Castaneda: delivery, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

- Eliezar Rivera: DUI, false identification and motor vehicle violations.

- Isabel Miranda-Cordero: identity theft

- Victor Garcia Baldemar: forgery.
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/ci_10938918

So Chambersburg is a sanctuary city.