Thread: MA - Plymouth County sheriff helping ICE identify inmates in the country illegally

Posted at 10:00 am
By Rich Harbert

Staff at the county jail will soon begin helping the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flag inmates who may be in the country illegally.

PLYMOUTH – Staff at the county jail will soon begin helping the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flag inmates who may be in the country illegally.

But what the Section 287(g) program actually means for the men who find themselves incarcerated even temporarily at the correctional facility off Long Pond Road remains to be seen.

Sheriff Joseph McDonald said the program is aimed at increasing public safety and will target the worst of the worst who need to be off the streets and out of the country.

But members of Indivisible Plymouth, a local grassroots political organization, fear that the program will not distinguish between violent criminals and otherwise law-abiding people who run afoul of the law and land in jail even just briefly.

McDonald and ICE officials met with the public to answer questions about the program Monday in advance of the Sheriff’s Department starting to flag inmates.

Three sheriff’s deputies have completed a 16-week training course in how to use ICE databases and question inmates about their country of origin. McDonald said the program was set to start next Monday.

The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department is one of 45 law enforcement agencies in 18 states partnering with ICE on the agreement. The Bristol County Sheriff’s Department as well as the Massachusetts Department of Corrections have similar agreements with ICE. They are the only three agencies cooperating with ICE in New England.

McDonald said the program interviews inmates who have self-identified as foreign born. Many inmates are willing to do so to ensure they are not housed with rival gangs, he said. Other measures such as retina scans and fingerprinting can be used to identify a person’s identity and country of origin as well.

Chris Cronen, ICE’s Boston field office director, said once an inmate’s “alienage and removability” are determined, ICE would begin deportation proceedings immediately. That would start the filing of a detainer, but the inmate would always have his day in court before a federal immigration judge.

McDonald said it is important to understand that the program is not sending deputies into the community to look for people who are in the country illegally. He said the program will target only the serious criminals, not law-abiding people.

Cronen agreed that ICE wants to target the worst of the worst, but he said the agency does not prioritize. The agency attempts to get the worst offenders, he said, but anyone who lands in the jail and is in the country illegally is subject to an immigration detainer and the start of deportation proceedings.

Nonetheless, ICE can and does exercise discretion in immigration cases on a daily basis, he said.

Indivisible Plymouth members were not convinced. Maureen Renaud of Indivisible Plymouth said she does not question McDonald’s interest in making Plymouth County safer, but she said she fears that the program will not target only violent criminals the way he expects.

“I think the sheriff wants to make this work, but what happens on the national level is going to be what he winds up having to do,” Renaud said.

Christina Brown, president of Indivisible Plymouth, said she remains concerned that the program discriminates against poor people of color who cannot post bail immediately. Instead, they will immediately be marked for deportation even if arrested and jailed for a minor offense.

Brown said she was especially troubled by the sheriff and ICE using the words arrested and convicted as synonyms. Brown also questioned why McDonald felt the need to be one of the few law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE.

“It sounds like just a way to send people who get arrested home,” Brown said. “If you land at the jail and you need papers and you don’t have them, it might be the last place you sleep in America, and that was disturbing.”

Not all in the audience were opposed to program. Lanny Gallagher, a Plymouth resident, said there may be some hiccups, but he has faith in the sheriff. “If you have faith and let them do their jobs, you’re going to get bad people off the street. You just have to give it time,” Gallagher said. “The main thing is trust.”

McDonald said he remains committed to ensuring that only bad guys are rounded up by the program and will be willing to revisit his department’s participation in the 287(g) program if that does not play out. “We’re casting a wide net, but not every fish will be treated the same way,” McDonald said.

http://carver.wickedlocal.com/news/2...ry-illegally/1

Start loading up trains full...last stop the very Southern border of Mexico.

Far from our border so they cannot easily cross again.

Let Mexico send the Central American's off from there! No more fancy plane rides.

All minor's get handed over into the care and custody of Mexico...put them in detention there to find their parents!

NO MORE DETENTION ON U.S. SOIL...DEPORT WITHIN 48 HOURS.

ALL ABOARD...CHOO CHOO!!!