Thread: N.C. Sheriff won't sign 287g consent agreement with feds

Sheriff won't sign consent agreement with feds


September 19, 2012 4:56 PM

Chris Lavender / Times-News

GRAHAM — Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson will not sign a consent agreement to develop and implement reforms in collaboration with the federal Justice Department, his spokesman said Wednesday.

The Department of Justice has asked the sheriff’s office to commit to long-term structural, cultural, and institutional change as part of its investigation into alleged “discriminatory policing at the department.”

The results of an investigation released Tuesday allege the department has targeted Latinos in violation of the Constitution and federal law.

Federal officials said Tuesday they will seek to obtain a court-enforceable written agreement remedying the alleged violations and incorporating reforms with ACSO officials.

Justice has given the sheriff’s office until Sept. 30 to decide if it will work cooperatively to develop and implement sustainable reform measures and plans to take legal action if the sheriff’s office does not meet the Sept. 30 deadline to sign the consent agreement.

Sheriff’s Spokesman Randy Jones on Wednesday said the memorandum released by the Justice Department failed to mention the names of 125 people federal officials say they interviewed as part of a two-year investigation.

“The report was nothing but generalizations,” Jones said.

In summer 2011, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Alamance County and Sheriff Terry Johnson seeking access to interview sheriff’s department employees outside the presence of County Attorney Clyde Albright. The Justice Department asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on Tuesday, which the court agreed to do.

Jones said it was standard for the DOJ to release allegations against law enforcement agencies and then ask them to sign consent agreements to implement reforms. Jones said several of the policy changes suggested by the DOJ are already in place at the sheriff’s office.

“We already have an internal review and complaint process,” Jones said.

JONES SAID THE decision made on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security to terminate the 287 (g) jail program with the sheriff’s office wouldn’t have a significant impact on Alamance County’s jail revenues.

The sheriff’s office implemented 287 (g) in 2007. The program trained and authorized local law enforcement and jailers as federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for the purpose of deporting people in the country illegally.

The jail generated $65 per day for each inmate held through the 287 (g) program, according to County Manager Craig Honeycutt. The number of 287 (g) inmates held daily at the jail has decreased since the program was implemented in 2007.

Honeycutt said the jail’s average daily 287 (g) inmate population last month was 25. There were 22 inmates held at the jail on Monday processed through 287 (g).

From 2008-09, the jail’s 287 (g) average daily inmate population was closer to 50. Beginning in 2010, the numbers began to decline as ICE began to place more focus on the newer federal Secure Communities program, which also helps identify illegal immigrants who have been arrested and is available in all 100 counties in North Carolina.

The Alamance County jail will continue to run the Secure Communities program. Access to the database used to run the program at the county jail will be restricted to federal authorities. ACSO staff will not have access to the database.

Secure Communities uses existing federal information through a partnership between ICE and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that helps identify criminal aliens without imposing new or additional requirements on state and local law enforcement. The federal government, not the state or local law enforcement agencies, determines what immigration enforcement action is appropriate.

The 287 (g) jail program contract with the sheriff’s office was scheduled to expire in October. The contract was terminated before it was set to end on the heels of the DOJ’s report released this week.

ICE still has a separate agreement with the sheriff’s office to house inmates processed through Secure Communities at the Alamance County jail. Jones said it’s unclear if the current 287 (g) inmates held at the jail will be transferred to another facility.

The Department of Homeland Security’s budget for fiscal 2012-13 proposes to expand Secure Communities nationwide while phasing out 287 (g) task force contract agreements with communities that show signs of low performance.

Secure Communities has expanded from 14 jurisdictions in 2008 to more than 1,700 jurisdictions this year. DHS is on track to expand Secure Communities to all law enforcement jurisdictions nationwide by 2013.

Honeycutt said county revenue losses from the reduction of 287 (g) inmates could be offset by taking in more state misdemeanants. The county jail began accepting state misdemeanant inmates in January. Each state misdemeanant inmate provides the county with $40 per day.
The county will also continue to rely on revenue from the U.S. Marshals Service. The county is paid $65 per inmate per day to hold Marshals Service inmates.

Sheriff won't sign consent agreement with feds - - - Burlington Times News

ICE suspends enforcement of 287g in North Carolina county

Published September 19, 2012
EFE

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has suspended the 287(g) program in a North Carolina county where the sheriff's office was cited by the Justice Department for discriminatory practices against Latinos.

The decision comes with the release of the results of the two-year investigation into the actions of the office of Alamance County Sheriff Terry S. Johnson, whose deputies have made a disproportionate number of unnecessary arrests of members of the local Hispanic community with an eye toward increasing the number of deportations of undocumented immigrants.

"The Department of Homeland Security is troubled by the Department of Justice's findings of discriminatory policing practices within the Alamance County Sheriff's Office," ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said in a statement.

"Accordingly, and effective immediately, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is terminating ACSO's 287(g) jail model agreement and is restricting their access to the Secure Communities program," she said.

"ICE will continue to enforce federal immigration laws in Alamance County in smart, effective ways that focus our resources on criminal aliens, recent border crossers, repeat and egregious immigration law violators and employers who knowingly hire illegal labor," Gonzalez said.

This is the second time this year that ICE has suspended the enforcement of a 287(g) contract. The Obama administration in June cancelled the program's contract with all state and local police agencies in Arizona.

Sheriff Johnson, who has publicly disparaged the "moral values" of Mexicans, signed up for 287(g) in 2007.

Since the enforcement of 297(g) - which permits law enforcement personnel to determine the immigration status of people they detain - began in Alamance County, Latino leaders have complained that the officers have engaged in racial profiling.

Among the discriminatory practices that the Justice Department found in Alamance County were the setting up of checkpoints in Hispanic communities and a pronounced tendency to detain Latinos for offenses that would normally only warrant issuing a ticket.

Mary Rosenbluth, an attorney who has defended several Hispanics in immigration court after they were arrested in Alamance County for driving without a license, told Efe on Wednesday that at last "justice has come for the immigrants."

"What has happened is good, but there are still people in the process of deportation, and now ICE has to do its part, to cancel deportations according to its use of discretion, and give priority (in deportations) to criminals," Rosenbluth said.

The Justice Department conducted more than 125 interviews with county residents, employees and former employees in Johnson's office, which has until Sept. 30 to respond to the allegations and make changes or face legal action. EFE

ICE suspends enforcement of 287g in North Carolina county | Fox News Latino