by Jessica Vaughan and James Edwards

03/19/2009


With the widespread murderous violence between warring Mexican drug cartels spilling over the U.S. border and the continuing threat from radical Islamic terrorists domestic and foreign, the government has to spend its law enforcement dollars where they can do the most good. Yet Democratic leaders in Congress and the Obama administration appear ready to scale back one of the most successful and cost-effective immigration law enforcement programs ever launched.

This program, known as 287(g), allows police, sheriffs, and other local law enforcement agencies to provide direct assistance to federal agents in identifying illegal alien criminals and putting them on the path to removal from the country. By expediting the removal of foreign lawbreakers, 287(g) saves taxpayers money.

Its cost: about $60 million over the last three fiscal years. In contrast, ICE spent more than ten times that annual cost -- about $219 million -- last year alone to remove 34,000 aliens under the fugitive operations program. There are local benefits, too; the Arizona Department of Public Safety saved nearly $3 million in incarceration costs in just the first year.


Currently, illegal aliens who make it past border patrol agents, consular officers and port of entry inspectors are largely home free. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has just a few thousand agents, concentrated in cities, to deal with a widely scattered illegal population that recently reached 12 million, including nearly seven million in the work force and as many as 400,000 in jails and prisons. This mismatch works well for illegal aliens, especially the criminals.

For a long time, local communities have been stuck with the economic and social consequences. But in 1996, Congress heeded their pleas and gave them this tool to address public safety problems associated with illegal immigration and help out the feds at the same time. State and local law agencies who sign up get advanced training for selected officers, access to immigration databases, and authority to seek removal for criminal aliens.

Interest soared after 9/11, and, since 2006, officers in the program have identified about 90,000 criminal aliens. According to ICE documents we obtained through the Freedom of Information Act for a forthcoming report, 287(g) arrests represented about one-fifth of all ICE criminal alien arrests in 2008. All of the removable aliens were identified by trained officers in the regular course of their duties in corrections, highway patrol, or criminal investigations. They include murderers, rapists, gangsters, drunk drivers, and even a few suspected terrorists.

The demand for the program is the best testament to its popularity. Sixty-seven jurisdictions are now taking part, and another 42 are on the waiting list.

The program’s success has made it a prime target of anti-immigration enforcement advocacy groups. The ACLU, Appleseed Network, and allies for years have denounced the program, published breathless reports, and launched campaigns to help local activists thwart its adoption in their communities. Opponents in Congress recently commissioned a GAO report, and on March 4, House Homeland Security committee chair Bennie Thompson convened a three-hour hearing to investigate alleged ICE mismanagement of the program.

Detractors complain that 287(g) officers identify mainly “minorâ€