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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Nashville sheriff approved to help enforce U.S. immigration

    http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /1001/NEWS

    Wednesday, 01/03/07

    Nashville sheriff approved to help enforce U.S. immigration laws

    By CHRISTIAN BOTTORFF
    Staff Writer


    Davidson County sheriff's deputies will begin checking the immigration status of every foreign born person who passes though the Metro Jail under a new program approved by federal authorities last month.

    The approval follows efforts by Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall to get a federal immigration computer system and full-time immigration officer placed in the county jail.


    Gov. Phil Bredesen has announced that he supported Hall's request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in September.

    The approval follows Nashville officials feeling pressure after several high-profile crimes in which undocumented immigrants have been accused. Some had been arrested repeatedly before committing more serious crimes.

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

    Hall's approval was announced in a Dec. 27 letter from officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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    A good policy, but it's about twenty five years too late.

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    Senior Member Cliffdid's Avatar
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    Why isn't this way all through out the US?

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    http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/ap-n ... /69102.htm

    [January 3, 2007, 8:15 pm]
    "(AP) Nashville deputies to enforce some immigration laws"
    By TRAVIS LOLLER
    Associated Press Writer
    NASHVILLE, Tenn.




    Specially trained sheriff's deputies in Nashville will soon be able to determine for themselves whether a jail inmate is in the country illegally.

    The Davidson County Sheriff's Office has received a letter dated Dec. 27 stating that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has approved its application for a federal program that provides immigration law training to local deputies and access to DHS immigration databases.

    Once the program is up and running, checking the legal status of any foreign-born person booked into the jail will become standard procedure.

    Sheriff Daron Hall said he is hoping that will begin within 90 days.

    He requested the program last year after his office came under fire when an illegal immigrant who had been arrested multiple times on misdemeanor drunk driving charges but never deported was charged with vehicular homicide in the death of a husband and wife.

    The sheriff's office was supposed to be sending the name of every foreign-born jail inmate to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, so Hall at first thought his deputies had made a mistake.

    But after more than a month of inquiry, ICE officials told him they only check the legal status of those accused of serious oraggravated felonies because the agency does not have the people or resources to deport every illegal immigrant arrested for any crime, Hall said.

    Under the new system, any Davidson County inmate suspected of being in the country illegally will either be turned over directly to ICE or issued a notice to appear before an immigration judge.

    Immigration rights activists and even some police chiefs have said they are concerned the program will have a chilling effect on law enforcement, making illegal immigrants unwilling to report crimes or act as witnesses.

    Hall has said that should not be a concern in Nashville, which has a metropolitan governmentthat puts the police in charge of crime investigations and the sheriff to run the jails. Under the new immigration program, deputies will screen only those people who have been arrested for crimes.

    Attorney Elliott Ozment, who serves on an advisory committee to the sheriff's office for the program, said he is concerned it could be used as a dragnet to pick up illegal immigrants who have committed no other crime. Another concern is that it will place them in line for deportation if they are found driving without a license, which they are not able to obtain.

    "This was proposed as a way to get criminal offenders off the streets," he said. ... "How do wemake sure the program doesn't run off like a wild horse?"

    ICE spokesman Michael Gilhooly said recently that more than 30 state and local agencies are in talks with Homeland Security about joining the program. Hall has said that every sheriff in the counties surrounding Davidson is interested in joining as well.
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    MW
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    But after more than a month of inquiry, ICE officials told him they only check the legal status of those accused of serious or aggravated felonies because the agency does not have the people or resources to deport every illegal immigrant arrested for any crime, Hall said.
    I guess that explains why repeat criminal illegals are released routinely.

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

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    http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=53952

    Fear, concern is alive after immigration plan gains approval
    By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
    January 05, 2007

    Members of Sheriff Daron Hall’s own Immigration Advisory Council reacted coolly to news that Hall’s immigration plan won such quick federal approval — many saying they remain worried that the way the program will be implemented may impede their ability to support it.

    “I’m incredibly concerned,” said Rick Casares, an immigrant rights activist, an advisory council member and one of the most vocal critics of the Sheriff’s plan to pair with the federal government to more effectively identify alleged criminals who are also illegal immigrants.

    “If we’re going to use this program as it was promised, then it should be used to weed out from the community those that are dangerous, and not necessarily just those who lack some permanent status,” Casares said Thursday.

    In August Hall applied for the program – known as 287(g) – as a way to fight back against dangerous criminals in Nashville who had for years been able to avoid detection as illegal immigrants.

    But immigration activists said they are fearful that what they were promised – an additional tool to keep dangerous persons off the street – is not what will be delivered.
    They are worried that what is on its way to Nashville is a program to deport thousands of illegal immigrants who pose no danger to society.

    Driving that fear is a yet-to-be drawn up document governing the program, that immigrant rights activists say may not distinguish between dangerous criminals and simple traffic violators when it comes to who is screened for immigration violations.

    In Tennessee, driving without a license results in a citation that gets a person processed in the county jail, and illegal immigrants are not permitted to obtain valid Tennessee driver’s licenses.

    “We can’t emphasize enough that if this program is implemented in a way where someone could be deported simply for driving without a license, then that’s not the kind of program that was pitched at the outset,” said David Lubell, president of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

    But Hall said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) guidelines that spell out how the program works actually give him very little leeway to decide who is screened. Any discretion, he said, comes only after screening.

    The advisory council has its second meeting with the Sheriff and his staff planned for Wednesday. Immigration Advisory Council member Elliott Ozment, a Nashville-based immigration attorney, said that meeting is critical to bridging the current divide.

    “We still need to get some clarification from the Sheriff as to what the objective or the mission of this program is going to be,” Ozment said Thursday.

    In an interview Wednesday, Hall said he understands exactly what the program’s purpose is.

    “The purpose of this is not to automatically deport people. It’s to avoid ignoring them,” Hall said.

    And Hall said he agrees with the group that his officers should not be detaining suspected illegal immigrants who pose no threat to the public.

    But that concession may still not be good enough for many area immigration rights activists who believe thousands of illegal immigrants will either be deported or required to prove their legal status just for minor infractions such as driving without a license.

    “The way forward has to be that they say we’re going after people with criminal records,” Lubell said “If someone comes into the jail with a criminal record, fine, those are the people we should be dealing with, not people who have no other record and are simply in for traffic violations.”

    Lubell suggested including in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – the document written by the Sheriff’s Office and DHS that governs local implementation of the program – a written policy spelling out that traffic violators would not be targeted.

    “That would start the conversation,” Lubell said.
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  7. #7

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    So this Lubell character thinks that driving without a license is not a crime? If you are driving without a license, you are also driving without automobile insurance, which is also a crime, at least in Kentucky.
    He is also worried that it will cause deportation of illegals "who pose no danger to society." I consider it a very real danger to society for someone to be operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. Maybe he would like to face some of the victims and/or victims families that have been killed, maimed, and crippled by illegal drivers.

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    http://wkrn.com/nashville/news/sherrifs ... /69843.htm

    [January 7, 2007, 8:21 am]

    "Sherrif's Department Prepares For Immigration Database"
    Nashville’s sheriff's department is now authorized to begin screening people processed in Davidson County jails to see if they are in the country legally. The Department of Homeland Security approved the program, and it could be up and running in 3 months.

    Andy Chea immigrated to the US from Peru, and says he and others in the community wonder if they will be targeted and asked to prove legal residence here once the Davidson County sheriff's department's 287(G) program is enacted.

    Sheriff Daron Hall says innocent people have nothing to fear from the program, which allows deputies to check the legal status of people who are under arrest, through access to a federal database.

    The sheriff requested authorization for the program, which has already been implemented in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, after several high profile crimes involving undocumented immigrants. Now anyone with an immigration violation will be either detained or given a notice to appear before an immigration judge. Sheriff Hall says he's received positive community feedback on the program.

    Rick Casares is on the advisory council that meets with the sheriff to discuss concerns about the program. He says it could damage relations with law enforcement.

    Chea says one thingthat needs to change is community perception that all immigration violators are Hispanics.

    The sheriff's advisory council will have its second meeting to discuss expectations for the program this Wednesday. The next step in the process is to draft a memorandum of understanding, which outlines the responsibilities for local and federal government.
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    287 (g) plan will help Nashville clean up crime

    http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=53994

    287 (g) plan will help Nashville clean up crime

    January 09, 2007

    Opponents of a newly proposed program to curb the presence of criminal illegal immigrants in Nashville need look no further than across the North Carolina/Tennessee line.

    Facts and figures – not supposition and innuendo – suggest Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall’s proposed program empowering his deputies via federal law to act locally on behalf of immigration officials will have a real, positive impact on crime in Metro.

    In the eight months since the Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), N.C. Sheriff’s Department began its 287 (g) program — so named for the federal statute enabling it — screening foreign-born arrestees for immigration violations, there has been a 15 percent drop in arrests for driving-related offenses by city police.

    In addition, Sheriff’s Department officials in Mecklenburg County — the last jurisdiction to adopt a 287 (g) program — said driving and minor crime arrests of persons who were later identified as illegal or suspected illegal immigrants also declined by 15 percent since the program was launched.

    Critics of Hall’s proposed program have answered these kinds of results with suggestions improprieties will occur, an accusation unfair to the Metro Police Department and Hall’s department. Opponents question whether police conducting sobriety checks in high-crime and high-DUI areas — some heavily Hispanic — will profile drivers on the basis of race. Police and Sheriffs officials explained an obvious point anyone even peripherally aware of law enforcement practices in this community would know — the two departments do not coordinate when it comes to fighting crime and enforcing traffic laws.

    If there is a debate to be had about the merits of Nashville’s proposed 287(g) program, it should be based on facts, figures and black-letter law, not vague accusations and suspicions.

    In truth, immigrants both legal and illegal have contributed positively to this community in many ways. There are leaders in almost every walk of life in our city who have immigrated to this country. From high-profile civic leaders to business owners and blue-collar laborers, immigrants have contributed well to our city.

    At the same time, illegal immigration has also negatively impacted our hospitals, schools, roads and even, yes, our jails and courts. Relief is needed in our jail system, and Hall has found an answer supported by every elected official involved to date, from the U.S. Senate down the line.

    Hall’s approach is a proactive one Metro Council should support. It also is a plan that should be vetted accurately with true information. The program is one to simply take the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants into local hands — nothing more nothing less. It is not a sign that immigrants are not wanted in Nashville.

    It is instead a simple, honest statement that our community respects the laws of this land.
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