Posted on Wed, Aug. 29, 2007
Citizenship checks sought
EMILY S. ACHENBAUM
U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph called Tuesday for North Carolina to begin determining the citizenship of all inmates entering the prison system.
Myrick said the program would resemble the current illegal-immigrant screening at Mecklenburg's jail, where about 2,600 illegal immigrants have been identified since May 2006.

Myrick and Pendergraph want state prisons to check inmates' citizenship during their initial screening, when prison officials fingerprint and photograph them.

Once the inmates have served their sentences, those already marked as illegal immigrants would be turned over to federal authorities and deported, rather than returning to N.C. communities, Myrick said.

Myrick, R-Charlotte, said she sent a letter to Gov. Mike Easley on Monday, urging him to arrange with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to begin the inmate screening. She said she did not know how much the program would cost, but that "we want to get as much as we can." She said the money would come from the federal level.

A spokesman for Easley, reached Tuesday night, did not immediately know whether the governor's office had received the letter.

Pendergraph's program has already "saved Mecklenburg County taxpayers significantly by allowing (the sheriff) to reduce the number of recidivist, criminal illegal aliens," Myrick said. Once a Mecklenburg inmate has been identified as illegal, the sheriff's office notifies federal authorities, who begin drawing up deportation papers.

Gaston and Alamance counties also check citizenship at their jails. Cabarrus County and York County, S.C., are about to start the same program. Others in North Carolina, including Union County, have applied for the program, but are on a waiting list, Myrick said.

Nationally, only Arizona and New Mexico screen all state inmates, she said.

Myrick said her goal is to have all N.C. county jails and state prisons -- and eventually prisons around the country -- looking for illegal immigrants.

Tuesday's talk of the screening program is one of a couple of immigration-related initiatives recently announced in Charlotte:

• Two weeks ago, Pendergraph announced federal immigration officials want to build a 1,500-bed detention facility in Mecklenburg to house illegal immigrants before they're deported. The center, the first in the country, would be the final stop for illegal immigrants from the South and mid-Atlantic regions.

• About six months ago, the U.S. Department of Justice announced plans to open an immigration court in Charlotte early next year.

http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/254921.html