Thread: TENN - Davidson sheriff defends deportation program

Davidson sheriff defends deportation program
Deporting small-time criminals misses the mark, feds say
By Kate Howard March 5, 2009

On the heels of a report saying local immigration enforcement programs have missed their mark of deporting serious criminal offenders, Davidson County's sheriff is defending his program while Nashville's advocate community is calling for its end.



The report, issued Wednesday by the federal Government Accountability Office, says there is little oversight of local law enforcement agencies that partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and deport illegal immigrants. The program, referred to as 287g, was intended to get dangerous criminals off the streets — primarily those who commit violent crimes, human smuggling, gang/organized crime activity, sexual-related offenses, narcotics smuggling and money laundering, according to the report.

But the report found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has nearly 70 jurisdictions under the program and little consistency in how it's implemented. Immigration officials haven't made their objectives clear, the report said, and many programs — including Nashville's — use their resources to process minor offenders.

"When the law was written, surely it didn't say you can only process violent criminal offenders once they're convicted," said Sheriff Daron Hall, who initiated the 287g program locally in April 2007. "If that's part of their mission, it surely isn't something that's articulated."

The majority of the immigrants in Nashville that were deported during the first year of the program were taken to jail on misdemeanor offenses that started with a traffic stop.

A Tennessean investigation last year showed that of the roughly 3,000 people deported during the program's first year, about 81 percent were charged with misdemeanors. About half were caught during traffic stops.

According to the sheriff's office, the total number deported reached about 5,100 people by the end of February. Recent numbers on the types of crimes the deportees were charged with in the last year were not available Wednesday.

The report said pursuing minor offenders wastes valuable resources and clogs federal detention centers, limiting expensive bed space.


Hall says he doesn't think the criticisms in the report apply to his program. He's got no problem with bed space, averaging 300 empty beds system-wide, and he believes the way Nashville is set up — with Metro police making arrests and the sheriff's department booking offenders — should alleviate fears of racial profiling or abuse of power the report highlighted as community concerns.



Hall agreed with some of the criticisms in the report of the federal agency that oversees the program, saying that his office was at one point working with a different federal immigration agent every two weeks.

But he says he has been consistent with his mission from the beginning: to prevent a recurrence of the tragedies of 2006, when he said there were six high-profile homicides committed by illegal immigrants, including a vehicular homicide by Gustavo Reyes Garcia, who had 14 previous arrests for DUI before the fatal wreck that killed a Mt. Juliet couple.

"People want to look and see what crimes people are brought to jail on, and that's fair to look at," Hall said. "It's also fair to see that people like Reyes Garcia, who committed mostly misdemeanor offenses, would never be caught if we weren't checking people."

Advocates in the immigrant community have long criticized the program, which sees all foreign-born people booked into jail screened by sheriff's deputies specially trained by federal immigration officials to determine citizenship. Those identified as illegal immigrants are detained and sent to federal custody when they've completed their local sentences.

"The fact is that the intent of the program is to target and deport dangerous criminals and the application of the program is pretty much everyone else," said Stephen Fotopulos, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. "What about the people who are arrested on a mistake and deported nonetheless?"

ACLU says more scrutiny needed
Fotopulos, a member of the program's advisory board who attended a congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday addressing the report, believes that federal immigration officials have lost control of the program. Without any real measures of success or failure, Fotopulos said, he would like to see a moratorium on its implementation until Immigration and Customs Enforcement and everyone else can figure out their priorities.

The 287g programs have resulted in racial and ethnic profiling and mistrust of law enforcement, said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Weinberg said the program needs further scrutiny.

"In Nashville, we hear reports about individuals being arrested and brought to the jail for non-violent misdeanors like fishing without a license or sitting outside a Laundromat," Weinberg said. "Surely, law enforcement would prefer not to serve as immigration agents and be about protecting the community from violent criminals."

Avi Poster, chair of the Coalition for Education about Immigration in Nashville, echoed the call to reassess Nashville's use of the program.

"If it's worthwhile, lets implement it the way it was intended," Poster said. "I have no problems processing people who commit serious felonious repeated criminal behavior. But this program wasn't aimed at ridding our community of immigrants."




Contact Kate Howard at kahoward@tennessean.com.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090 ... 017/NEWS01

The Tennessean does so many stories against the Sheriff and against the 287g, and it appears to be a mouthpiece for LaRaza groups and for the corrupt business community who uses illegal alien labor. Nashville has illegal alien gang activity and all of the other increased criminal activity that follows illegal aliens. The writers must be given their subject matter from open borders groups as Nashville is full of those who want to stop the 287g. You see the same names in the stories, Elliott Ozment, the TIRRC, and other activists who want nothing done to the community that threatens Nashville and Tennessee.

The truthful lawmakers will tell you, the residents will tell you, that illegal immigration is destroying Nashville and it most certainly has taken the job opportunities from thousands of citizens.

This Tennessee Sheriff has a partnership with ICE too. The pressure is there on anyone who wants to protect their community against illegal alien criminals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytf6xlkU ... annel_page

Ephesians 4:32

The program was designed to enforce immigration laws..period....stop trying to change the rules, that it is working.

If someone is fishing without a license, and the person is found to be in this country illegally he is now breaking 2 laws, I would almost bet the person is driving w/o a license 3 broken law and probably working 4th broken law, and more than likly useing stolen ID and SS # 6th broken law!

The problem is once they break one law they don't think they have to abide by any laws! DEPORT THEM.

Well said SOS!

Originally Posted by NoBueno

Well said SOS!

Thank you "NoBueno" its no wonder we are all so sick of the BS.