Burke jails don't qualify for illegal immigrant deportation programs

Jennifer Frew | The News Herald

Burke County Sheriff's deputy Anthony Lynch operates the county's AFIS (automated fingerprint identification system) machine, which matches and stores prints to a database with the State Bureau of Investigation.

By Julie N. Chang | The News Herald

Published: February 5, 2009

MORGANTON - Although immigration authorities are ramping up a new effort to deport illegal immigrants from North Carolina, Burke County won't be a part of it.

Burke County Sheriff John McDevitt said the county's two jails, Burke-Catawba District Confinement Facility and the Burke County Jail, do not qualify for new Secure Communities program, nor for the older 287(g) program.

McDowell County recently joined eight other N.C. counties participating in the latter program, which is named for Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996. It essentially trains local officers to perform the duties of immigration agents and, if necessary, to begin deportation proceedings.

Secure Communities is so new that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still testing it. Orange, Harnett, Duplin, New Hanover and Buncombe are among the first counties to be involved.

Secure Communities provides jails with equipment to identify inmates' immigration status and criminal records through fingerprinting. Unlike 287(g), the program doesn't train officers to work as immigration agents and the jails must rely on ICE agents to pick up the illegal immigrants.

Sheriff McDevitt said Burke, together with Catawba and Caldwell counties, tried to join the 287(g) program. They even met twice with former Sen. Elizabeth Dole to discuss their involvement. However, they could not meet the program's quotas.

In order to qualify, jails must have at least 30 to 50 open beds and 10 available personnel.

McDevitt said the jails are overpopulated, limiting the number of available beds and employees. There also aren't enough illegal immigrants moving through the jails to meet the federal standards.

"We don't have the numbers for them to spend the money to fund us and train our officers," McDevitt said.

Despite the lack of direct federal funding, McDevitt said systems are in place for the jails to work in conjunction with ICE to identify illegals.

Officers fill out an IAG (an illegal alien query form) for every foreign-born individual who enters the jail system. They fax the forms to ICE.

An automated system also takes each person's fingerprints, McDevitt continued. Within five minutes, the system reports on the status of the person, whether he or she is an illegal alien and if he or she is wanted.

"The biggest key to success is making sure every foreign-born individual that comes into our jail is fingerprinted," McDevitt said.

Anyone flagged as an illegal immigrant, whether wanted by other agencies or not, is interviewed via telephone by a federal immigration officer. The officer decides whether to place a detainer on the individual.

The difference between what the county is currently doing and the two programs is federal funding for the jails.

McDevitt said 287(g) provides money on a per diem basis for each illegal immigrant detained. For the jail, that could mean $60 to $100 per day per detained inmate.

One problem is what to do with them then.

"Anything costing Burke County taxpayers' money is a problem," McDevitt said. "They are costing taxpayers money because they are so hard to identify."

ICE in the past three months picked up four individuals the county jails detained, McDevitt said. The county jails currently are holding two more.

The 287(g) and Secure Communities programs only deal with processing individuals who have been arrested or detained for a crime.

McDevitt said local law enforcement officials cannot legally detain people simply for being illegal aliens.
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