Immigration trend headed here?
REGAN FOSTER

A recent announcement from a neighboring county’s top cop has reignited the question of local immigration enforcement here.

Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran made headlines early last week by announcing that he recently had submitted an application for the so-called 287 (g) program, a federal program that trains local law-enforcement officers to begin deportation proceedings against illegal immigrants convicted of certain crimes.

That makes the Lake County Sheriff’s Office the fifth state agency to submit the application, although no Illinois agencies signed the requisite memorandum of agreement as of Sept. 19, Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics show.

The program has raised the ire of immigrant activists, who say it would increase racial profiling and make immigrants less likely to report crimes against them.

Curran said recently that the training would go to the detention officers who were in the jail and who processed and supervised inmates.

“We’re talking about child molesters, murderers, people who have committed aggravated battery,â€