Immigration officials seek help from probation officers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, May 21, 2007


RALEIGH
Federal immigration officials have started working closely with local probation officers to detect and deport illegal immigrants.

Since the beginning of the year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 219 people from probation offices in 10 North Carolina counties. Probation officers have started to report clients they believe are illegal and then holding mock appointments so immigration officials can round up the suspects.

"They have all broken the law," said Robert Guy, director of North Carolina's Division of Community Corrections, which oversees the state's probation officers. "If they are here illegally and that's detected, we have an obligation to report that to the feds."

Guy said that the probation office arrests, which started late last year with an experimental program in Mecklenburg County, help remove illegal immigrants that are taxing the state's resources by taking seats in drug treatment programs and overloading probation officers' calendars.

Richard Rocha, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that working with probation officers is just another tool for finding the criminal illegal aliens that are the agency's focus.

"We're removing these people from the country so we can ensure that our communities and streets are safer," Rocha said.

But critics say that the probation tactics could jeopardize public safety by forcing the state's estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants into hiding, afraid to report crimes or show up for court.

"They're not going to build a wall high enough to thwart the law of supply and demand," said Joe Dipierro, a Raleigh lawyer who represents Hispanics. "If we have a need for construction workers, somebody's going to fill that. But I'm afraid it's going to be an increasingly transient population that's less invested in cooperating with the system."

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