By Isaac Groves
Times-News

Posted at 9:41 PM
Updated at 10:29 PM

GRAHAM — The Alamance County Board of Commissioners didn’t have the controversial 287(g) program on its agenda Monday, Aug. 20, but it heard about it from activists.

“I am against 287(g) because I was wrongly detained because I am Latino,” Edith Rodriguez said through a translator. “I was detained in 2012 here in Alamance County by immigration; I had a permit to be in this country. My kids were crying waiting outside the detention center for me for four hours. I don’t want other families to go through the same thing.”

A crowd of 30 or more from Siembra N.C., an advocacy group by and for undocumented immigrants sponsored by the American Friends Services Committee, gathered outside before the meeting and helped fill the commissioners’ meeting room and overflow room.

Commissioner Bob Byrd repeated his opposition to the county returning to the 287(g) program, saying it could land the county in court again and create a fear of profiling in the Latino community.

“I wouldn’t want to be stopped because of the color of my skin,” Byrd said.

Board Chair Amy Galey pushed back, saying there was nothing in the program about checking people’s papers, and the fear in the community was the result of manipulation.

“Which I think comes from peeps politicizing the 287(g) program,” Galey said.

287(g) is a federal program that gets local sheriff’s offices to flag offenders in jail who are also in the country illegally for deportation, and trains deputies to enforce immigration law in the field. It led to an unsuccessful U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against the county Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Terry Johnson on charges of profiling Hispanics. Johnson has been invited to revive the program in Alamance County.

Commissioner Tim Sutton joined Galey in supporting Johnson, saying he needed access to federal databases in the 287(g) program to identify dangerous people who otherwise could hide among the Latino community. But both said it was something the sheriff had to decide since he was the one who got the worst of the Justice Department lawsuit.

“I believe we need to do something in this nation about those who don’t feel they need to follow the rules,” Sutton said.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/201...-talk-pipeline