Thread: N.C.: Sheriff withdraws from ICE program

Published: 11:39 PM, Sat Dec 05, 2009
Sheriff withdraws from ICE program
By Nancy McCleary
Staff writer



Sheriff Moose Butler has decided to end his department's participation in a program designed to alert authorities to illegal residents.

The program, known as 287(g), allows local law enforcement officers to team with federal agents to enforce immigration laws. It falls under the umbrella of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office signed on in June 2008 to have its jailers participate, according to the ICE Web site.

Butler opted not to continue in the pilot program because of bureaucratic delays, said Debbie Tanna, the sheriff's spokeswoman.

"It took longer to get up and operating than expected," Tanna said.

There was a three-week wait to get the required equipment, she said, and then no one qualified to install it could come.

There also was a delay in getting training for jailers, Tanna said.

Then, ICE wanted authority to review jailers' personnel files, and Butler wouldn't agree to that, saying it would violate state personnel regulations, Tanna said.

There was a space issue with the jail, too, she said.

The jail operates at maximum capacity, and signing on to the program would mean giving up space to illegal residents awaiting action by ICE rather than the Sheriff's Office, she said.

Nor did the numbers support staying in the program.

From January though September, 131 people who were not born in the United States were processed through the county's booking officers, with 47 of them put into removal proceedings, according to Sheriff's Office documents.

Of the people who were detained in Cumberland County, 29 of them - or 61.7 percent - were from Mexico.

Forty-three charges filed against those who were detained were misdemeanors, the majority being driving while impaired and traffic violations, accounting for 22 of the 43 violations.

Only four people faced felony charges.

Alamance County Commissioner Tim Sutton is a fan of the program. Alamance County, he said, was the second in the state to sign on with ICE and the eighth in the United States.

"I think it's a great program," he said, "but it depends on your location and on the degree of problem you feel you have.

"We have a tremendous problem here with illegal immigrants."

Much of Alamance County's crime problem - from drugs to drunken driving - can be traced to illegal residents, said Sutton, who did not have have specific numbers available.

For nearly 20 years, Alamance County has designated a part of its jail for inmates awaiting action by federal immigration authorities, Sutton said.

It's hard to think that Cumberland County doesn't have a high number of illegal residents, Sutton said, especially with the Smithfield hog-slaughtering plant in Tar Heel so close.

It only makes sense to be able to track down information on anyone who is arrested, Sutton said.

"Are you going to let any other criminal go, or check (a person's background) to the fullest?" he asked. "When you write a ticket and don't look (at criminal history), you don't know if a person has murdered someone and fled to Cumberland County.

"When you don't know who you've got and you've got the potential to find out and you've turned your back on it for any reason, it's not good," he said.

Tony Asion, executive director of the statewide Latino advocacy group El Pueblo, disagreed.

"The program was not designed to be utilized this way," said Asion, who retired after 20 years as a state Highway Patrol trooper.

The program allows deportation proceedings on convicted and habitual felons who are in the country illegally, Asion said.

But it is being abused by some who use it for racial profiling, he said.

He cited one case in Alamance County in which a state trooper stopped a commercial bus headed to Mexico, went aboard and searched residents and their belongings without having a reason or a warrant to do so.

"It's a system that lends itself to being abused," Asion said.

Sutton said counties and states that don't participate in the program run the risk of having more illegal residents moving into the communities, which they may see as sanctuaries.

"If illegals believe Cumberland County is a sanctuary, they will flock there."

Asion called that logic "ludicrous."

"There are 14,200 police departments in the country ... and 60 of them are doing 287(g), and eight of them are in North Carolina," he said. "So are we saying that because there are 14,140 departments that don't have it, that the the rest of the country is a sanctuary?" Asion asked.

"We're sticking our head in the sand to avoid dealing with immigration reform."

http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2009/12/06/945740

As much as it pains me to admit it, Tony Asion of El Pueblo has stated something that I have to say I agree with.

Commissioner Sutton remarked, "If illegals believe Cumberland County is a sanctuary, they will flock there."

Asion called that logic "ludicrous."

Indeed it is Mr. Asion. Illegals truly have no need or desire to actually "flock" anywhere to avoid the 287(g) program. Fact is, they are perfectly comfortable right under the noses of 287(g) officers because they know champions of amnesty like yourself will neuter the program at every opportunity by calling it "racial profiling" and making accusations of "abuse".

I was particularly amused at Tony Asion's comment,
"The program was not designed to be utilized this way", spoken as if he were the original architect of the program.

What he really meant to say was that the program does not yet operate in the way he and the other amnesty support groups desire.

Rest assured though, they will continue to work tirelessly to morph it into something frivolous and ineffective enough to quash entirely down the road. Meantime those illegal aliens will continue to enjoy anonymity and hassle-free scofflaw status as financially strapped county governments weigh the financial consequences of defending themselves from frivolous lawsuits and endless investigations.

By the way Tony, love the way you use the numbers. Just for the record, lets go way out on a limb and say that the 13% of active 287(g) units is in North Carolina because we have one of the fastest growing problems with illegal immigration in the nation. Pardon me if I don't feel racist because I don't want my state turned into California.

Do yourself a favor and don't spin the numbers in the media unless you want to get called on it.

Well put tiredofapathy.

I like his wording "sticking our heads in the sand to avoid immigration reform". You and I know they are talking about "AMNESTY" NOT reform. Reform is enforcing the laws that we already have in place and arresting employers who hire them. And deporting ALL illegal aliens! Along with ANCHOR BABIES.

Well put "tiredofapathy". These illegals do not fear anything,just look at their attitude in the streets.

"The program was not designed to be utilized this way," said Asion, who retired after 20 years as a state Highway Patrol trooper.

The program allows deportation proceedings on convicted and habitual felons who are in the country illegally, Asion said.

Wrong! Sorry, but Rep. Lamar Smith wrote the bill and he has stated publically that the bill was written to arrest ALL illegal aliens.


You can spout all the crap lies you want but you can not change the Laws written by congress!

Quote:

"'It took longer to get up and operating than expected," Tanna said.

There was a three-week wait to get the required equipment, she said, and then no one qualified to install it could come.

There also was a delay in getting training for jailers, Tanna said.

Then, ICE wanted authority to review jailers' personnel files, and Butler wouldn't agree to that, saying it would violate state personnel regulations, Tanna said."

Reply:
The Feds are going to make it just as difficult as possible for local law enforcement agencies to qualify for or remain in the 287(g) program, and then say that these agencies withdrew their applications or from the program itself as "a matter of local choice". This must be their new tactic since the federal funding for 287(g) they tried to cut this year was restored because of much outcry in Congress and from the public.

"When you don't know who you've got and you've got the potential to find out and you've turned your back on it for any reason, it's not good," he said.

Sutton is absolutely right, and that the installation and training have taken too long is one of the poorest excuses I have heard for giving up defending the community.

287 (g) seems to me just a way to bottleneck the enforcement of our immigration laws.

I can remember when we had honest police all over the country that upheld their oaths of office and the immigration laws. If the border patrol missed some the police in the interior did their best to round them up.

We had room to have children and also room to allow a limited amount of honest people to come here and work when they were truly needed.

They did their jobs until the government went corrupt and started coming out with things like Special Order 40.

http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERE...alOrder40.html

We have nearly a million people in law enforcement. They need to be set free once again.