Metro Police Get High Marks for Illegal Immigrant Program

Posted: Jan 31, 2011 8:43 PM PST Updated: Jan 31, 2011 11:00 PM PST

LAS VEGAS - At the Clark County Detention Center, a program known as 287g has been in place for more than two years.

"287g is actually a section of the immigration law that allows local agencies to perform specified immigration functions and perform in conjunction with ICE," said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Rich Forbus.

Under the 287g agreement, local officers can place detainers on illegal immigrants who are taken to jail and report them to federal immigration authorities.

According to a report by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, in some parts of the country, some illegal immigrants who commit even minor offenses are being turned over to federal authorities for deportation.

Metro says it reports only the most violent criminal illegal immigrants.

"We look at criminal offenders. We're not looking at placing a detainer on somebody that's in here for traffic with no other criminal history. We will still screen that person to find out what their history (is), but our focus is on higher level offenders," Lt. Forbus said.

The Migration Policy Institute recognized the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as an exemplary agency for the way it handles 287g. The program, however, is not without controversy.

"It's controversial in that it deals with immigration, which is a hot button topic in this region of the country and every region of the country for that matter," Lt. Forbus said. "It's working for us, because we're targeting criminal offenders. We're looking to make our community a safer place.

The sheriff's vision, the department's vision of making Las Vegas the safest community in America uses this as one of our tools to do that."

Since the local-federal 287g partnership began in November 2008, Metro has identified 7,988 illegal immigrants at the Clark County Detention Center. Police say they did not report 2,804 illegal immigrant inmates to the federal government, because the immigrants were arrested for minor offenses. Metro officials say the department reported 5,184 undocumented inmates to ICE.

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/13943946/ ... nt-program