Thread: Nashville to deport criminal illegal immigrants via program?

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=51928

City looks to deport criminal illegal immigrants via program
By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
September 05, 2006

After a recent spate of violent crimes allegedly committed by illegal or suspected illegal immigrants, Nashville has asked to become one of five American cities empowered to deport its own criminal illegal immigrants.

On Aug. 15, Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall — with the full support of Metro Chief of Police Ronal Serpas and District Attorney Torry Johnson — filed paperwork to take part in a little-known federal government initiative called the Delegation of Authority Program or section 287 (g) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

The 287 (g) program gives local law enforcement agencies the “training and subsequent authorization to identify, process and, when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity,” according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security fact sheet.

Local implementation of 287 (g) would not authorize the police or sheriff’s deputies to conduct active sweeps of suspected immigrants, nor would it allow any Metro agency to deport aliens who happen to be identified as illegal.

What it would do, according to Hall and others familiar with the program, is allow Sheriff’s Office personnel to screen anyone who is arrested and placed in jail, and who is suspected of being an illegal immigrant, to determine if those persons previously have been deported or are otherwise subject to any federal immigration enforcement action.

Presently, sheriff’s deputies must feed information on arrested suspected illegal immigrants to a federal database in Vermont and wait for an answer that may or may not come.

After the Aug. 22 arrest of Ivan Moreno, a suspected illegal immigrant charged with beating his 74-year-old Bellevue neighbor to death, Hall, Serpas and Johnson acknowledged the three had been holding a series of meetings to discuss how to change the way criminal illegal immigrants are handled in Nashville.

What came out of those meetings was a plan to enter Davidson County into the 287 (g) program as soon as possible.

Mt. Juliet incident kicks off meetings

Hall said the discussions between Davidson County’s top three law enforcement officials began in earnest immediately after the June 8 vehicular homicide of a Mt. Juliet couple, allegedly at the hands of Gustavo Reyes Garcia, an illegal immigrant who had been arrested by Metro Police 17 times since 1997 but who served a total of only 168 days in jail.

“Certainly, Garcia brought to light some gaps in what I feel like is the federal government’s responsibility to keep criminal illegals off the street,” Hall said.

Meetings between Hall, Serpas and Johnson, along with federal immigration officials and officials in Gov. Phil Bredesen’s office, eventually pointed Metro to 287 (g)’s implementation in Los Angeles County, Calif.

“I’m pleased to see that Davidson County is taking steps to deal with criminal illegal immigrants in a more effective way,” Bredesen said in a statement. “At the state level, we will also continue to pursue fair and reasonable solutions to the issues caused by the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States.”

As of today, only the counties encompassing the cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Charlotte have turned to 287 (g). Hall said there is a fourth city ahead of Nashville in the process of obtaining permission to start the program.

Metro officials said they have secured the assistance of U.S. Rep Jim Cooper in streamlining the approval process.

Hall shoots for March implementation

Hall said he hopes to have 287 (g) up and running in his jail by March.

“Our system has inherent flaws in it because it doesn’t provide us the information we need,” Hall continued. “Garcia was a deportee. He should have been deported any time he had been arrested… But I’m just as worried, if not more worried, about the four [suspected illegal immigrants] we let out last night.”

Through 287 (g), if a criminal in the system is found to be an illegal alien, local law enforcement officials — who will receive special training from the federal government at no cost to Metro — will begin deportation work immediately.

Those who are suspected of being illegal aliens will have to appear before a federal immigration judge and prove their legal status.

In Charlotte, 287 (g) has been a huge success, Hall and officials there said. And it was the experience of Charlotte — not Los Angeles or Phoenix — that sold Metro officials on the program’s potential.

Charlotte’s program sees success

Julia Rush, a spokeswoman for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s office, said that since May 1, when their program began, officials have begun removal proceedings for 474 — 30 percent — of the 1,080 individuals who were brought into jail and who were not born in the United States.

“We started finding out immediately that we had a very large number of people in the system illegally,” Rush said. “It was a huge number that had some issue that would cause them to be deported.”

In contrast, of the 4,200 foreign-born arrestees that came through Metro jail last year, the federal government placed immigration holds on only 151 — 3.6 percent — of them, according to Hall’s office.

Rush said the Charlotte community has been tremendously supportive of their efforts.

“Even the Latino community,” she said. “The Latino community has said, ‘Well, we don’t want them in our neighborhoods committing crimes either.’”

Hall said he has already begun community outreach here.

“It was the responsible thing for us to look into,” Hall said. “Now we need to push the folks in Washington to implement the program for us.”

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=51936

U.S. Senators key to immigration deportation program in Nashville
By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
September 06, 2006

U.S. Senators Bill Frist and Lamar Alexander will be the keys to getting Nashville enrolled in a little-known federal program designed to allow local law enforcement agencies to deport its own criminal illegal immigrants, officials said Tuesday.

On Aug. 15, Sheriff Daron Hall officially filed the paperwork necessary to participate in a federal initiative called the Delegation of Authority Program, or section 287 (g) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

287 (g) would give the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office the training, tools and authority to “identify, process and, when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity,” according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which implements the program.

“If you’re arrested and you’ve been deported once, you’re going back,” Hall said at a Tuesday press conference called to officially announce the program and Nashville’s hope to become only the fifth U.S. city to participate in it.

News of Nashville’s request to become enrolled in 287 (g) was first reported Tuesday morning, hours before the press conference, which was also attended by Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas, District Attorney Torry Johnson, Mayor Bill Purcell, Gov. Phil Bredesen, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper and State Rep. Gary Moore.

But Hall, Serpas and Johnson had been meeting secretly for weeks, looking — in the aftermath of a number of high-profile crimes committed by individuals who were later learned to be illegal immigrants — for a way to change how criminal illegal immigrants are dealt with in Nashville.

After learning about the city of Charlotte’s successful participation in 287 (g), Hall, Serpas and Johnson became convinced it would be “responsible” for Nashville to follow Charlotte’s lead.

“Our immigration system is broken. We do not have a system that communicates back to us and tells us who is an illegal immigrant,” Hall said. “Our community at large is asking questions of us… This is the best way to shore up our public safety.”

According to Hall and a spokesperson for the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) Sheriff’s Office, Charlotte had been plagued by similar high-profile crimes — such as drunk driving leading to a vehicular homicide — committed by illegal immigrants before turning to 287 (g).

Since the program went on-line there, Charlotte has identified as illegal 30 percent of those individuals who are brought into its jail system. Last year, Nashville was only able to identify 3.6 percent of its arrestees as illegal.

“Charlotte basically said, ‘We can blame the federal government, or we can partner with them,’” Hall said. “And understand, we want to be the next Charlotte.”

Cooper says we need senators’ support

Becoming the next Charlotte, however, will take the support and initiative of one of Tennessee’s U.S. Senators, Rep. Jim Cooper explained at the news conference.

Cooper said that while he is “proud that Davidson County is taking the lead nationally” in trying to implement the 287 (g) program, getting the authorization to do so will require cutting through significant red tape in Washington, D.C.

“I hope that our senators recognize the importance of this issue,” Cooper said, adding that in order for Nashville to take part in the program as quickly as possible, one of Tennessee’s two U.S. senators will have to get the Senate to pass a bill authorizing the appropriate funding from the Department of Homeland Security.

Mecklenburg County officials have said it was only through the efforts of Rep. Sue Myrick that their county was accepted into the program.

“Perhaps this could be one of Sen. Frist’s outgoing requests,” Cooper said of the retiring senator.

Because he is a member of the House of Representatives, Cooper is not permitted to introduce unrelated legislative funding requests — or “earmarks” — into bills.

And with the 108th Congress this week having abandoned efforts to pass a federal immigration bill, only members of the Senate could ask for an earmark to be attached to an unrelated bill, Cooper explained.

Matt Lehigh, a spokesman for Sen. Frist, confirmed that members of the senator’s staff have discussed the 287 (g) program with local officials.

“Sen. Frist will support the Davidson County application. The Sheriff’s Office is aware of that,” Lehigh said Tuesday. “In terms of funding, that will require additional discussion.”

Bredesen and Purcell also pledged their support of Nashville’s hope to deport its own criminal illegal immigrants.

“I believe this makes a great deal of sense for Davidson County,” Bredesen said, adding that he hopes the other 94 counties in the state at least take a look at the program.

“One of the things we want to do is help this effort in any county in our state that wants to pursue it,” added Bredesen.

Bredesen goes after illegal immigrant employment

Later on Tuesday, Bredesen announced the signing of Executive Order No. 41, which would require Tennessee executive agencies to spot-check the personnel records of state contractors and subcontractors and issue fines to businesses that employ illegal labor.

“It is clear the lure of employment is a primary factor that attracts illegal immigrants to our country and to our state,” Bredesen said in a statement accompanying news of the order. “State law prohibits individuals and businesses in Tennessee from knowingly employing individuals who have illegally entered the United States. That’s why I signed today’s Executive Order, which outlines specific steps to ensure that those who do business with the state do not knowingly hire illegal immigrants.”

“We are all together about the basic commitment to public safety,” Purcell said, addressing Davidson County’s 287 (g) application. “The message we are sending is that we are going to do everything we can to be safe.”

As officials did prior to the press conference, Serpas explained that the program would not extend to the police department.

“All of this will happen behind the jail door,” Serpas said. “The solution is not to have our police officers become [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents.”

http://www.newschannel5.com/content/news/21796.asp

Sheriff Urges Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws on Criminals
Posted: 9/5/2006 4:26:00 PM
Updated: 9/5/2006 4:36:25 PM


Some of Davidson County's top law enforcement officials have created a new plan to crack down on criminals who are in the country illegally.

The new plan needs federal approval before anything happens, but the idea comes after several undocumented immigrants have been accused of high profile crimes, such as the case of Gustavo Reyes Garcia.

Gustavo Reyes was in and out of jail, and though he was here illegally he was never deported. In June, he was charged with drunk driving and killing a Mt. Juliet couple. Before that, he was arrested 14 times. His most recent arrest was three months before the drunk driving incident.

“Our goal is to not have this happen again,” Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall said.

Hall is now applying for his deputies to enforce federal immigration laws when it comes to handling criminals who are in the country illegally.

“If you're arrested, and you had previously been deported, or if your crime is serious enough for deportation, we will initiate deportation and removal proceedings,” Hall said.

Inside the jail, the Sheriff wants 10 deputies trained to access a federal immigration database that alerts them to suspects in this country illegally.

“I believe the history will prove that once you employ a program like this, I do not think known illegals are going to commit criminal violations in your city, without knowing they're going to be deported for doing so,” Hall said.

Sheriff Hall said it's time something is done, since 10 percent of the people booked into the jail last year are foreign born. A number of those cases were serious enough for the offenders to be deported.

“It's not the police department looking for people, it's whoever they're arresting in their normal ob, we are then going to explore further,” Hall said.

“The solution is not to have police officers roaming through the neighborhoods of Nashville enforcing the immigration laws. These enforcement actions occur after an arrest, behind the jail door,” Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas said.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....0394/1017/NEWS
Wednesday, 09/06/06
Faster deportation of inmates sought
Sheriff's plan targets illegal immigrants in Metro jails

By CHRISTIAN BOTTORFF
Staff Writer

Gov. Phil Bredesen yesterday expressed support for a plan by Nashville-area law enforcement officials to step up identification and deportation of undocumented immigrants who pass through Metro jails.

Bredesen spoke at a news conference yesterday where Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall announced that he had sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials asking that a federal immigration computer system and full-time immigration officer be placed in the local jail.

"If there's anything true about the federal government, it's that the squeaky wheel gets the oil or gets the grease," Bredesen said. "And I think what the sheriff has done here, and what I hope other communities do, is really step up and start squeaking."

Nashville's program would mirror a similar effort in Charlotte, N.C.

Currently, Nashville sends notice to federal authorities in Vermont that a foreign-born person has been booked. Federal authorities research the inmate's immigration status and ask for immigration holds to be placed only when his crime is at least an aggravated felony.

Under this new system, Metro Jail officers would be able to check every inmate, potentially increasing by thousands the number of undocumented immigrants deported from Nashville each year.

The 4,173 foreign-born prisoners who moved through the Nashville lockup during the past fiscal year was nearly double the number booked five years ago, county figures show.

Nashville officials have also felt pressure after several high-profile crimes in which undocumented immigrants are accused. Some had been arrested repeatedly before committing more serious crimes. •

Why don't cities like Hazleton, Pa enroll in this program.

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=51939

Lawmakers should back Hall’s plan

September 06, 2006

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall has taken the lead in addressing Nashville’s problems with criminal illegal immigrants. And by reaching back almost a decade into federal law and doing a little homework, Hall has succeeded in finding an answer to a problem plaguing our community.

Last month, Hall’s office officially filed the paperwork to participate in a federal initiative called the Delegation of Authority Program, or section 287 (g) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

This move would give the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office the authority to “identify, process and, when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity,” according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which implements the program.

The federal government would provide the training and the funding to implement the plan.

Hall’s initiative came after a string of horrific criminal incidents involving alleged or identified illegal aliens. Several high-profile cases involved vehicular deaths of Tennessee residents allegedly at the hands of illegal immigrants driving under the influence.

In at least one of those cases, illegal immigrant Gustavo Reyes Garcia is accused of killing a Mt. Juliet couple in an accident while he was drunk and behind the wheel. He had previously been arrested upward of a dozen times by Metro Police yet was still on the street.

Hall’s plan would simply give his office the ability to trigger the deportation process on behalf of the federal government for illegal aliens in his jail who have already been deported once. Hall told our newspaper that potentially releasing more illegal immigrants onto Nashville’s streets to re-offend troubled him.

It should trouble all of our public officials.

Pro-immigration politicians and immigrant advocates have tried to obscure and confuse this issue. Racial bias, economics and allegedly craven politics have been blamed as reasons for otherwise rational and well-meaning Tennesseans and Americans demanding action on the issue of illegal immigration.

At the heart of the matter is that entering the United States illegally is a crime. And while anyone who has been outside the United States and traveled abroad can understand the desire of Third World residents to come here, it is still a felony to do so outside of the proper channels.

Hall’s answer to our own community’s growing problem with criminal illegal immigrants is a reasoned, pro-active approach that deserves the full backing of Tennessee’s legislative delegation. Our members of Congress and senators should work with diligence and as quickly as possible to make this plan happen and to secure the relatively small amount of funding needed to give their constituents great peace of mind.

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=51937

The proposed criminal illegal immigrant deportation plan
By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
September 06, 2006

What is 287 (g)?

287 (g) is a section of the federal Immigration and Naturalization Act that allows local law enforcement agencies to essentially act as their own immigration departments by authorizing those agencies to “identify, process and, when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity.”

Why is it needed?

Currently, when someone who is suspected of not having legal citizenship status comes into the Davidson County jail, local officials must send a request for citizenship information to a federal immigration clearinghouse in Vermont. It is only by submitting that information that local officials have any hope of finding out if someone is here illegally. And often they don’t hear back at all before an arrestee is released.

Already this year, scores of suspected illegal immigrants were arrested and released before the Sheriff’s Office had time to learn their immigration status.

What would change if 287 (g) is implemented?

If implemented here in Nashville, Sheriff’s deputies trained and equipped by the federal government would quickly be able to find out the immigration status of every individual who comes though Davidson County jail. If someone has been deported before, our officials would immediately begin new deportation proceedings. If no answer is provided, those arrestees would be released in order to appear before a federal immigration judge and prove their legal status.

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=51964

Activists cautious about deportation plan
By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
September 07, 2006

Leaders of Nashville’s Hispanic and immigrant communities reacted cautiously this week to news of Davidson County’s desire to get directly involved in the business of screening and deporting criminals who are found to be in the United States illegally.

Along with the support of Gov. Phil Bredesen, Mayor Bill Purcell and Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas, among other officials, on Tuesday Sheriff Daron Hall announced that he wants Nashville to become the fifth city nationwide to take advantage of a federal program that essentially transfers immigration enforcement procedures down to the local law enforcement level.

If Nashville is accepted into the Delegation of Authority Program — also referred to as section 287 (g) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act — Davidson County Sheriff’s Office personnel would be trained and authorized to screen arrestees and quickly determine their immigration status.

If someone processed by the Sheriff’s Office is found to have been deported previously, local law enforcement officials will be able to immediately start new deportation procedures on them, as opposed to having to wait for federal immigration agents to become involved.

The program in Nashville would mirror the one already up and running in Charlotte, N.C., Hall said this week.

A spokeswoman for the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, N.C.) Sheriff’s Office said that the Hispanic community has embraced the program there.

“The Latino community has said, ‘Well, we don’t want them in our neighborhoods committing crime either,’” Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Julia Rush said in an interview last week.

Hispanic and immigrant advocate groups in Nashville, however, have yet to fully embrace the plan.

Yuri Cunza, president of the Nashville Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said he was worried about the legal and constitutional “downsides” of the 287 (g) program, expressing a particular concern that law enforcement officers may engage in racial profiling in deciding whom to cite and release versus whom to arrest and bring into jail.

Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce board member Anthony Lucas said that while he supported the notion of enforcing the immigration laws currently on the books, he was concerned about setting a precedent of having local governments responsible for taking on a federal role, in part echoing statements made Tuesday by Bredesen.

Stephen Fotopulus, the policy director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said at this point he is mainly concerned about possible abuse of the proposed system.

“We all have an interest in getting dangerous criminals off the street, whether they be immigrants or not,” Fotopulus said. “Our concerns are with the administration of the program.”

“While Davidson County may be getting a new computer, and it may have access to the federal database, whether or not the initiative will be successful depends on how accurate the database is and the procedures by which they enter names into it,” Fotopulus added.

At the same time, some in the community feel the program does not go far enough.

“It’s a good first step,” said radio talk show host Rev. T.J. Graham, who is hosting an anti-illegal immigration demonstration on Saturday at Legislative Plaza. “But do they have a plan in place that will also target those who are still on the street? Or do we have to wait until they get arrested before they’re targeted for deportation?”

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Carla Crocker said her office is encouraging any person or group to come forward in the coming weeks and share their concerns.

“As we hopefully approach the Memorandum of Understanding [with the federal government], the plan is to spend the next several weeks talking to different groups and getting their feedback while addressing their concerns,” Crocker said.