Thread: Immigrant data shatter crime misconceptions

Immigrant data shatter crime misconceptions
By: BERTRAND M. GUTIERREZ | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: November 06, 2011

The way some people talk, illegal immigrants are inherently more dangerous to society than most law-abiding Americans.

"You're dealing with a criminal culture that where they're from, no one ever gets charged," said William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, based in Raleigh. "Many illegal immigrants have a rape and pillage mentality."

The latest statistics from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, paint a different portrait in Forsyth County, according to Bill Schatzman, the county's Republican sheriff.

"The undocumented population in our county does not present a significant law-enforcement issue," Schatzman said.

In Forsyth County, more than 10,000 fingerprints were processed at the county jail during the 13 months ending Sept. 30 through a national program known as Secure Communities. The fingerprints represent all stripes, including U.S. citizens, immigrants who had legal permission to be in the United States, and immigrants who did not.

Out of all those fingerprints, ICE identified a total of 258 immigrants, or about 2.5 percent. Out of those immigrants, 102 were "removed" from the U.S., including some who had legal permission to be in the country.

Thirty-three of those who were removed had no prior criminal convictions. Seventeen people removed had prior criminal convictions of what ICE classifies as the most serious crimes, such as rape, murder and major drug offenses.

As a segment of the 10,000-plus people fingerprinted, the 17 most serious offenders represented less than two-tenths of 1 percent.

Schatzman was not surprised by the numbers.

"Surely, there are some (immigrants) that break the law," he said. "But clearly, they're not the largest population in our jail, and they're not the largest population that goes through our court system. It would be my experience, based on facts, that this is a law-abiding community."

In North Carolina, more than 430,000 fingerprints have been submitted since 2008 from local jails for possible matches with databases kept by the FBI and ICE, according to the federal immigration-enforcement agency.

More than 4,000 people, or about 1 percent of the total, have been removed, according to ICE statistics.

Cracking down

ICE rolled out Secure Communities in 2008 under the Bush administration and has expanded it under the Obama administration in an effort to electronically match fingerprints of people booked in jails across the United States — and catch the worst of the worst.

"Top priority will be given to offenders who pose a threat to the public safety, such as aliens with prior convictions for major drug offenses, murder, rape, robbery, and kidnapping," ICE said in a news release issued Feb. 25, 2009.

ICE classifies those crimes as Level 1 offenses and uses two other categories for lesser crimes. Level 2 crimes include embezzlement, fraud, arson and burglary. And the least threatening Level 3 crimes include misdemeanors, according to ICE's standard operating procedures.

In Forsyth County, the largest single group — 28 — of the 102 removed had Level 3 convictions, 24 had Level 2 convictions, and 33 had no convictions.

Critics of the Secure Communities program say it has become an expensive dragnet that fails to root out "top priority" criminals.

ICE officials could not immediately provide an estimate on how much the program has cost annually.

Dani Moore, coordinator of the network of immigrant advocates at the N.C. Justice Center, said the facts are on the side of the immigrant community. Anti-immigrant forces and politicians continue the "ugly myth" that immigrants are more likely to be involved in crime, she said.

"Rather than fixing the broken immigration system — everyone agrees it needs serious repair — and finding sound public policy solutions, it's easier to demonize people in North Carolina," Moore said.

In what many view as a response to the criticism about Secure Communities, President Barack Obama in August endorsed the easing of deportation proceedings involving noncriminal cases.

Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, said in a letter dated Aug. 18 that her department and the U.S. Department of Justice are doing a case-by-case review of about 300,000 individuals currently in deportation proceedings, with the aim of giving criminal cases top priority.

"This process will also allow additional federal enforcement resources to be focused on border security and the removal of public safety threats," Napolitano said.

Gheen, the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC president, doesn't believe the government's numbers.

"How do you know that the DHS is lying? They're talking," he said.

Asked to guess how many immigrants convicted of the most serious crimes such as rape and murder made up the 10,000-plus fingerprints processed at the Forsyth County Jail in the 13-month period, he said: "a couple hundred."

Told that the number was 17, Gheen responded, "I had hoped they had caught more."

http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2011/no ... r-1578916/

(Mod Edit/ separated paragraphs/ RB)

I am wondering if the writer really interviewed William or is this heresay?

Originally Posted by Mayday

I am wondering if the writer really interviewed William or is this heresay?

I conducted the interview with him.

I do not believe DHS's numbers on this matter because we have documented DHS releasing bogus and biased information on a regular basis for the last few years under Obama.

DHS has been actively asking local police to not enforce immigration laws and not to let local groups or reporters know when an illegal alien is involved in major crimes.

W

I am sure this report is of great consolation to those who have been raped , robbed or murdered by Illegal Immigrants , or their remaing family members. They should sleep better knowing this is only a small % of illegals , who should not be here to begin with. Would it not be better to enforce the laws regarding ALL Ilegals before the 1% or 10% commit their crimes , or should we simply wait until they murder someone before acting? Logic says if all illegals were removed , there would be 0 crimes commited by Illegals , if it were possible. So the question really becomes , what % of Illegal crime is an acceptable number?

Out of all those fingerprints, ICE identified a total of 258 immigrants, or about 2.5 percent. Out of those immigrants, 102 were "removed" from the U.S., including some who had legal permission to be in the country.

This just shows that Obama's policies are letting more than half of all illegal aliens who have been arrested for a crime are being turned back out on the street, instead of being deported. Only 39% are being deported. That was a F- when I was in school.

Catch and release of criminal illegal aliens on the interior of the US.

Dixie