By John Harbin
Times-News Staff Writer

Henderson County would process and temporarily jail illegal immigrants from across Western North Carolina under a program scheduled to start this year.

Sheriff Rick Davis told the Board of Commissioners on Wednesday that Henderson County has received the OK from the federal government for the 287(g) program and awaits only training and intergovernmental agreements to launch it.

The program draws mixed reviews from Hispanic advocates but it won the solid endorsement of commissioners and the district attorney on Wednesday.

Under the plan, Henderson County would train deputies and act as a receiving jail for "criminal illegal aliens" from eight counties in the mountains.

"Under the hub and spoke plan we would be actively supporting law enforcement agencies in Buncombe, Transylvania, Polk and other area counties in a 50-mile radius," Davis said.

The cooperative program between Henderson County and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement trains jail personnel to identify and send out of the county illegal immigrants charged with a crime. The suspects will go to a federal facility in Georgia, where the deportation process will take place, he said.

Davis said he wants to identify and send away suspects even if they are picked up for minor offenses like having no drivers license because it's not known whether they might be wanted in another jurisdiction.

"Crime is regional," he said. "We had an armed robbery on Upward Road. Four of the suspects were from Asheville and had been in the system there."

Davis said the program would not cost county taxpayers more; the federal government is expected to pay for beds for the illegals from Henderson and surrounding counties. The North Carolina Sheriff's Association will pay $4,500 to cover costs for each deputy that takes the training.

"Henderson County will recover our costs and then some," he said.

Jurisdictions

Davis asked that his office be allowed to use $25,156 from current detention funds as start up costs that would later be reimbursed and to hire two additional deputies by April 1.

Commissioner Larry Young asked the sheriff how long Henderson County could expect to retain illegal immigrants that would be deported through the 287(g) program.

"They would be moved out of our jail within 72 hours," Davis said.

Capt. Greg Cochran said that ICE did a survey of Henderson County's jail on Feb. 6 and out of 156 inmates, 24 were foreign born.

"Among the eight counties that would be in our coverage area with 287(g) 110 inmates were non-citizens subject to investigation for deportation," Cochran said.

Davis said other counties bordering jurisdictions that adopt the ICE program have seen a "push effect" in crime. "If we weren't a hub I can assure you we would probably see that push effect into our county," he said.

Addressing gray area

Patrick Tapia, director of the Latino Advocacy Coalition in Henderson County, said Wednesday that overall the Latino community is concerned about gray areas of the 287(g) program.

"One aspect of concern is the training that the officers are going to get," Tapia said. "Immigration law is so complicated. Officers would need extensive training. I think the sheriff has said that the training will be only four or six weeks. This means that the immigrants being assessed would have to be assessed by someone who doesn't completely understand immigration laws."

Another issue Tapia said that he has heard is what would happen to the children of illegal immigrants.

"Some of these immigrants have brought their children to the U.S. and that is the only culture they know," he said. "What will happen when a teenager is caught for a minor infraction and deported. Wouldn't that equate to banishing one of our own citizens to another country that they know nothing about."

Judging success

The program allowing local law officers to identify and send to ICE custody illegal immigrants charged with a crime has been in place in several North Carolina counties, including Mecklenburg and Alamance.

Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said that 287(g) has been very successful in his county since its inception on July 1, 2007.

"ICE called me three or four months ago and had me look at crime statistics since we have incorporated 287(g) and statistics during the same time period a year ago," Johnson said. "We found a 38 percent reduction in aggravated crimes."

Johnson said that his Sheriff's Office is seeing fewer arrest involving Latinos.

"We have been very successful in arresting and deporting illegal aliens," Johnson said. "When I first took office on any given day I was seeing 35 to 42 percent of our jail population was criminal illegal aliens. Most of those were repeat offenders and that has been cut back significantly."

Johnson also said that since taking part in the 287(g) program he has brought close to $3 million to the county by housing the illegals and from July 1, 2007, to mid-January Alamance County has deported 662 illegal individuals.

District Attorney Jeff Hunt endorsed the program.

"You really cannot run an effective law enforcement program and actually reduce or control crime if you have a situation where you have inmates in jail you don't have a way to identify," he told the commissioners.

He said in an interview later that law-abiding immigrants ought not be alarmed about the program.

"It's not a broad sweeping net that's going to be cast about to get everybody who may have a questionable status immigration wise. It's trying to get to the problem of illegal immigrants who commit crimes," he said.

The commissioners placed Davis' request to use detention funds and to hire two deputies by April 1 on their March 6 agenda to give the commissioners time to discuss the plans for the program.

"I think we need to support the sheriff and hire the two deputies on April 1," Commissioner Chuck McGrady said. "We can hire them with the condition of the reimbursement of startup funds and then authorize any other (monetary) needs only through federal money."

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