Thread: N.C.: New Hanover sheriff's office gets new tool to ID immig

New Hanover sheriff's office gets new tool to ID immigrants

By Veronica Gonzalez
Staff Writer


Published: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 7:52 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 7:54 p.m.

The New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office will have access to a wider range of fingerprints – those of immigrants – to be able to better identify detainees, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Friday.

The access to immigrant fingerprints is courtesy of the Homeland Security and Justice departments, which developed a program called Secure Communities for jails to be able to identify inmates.

The additional resource comes a year after the state began implementing a law introduced by Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover. SB229 mandated jails in all North Carolina counties determine the legal residency or citizenship status of anybody charged with a felony or driving while impaired charge. If a person was found to be in the country unlawfully, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would be notified.

Its success was not immediately clear on Friday, but Eddie Caldwell, executive vice president of the N.C. Sheriffs’ Association, said a report will be released later this month detailing the number of checks across the state and the results.

The new program came about after Congress mandated that the FBI and ICE merge records, he said.

Law enforcement agencies use a system called Statewide Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or SAFIS, to check a person’s state or federal criminal record. Now, through SAFIS, participating agencies can access information from immigrants who have been fingerprinted by ICE, Caldwell said.

So far, Wake, Buncombe, Henderson and Gaston counties have been participating in the program since the end of 2007, and Duplin and Orange counties will also have access to those records, ICE announced Friday.

In fact, the Department of Homeland Security plans to equip most counties in the country with the new technology during the next 3-1/2 years.

“Fingerprints don’t lie,â€

So Sid Causey your going to let them out to kill us?...All because you dont want to do what is right?

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