Thread: Most Caught in 287(g) Commit Minor Crimes

Report: Most Caught in 287(g) Commit Minor Crimes

Martha Dalton (2011-02-03)
Listen Now:

ATLANTA (WABE) - Cobb and Gwinnett Counties have partnered with the federal government through the 287(g) program to catch violent criminals who are in the U.S. illegally. But a new report says the majority of criminals caught in those two counties under the program are charged with minor crimes. WABE's Martha Dalton has more.

The Migration Policy Institute studied how 287(g) is being implemented in seven U.S. municipalities, including Cobb and Gwinnett. Dr. Muz-off-ar Chis-tee is one of the study's authors:

"We looked at how the operation was happening in terms of what kind of people it was catching in its coverage, and then the kind of impact it was having at the local level."

The study found that 80 percent of the criminals caught under the program in Cobb and 50 percent of those caught in Gwinnett were jailed on traffic violations and misdemeanors - not violent crimes. Chis-tee says those numbers don't reflect the program's objectives:

"If the principal goal of this program is to go after dangerous criminals or people of national security concern, then to have 50 percent in the pool which don't seem to fit that bill is off-pattern."

Chis-tee says the statistics were obtained from U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement -or ICE:

"The reason why we decided to use the ICE numbers and not numbers given from localities, though in many cases we found they actually matched, is that there would be some certain consistency."

Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway declined an interview. But in a statement, the sheriff said that about 22 percent of Gwinnett's arrests through 287(g) were traffic related. He said when criminals are turned over to federal immigration officials for deportation hearings, other factors, such as criminal histories, are also taken into consideration.

But Chis-tee says the goal of the study wasn't to criticize or praise 287(g), but to examine whether or not it's being implemented consistently at the local level:

"It's problematic to have a national program with significant local variation. Because then what happens is that local jurisdictions essentially dictate the priorities of a national program when it should be the other way around."

Chis-tee says the way 287(g) is enacted in Cobb and Gwinnett Counties is drastically different from the way it's implemented in jurisdictions like Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where the majority of criminals caught under the program are charged with felonies.

Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren did not offer a comment and declined WABE's request for an interview.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1758184/Atlanta./Report.Most.Caught.in.287(g).Commit.Minor.Crimes

Biased Report Alert.

How can the study expert say something like this and not be biased?

"If the principal goal of this program is to go after dangerous criminals or people of national security concern, then to have 50 percent in the pool which don't seem to fit that bill is off-pattern."

No, Dr. Muz-off-ar Chis-tee (study author) the 287(g) does not discriminate between "good" and bad criminals.

"Under 287(g), ICE provides state and local law enforcement with the training and subsequent authorization to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity." "MOUs may authorize slightly different procedures for different law enforcement entities."

http://www.cobbsheriff.org/news/Section%20287.htm

Liberals always overlook the important things when bending the facts. LA and LV were used as examples of only going after the really bad criminals, but what the expert fails to mention is the illegal alien population in those locations are so high that they can't handle all of the arrests.

Dixie

Major crime, minor crime, parking ticket, nothing, I don't care. Just deport all of them.

I don't think we should be to worried about minor crime.

But then what is minor crime? Is entering a country illegally a minor crime? Is taking a job away from a Citizen of that country a minor crime? Is tax evasion a minor crime? Is Law evasion a minor crime? Is identity fraud and theft a minor crime? Is using social benefits your not entitled to and didn't pay into a minor crime? Is demonstrating about revolution, overthrow, and conquest of a foreign soverignty a minor crime?

In my book all of those are Capital Crimes that are along the lines Terrorism and pushing a Coup.... not minor crimes. Now a minor crime is when Grandma steals a packet of bubblegum....

ReformUSA wrote:

In my book all of those are Capital Crimes that are along the lines Terrorism and pushing a Coup.... not minor crimes. Now a minor crime is when Grandma steals a packet of bubblegum...

Especially if she wears dentures and can't chew it.