FINDING INMATES IN U.S. ILLEGALLY
State declines Myrick's screening plan
Lawmaker sought new process for immigrants
EMILY S. ACHENBAUM
eachenbaum@charlotteobserver.com

The N.C. Department of Correction is telling U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick thanks but no thanks for her plan to screen for illegal immigrants in state prisons.

Department Secretary Theodis Beck told Myrick in a letter that the state already uses "the most efficient and effective way" to identify illegal immigrants and send them out of the country.

Beck said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents staff the state's four largest prison admission centers, and any incoming inmate who cannot prove U.S. citizenship is referred to one of them. If the agent finds the inmate is deportable, papers are drawn up and the prisoner is handed over to ICE custody once the inmate's sentence is completed, Beck wrote.

The prisons' existing program is "more effective" than the program called 289(g), Beck wrote. That program, used in the Mecklenburg County jail, is the one Myrick and Mecklenburg Sheriff Jim Pendergraph recommended for statewide use two weeks ago.

Myrick's camp argues the 289(g) program is more effective because it gives officers more immigration training, and because it verifies illegal immigrants' fingerprints with a federal database.

The state doesn't check that database, meaning some illegal immigrants could "slip through the cracks," Myrick said. Myrick's office said it still supports switching programs

http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/272889.html