Thread: Incoming Gov.Patrick to review Romney trooper policy

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_r ... _revi.html -

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Patrick to review Romney trooper policy

By Andrea Estes
Globe Staff

Incoming Governor Deval Patrick this morning said he may revoke Governor Mitt Romney's plan to have state troopers arrest illegal immigrants.

“I still think it’s a bad idea, and I’m going to get briefed by the secretary of public safety on exactly what the agreement is and what the guidelines are, and then I’m going to be looking at my power and my opportunities to fix what I think is broken,” Patrick said at a news conference this morning to introduce Leslie Kirwan as his top budget aide.

When asked by a Globe reporter if he would revoke the Romney policy, Patrick responded, “I’m saying wait and see. I’m going to investigate what power I have.”

Patrick has previously expressed skepticism about the Romney plan.

On Sunday, the Globe reported that Romney has reached an agreement with federal authorities that allows the Massachusetts State Police to arrest immigrants who are in the state illegally.

Currently, state troopers have no power to detain people for violations of their immigration status alone, said the spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom. If troopers stop people who they suspect are illegal immigrants, they can call a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Vermont to check on their status and detain them if federal officials request it, he said.

Under the deal, brokered after months of negotiations, troopers can detain people they determine are illegal immigrants during regular police duties, Fehrnstrom said. This authority will be given to two dozen or three dozen troopers who undergo 4 1/2 weeks of training in immigration laws, civil rights, and ways to avoid racial profiling, he said. The troopers will probably be members of special units that pursue violent fugitives or combat street gangs.





Posted by the Boston Globe City & Region Desk at 12:48 PM

Now, I hope everyone can see just how much better off we are now with our brand new government baboons in office!

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/colum ... 3174220799

Immigration law training a must for State Troopers
By Jessica M. Vaughan/Guest columnist
Sunday, December 10, 2006 - Updated: 01:04 AM EST



Immigration law training a must for State Troopers

By Jessica M. Vaughan
GUEST COLUMNIST

Shortly after midnight on September 9, 2001, Maryland state trooper Joseph Catalano pulled over a red Mitsubishi rental car traveling 90 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone on I-95 north of Baltimore. The driver, Ziad Jarrah, produced a Virginia driver's license, and quietly accepted the $270 fine issued by Catalano six minutes later, before continuing on to join his friends at a hotel in New Jersey.

Two days later, Jarrah boarded United Airlines flight 93, which he would later pilot into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone aboard.

At the time, Trooper Catalano had no way of knowing that Jarrah was an illegal alien who had overstayed his tourist visa by more than eight months, and who had failed to apply for a student visa to attend flight school in Florida.

If Governor-elect Patrick cancels the agreement just completed by the Romney administration to train Massachusetts state troopers to identify and possibly detain illegal aliens in cooperation with federal immigration authorities, as ethnic advocacy groups have called on him to do, future terrorists and criminal aliens will continue to have free passage on Massachusetts highways, and our troopers will be similarly handicapped in their efforts to keep our communities and our country safe.

No mere ''gimmick'' aimed at placating voters who are rightfully angry with the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration, the training program for state troopers, known as the 287(g) program after the relevant section of the immigration statute, is a reasonable and effective homeland security policy that has been field tested with excellent results in other states.

Florida was the first to ask to participate, soon after 9/11. Since then, according to federal documents, its 62 287(g)-trained law enforcement officers, who are members of special security task forces, have arrested more than 130 individuals, some of whom were involved in illegal surveillance activities and working illegally in airports, seaports, and nuclear power plants. Five of those were later convicted for possession of firearms, and many more were using false U.S. passports or other travel documents or fraudulently using Social Security numbers.

The state of Alabama, which is criss-crossed by major highways that serve as smuggling routes, has 57 287(g)-trained state troopers, who have been able to disrupt several alien smuggling and identity fraud rings since receiving the training in 2003. In addition, a number of the aliens identified by these troopers were later convicted for rape, methamphetamine trafficking, burglary, and other serious crimes.

Ethnic advocacy groups protest that giving state troopers training in immigration law will empower them to trample on the rights of immigrants and have a chilling effect on relations with law enforcement in immigrant communities.

On the contrary, the training will likely improve the officers' ability to correctly determine the status of a non-citizen so that green card holders, foreign students, guestworkers and others here legally will not be harassed, while those without legal status receive closer scrutiny.

The five-week training includes sessions on civil rights, cultural sensitivity, and illegal racial profiling. Besides, criminal aliens typically prey on those within their own communities, so making sure that these offenders are identified and flagged for removal will enhance public safety for all. Gov. Romney's spokesman has said that the Massachusetts agreement is for troopers who serve on special fugitive or gang task forces where knowledge of immigration law is essential, not for routine traffic patrols.

Public safety officials across the country have seen the value of enlisting the support of not just state troopers, but also police, sheriffs, and correctional officers to the cause of homeland security and immigration law enforcement. Faced with an illegal alien population of more than 12 million, federal officials tasked with identifying and removing them surely need all the help they can get.

At least 11 state and local agencies have agreements pending with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency responsible for the program, and many more have expressed interest, to the point where ICE is unable to keep up with demand. In the interim, some jurisdictions are hoping to take advantage of immigration law training available in the private sector so that their officers have a working understanding of the law and procedures and can approach their daily encounters with immigrants from a position of knowledge.

Allowing our state troopers to participate in a program that will improve their policing and make us all safer makes good political sense as well as good policy sense. If assuring the Commonwealth of his commitment to law enforcement and public safety remains a priority for Deval Patrick, he should rush to endorse and sustain this program regardless of who launched it.